{"id":15348,"date":"2016-04-29T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=15348"},"modified":"2016-11-28T22:16:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T06:16:42","slug":"april-29-2016-southwestern-ok-storms-lacking-loco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2016\/04\/29\/april-29-2016-southwestern-ok-storms-lacking-loco\/","title":{"rendered":"April 29, 2016 Southwestern OK Storms Lacking Loco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"160429_0999_loco\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Start, Pampa, TX; end Wichita Falls, TX; estimated 330 miles; lunch Billy Sims BBQ in Altus<\/p>\n

On this chase day an obvious triple-point play was looking really good, in extreme southwestern Oklahoma. \u00a0SPC had a 10 percent tornado risk outlined along a warm front northeast and east of the surface low, which was a little south of Quanah. \u00a0Chasers had their eyes on the Altus, OK, area for development, and the forecast supercell and tornado parameter numbers were rather impressive.<\/p>\n

SPC Day One (20Z)<\/a><\/p>\n

spc-mesoscale-discussion-499<\/a><\/p>\n

spc-mesoscale-discussion-501<\/a><\/p>\n

spc-mesoscale-discussion-505<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of the target area was still mired with low cloudiness around noon, but sunshine was beginning to peak through some breaks near and along the Red River. \u00a0Right after lunch at Altus is when things started to fall apart. \u00a0Storm towers were already developing! \u00a0UGH — it is barely even 1 p.m. CDT, and the atmosphere wants to make storms already. \u00a0Usually early convection such as this means a long chase day and a big DUD of a chase day, and that was the case today. \u00a0Early convection often means that the cap is too weak, and too many storms form. \u00a0Or, the atmospheric energy aloft is mis-timed. \u00a0Generally, chasers like to see upper-level energy arriving late in the afternoon and to have storm development after 4 or 5 p.m.: \u00a0after plenty of afternoon heating.<\/p>\n

On this day a big and nasty supercell quickly developed in the vicinity of Tipton and Manitou, and it moved eastward rather slowly. \u00a0Additional storms went up just north of this one. \u00a0The tail-end cell was HP and outflowish practically from the start. \u00a0It was not particularly pretty, either. \u00a0Part of the problem today, in part because of early development, was that plenty of quite cool air was lurking just north of the warm front. \u00a0I think that there was just too much cool air becoming involved with the “Tipton” supercell to keep it from becoming an outflowing dud. \u00a0We stayed ahead of it and it pushed us to Geronimo, Comanche, and Loco. \u00a0A weak tornado or two was reported with another storm to our north, closer to the H.E. Bailey Turnpike, but the supercell that we were watching was never able to come close to producing. \u00a0Near Loco, OK, the storm was surging out a bit and a cool-looking band of convection provided some nice photographic opportunities. \u00a0I was dismayed with how the chase day had turned out, and from Loco I started back to the west to try for some “pretty CB at sunset” shots, but that did not work out very well either. \u00a0Now, we had about a week of benign weather to wait out.<\/p>\n

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