Friday, May 8, 2009

Post date: May 8, 2009 4:21:16 PM

Friday, May 8, 2009

After conditions changed overnight, things looked much less promising. <sigh> We had two options:

Do we head into more difficult chase territory (southern Missouri/northern Arkansas), for a greater chance of hail and wind (but not tornadoes)?
Do we stay in better chase territory (Oklahoma) and just hope for the best?

We were joined by fellow chaser Dave Patrick (far left in the photo). Good to see our old friend once again...

As for the chase, Charles decided, ultimately, to stay in Oklahoma rather than chasing in Missouri or Arkansas. It seemed a prudent choice to me as well. The increased difficulty involved with chasing farther east, coupled with a not-so-great chance of actually being able to see any tornadoes there, made the choice a simple one. So, based on that, we headed out of Tulsa after breakfast, heading south for an initial target area of south central Oklahoma.

Now we're sitting at a Love's in Ardmore, OK, waiting for initiation. It looks like a line of storms is popping up west and northwest of Dallas right now, and we need to pick the right side of the river. If we choose wrong, and we're stuck on the wrong side of the Red River, there are so few bridges that cross, we're likely screwed... It looks to me like the south side would be the choice right now, but ya never know. I'm not the expert, so we shall see...

Okay, it looks like we're committing ourselves to ---south--- of the Red River. We're heading out of Ardmore, going south... Keep your fingers crossed!
Tease! We reassessed along the way, and have done an "official chase U-turn" and are headed back north. North of the Red River now appears to be a better option. We also crossed paths with the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) along the way.

Well, the bottom line for the day: We saw what appeared to be a wall cloud forming northwest of Springer, OK, but the cell weakened immediately after that and then nothing. Everything looked better on radar than it did in person. We got some small hail, but other than that, nothing to speak of. <sigh> Now we're spending the night in Ardmore.

All pictures from the day can be found HERE.