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May 9
May 9,1998
C.Arkansas Severe Storms
I was exhausted from the previous
day's solo chase , so I really was not planning
to chase this day. Brian Stertz contacted me in the morning to advise that he was
heading to chase in Arkansas around Little Rock. He was informed that a major
outbreak of severe storms was forecasted for C.Arkansas and that the SPC (Storm
Prediction Center)was considering a possible upgrade of their earlier outlook to
a high risk situation. I found this interesting and decided to head on to Little Rock
from Dallas on I-30. Brian was well ahead of me and was already in Blytheville
(NE Arkansas) when he called me to inform that the SPC did in fact upgrade the
state of Arkansas to a high risk mentioning large and very damaging tornadoes.
The Little Rock/Hot Springs area was expected to be the area of concern for the
strongest storms.
Brian waited for me in Little Rock and
the storms waited as well. A cap was over
Arkansas and was limiting development during the afternoon. This was expected
to change very quickly as a compact vortmax was spinning towards Arkansas
from Oklahoma. This vortmax was expected to initiate tornadic supercells rapidly
as the mid-level cooling would eliminate the cap. A surface low was near Paris
Tx during the morning and was forecasted to move into WC Arkansas by early
evening. As if these features were not enough, a strong dryline was expected
to punch northeast into Arkansas and the warm front across C.Arkansas was to
drift slowly northward. What a setup!! The only concern which Brian and I thought
of was the amount of heating available. Low clouds and thick haze from deep
moisture pooled along/around the boundary was reducing the surface heating.
The only areas which were partly cloudy were the extreme ne and sw sections
of Arkansas. In these areas, temperatures warmed into the lower 80's. Little Rock
remained in the low-mid 70's all day. We did think that given the strength of the
vortmax, that the instability would not be a huge factor in tornado development.
I finally met Brian around 5pm on the
southwest side of Little Rock and we set up
"camp" to review data and to watch radar very closely!! Within a few minutes of
reviewing radar, small echoes appeared to the sw of Arkadelphia. These storms
did not have explosive development but more of a steady/progressive increase
in size and intensity. The thought of small dryline storms appealed to us since
we were going to be in heavily forested areas; these storms appeared to be of
dryline type. The reflectivity was fairly low on radar, but the storms were already
producing large hail. Each radar update indicated that these storms were for real
and soon we were planning an intercept!!
We headed back sw on I-30 towards
Arkadelphia as the storms would track very
near Arkadelphia during the next hour. We reached Malvern Ar when the day's
first tornado warning was issued for Clark Co.- a possible tornado was located
near the town of Okolona moving ne at 35mph. Since we were about 30 minutes
away, we had to readjust our intercept plan to head to the town of Princeton. This
would place us in the circulation path and allow us time to fine-tune our decisions
rather than trying to play catch-up. The storm which was tornadic anchored and
moved slowly in an e-se direction. So much for being prepared!!! We had to pick
up the pace to insure that we would get into it's path. We also heard that other
severe storms were developing across W.Arkansas. Not good! The storm was
moving into Dallas Co. when we reached the small town of Manning. A tornado
warning was re-issued for Clark Co. and Dallas Co. was also included in the up-
dated warning. We could see 2 storms actually to our southwest. The closest
storm was the first tornadic storm which moved from the Okolona area. A second
also potentially tornadic cell was immediately south of the Okolona storm. The
2 storms were mirror images of each other on radar as they moved eastward out
of Clark Co. We hated to see what transpired next!!
Unfortunately(for us) storms exploded
big time ahead of the dryline over SC and
WC Arkansas. The storms would ultimately affect our target storms warm inflow
and soon our storms weakened near Camden and Fordyce. Too many storms in
this area that's for sure!! We scrambled from storm to storm as each had mesos
detected on radar but the storms looked too gusted out to maintain a tornado.
Just another case of too many storms and not enough instability to overcome
the shear!! We heard of a report of a tornado in Hot Spring Co. near Donaldson
moving east into W.Grant Co. We could see the highly sheared storm tower to
our nw and radar indicated a very strong circulation moving east of Malvern. We
directed our attention to that storm since we were only 15 miles to the south.
We caught the storm near the town of
Crossroads on U.S.167. The circulation
crossed the road and was spinning violently complete with a wall cloud. We
watched rotation continue with the storm until it abruptly gusted out and also
weakened. Darkness was now upon us so we decided to head back to grab
dinner in Little Rock. Too many storms spoiled the soup today!!! Now the long
drive back to Tulsa for me and St.Louis for Brian....
C
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