Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: June 21, 2020
Miles Logged: 624
States Chased: OK, KS
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Pre Chase
It was evident a few days prior that a small wave would wander into southwest Kansas. Timing, moisture quality and other things were big question marks, but it did seem like there was a possible period of tornadoes.
Originally I was looking towards south central Kansas, but as the NAM runs came in, it became more of a Southwest Kansas kind of day.
Heading Out to Northwest Oklahoma
Heidi wanted to go along, so I picked her up and we headed out. We headed west on OK-33 from Kingfisher and headed to Woodward and up through Fort Supply. Eventually we ended up in Bucklin, Kansas looking at storms going “what”?
Jordan Henion and Kirk and Alicia Short pulled up so we chatted and caught up with each other real quick.
Bust?
I was pretty sure we’d have an epic shelf cloud at least if we didn’t have discrete storms for a few minutes. As we sat next to a storm in Bucklin, we watched pretty much all of the storms collapse. My dreams were fading quickly. Did I just waste a bunch of gas? I could have been at home mowing my lawn…
Northwest Oklahoma Shelf Cloud
As we retreated to Minneola and south towards Laverne, Eric Treece texted me saying that the storms to his west were starting to develop structure. OK Cool, so we headed south into Oklahoma where we were greeted by a pretty shelf cloud. Since the movement was from the northwest to southeast, I didn’t have a very good viewpoint on the drivers side driving south. I was quite surprised the first stop we made. The northwest Oklahoma shelf cloud was incredible!
I’d spend the next couple of hours snaking south through Laverne then into Shattuck, Arnett and down to Roll before nightfall. After looking at some of the photos, I believe this is one of the better photos of a shelf cloud of my life. I’m pretty happy with how these shots came out.
