DJ's Sooner Stories

On My First Storm Chase

Yesterday, I left my physics class hurriedly in anticipation of seeing some great awesomeness in western Oklahoma. For the past week, my friends and I gazed constantly at computer models as they developed a potential outbreak of severe weather for Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday. At first we planned to make Saturday afternoon a time for heading out after some storms in the southeastern portion of the state, but a speedup in the models forced us to try for Friday afternoon in western Oklahoma. We originally planned to leave at 3 but classes and other delays kept us from leaving until 4. From there the group headed out in two vehicles along I-40. With nothing but stratus above us, we enjoyed the various sights of western Oklahoma. We passed Yukon (the home of Ted Swang and Garth Brooks, but only Garth got on the watertower) and Weatherford (home of astronaut Tom Stafford, SWOSU, and a huge wind farm) and a bunch of other small towns and farms on our way to our initial staging point in Elk City. We filled up on gas there and then proceeded to Erick, Oklahoma, 7 miles from the Texas border, where we met up with another car of OU freshmen chasers. The wind was really picking up when we got out of the car. From there we proceeded through downtown Erick (home of the Roger Miller Museum, dedicated to the singer of "King of the Road" and "Dang Me") out into the country. We parked on a dirt road in preparation for an intercept. Even out in the middle of nowhere we weren't alone. Along with the three cars with us, we encountered a girl from my calc class and her boyfriend (I'm assuming). Before the storm got there, they pulled out some lightsabers and had a little duel with lightning in the background. We also saw a chaser for Channel 5 who apparently got some video of us out there. While we were standing out there the wind was blowing harder than I've ever felt, lightning flashed all around, and then we started getting pelted with downpours. At that point we moved a little further south to escape the rain and found that everything had stopped other than the wind. While standing around some more, we spotted a line of cars flying north up the road, which could only be storm chasers. We eventually followed and ran back into the downpours and a litle hail, driving through streets that were getting covered with water until we reached a gas station where we parked until the rain slowed. Then we stopped at another gas station to get our bearings and talk to other area chasers. As we stood and chatted, a group of local Texas and OSU fans came in and we had a little back-and-forth showing support for our respective schools. Mike flashed an upside down longhorn hand gesture and an old guy in a cowboy hat and he asked Mike if that was a gang symbol. Another guy put on two OSU hats in front of us.

The group was hungry, and the storms had died down for the moment, so we decided to seek civilization in search of internet and food (FOOD! FOOOOD!). That led us back up the interstate to Elk City again, this time in the parking lot of a Best Western. We looked at radar and asked the lady at the front desk where some decent eatery could be found. A Denny's was nearby and she directed us to it. After making a few turnarounds, we finally found it. It being Friday, Mike and I had fish and chips and most of the group chowed down on breakfast food and hamburgers as we discussed our experiences so far. Alex's study of the system and rumor of Wi-Fi pointed us further east to Clinton where we embarked.

We stopped for a short time in Clinton when a severe thunderstorm warning went out. It was just to the southwest of us, so we decided to try to punch the core, or drive right through it. As we cruised down the highway south of Clinton, however, Josh's car started slowing down, then overheating, then smoking, so we pulled to a stop. As we tried to pick through the problems in his engine, the storm passed near us to the west, delivering a brilliant show of lightning and wind. After replacing the coolant and oil in his car, it still did not run far, so we ended up calling AAA for a tow. The rest of the convoy headed home, tired after a long day and night of chasing.

A Video from our chase:

posted by DJ @ 4:12 PM