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May 6
May 6,
1999 Northeast Oklahoma Chase
Unlike the yesterday's hostile cap
situation, today provided much more favorable
supercell conditions. The Storm Prediction Center thought so too and outlooked
much of N/EOklahoma and NW/WC Arkansas with a moderate risk. Supercells w/
tornadoes were expected to develop by afternoon as the airmass became more
unstable. Several boundaries were located across Oklahoma and these were to
focus today's severe weather action. Fairly strong westerly mid-level winds and
an upper level disturbance were to add to the already favorable situation. By late
afternoon supercells were developing rapidly and numerous tornado warnings
were issued for N. and C.Oklahoma. Today was definitely looking up!!
I left Tulsa around 3pm and headed
towards Oklahoma City on the turnpike. At
this time supercells were numerous across N.Oklahoma and a few cells were
developing rapidly in C.Oklahoma. I targeted a rapidly developing severe cell in
Lincoln Co. near the town of Prague. From the turnpike, I headed south on 0K 48
from Bristow to intercept this now severe storm. Large hail was reported with the
storm 5 miles ne of Prague.The storm was intense and had increasing circulation
on radar at 4:20 pm. I followed the storm into Okmulgee Co. where a large hook
echo was forming to the south of Mounds Ok. The storm was one of many and I
do mean many supercells in NE Oklahoma. Shortly before 6pm, I also noticed
an even meaner storm than the Mounds storm near Okmulgee. I redirected my
chase towards intercepting this well-structured storm(on radar) which was on an
easterly course toward Muskogee.
I caught up to the storm near Boynton and a well defined lowering was located
to the south of the very large core. Radar was indicating increasing circulation to
the south of Boynton and a tornado warning was issued for W.Muskogee Co at
6:10pm. The supercell started to deviate from its track and started to move in an
east-southeast direction toward the town of Wainwright. At 6:25pm, I watched the
wall cloud organize once again, only this time the rotation was very apparent.
Radar confirmed my observation which placed the circulation 1 mile south of the
town of Wainwright in Muskogee Co. at 6:35pm. The rotation of the mesocyclone
was starting to tighten visually and the wall cloud became bowl shaped. Also at
this time, a pronounced RFD (rear flank downdraft) worked into the wall cloud
from the west and southwest. The rotation continued to increase with time as it
crossed U.S. 69 north of Oktaha and se inflow was in the 25-35 mph range.
I had to head north on U.S.69 to the
town of Summit where I could pick up my
only road option east . This road option would allow me to parallel the storm
track for at least a little while until it crossed the Arkansas River. Pronounced
banding on the wall cloud appeared as it continued to tighten shortly before
7pm. The RFD started to punch into the center of the circulation at this time.
A thin but well defined funnel quickly appeared under the wall cloud at 7pm
about 6 miles south-southeast of Muskogee (very near Davis Field Airport).
Unfortunately this would be the only vorticity I would see this day!! The funnel
did not last long and the wall cloud soon started to weaken and shrink as well.
I decided to leave this storm as it was moving into less than favorable chasing
territory. The storm had a dramatic decrease in size on radar and visually looked
to be dying- or so I believed! As what happens to many chasers throughout the
spring, the storm caught it's second wind (pardon me I couldn't resist) and was
soon a full-fledged rotating supercell again. The storm went on to produce a few tornadoes
in Crawford Co. Arkansas- just one hour after I decided to leave it!!
I turned my chasing attention back to
the west where a new storm exploded on
the outflow boundary which previous storms created . The storm was located
near the Creek/Okfuskee Co. line and this was just 20 minutes to my west. Since
darkness was soon, I picked up the pace and caught the storm near Preston.
On radar the storm looked fairly intense but visually the storm was gusted out .
The circulation was a wrapped up bow-head feature. Not too exciting unless
your into photographing arcus clouds. After following the storm a short way, I
decided to call it a day. Still no tornadoes for 1998-my luck had to change!!!
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