forecasting3

April 2, 1999 took me to the Red River area from north of Childress, TX across to near Elk City, OK. My drive down took me across the dryline, which was positioned from just west of Childress to a point where it intersected the cold front near Clinton, OK. Storms had fired along the front from OKC westward during the late afternoon, but nothing fired along the dryline till later as a s/w came in from NM.

T/Td west of Childress were 88/37 and T/Td in Altus were 83/68. This change occurred in a 5-mile stretch. A nice southeast wind was present east of the dryline also. Skies were virtually clear except for some cu and a couple tcu along the dryline by late afternoon.

Here are the short fuse composite charts for 7PM CST for April 2. Please note the position of the low, the sfmc maxima, theta-e air maxima and wind speed and direction. On the second chart check out the huge cap north of the front and the high value LIs and weak cap south of the front. Position yourself in the manner described in the previous email and it would put you between Altus and Clinton.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO DISPLAY FULL SIZE

Original plots by
NWS DDC

http://www.dodgecity.net/nws/402991z1.gif
http://www.dodgecity.net/nws/402991z2.gif

An F2 and an F1 occurred this evening nearing dark at approximately 8 PM near Willow and Retrop, OK on the Greer/Beckham county line. Beautiful lightning lit "v" shaped tornado under a banded classic supercell (see my page on this event for pictures). Absolutely gorgeous in the night. Storm motion on this evening was NE at 35.

The cell that produced near Retrop made a nice right turn along the county line. Scared me to half to death as it dropped 3-4" hail also. The first supercell went up near the triple point. The next two cells that produced the tornadoes went up along the dryline about 50 miles south of where the first one went up. Later in the evening a squall line rapidly developed from AMA south to LBB and moved east with the s/w and dryline.

Lesson here: Do not give up just because the sky is clear. I waited for hours before something fired, and when it did, it did so quickly. It is good to have a quality nowcaster (Thanks, Al Pietrycha!!!!!!!!!).

Firsts: Huge pyrocumulus under a large fire south of the Red River.

Special THANKS! to the folks at NWSO, Dodge City, KS, for putting out these products. Check out their Storm Chaser Stuff for additional info on the Short Fuse Composite and more.