Boundaries are meant to be crossed...

(19 May 2010, Karen Kosiba)

As in real life, in the atmosphere, boundaries are potentially useful. In the atmosphere, boundaries can increase convergence (of moisture), provide a source of lift (get things going), and can locally alter the wind profile (making it more favorable for rotating thunderstorms)--more on how boundaries are potentially useful in real life later. A big mess of organized thunderstorms ("What is an MCS?" Alex: Yes. Although I like the SNL version better...) moved through OK the previous night leaving an an outflow boundary in its wake (we call this a mesoscale boundary, which just means that they are smaller and shorter lived than a cold or warm front). This outflow boundary was our target region for storm initiation today.

We left Amarillo early (well, early for us...), because initiation (storm formation) was forecast to be early (well, early for us...). We paused for lunch in Clinton, OK and, in addition to the Vortex2 armada, we were joined by the city of Tokyo. Maybe I am exaggerating...I stopped counting at 11 million. Let's just say there were a lot of chasers and very few roads. Traffic rivaled rush hour in Chicago...(my only point of rush hour reference).

The V2 armada targeted a storm north of Clinton, which made a brief, weak tornado. Once again, these storms move quickly...but rush hour did not. The DOWs were able to get east quickly enough to stay ahead of the storm, but the CSWR probe teams were stuck at the Irving Park exit. Although we were unable to deploy pods, the DOWs collected some good radar data on a couple brief, weak tornadoes. Unfortunately, the NOXP radar was stuck at the Ohio Street exit.

We chased the storm to Pops (Sodas, for the East Coasters), a super fancy gas station, near Edmond, OK, which provided us with hour(s?) of shopping and entertainment before enjoying a lovely steak (salad) dinner.


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Picture 1: A view of a part of the Vortex2 armada. Only New York city sized.

Picture 2: The DOW by a pop (soda) sculpture at Super Fancy Gas Station.

Picture 3: Mareike Schuster (left; also known as the Germanator) and Carrie Cunningham (right) shopping at Super Fancy Gas Station.

Picture 4: Eric Robinson (left) and Rachel Humphrey (right) admiring the pop (Eric, he is from Indiana) and soda (Rachel, she is from New York) sculpture.