12-27-08 Chase

Even though this was a linear setup, Bob Hall and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to chase in late December. After about 3 hours of sleep Bob met me at my place around 5:40am and we headed out west of town to intercept the line of storms that had formed along a cold front that was pushing through the state.

We made our first intercept at hwy 412 and 209th W. Ave (west of Sand Springs). After shooting a little lightning video we were overtaken by very heavy rain. At that point we got back in front of the line and decided to let the same cell run over us at 76th St. N and Hwy 75 just north of Tulsa. We ended up in the Whirlpool plant parking lot where we had very heavy rain and winds approaching 50 mph. Oddly enough the storm drain in the Whirlpool parking lot produced a whirlpool after about 10 minutes of very heavy rain. Thanks to Bob's suggestion of finding the drain, I was able to get a pretty cool video of the whirlpool (see below).

From north Tulsa, we headed east to Hwy 169 and started heading south just as the tornado warning was issued for Wagoner country. Fortunately, we were within a mile of jumping on 412 eastbound and intercepted the storm in Chouteau a few minutes after Mayes county went under a tornado warning. As we rolled into town, we were once again pounded with heavy rain and wind but quarter sized hail was added to the mix this time. After letting a couple of training cells pass over us in Chouteau, we decided that the line had pretty much crapped out so we headed back up to Tulsa and called it a day.

Given the fact that it is late December, I was happy to get out on these storms. Even though they never produced a tornado and it was a linear piece of crap setup, it was great to get out there and was a fun chase overall. Plus it was only 151 miles. It's much easier to enjoy this type of setup when you don't have to drive all day.