April 17, 2018 Chase

Oklahoma City to Lubbock, TX

Today was the first day of Storm Chase 2018 for me.  I had just flown in from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Oklahoma City after a couple days of wondering whether my flight would depart or not.  A blizzard had hit Minnesota over the weekend, and the MSP airport was rushing to get caught up with its backlog of passengers from over the weekend.

The first thing I did on the morning of the 16th was go for a short ski across the lake.  The blizzard had left me in winter mode, so I was still not onto the fact that I was headed for a storm chase trip.  After skiing, my parents gave me a ride to the airport, and I caught my flight to Oklahoma City on time!

On the morning of the 17th, the forecast really looked pretty dry.  The low pressure system that brought the blizzard to Minnesota was really sweeping moisture out of the Great Plains and also out of the Gulf of Mexico.  We would definitely be starting our chase trip with quiet weather.  It was also hot and dry.  Temperatures soared into the upper 90s to near 100 degrees Fahrenheight on our trip to Lubbock, TX on our way to the high plains and far southern Rockies where we hoped to finally see storms in a couple days.

The weather was sunny the whole way, and we could see several smoke plumes from distant grass and brush fires across the region.  We casually looked to get close to a few, but none were large enough to be of any great interest. We had lunch at Jake's Rib in Chickasha, Oklahoma (wow, those portions were LARGE!) and arrived in Lubbock in time to eat a casual dinner at On the Border Mexican Restaurant near the hotel.

Electric driving would be pretty easy on this route with Tesla Superchargers in Oklahoma City and Childress.

The weather in Minnesota on the morning of my departure for the chase trip.

Here's the route we took on Day 1 of the tour.

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