| DATE | AREA | OBSERVATIONS |
|
W Oklahoma | I didn't have much hope for this day as others did. Regardless, Amos, Rob, and myself observed a supercell that initially developed south of Shamrock, Texas, moving east-northeast into western Oklahoma. We observed several wallclouds that quickly got undercut by outflow. It had decent structure early on and storm motions were slow enough that we didn't have any problems flanking the storm. |
|
NE Kansas | Target was originally the cold core setup in Nebraska, however the morning of the event, cold core looked less likely. We targeted the dryline arc / bulge after we realized the northern target was a bust. We drove south and encountered some rotating storms, but they quickly moved north into more stable air. We observed the end of the Hanover, Kansas tornado for about 20 seconds until it lifted. After that, strong rotation with no tornadoes was observed as the storm moved north at 50mph. |
|
C Oklahoma | Original target was between OKC and Weatherford, Oklahoma. Instability was limited north of the OKC boundary and I was afraid it would all go up at once. I drove west out of OKC and dropped south to Anadarko, Oklahoma. That initially looked good but began to get seeded by the Lawton, Oklahoma, storm. I dove south to Lawton and observed a wallcloud with a cone funnel, which got undercut by outflow. It continually got undercut throughout the day. The cell to my north near El Reno, Oklahoma, produced two high contrast tornadoes as well as a cell near Wichita Falls, Texas. |
| C Kansas | Amos, Rob, and I targeted between Russell and Salina, Kansas along an outflow boundary. Despite BL moisture problems after the passage of a strong surface high, we began to observe large towers erupting on the outflow boundary west of Salina, Kansas. This storm slowly drifted south, producing weak elevated wallclouds and two funnels, one cyclonic and the other anticyclonic. It was high based, so it kept getting undercut by outflow, and eventually died at dark. This was the only tornado warned storm in the country. | |
| SW Texas | Amos, Scott E., and I observed a long-lived tornadic supercell from east of Hobbs, New Mexico, to Big Spring, Texas. We observed two tornadoes and copious amounts of 2.5 to 3.0 inch hail which busted out windows. Baseball hail covered the ground and some stones were clear spiked stones. | |
|
C Kansas | Amos, Scott E., and I observed a few rotating storms with good structure along a boundary in southwest Kansas. |
| N Texas | Amos, Scott E., and I observed a long-lived tornadic supercell from I-35 north of Gainesville, to highway 75 just south of the Red River. We observed a total of three tornadoes, with the first near Gunter, Texas, and the other two near Anna, Texas. The last tornado hit the town of Westminster, Texas, killing 3 people. | |
MAY 13 |
NW Texas | Great low level shear, instability, and a surface boundary were present along the red river near Wichita Falls, Texas, however convective did not fire. Nothing significant observed. |
|
Nebraska | Moisture mixed out rapidly throughout the day resulting in a marginal threat for supercells. We did observe a rotating storm with decent structure west of York, Nebraska. Aside from that, severe winds were observed north of Hebron, Nebraska, on highway 81 after dark. |
|
SE Colorado | Travel day to high plains, we stopped in southeast Colorado hoping for upslope storms. Nothing significant observed. |
|
E Wyoming | Marginal day for supercells, nothing significant observed. We had the pleasure of driving through a town in Wyoming that had a population of 1! |
| Montana | We observed three great supercells east of Billings, Montana. Structure was the highlight of the day as well as 2.0 - 2.5 inch diameter hail. | |
|
NE Wyoming | Marginal threat for supercells again as moisture remains a problem. Observed a weak outflow dominant storm south of Gillette, Wyoming. Strongest wind gusts measured were 48 mph. |
| W Nebraska | We stayed in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and had our first supercell develop 30 miles west of town. We observed several photogenic storms as well as measured a 56 mph wind gust 16 miles NNE of Oshkosh, Nebraska, on a paved one lane road in the middle of nowhere. |
