5-24-08 CHASE SUMMARY

We woke up in Hays and looked over a little bit of data. We decided to go to Salina and check data again. We then decided to go south and play the better moisture and instability that was present to the south. We initially was going to sit in Hutchinson, but we saw storms going in north central OK. A huge storm had erupted and was persisting as we made it into Pratt. Jay and Jeff, along with Mike and Shane decided to go after the monster storm so we broke off somewhere in NW Oklahoma. To be honest, I cant remember exactly where it was. I was pretty sure storms were going to fire near Fairview, OK so I headed that way.

I got to Fairview and sure enough, storm were going up to the SE. I made my way down to the Blaine-Kingfisher line and waited for something to go after. I saw my storm and went after it. It was moving NE toward Okeene, OK. It looked ok on radar, but it wasn't anything to write home about. I went south and began seeing a base. It didn't look that good, but after a few minutes, it began to look a lot better. I followed it back up to Hwy 51 and saw the biggest inflow band I have ever sen on a storm. It almost looked like a horizontal funnel.

The updraft sucked the inflow band in and a wall cloud formed almost immediately. After a few minutes I witnessed some strong elevated rotation that looked like a cinnamon roll. It was really a treat to look at. I followed the storm to Drummond where I broke off the chase and returned home. Here are some photos from the day.

PHOTO #1 TOWERS GOING UP IN KINGFISHER COUNTY OKLAHOMA
PHOTO #2 BASE OF STORM NEAR OKEENE, OK JUST GETTING ORGANIZED
PHOTO #3 BASE OF STORM NEAR OKEENE, OK WELL ORGANIZED
PHOTO #4 SAME AS ABOVE, ONLY LATER
PHOTO #5 SAME AS ABOVE, ONLY LATER
PHOTO #6 INFLOW BAND INTO THE STORM NEAR OKEENE, OK
PHOTO #7 WALL CLOUD NEAR OKEENE, OK WITH STRONG ROTATION NEAR TOP OF PHOTO