Wrap-Up Chase Season 2013

After arguably the most frustrating season I have ever had, the fat lady has finally sung for my 2013 chase season. I'll have a review of all the chase days below. I also will be adding my remaining three chase logs in the next week or so, including the October 4th supercell near Clinton, OK. Below is a general overview of all the chase days this season.


February 9 2013 Texas Panhandle
A very marginal day that appeared on the models and looked too good to be true for the eastern panhandle. I ended up chasing with Zach Elliot, Jon Stone and Brady Kendrick. After photographing an awesome abandoned gas station in Hollis, we went and hung around the Mempis, TX area until sunset. Storms never did fire in the daytime, but the dryline kicked up a dust storm in its wake along I-27. After grabbing dinner in Memphis, storms exploded about 30 minutes after sunset. We hopped northwest on US 287 and southeast of Clarendon caught the severe storms that had started lining out. After Brady's car took a few tennis balls we bailed back east and south to get out of the way (hitting a tumbleweed of doom on a market road). Unfortunately I never had enough time to get my camera out to get a photo of one of the hailstones. This day definitely set the marker for 2013.

March 9 2013 Southern Oklahoma & Northern Texas
A very under-performing day. Instability in northern Texas was never quite realized due to thick stratus until roughly 19Z across northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. I chased with Jon Stone and ended up heading out of Norman in the early afternoon. We caught the first severe storm of the day east of Duncan and got probably the only storm of the day that came close to realizing any of the potential of the shear environment. The storm displayed some slightly supercellular characteristics with a lowering that had visible rising motion from a good distance away before lining out and dying as it went back up into Norman. From that point we continued south and entered Texas around 21Z and got to a stopping point in time to see a pretty cool multi-tiered shelf outside Gainesville. We then continued dropping south and ended the day watching some junk storms near Era before heading back to Norman.

April 7 2013 Western Kansas
One of my favorite days of the season. Chased with Brady Kendrick and Zach Elliot in western Kansas on a decent day across Kansas. We set out from Norman around 18Z with the original target of Alva, OK. We were expecting more discrete, supercellular storms along the KS/OK state line in the early evening but that never materialized due to cloud cover over much of NW OK limiting the thermodynamic environment. The only supercell that day formed along and rode the warm front way up near Great Bend, KS. We initially had given up on the day around 23Z as turkey towers were toppling all over SW KS and were halfway to Greensburg (I hadn't seen the town's recovery) before turning back around and blasting north out of Pratt after seeing a nuclear updraft to our north on that WF supercell. While we failed to catch it when it was at its most picturesque, we were still able to get some excellent shots as it neared sunset southwest of Great Bend.

April 17 2013 Southwest Oklahoma

This day has a special place on my s**tlist of chase days. It's arguably the most underwhelming day I have ever had the displeasure of wasting gas money on. This day had been progged by the GFS and to a lesser degree, the Euro, to be the first legitimate tornado day of the 2013 season. That is until, the NAM got involved. The crashing cold front solution and weak H7s it predicted would end up coming true and cutting this day down like the Reds' playoff contention. Andrew Lyons and I ended up chasing with a group of meteorology friends from OU and reached the first supercells east of Lawton around 19Z. We sat back and watched the first supercell go by and spit out a lot of wind and rain. We then side-stepped it and went after the next supercell. South of Lawton that storm quickly died. At that point we were sitting on a small country road south of Lawton watching this day crash and burn. That is until one HP supercell decided to tick up its inflow (which was some of the strongest I have ever been in) and spin out a brief bird fart in Lawton. We had a very murky view and except for the first powerflash which gave us a brief glimpse, we never saw anything else. After our crappy encounter of the spinny kind we debated whether or not to sit and wait on more storms coming up. Those storms would end up biting it as they entered a worked-over environment with crappy mid-level winds. We then decided against moving south to tail-end charlie near Vernon, TX (which would produce the only decent-ish tornado of the day) and headed back to Norman on the heels of the crappiest excuse for supercells of this season. 

May 18-31 2013 

I was on a family vacation to the west (Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Vegas, etc.). A little bit of me died. 

July 12 2013 Eastern Iowa

A very disappointing bust day with Andrew Lyons, Nate Curtis and Aaron Rigsby. We initially saw some potential in eastern Iowa with the target set as Iowa City, but by midday it became readily apparent that nothing was going to happen. We stopped in central Illinois, turned around and drown our sorrows in Sweet Tarts with little unicell crappers shooting off all over creation. 

