WCBI/MSU Storm Chase Day 3 Recap

COLUMBUS, Mississippi (WCBI) – The storm chase group traveled from Sweetwater, TX, northward into Oklahoma…specifically far northern Oklahoma near Ponca City.

Storms held off until around 5 PM Wednesday afternoon, but they quickly developed shortly thereafter along a stalled warm front. Given environmental parameters, storms grew quickly severe and began producing wind & hail fairly soon after initiation. In the above image, the base of the updraft is on the left-hand side…which is where potential tornado development would have occurred.

The storm morphed into a large propagating supercell by 6 PM, and began moving almost southeast toward Ponca City, OK. In the above image, there was a ragged wall cloud and some scud observed…indicative of higher cloud bases and fairly weak low-level shear. The storm went on to produce near softball hail to the northeast of our position!

After midnight from our hotel, yet another storm moved just northwest of OKC! We observed some rotation via lightning from the storm, but no tornado was produced. We did experience outflow wind gusts of roughly 40 mph as the storm moved through the region.