May 18, 2019 Storms

Northwestern Oklahoma

We began the day in Alma, Nebraska after having seen several tornadoes the day before.  The wind shear looked a bit weaker today, and the instability was also less, so we had lower expectations for supercell storms, but an upper level shortwave trough was moving through, and that meant there was a good chance for thunderstorms.

We drove south through Kansas as a very large MCS rolled through Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. We stopped for lunch at the Crazy Mule Food & Brew in Greensburg, KS (the town was hit by a violent tornado in 2007).

After lunch, we drove to the west-southwest, finally seeing some sunshine.  With the approaching shortwave trough, it did not take long for storms to develop.  We got into the Oklahoma Panhandle and stayed with the storms until Woodward, where we stopped to view the sunset.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant (Ramiro's), then drove to our hotel (Northwest Inn).

A common prairie grassland scene.

Could that be a landspout tornado in the distance? It was not.

Looking at the center of the closest updraft base.

Two updraft bases-- things are pretty multicellular.

Looking northeast and ahead of the storm.

This appears to be an RFD cut and maybe a funnel, but I think there were just two separate cells.

Here is a menacing shelf cloud.

Guests walk out to take pictures.

The whale's mouth.

There are two wind farms in the picture.  The NextEra Energy Resources farm is on the horizon.

A storm approaches a farm of Suzlon turbines.

The sun brilliantly illuminated the underside of the clouds.

The sunset was incredible.  One or two Chuck Will's Widows were singing, too.

Our approximate route for the day.

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