September 27 2013 Texas Panhandle

Another marginal fall chase day that ended up being ok. I chased with Brady Kendrick with the initial target set for Groom. We got to Groom just as storms began firing off along and in the Caprock Canyons. We patiently waited east of Groom with Jon Stone to see if any of the storms would get their act together enough to at least put out some nice structure. Unfortunately the lack of an appreciable inversion prevented any storms from becoming organized and except for a brief lowering with some rising motion, nothing else got close. But as we headed back east to get to Norman at a reasonable hour, we got the opportunity to get an awesome shot of the now bowing line of storms as they came off the Caprock west of Alanreed. Some decent shots were salvaged and we weren't left with too bad of a taste in our mouth. 

October 4 2013 Western Oklahoma

What ended up being my favorite chase day out of this season. I headed out of Norman with Andrew Lyons and Cj Sayre around 18Z with the initial target of Elk City. We made it to Elk City around 20Z and after lunch were in the perfect position to catch storms off the dryline before the cold front swept south. We watched the first robust tower of the day near Elk City until it shriveled up, before blasting north around Foss Lake to partake of some of the more vigorous convection north of Hammon. We were treated to an awesome view of the storm's updraft tower and base with a few nubs protruding from the base before the storm crapped the bed. We then dropped south again to get on a storm that had begun to get separation from the others east of Sayre. We got caught at a strange angle and ended up core punching the storm to get back to I-40. Only small pea-sized hail was in the core but once we got out far enough from the updraft base we were treated to an awesome view of a multi-tiered/mothership updraft structure. We continued east to about Clinton before stopping to get some shots of some of the best structure I have ever seen in person. Afterwards the storm began to rapidly decline as it congealed into the line coming up as the cold front caught the dryline and we drifted back east to Norman. 

All in all, I can't complain about my first full season of living on the Plains. Even though I missed the best tornadoes of the year and got seriously hosed on some setups, it was still great to end it on such a good note. Hard to believe chase season 2014 is just around the corner. The stats of the year will be posted below.

Chase Season 2013

Miles Traveled: 2752

Chase Days: 7

Busts: 3

Tornadoes: 1

Largest Hail: Tennis Ball (2.5 in.)

Highest Wind Gust: 85 MPH (estimated)

States Chased: OK, KS, TX, IL

Chase Possibilities Returning Next Week

The long-range GFS and ECMWF have been hinting at the possibility of a high-amplitude long wave finally breaking down the blocking ridge over the central CONUS. The wave's timing has been varied between the two models, with the GFS wiffle-waffling it between 200 to 240 hours out (essentially fantasy land). Moisture also seems like a possible concern with a cold front progged to go crashing through the central/southern Plains this Friday with another stronger front coming at the start of next week. At this point, even a whisper of a fall season is appreciated though.

The Slow Summer

The low-amplitude omega block from hell has finally set in over the central portion of the CONUS. Its looking like any August surprises on the southern Plains might be confined to upslope days in eastern Colorado. I'm way behind on a lot of the chase logs from marginal days back in March and early April (April 17th nearly took my will to live) but those will be forthcoming in the near future. Under two weeks until I head back to Oklahoma so hopefully I can get it all up to date before then!

Long Break!

Sorry for the huge gap in posts all! Exam week and vacation got in the way. Fortunately I was not in Norman for the EF5 on the 20th as it went tearing through Moore (thoughts and prayers with everyone there as well as in Shawnee). I've missed a good string of chase days on the Plains, just because 2013 got hot too late. Looking for some local stuff (IL/IN/OH) in the near future, with maybe a few good lines or something. Hopefully June kicks up a notch and a derecho day or two comes up.

April 17 2013 Chase Log

April 17 2013

James Gustina

Summary: Chased with Andrew Lyons and Tyler Snider on a SW OK moderate risk. First tornado of the 2013 season, rain-wrapped cone that went through Lawton and did minor damage.  Chased several HP supercells across SW Oklahoma but missed the best tornado coming from tail-end charlie near Vernon, Texas as the dryline shifted east in the mid-late evening. Overall a frustrating day that did not live up to the hype but I was still able to pull out some good shots of the tornadic HP near Lawton. 

The long-range models picked up on this day pretty quickly, roughly 180 hours out. The GFS was throwing around doomsday outbreak scenarios, with the front lifting north to almost the I-70 corridor, with the dryline setting off storms in a volatile environment with CAPE values sitting at 5000 j/kg+ and deep layer shear aoa 50 kts. The Euro on the other hand took a far more conservative outlook on it, with the front lifting to about Woodward and remaining draped across northern Oklahoma until nightfall, with the triple point intersection of the dryline and the front being the focal point for development. This model uncertainty plagued the setup from the beginning and became more muddled when the NAM, WRF and SREF entered the fray. The NAM had a much more progressive front come crashing through around 00Z, potentially killing storms before the show could really get started. Unfortunately, the NAM ended up being correct, and it nailed the front position the day of exactly. The SPC threw out a MDT risk for most of central and eastern Oklahoma with a 15% hatched tornado risk.

