Day 0 Part 2 – Off to chase the bonus…

We drove a half hour south to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma and were given a special guided tour by the witty and funny Professor Evgeni Fedorovich from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma around the custom built facility which was funded after the May 3^rd 1999 F5 tornado which ripped through Moore, Oklahoma. The tour was fascinating and provided insights into some cutting edge research into storms. Another bonus for bonus day.

We returned to the hotel and agreed the target for this afternoon’s chase over a tasty burger at Shorty Smalls.

Since this morning the SPC is more confident over moisture returning to a small corridor in NW Oklahoma and SW Kansas and has issued a 5% tornado risk and a notable 30% hail risk so that’s the target. We head west on the I40 towards Woodward, OK but will need to be back at the hotel by 21:00 come what may so Peter can enjoy at least a bit of his rest day. The more substantial risk to our SE is attracting plenty of chasers like ants on the Spotter Network, but our choice is a good call with good chasing country and doable in the time available.

We head north on US270 then US281 taking in a Hershey bar check (yes still taste like sick) and onto US14 toward the Kansas border with towers starting to bubble up like mad cauliflowers. We have three storms: blonde, brunette or redhead? They start to tease taking it in turn to be the tallest, 43,000 feet the best effort, a flash of a rotation marker and varying intensities of precipitation. With time against us we drop south on US45 towards Fairview and pass the Sod House Museum…continuing south with the blonde in mind.

With a nice updraft and inflow tail this storm was the best looking of the three. I grabbed some photos taken in the sunshine with some mammatus on display. Finally as the daytime heating abated it was time to say au revoir and head back to our hotel in Oklahoma City for food, beer and an early night.

And finally…Roger after having to return back to Houston while in mid-air yesterday due to storms, having had his flight this morning cancelled due to the storms in Oklahoma City finally got to the hotel mid-afternoon today. At least he got here for tomorrows  official start of the tour.

Today was a good shake down tour, a nice looking storm but no tornado or large hail. Tomorrow we’ll likely be heading for what is currently a marginal risk in the Texas Panhandle.

Total miles: 319