Moore tornado-genesis

5/1 Chase Log

A historically strong Arctic cold front set the stage for this days setup. It actually would have been more a setup if not for a wave migrating across the coastal waters off LA, but I digress. Due to unseasonably low shear, this day was either going to be an MCS event or anafrontal squall, the latter won out. The only reason I headed out was b/c the future of this chase season is in doubt, it was close, and instability was high thus I knew I'd see some great structure. Below are the pics/vids.

Late Season Cold...Continued

This is a follow up to a previous blog I wrote earlier in the year in relation to the historic low in Arctic Oscillation in March...Late Season Cold (March 16)

Yesterday an unseasonably and historically strong cold front plowed through the Central US ushering in cold that many locations haven't seen for May...EVER. Only once ever has DFW ever recorded a temperature in the 30s in the entire month of May (5/1/1907) and that record is set to break tonight as we bottom out close to freezing. Also many locations across the Central Plains and Upper Midwest are shattering May snow records with 6-12".

So what's behind all this...well two things, partly the anonymously low AO in March and a blocking pattern that set up that helped to drive down the anonymously cold air south. First off, the late season cold can be partly explained along the same lines as why we have seasonal peaks that are always a month or more after the astronomical equinox, the peak of summer is in August but the equinox is in June, likewise with winter. We hit a record low in the Arctic Oscillation in March (equinox) and were paying for it a month or more later. The Southern Plains has seen numerous record lows in the last month due to the AO but this latest push of Arctic air is by far the most historic given time of year. An example is shown below with this latest push. Highs Wednesday were mostly in the 80s in the Central and Southern Plains with some 90s across parts of West Texas. 24hrs later highs struggling to hit 50 equating to over 30 degree departure from normal

Here's a graph of the AO since New Years, you can see the record low AO around mid-March

Here's a single-day and 24-shot of the impact of this latest cold air blast

Here's the aforementioned blocking pattern that setup of in May that helped contribute to the unseasonably cold April

Throwback Thursday: Meteorologist for a Day

This is a clip of me from junior year of high school in Memphis in which I was "Meteorologist for a Day" for the local FOX affiliate. I got this honor through a contest in which I correctly answered the weather question of the day by sending in at least a thousand postcards with the correct answer. The announcement and actual weathercast were done on separate days hence the transition. Some notes about this clip: I had to record it on a camcorder because the original was on VHS and it had a movie on the tape as well, therefore, both Walmart and CVS rejected it for copyright reasons when I tried for 2 months to get it copied to DVD. Secondly, I never knew I had such a strong southern accent until I saw this clip.

4/17 Chase Log

Synopsis
In summary this was a MDT Risk chase that could have easily have been a historical/catastrophic tornado event or messy grungvection but fell somewhere in between. Long story short, ALL ingrediants were there for a historical event except slight capping. Basically it was almost a repeat of April 13, 2012 in the same area, the day before the HIGH RISK, where you had a bunch of supercells going up all in same place with their meso's interacting preventing any sig tornado from occuring. Having said that, it wasnt a complete disappointment of a chase, I mean there were supercells after all. I tell ya though, Lawton really lucked out b/c that town was in the path of about every meso except the last one. Below are my pics and vids.

Pics/Vids

4/15 Chase Log

Synopsis
Well this was a day I knew would happen just not the way I had anticipated. To begin with, I had a late start b/c I had to help mom with a project way in Waxahachie that didnt wrap up till almost 3 so I had to book it all way up 287 from there. I made it round west end of Ft. Worth and up Jacksboro Hwy in time to catch the base of the first storm just NE of Jacksboro at 5pm. That storm eventually died off about an our later but the one on its heels became the show of the day as it developed a beautiful structured meso and wall cloud, that almost produced. I think just a little bit more low level shear and or moisture woulda done it. All in all a great day as I made some new friends and ran into some old ones from years gone by.

Pics/Vids

4/9 Chase Log

SYNOPSIS:
Well this day was just messed up from the get go due to multiple factors, 1) capping and more so 2) a crashing Arctic cold front that was well ahead of schedule of ANY model guidance. In the event the cap weakened just enough before the cold front crashed there might have been a small window for tornadic storms before they were undercut. The hot spot for the day was NWRN TX where the dryline intersected the crashing cold front. So I headed for Jacksboro where I planned to sit and decide on a course of action based on how things evolved. Well at about 4:30 it become apparent I needed to head due west as the cold front was closing in on any NW target. Well when I did get out of Jacksboro on 380 I saw to the NW an exploding CB tower that shortly therafter went severe warned and from then on it was an explosion down the cold front. Instead of intercepting the storms blowing up to my west, I went due south from Throckmorton to stay out ahead of the cold front/warm air as I hoped to intercept a storm ingesting warm air parcels. Well that never happened but I did get some great photogenic structural shots. All in all it wasn't a bad day; as I've always said, I dont need to see a tornado to have a great chase.

COLD FRONT/SOUNDINGS:

 

 PICS/VIDS: