May 13, 2019 Storms

Northern Oklahoma

This was Day 1 of Tempest Tours 2019 Tour 3.  In terms of severe weather, the pattern looked a bit quiet for the first few days of our tour, but there was a chance of storms for today in northwestern Oklahoma, so that's where we drove.

We took the Northwest Passage through Watonga and enjoyed a nice, local lunch at the Crooked Arrow Cafe in Seiling.  We also saw NextEra's Seiling and Mammoth Plains wind farms.  After lunch, we drifted a little west from Seiling toward some developing storms.  We soon turned around as the storms came east toward us.  The northern storms appeared the healthiest, so we drove to the northeast to stay ahead of the northern storm.  We made several stops for photography, and at one point, we waited a little too long and got caught in some 1/2" hail. We made it through without any major new dents.

We continued northeast through Waynoka and eventually got into the Great Salt Plains Lake vicinity, where we watched our storm dissipate.  Before it did so, it gave us a nice LP supercell appearance for a bit.

When it finished dissipating, we set our sights for Wichita and drove to the Best Western Plus Wichita West Airport Inn.  We ate at a nearby Braum's before going to our hotel.

Somewhere in northwestern Oklahoma.

The updraft base spreads northeast (right) from the rain (left).

The updraft of the storm started to become visible but soon became obscured by other clouds.

A final LP supercell type look for our storm.

Sunset near the Kansas/Oklahoma border.

Our appoximate route for the day.

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