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SW Oklahoma - 14 April 2001
We seem to be in a four day pattern. We chased on the 6th, the 10th, and now on the 14th! Chris was gone in Tulsa, so Aaron caught a ride with us. There was a moderate risk in the southwestern part of the state, and we noticed a lot of clearing in that area with CAPE values in the lower 3000's. We left Norman at 1:15, listening to Kyle's B-side Weezer CD that he burned. We took the same route as we did on the 10th and headed toward Chickasha on Highway 9, and then caught I-44 west toward Lawton, and from there took US 62 west toward Altus.
Along the way, I turned on my portable tv and found out that the area was under a tornado watch. The temperatue hovered under 70 most of the way, and as we neared Altus, the temperature began to rise as we noticed clearing and towering cumulus building rapidly all around us. We stopped for gas and stood and watched one cloud build quickly to our north. We headed west on 62 toward Duke to catch Highway 34 north (the same route as Tuesday) to intercept. However, this put us a little farther west than we wanted to. Aaron had his ham radio and was hooked up with SkyWarn spotters, which gave updates on the storm. We also had a weather radio and learned that the storm was heading east of Magnum.
We then took a couple of back country routes and got on the south side of the storm, and had a decent view of it as a tornado warning was issued. Another spotter reported a possible TVS signature, and I think I saw that, but it was very brief. We eventually ran out of road, and decided to go back to 34 and go north to Magnum. Storms were building all around us and it was hard to decide where to go. We finally decided to chase that storm. In Magnum, we headed east on 283 and gave up on that storm to chase another one that formed in its wake. We were between the two storms and let the second one pass over us.At one point, there was a mesocyclone, but that died out a little. We rode it out and Aaron reported pea size hail, and it actually made it to the SPC storm report log! We then headed north on SH 6 and then east on SH 9 at Granite. On the way to Hobart, we saw a rainbow over the town. We continued east on 9 following that same storm, which by now had a severe storm warning on it.
We continued following it, and at times the storm was beautiful as it looked like a mushroom cloud. However, it never produced a tornado. Along the way we had tons of rain falling on us, but blue sky overhead. Very strange. We were about 20 minutes behind the storm, and continued following it east despite being behind a slow cattle truck at one point, a slow school bus at another point, and then having to take a detour which slowed us down. We continued following it, and as the sun set, the storm dissipated very quickly. Conviently, we were only about 45 minutes south of Norman, and we were back at the dorms in time for meal exchange at Burger King and a South Park episode I hadn't seen!
It was definitely better than Tuesday chase, and the clouds actually broke through the cap this time. Having Aaron in the car was an advantage because he had the ham radio, which helped out. Once again, we were also in the only place a tornado warning was issued in the area the SPC labeled as having a good chance for severe convection. With us, the SPC is building a bad reputation. What else is new? Deja Vu.
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