Storm Chase Log: May 26, 2008 NW Okla Supercell

[SamSagnella]

Briefly, we saw the lifecycle of a gorgeous LP supercell in the Vici, OK vicinity yesterday afternoon. It slowly moved northeast, producing golfball-sized hail before weakening rapidly south of Woodward. We dove south to try and intercept the storms entering WC Okla, and got bogged down on a "Bob's Rd" that showed up as a paved CR on DeLorme (damnit!). We had to turn around and get back east as quickly (I use that term loosely) as we could to avoid getting munched by the core. Some of the most intense CG lightning we've ever experienced was slamming into the ground all around us, sparking grassfires in a couple of instances (we had to call 911 to report them). Overall, it was obviously hard to top the five tornadoes we saw on Sat., so this chase seemed more lackluster than it may have a week ago; I really hope I don't continue feel that way on future chases.

[Ed Mahmoud]

We almost never see storms like that around Houston, which is probably a good thing.

[KWT]

Very nice report and great photos, we rarely get storms as powerful as that here in the UK either, we do get every now those low topped supercells but they aren't common by any means.
This here is a collection of stuff from one such system that also developed an F2 tornado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dxtQYnfo5c

[SamSagnella]

Thanks, KWT.

Here are a couple more pictures from the chase up in the Woodward County area from Memorial Day 2008.

A better example of the striations & mid-level inflow features present when the storm was early in its existence.


Passing to our NW; starting to diminish.


As the storm dissipated (from the ground up, as opposed to collapsing), all that remained was a veritable funnel cloud as the remnants of the rotating updraft constricted. Can't say I've ever witnessed that before.