First 4 days

Hi everybody... we're hanging around Tulsa today recouperating from a gruelling trip out here.
We left Wednesday around noon, a little later than we anticipated, on a nice sunny afternoon. We got to Tallahassee about 5 PM then Mobile by sunset (a very nice one at that)... then pushed all the way to Lafayette, Louisiana, arriving about 1 AM CDT.


It was a rather frustrating first day, as we weren't making very speedy progress to Oklahoma and had a lot of issues with our technology. We started with problems with the power inverter shutting down randomly. Then it touched some metal and short-circuited entirely, blowing a fuse for the car's cigarette lighter. The GPS I bought Tuesday was also riddled with problems all day, as well as the software that came with it. And Chris couldn't get some features on his phone to work.

We stopped in Mobile, Alabama to look at the weather and for Chris to turn in some homework online. I was a program to find free wifi hotspots. Too bad the place we were going didn't exist! And the mapping program was being insanely dumb too. But we figured it out, with a little providence from the Lord.



It was an EXCRUCIATINGLY early start from Lafayette the next morning. We were back on the road by about 7:30, making tracks for a very potent severe weather setup. The strongest storms were supposed to be well north of the region, but Oklahoma had some fair potential too. My target goal was Enid, OK by late afternoon.

We hit Shreveport probably about 10 AM, then Dallas around 2 or so. Traffic there was busy as always. Josh was kind of awed by the insane complexity of the roads there. It definitely can be nuts. As a new driver, I remember how terrified I was of it too. We were going to meet up with a friend from there, Phil, who was going to go with us chasing, but the high chance of severe weather led him to leave early. So we just kept on moving.
And between Chris and Josh, there was a whole lot of sleeping done!





It was getting quite hot and extraordinarily windy by the time we hit Oklahoma. A couple friends called and told me storms were already going in NW Oklahoma, and were forming a line... which depressed me because we probably wouldn't catch anything really interesting, as were still like 4 hours away.
We stopped in Pauls Valley and had lunch at Braums. Then made our way up to Oklahoma City and checked the data again.
There was a slight little opening for a good storm out to the west in Oklahoma... and we ran for it. We went west probably about 45 miles, and pulled off to get a nice view of a storm to the north while we waited for a better storm to come up from the south. Very nice...








Gotta love the scenery in Oklahoma. Western Oklahoma is well known for their wheat crops.
The storm coming up from our south went tornado warned as the circulation tightened. Our base [seeing as there's no wireless Internet out in remote locations, it's very important to have a good meteorologist helping provide you information about what you can't see], Jim (who we're staying with in Tulsa), told us the storm looked good, and would pass only a few miles to our south. So we went south to an awesome gas station and then moved a couple more miles south at Jim's suggestion. It was nearing dark as the storm finally emerged to our southwest. It had a good rain-free base at the southern side, the first indicator of a good storm. But it was hard to determine which of two regions was supposed to be the rotating part of the storm (the mesocyclone). Both looked broad and disorganized. Interesting, but not likely to tornado. We went back and forth up the road watching both of them, but it soon became apparent the storm was gusting out and the tornado chances were over.
Here's some video I took of the clouds condensing and the weak rotation in these areas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOvG1ybMLwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQZT5yKWEkQ
The storms this day were moving an INSANE 60-70 mph! Usually, especially later in the spring, storm motion is very slow. We were very lucky to get positioned where we did and see what we did. Many friends who were able to setup more carefully had very little success. Usually you are storm CHASING, not the storms chasing you. It's very tough to position on days like Thursday.

We wandered back to the gas station for some snacks and to let the heavy rains slacken up, then started the drive to Tulsa to stay at Jim's. He told us we had a gap in the developing squall line and should hopefully be able to sneak through into a calm drive home.
Didn't work out that way. The squall line was really starting to surge east. At first, we went through a little rain, then it let up, just as Jim suggested.
However, as we got into the western sides of Oklahoma City on the interstate, the winds really picked up out of the south again (kind of expected), but then it started raining hard (not expected). It got pretty heavy and we just doing our best to plow forward and stay on the road... the wind was really rippin'! Well, as we're driving, the power goes out along the highway as the power lines must have gone down somewhere. Fun :-/
We finally found a simulcast of Norman's famous (he was in the movie Twister) TV meteorologist, Gary England, and it was kind of hectic. There was lots of damage being reported by their storm chasers simultaneously as we drove through the areas with the strong storms. There was some suggestion there might even be a weak developing tornado on the south side of town. Craziness!
We kept pushing forward (the only real choice with the situation the way it was), and got a little relief as went into the northeast side of the city.
But it didn't last long. The storms picked back up VERY hard and heavy.
And continued that way for the entire 2 hours of the drive to Tulsa.
We had almost continuous very strong winds buffeting our car... and at times some small hail started to fall mixed in with the heavy rain. It got so bad going up one hill that I had to pull off the turnpike for a few minutes (which, since I'm quite experienced at driving in strong storms, is quite a rarity). Then a little later into the trip, we had lightning slamming down very close to us... probably every 45 seconds for 10 minutes, all within a mile or so.
Phil decided to stay in Tulsa too, but was about 15 minutes ahead of us on the road, and had a much much easier go of it! Driving through severe storms for 2 hours was tough work. It seems that always happens to me on the drive home from a storm chase.

Finally we were getting near Tulsa and got another call from Jim. Phil had arrived... but the tornado sirens were going off. A thunderstorm within the squall line had started to rotate and looked pretty dangerous. It was a danger to them, but we were told it would likely pass by ahead of us.
We kept on going, and finally the storms started to abate.
But I was minorly suspicious this might be bad news.
It could mean we were entering the hook of the storm, and were starting to get a little close.
Or it could just mean we'd finally managed to push east of everything.
I wasn't sure which. I don't know the area that well, wasn't sure what direction I was facing (check the GPS Shane!), and didn't know what the storms looked like on radar.
We took the Turnpike because the GPS said it was the quickest route... but Jim didn't plan on us doing that! We're driving along and finally find simulcast on the radio again. I'm intrigued as they are mentioning roads we're passing... but down south of us. And there are a couple chasers parked on the road looking south.
Chris and Josh were able to look and said they could see an area of the storm that was pointing downward. Interesting.
But we were on our way to Jim's and almost there.

That's when one more mistake led to an interesting finish to the event.
When we exited the Turnpike, we didn't realize the GPS wanted us to turn left, and instead turned right.
While looking into that issue, we notice a VERY weird feature in front of us in the road. There were rain curtains dancing very strange. They were lit up weirdly by some giant lights at a nearby car dealership. We were mesmerized to be sure.
Well that lasted a few seconds. It went from no rain to ridiculously heavy rain instantaneously.
In confusion between that and the troubles with directions, we pulled into a gas station.
The wind starts REALLY blowing. It's going sideways. We're listening to reports on the radio... the possible tornado is crossing Memorial. That's the road we're on. Not the same intersection, but not very far away.
Then green flash... the power goes out. It tries to come back on two more times, but only follows two more power flashes, then stays out.

After a few minutes the rain stops blowing sideways. We have figured out our bad turn, and start to head back north.
Another series of green flashes to our east as the storm continues there, and out goes the power on the other side of our road. Great :)


FINALLY we find Jim's house after a few more wrong turns.

We wrap up the evening with lots of talking and hugs and excited stories of the day. And a few lightning pictures to relax after a busy day.


Here's the map from the day, along with storm reports.


And a zoomed in map showing our chase.



The storm reports are the red dots. Note the line going up I-44 with us! Those were about the same time as we passed each location :)
Quite a crazy first day in the Plains!


Day 3 was a rest day after so much driving and chaos.
We slept in (THANK YOU GOD!), then lazed around, bought some groceries, and then went to a very awesome restaurant called Los Cabos. Had a bit of a wait, but food was about $10 a person, and was AMAZING. Best chips and salsa I've ever had.


There was actually a brief tornado probably not even an hour away, but it kinda came up unexpectedly and we didn't even know about it until later.

And today was just lounging around, getting caught up on things (like this blog). Basically not a cloud in the sky. We mostly stayed in, though we did use some Sonic gift cards (thanks Nick/Kim family... delicious).

Tomorrow we may head to south-central Kansas or northwest Oklahoma, depending on how good the setup looks. Wanted to try out some random church, but doubt we'll get the chance to now...
Monday also looks like a marginal chase around here.
Tuesday we'll go down to Norman to visit with people and such.
Wednesday is shaping up to be the next big chase day... though it might be up in the northern Plains.

Good times!