While winds the morning of looked spectacular, the positively tilted trough and distinct veering in the 700-850mb layer would ultimately end up preventing this day from realizing its potential. Still, morning soundings looked impressive and SW Oklahoma looked primed for development as the stratus deck cleared further south ahead of the front. 

We got a late start to the day, not leaving until about 3:30 CDT but this ended up working out perfectly. Storms that were already ongoing near Frederick slowly got their act together and as we were within 25 minutes of Lawton, the first supercell went tornado warned. We got off at Elgin and turned south so we could meet up with another group and wait for the storm to come to us. We stopped at a gas station and observed the storm for awhile as it moved into Lawton. We also found a kitten that took to following us around the entire time we were there. The little guy even tried to get into the car when we went to leave. 

Shortly after the second photo we decided to reposition to southwest of Lawton to catch the next storm bringing up the rear. The updraft continued to look healthy until we got off on SR 36 southwest of Lawton. The storm had begun to look outflow dominant, although still had a cool HP look to it with a slight green tint back in the core. 

Shortly after the last photo, a radar update piqued our interest. At the time the storm was pulling in absolutely insane inflow and a couplet began to show up on radar. The tornado warning popped up right after and we bolted back to the cars and tried to get back east and north. We ran into the TWC crew on the way (they have a rather large convoy) and got a nice view of the storm on SW 82nd Street as it began to creep into Lawton. We noted a funnel down the road a ways and as it moved into Lawton saw two power flashes, one illuminating what looked like a cone funnel above it. 

Even without the tornado fully visible, I decided to count this one as the first of 2013 considering we did get a brief glimpse of it, even if it wasn't what I had been hoping for. We let the supercell pass due to limited road options that would not require us to go driving through a potentially rain-wrapped updraft region and instead tried our luck on the second storm right behind it. While it looked promising for awhile, the storm got undercut and quickly died. After that we decided not to go down to the Red River after the tail-end charlie that had popped up (big mistake) and began making our way back towards Norman. 

We cut north on US 81 shortly after learning about a tornado that was in progress near Elgin (right where we had been earlier) and opted to stop in Marlow and let the hail core/supercell pass, with tennis balls being reported up the road between Marlow and Rush Springs. We made it back to Norman around 10 PM and noted some flooding on Lindsey Street on the way, with one woman's car stalled out with water above her knees. 

All in all, it was not what I had been expecting at all with the high promise this day had, but the lack of dryline interaction except down in Texas coupled with the rapid southward turn of the cold front by 00Z ruined this day. While I'm disappointed, it is still cool to finally get my first tornado of the 2013 season, even if it was a rain-wrapped bird fart. Hopefully 2013 kicks it into gear sometime soon! 

Chase Stats

Miles Driven: 221.2

Cost: $15

Tornadoes: 1

Hail: None

Winds: 55+ (inflow)

Season Update

Well I technically got my first tornado of the season on Wednesday. Caught the second storm that went through Lawton and got a brief view of a cone funnel followed by a few power flashes on the west side of the city. I have two chase logs to get up in the next week or two so be on the lookout.

Right now its looking like the season will remain quiet through much of the final week of April. The Euro and GFS have been throwing out possible strong return flow in the next week and a half, but I'm not setting much stock in that solution until I can see it three days out. Currently we're sitting at roughly 194 total tornado reports. Most of these are centered in Dixie Alley, with a total of 17 tornadoes in the traditional alley. Another startling stat is there were 84 tornadoes in January versus 43 currently in April. While this could be deceptive and may end up leading to a much later June season on the northern Plains and Midwest/Great Lakes region, it's still troublesome looking at how quiet of a year its a been. Very few people have scored photogenic, fully-condensed tornadoes. The best tornado as of yet has been the the surprise Caprock tornado on April 1st that a very select few chasers nabbed. Overall, not very encouraging in the greater scheme of things.

Chase Logs & Chase Prospects

Hey all, been awhile since I updated the blog. This upcoming early week is looking good for the southern Plains in terms of an appreciable threat for tornadic supercells across SW KS/W OK on Monday and into E OK/W AR on Tuesday. I'm also working on getting my chase log for March 9th done sometime here in the next few days so I don't get behind. Be on the lookout for more stuff soon!