Under The Influence of Mother Nature: Severe Weather Recap for 11-5-08

November 5th, 2008 Storm chase Recap

Total Miles- 154 miles

Total Storms- 3

Tornadoes-0

Hail- Fallen dime to nickel size (covering the ground)

Wall cloud- 3 with one with slow broad rotation

Damage- wind damage 60-70mph (micro burst)
Recorded wind gust of 47mph on Interceptor

Started the day with a nice slight risk area for our eastern counties of the viewing area in southwest Oklahoma. As storms were forecasted to start firing along a dryline by 3pm right around Lawton and points east. By 1:30pm a small shower started to develop just north of Lawton in Caddo county. This however was having a hard time getting going so around 2pm Ollie(station photographer) and I took off north on I-44 heading northeast to Chickasha as a Tornado Watch was posted for the area. As we were heading northeast we noticed several towers going up to our southwest which was good news because the storms raced northeast at around 45mph. So it was pretty much get ahead of them and watch them go by and try to keep up with them for a little while.

So as we reached Chickasha we noticed that the storms to our north we racing out of the area so we got into position to intersect the storms north developing over Lawton. So we head down highway 81 towards Rush Springs were we watched Storm#1, Storm #2 and Storm #3 from. Storm #1 wasn't warned by was very photogenic with a nice rainshaft and great updraft tower. Storm #2 as it passed to our northwest gained strength quickly and was warned from our area north for large hail up to quarters. Storm #3 from this location developed very quickly and dumped very heavy rain right overhead then produced a beautiful rainbow and rainshaft in the sun(see pictures).

Then thing calmed down a little as we didn't see any real towers going up to the west. So we decided to head a little south towards Duncan as a small shower was developing on Cotton county to the southwest. This would be our last storm as sunset is at 5:30pm now. So we headed on the westside of Duncan and found a great viewing spot. We then watched this storm develop from a thundercloud with very little falling precip to a very strong storm as it passed overhead. This storm became better organized as it raced northeast towards us. As the meso passed right over us a severe t'storm warning was issued for the storm. As radar and also by sight was showing this storm really starting to wrap us a little. Shortly before passing overhead a small RFD notch started to cut into the updraft as rising scud quickly formed a wall cloud. As it passed overhead it displayed lots of movement and a very broad but distinct circulation as we got hit with a wind gust of 47mph from the RFD. This eventually developed a decent wall cloud for about 10 mins as it raced northeast. We packed up and followed it as it tried to lower several times. As we headed behind it we went through the city of Marlow which had been turned into a winter wonderland with dime to penny size hail covering the grass like a light dusting of snow. As night fell the storm weakened but was still producing inch size hail as I did a phoner for the top of the 6 o'clock news. I was then told after doing my report from the field that wind damage had been reported in Duncan about 3 miles northwest of the location where we were watching the storm from. So we found the gentleman's house and took some footage of his downed tree, blown over fence and shed that had been pushed off this foundation. It looked like a microburst of around 60-70mph as it was a very small area of damage.