Target Area: Shawnee, Oklahoma
Chase Area: Shawnee/Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Observations: squall line and lightning
Distance: ~160 miles
Time: ~3.5 hours
Chase Team: José Galvez, Matt Gaffner, and myself
SPC Convective Outlook: Moderate Risk (Click to see SPC products, data, and storm reports)
Chase Setup: An upper-level trough was positioned over eastern South Dakota. A surface low was progressing through Minnesota with a cold front extending southwestward into west Texas. Surface temperatures were in the 80s with dewpoints in the low to mid-70s ahead of the front. Surface-based CAPE was generally 1000 to 3000 J kg-1 over parts of central and eastern Oklahoma. 0 to 6 km bulk shear approached 40 knots in portions of northern and eastern Oklahoma.
Chase Log: Not a lot to say here. José and Matt are a couple of guys I worked with at the National Severe Storms Laboratory during my REU project. Some time in the afternoon we decided to leave work early and head out after the storms that were rapidly growing to our east. I didn't take any photos of the storms while we were chasing, but the photo gallery does show some photos that I took of the convection just before we left.
We drove out to Shawnee, at which point we realized we were just going to get rained on. It was still a pretty strong squall line, though, and we drove along it a ways until Pauls Valley, at which point we just headed up back to Norman.
This was my third and last chase for 2005. I left Oklahoma in early August, and there really weren't any more good chase opportunities for the Southern Plains between late June and early August.