April 15, 2016 Oklahoma Panhandle Tornadoes

April 15, 2016 ended up being a very rewarding chase day. Our day started in Amarillo where my dad and I grabbed some lunch. Today was totally dependent on moisture quality and was the only real question mark regarding tornado potential. A large upper trough was located over Utah/Arizona with great upper level flow spreading over the southern high plains. Strong southeasterly low level winds were transporting marginal moisture into the northern panhandle in a last minute moisture return scenario. We knew the shear was supportive of supercells. Started off near Dalhart where storms began to organize and followed a nicely structure supercell northeast along HWY 54 through Stratford and eventually into Texhoma, OK. We turned north on some back county roads through the Oklahoma panhandle eventually making our way to HWY 412. I was just about ready to give up on the storm thinking the inflow was just too cold (it as probably 62-66 degrees around 7pm). Made the call to just head west to sample some hail since the core had just strengthened on radar. Arrived west of Eva, OK to notice a wall cloud forming. Quickly had a brief picturesque tornado drop down. It lifted and a new wall cloud formed and another nice tornado touched down over the open prairie. Video from that evening. Another larger tornado formed after the 2nd one lifted. It became rain wrapped and crossed HWY 412 behind me.

April 15 2016 OK Panhandle from Sam Dienst on Vimeo.

Here's a look back at the setup. Most maps are from around 7pm Friday evening. Tornadoes occured between 7-8pm.

Chase pics From April 10, 2016 Southwest Oklahoma

March 30, 2016 Chase Report

Well, not much to report on other than I went for it yesterday and pretty much busted. I woke up in Norman, OK and sat around until noon or so. The first (or second) round of convection in central Oklahoma had me worried about buoyancy issues later in the day near my original target in se KS/ne OK. I opted to go south (distance to home may have swayed this) and target north TX where there was plenty of juice piling up but shear was lacking quite a bit. Chased around DFW area and had some 1" hail and near 70mph winds near Burleson, TX. Here's an interesting shot showing the outflow from storms in se OK that helped fuel the next round of storms northeast of OKC that went on to produce the Tulsa area tornadoes.

View post on imgur.com

Another example of knowing the issues of the south play but still targeting that region. I knew that better 850 flow would be further north and east enhancing SRH.

I only stopped a couple of times and snapped some phone pics.

Possible first chase of 2016

I'm eyeing tomorrow as my first chase of the season.

Right now I like two different target areas but there is still quite a bit of uncertainty regarding the setup that I'll likely just decided Wednesday morning. I like the shear profiles in eastern Kansas more so than the southern target but I question the surface temperatures in that region. Update tomorrow...if I go.

Upcoming Storm chances for the end of March

Hopefully my 2016 chase season will begin here shortly. Right now I'm watching two possible setups, Easter Sunday 27th and Wednesday 30th. Not much agreement among the models but the NAMs depiction of Sunday has my attention with the compact shortwave slower and further northwest than most global models. Will continue to watch...