March 30, 2016

Statistics

Initial Target

Start

End

Storm Intercepts

Tornadoes

Hail

Wind

Features

Miles

St. Joeseph, MO

Springfield, IL 8:18 AM 3/30/2016

Springfield, IL 6:48 AM 3/31/2016

Niotaze, KS; Bartlesville, OK; Claremore, OK

0 mph

Wall Cloud

1134

Summary

Dryline play on the eastern OK/KS border. Intercepted four tornado warned supercells but missed a couple tornadoes due to timing and positioning.

Crew and Equipment

Solo chase. Equipment: Canon 60D, Canon t2i, Canon EFS 10-22, Canon EF 50mm, Sony HDR-xr500v.

Video

Map

Details

Decent dryline/warm front play from southwest Iowa into the Southern Plains. I was unsure on which end to play initially, so split the difference and made my decision the morning of in Cameron, MO on the I-35, highway 36 crossroads. Veered warm sector winds with little backing before a hard flip to northeast across the warm front ruled out the Iowa target for me, so I decided to go after the far eastern KS/OK border where discrete storms were forecast.

Tornado Warning
6 miles N of Copan, OK
6:57 PM

I wound up chasing four different tornado warned supercells. At one point I got a ground scraping wall cloud as the sirens wailed near Copan, OK. The storm didn't produce, however. I chased into the night under an active tornado warning before calling the chase and chalking it up to another March bust.

Conclusion

This was a fairly grueling bust, long distance with no real payout and several missed opportunities. A couple of the storms I chased produced tornadoes but I was out of position at the time or late. Other storms in the region managed to produce decent tornadoes including one near Tulsa. March was a dud and I was looking forward to a better rest of the season, but it would be bittersweet.

Lessons Learned

Luck seems to be a big part of chasing, so don't give up when you have a run of really bad luck.

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