Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: April 23, 2014
Miles Logged: 453
States Chased: TX, OK
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Left work after some meetings and headed back to Norman to get my verizon hotspot reactivated and pick up Andrew Newcomb to head out and chase. We headed down I-44 to Lawton then 62 west.
While heading west, I looked over mesoanalysis and decided not to play the storms that had fired just west of Hollis but to drop further south to the dryline bulge and moisture pool just north near Crowell, TX. Most chasers were on the stuff to the north, but it seemed like the storms to the south were just in a better overall environment.
We sat around south of Crowell, TX for probably an hour waiting for the cells to mature and to let one updraft become dominant. During the course of that time, we witnessed a decent wall cloud. Unfortunately it seems like the inflow may have been cut off by a cell just to the south in Benjamin, so we headed east.
The road networks are terrible and we ended up heading halfway to Seymour eventually and finding hail all over the road. The biggest we measured was approximately 1″.
The rest of the chase was spent back tracking and driving through rain and hail to get back in front of the storm, which we finally did just west of Wichita Falls as it was dying off. Oh well, still a good chase day!
