5/23/02

We awoke this morning with high hopes for the day, and a plan to move
south to the Ponca City area of Oklahoma.  We left Concordia and pushed
through the front, delighted to see dewpoints and temps soar once we got
out ahead of it.  However, the entire state of OK was overcome with cloud
cover, which would mean no diurnal heating. really necessary to generate
the sort of storms we are always looking for.  The front, when it caught
up to us later in the evening, would of course initiate the sort of squall
line stuff that we so often see.  However, we needed heat, and there were
no blue skies available.

The irony of us chasing CLEAR SKIES after two weeks of chasing humidity,
slight risks, squall lines (some of which surprised us) was not lost on
us.  We did eventually see some clearing to the west, but weren't really
too enticed by it.  The route to Ponca City took us very close to Geuda
Springs, KS. the very first storm charter MESO members shared together on
5/24/98.  The Geuda Springs storm of nearly 4 years ago today started as a
little pocket of convection on an impossible day, which grew into
something miraculous.  Nancy and Brian shared a fond moment of memories at
the intersection of Oxford Road and 110th street in extreme south central
Kansas overlooking a wheat field.

It was decided that we'd settle in a little to the west of Ponca City in
Alva, at the priceless advice of remote data assistants Chris Howell and
Bill Tabor.  While still in the parking lot, we met up with three other
chasers from Cleveland who were clearly newbies in need of guidance and
they asked very kindly if they could tag along with us if we go out today.
We no sooner settled in and booted up the computers when... a little
pocket of convection on an impossible day started to grow into something
miraculous.

We headed off to an ultimate destination of the Texas panhandle, and were
treated to some wonderful cells throughout the afternoon.  There were
reports of brief tornadic activity in each of the cells we moved to,
particularly the one near Shattuck, OK.  Unfortunately, we were
inadvertently detained by some well-intentioned but over-zealous members
of the local law enforcement agency.  Technically, we were speeding; we
were going 72 in a 70 zone.  However, the Under Sheriff felt that since he
had to go 85 to catch up to us, we must have been going 85 (he tagged us
by trailing, not by radar).  He gave all four vehicles a warning, but it
senselessly cost us half an hour.  This delay may have kept us from an
earlier interception of the cell that might have shown us more, but while
we were pulled over and detained, the cell died rather rapidly.  An
interesting note: we got to chatting with John Law, and ended up staying
by the roadside chatting with the officers about the storms, their
headings, and actually became rather chummy and jovial with them. 

From there we went on an intercept course with the storms in the
panhandle, but we ran out of light and catching them would require us
moving headlong into them in the dark on a road that had very few escape
routes... so we pulled the plug on the operation.  We knew that we would
at least get a great lightning show, and pulled down a "red road" (a
MESO-ism for roads of questionable quality). The Cleveland Tag-alongs grew
tired of what was to become one of the most brilliant lightning shows of
all time, and broke off from the rest of us to return home.  This is a
phenomenon we see more and more out here: people chasing around for the
high adrenaline storms (ending up seeing "nothing") and missing so much of
what nature has to show.  We never consider ANYTHING we learn from or
enjoy watching to be a bust... so we never bust!

We pulled in to the hotel around 1:30am; wet, tired, but not too hungry
thanks to a Conoco station just outside of Alva that we cleaned out of
their junk food.  When we arrived back at the hotel, the car that that
other guys were driving had been really WHACKED.  We surmise that their
decision to abandon the storms in the panhandle early was not the ONLY
miscalculation they made that night.  Looks like they might have
hydro-planed just a tad and careened off the road somewhere along the way.
We're glad it wasn't worse, but happy that we chose to take the slower,
safer way home.

Huge thanks to Chris Howell in Michigan, Allan Detrich in Ohio, and Bill
Tabor in Texas (Bill was to meet us in the panhandle but his car broke
down) for their diligent remote data assistance.  

After a day that involved driving from Concordia, KS to the TX panhandle
(with a myriad of twists and turns in between), we're very exhausted.  But
tomorrow, the games should begin again, as the front has stalled.

Nancy, Brian, Josh, Lisa, and Mark
www.mcwar.org