Chasing vs rediculous

Saturday's stormy weather bore out what we expected a lot of rain and thunderstorms surrounded by low deck clouds with lots of watches and warnings and that might attract the desperate or foolhardy, but there really was nothing to chase. And after all the hype (although real and necessary for those living in the area and there were lots of storms with rain and hail and flash floods), only one tornado touched down in TX.

In contrast, what we look for are LP (low precipitation) supercells that allow for the safest, best viewing of the storms and are amazing structures in and of themselves. In this photo, notice the rain free base of the storm and the twisted appearance of the updraft (the part of the storm that sucks warm air from the surface to the upper atmosphere, which is how thunderstorms act to move heat from surface to the top of the troposhere). Although we ocassionally get supercells in the northeast, they are not LP and generally the supercells that do form do not last long and fall apart/merge with other storms rather quickly.

Instead, we worked our way to the northeast, avoiding all of the torrential rain and passing through the wooded country of northeast OK. As an added bonus, we were on the highway that allows 75mph driving at the furthest east spot in the nation (I-44 at the northeastern corner of OK). Much of OK is flooded with small rivers spilling over their banks and into the surrounding fields, forests and towns.

Today's weather puts the rain and messy tornadic secenaios in the deep south, which is not safe for chasing and the set up would be similar to yesterday. The cold from behind the rain has shut down the potential for server weather elsewhere and we are working our way home. Still, there is plenty to see and explore and in the nation, so we will be sure to add some other pieces of Americana to our trip.