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May 14
May 14,
1998 W.Oklahoma Severe Weather
Once again this spring , the cap would
hold storms in check until sunset! I was
chasing with Julie Bryant, staff writer for the Tulsa World. She was chasing with
me so she could gather information for her feature on storm chasing and how I
prepare for intercepting severe storms. While the severe storms were not very
cooperative with her efforts, severe storms did eventually develop by evening.
Just before sunset, several strong storms fired in the E and SE Texas Panhandle
area. The storms gradually progressed into W.Oklahoma where they became
more intense with time. The only problem now was that it was now dark and not
a favorable time to track the outflow dominated storms. Strong and damaging
winds blasted through many areas of W.Oklahoma that evening. Only a few of
the storms produced hail larger than quarter sized. We tracked the storms from
SW into C Oklahoma into the late evening hours, encountering occasional wind
gusts of 70 mph and dime to nickel sized hail. No tornadoes would be seen
this day as all of the storms were outflow dominated. The strongest storms did
produce wind damage in Erick and Cheyenne Ok and hail larger than golfballs
in Hollis Ok. We followed the storms back towards Tulsa the rest of the night as
a large squall line charged east.
May 19
May 19,
1998 C. Iowa Severe Weather
I was traveling towards Des Moines,
and as fate would have it, a regional
outbreak of severe weather was expected in C. and S. Iowa. Curse my luck!!!
A warm front was forecasted to remain nearly stationary during the day, and
this was to act as a focus for severe storm development by early afternoon. A
moderate risk of severe storms was forecasted by the Storm Prediction Center
across much of C. and S. Iowa. Supercells and isolated tornadoes were high-
lighted for Iowa by afternoon, particularly in the vicinity of the warm front which
was aligned east/west (fairly close to I-80). The warm front was expected to
allow for low level shear to be maximized (surface winds would have easterly
component) and for possible tornado development.
By early afternoon, storms fired along
the warm front west and southwest of
Des Moines. Rapid intensification in this area was aided by extremely warm
and unstable air located south of the warm front. Temperatures in this area
warmed into the mid 80's by early afternoon while dew-points in the mid to
upper 60's were pooled along and south of the warm front. Very large hail
was reported with the supercell storms shortly after they erupted west of the
Des Moines area. This was a sure sign of explosive development for later in
the day. The storms maintained intensity as they progressed towards the east-
northeast towards Des Moines. The area west and southwest of Des Moines
would be today's "breeding ground" for supercells.
My chasing this day would be centered
within 30 miles of Des Moines, and I
did in fact chase within the Des Moines city limits on the early afternoon round
of severe storms/supercells. On three separate occasions, the Des Moines
Metro area was rocked by very large hail (up to baseball sized) and was under
tornado/ severe t-storm warnings for much of the afternoon. While several of
the storms indicated well-developed mesocyclones on radar, the storms never
looked impressive visually. The storms were HP in structure and the circulations
were embedded within very strong rain/hail cores. I tracked one of the isolated
supercells from just south of Des Moines (near Indianola) to southeast of the
town of Newton. Hail up to golfball sized was observed several times, but only
weak rotation was noted with the supercell. No tornadoes were observed this
day, just numerous(and very large) HP supercells.
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