When it is Prime Time on the Plains, the instability cranks up and the atmosphere’s potential is maxed out. For today’s storm chase case, that was absolutely the case.
Today we’re going to Northern Oklahoma on May 25, 2016 — the same day as the Chapman EF4 tornado in Northern Kansas. This secondary target, where unfortunate but fortunate souls like me had to settle for due to obligations, had a lot of positives to it. But there were negatives. A stronger cap was in place much of the day, meaning the sun would need to work its magic on a extremely unstable airmass to break that stubborn old cap for storms.
The wind shear was just good enough for tornadoes, and more than adequate for supercells. Really, it was a classic boom or bust day on the dryline.
On days like this, focusing on observational data like satellite will lead to really good decisions being made. My main go to on chase day are observational data. Models are helpful for sure, but they rarely tell the whole story.
And on this day, a look at obs led you to a pretty obvious target in Northern Oklahoma. Now getting a storm in time to enjoy the fruits of that target in the daylight? That was another story entirely.
These storms need to stop the cap
Is this the newest cold front that came in?
Ok I really need a sit down with you on the skew t's..I have watched your tutorials and fixing to watch again. I think its going to have to be a sitdown my friend..
good job friend
Great video! Very informative. May can not come sooner for me!
Two questions: Where do you get that satellite imaging of the cloud tops at 1:51? Also, how do you forecast how photographic the thunderstorms will be? I think it has to do with moisture, but sometimes you can see the beautiful thunderheads moving by and other times it is too overcast. I guess more trying to figure out how to forecast HP vs LP supercells/thunderstorms.