Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Eastern Oklahoma

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:42 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:35 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 14 Hours 53 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 632Miles

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No


A Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms and a 10% hatched area for tornadoes over Central and Eastern Oklahoma caught my attention for today. My original target for today was Drumright, Oklahoma, or just west of Tulsa, Oklahoma. My plans changed with the future severe storm outlooks put out by the Storm Prediction Center.

The Storm Prediction Center kept pushing the best chances for tornadic storms to the South Central Oklahoma area along the dryline. The Storm Prediction Center had also issued a tornado watch over this area in the early afternoon. I met up with Joey Ketchum, Tyler Costantini, Chris Wilburn and Bart Comstock to the east of Oklahoma City along I-40 highway. They decided they were going to travel farther south of Oklahoma City to play the dryline. I decided to stay to the southeast of Oklahoma City where the dryline intersected a cold front.

This was one decision I'm glad I made. My fellow chasers farther south along the dryline came up empty with no storms firing in their area. Storms refused to form along the dryline, with the only storms in the area developing along the cold front to my north. These storms never really got there act together, with hail and wind being the main threat with them.

I did witness some lower level rotation with one of these storms near Cromwell, Oklahoma. I received a cellphone call from the Tulsa National Weather Service office who saw that I was watching this storm via the Spotter Network. I advised them that there were signs of lower level rotation, but it did not last very long. The storm kept cycling quickly and never had time to stay organized. This storm became outflow dominant, and I didn't even get any decent photographs of a shelf cloud this time around.

I learned a few lessons from this storm chase. I learned that I'm ususally better off not changing my original target area midway through my chase. Funnel clouds and a tornado warned supercell storm developed about fifty miles northeast of my original target area. This storm moved within five miles of my home in Pittsburg, Kansas, with funnel clouds being its main threat. It still would have been better than what I saw after traveling over six hundred miles. Oh well, you live and learn. I did get to chase in a different area of Oklahoma, and I got to see some different Oklahoma terrain.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, May 07, 2008 South Central Oklahoma

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12::01 P.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 13 Hours 1 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 775 Miles
2007 Mazda 6

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No


The Storm Prediction Center predicted a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over Eastern Oklahoma, with a 10% chance of tornadoes over the Southeastern Oklahoma area. I figured this would be a good enough chance to make the trek to Southeast Oklahoma once again.

I decided to make the trip with hope that I would see some severe weather. I'm not all about seeing tornadoes when I storm chase. I'm just as happy to see any type of severe weather. It's just the power within a severe thunderstorm that keeps drawing me to them. I ended up in Sherman, Texas, just a few miles south of the Texas and Oklahoma border. I knew that the Red River would be rough to chase around, since there are only a select few ways to cross the river. I decided to go after a severe storm that fired up near Ardmore, Oklahoma, and it seemed to be moving east.

I finally caught up with the updraft portion of this thunderstorm east of Marietta, Oklahoma on Highway 32. I stopped and took some photographs of a non-rotating wall cloud. The severe thunderstorm became outflow dominant shortly after I took my photographs of the wall cloud. I decided this storm would be my only chance at severe weather today, so I decided to stay to the east of it and attempt to photograph any shelf clouds it may produce.

I was treated to a spectacular sight when I stopped on Highway 70, where the highway crosses Lake Texoma. I was able to photograph the thunderstorm's shelf cloud as it passed over the lake, which made for some decent photographs. I was between the towns of Kingston and Mead, Oklahoma when I caught my first glimpse of what this severe storm was all about. The shelf cloud/gust front of this large storm produced cool winds of about 40-45 MPH as it passed over head.

I proceeded eastbound on Highway 70, and once again got in front of this storm. The storm sirens were sounding in Bokchito, Oklahoma as I passed through. The only reason for this would have been the high winds that were expected with the leading edge of this severe storm. I proceeded to travel south when I arrived at Bennington, Oklahoma, for another chance at photographing the shelf cloud. I got lucky. I stopped on Highway 70E to the east of Wade, Oklahoma where I was treated to a very menacing shelf cloud. I took several photographs of this awesome looking storm structure. The storm was no longer severe in this area, as I did not receive very much wind at all and the storm produced very little rainfall.

After being to treated to a photogenic storm, I decided I had better head for home. The trip ahead of me I had already made a few weeks ago, and I knew it was a long one. I didn't see any tornodoes today, but I was still satisfied with what I saw. As a storm chaser, I'm not all about tornadoes. Any type of severe storms will please me, especially when I can get some good photographs.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas