04.06.10
Chase #2 Evaluation
Today was a bust of sorts for northwest Oklahoma/southern Kansas along the dryline.
I say “of sorts”, because it was rather expected: all parameters practically screaming supercells except for the lack of forcing. So really, the forecast was nailed. Some of us still wanted to be there to see it for ourselves, though–especially in case the forecast did fail. Surprise, surprise, the cap remained in place.
To make a long, rather uninteresting day short, Jeff and I drove up to Enid, briefly stopped to figure out what we were doing, and continued on to Alva. We wound up sitting at the dryline for nearly 3 hours just south of Alva, watching some itty bitty cumulus clouds form and then quickly dissipate.
Total chase miles yesterday/today: 390 miles
Total chase hours yesterday/today: 11 hours
On the up side, I tested all of my equipment, and with the exception of the new tracker page I put up on my webpage, everything works (the tracker page was not showing my position, but the actual Spotter Network site was). Tracking worked well, streaming live video worked well (it was very exciting; I streamed some cows and a few flat cumulus clouds), and I found out that I won’t even come close to filling up on my cell phone tethering data plan. Even the cell phone data coverage in non-3G areas was still fairly fast. The biggest problem I foresee would be the video cable coming unplugged from the computer, if there’s too much excitement and potentially moving stuff around in the middle of a storm. It was nice to test in a low stress, low expectations day.
In short, I had a great day, despite the blue skies!
I’ll post a full chase log (it’ll be short!) with photos (they’re rather boring!) on my website probably on Wednesday.
Tuesday looks it will be better than today, with many of the parameters still being there, but stronger forcing. Multiple supercells forming along the dryline moving into central Oklahoma could be the scene of the day. Potential target could be southwest into west central Oklahoma, but I have not looked at the setup in too much detail yet (will do so in the morning, and evaluate).