7/16/09 Recap

I got on a plane in Houston this afternoon and got to see the meso that laid some baseball hail on OKC from 34 thousand feet and 100 miles away on the way back to Tulsa. It was a pretty neat sight and it was interesting to see a supercell from that angle. I had checked the radar before boarding in Houston and was looking forward to the view. Here are a couple of pics I shot with my iPhone. Note I was at 34K feet and the top of the storm was pushing 50K feet. Also note the anvil which is blowing off to the SE. Can we say hello northwest flow? More on that later.

Now for my blown forecast from yesterday. The convection last night was the result of an outflow boundary that showed up from some earlier convection to the north in KS yesterday afternoon. Then we get the early morning stuff that woke me at 4AM which was OK as I had to get up at 4:15 to catch a flight anyway. What really threw off the whole forecast is a huge amount of boundaries that presented this afternoon. Check out this map I put together with a program called Digital Atmosphere.

Note that all the activity is not around Tulsa. Then take a close look to the SE of Tulsa and OKC. What you will see are little areas of blue that note outflow boundaries that are setting up. This is the result of storms that died hours ago and gusted out. We will likely see more convection tonight along these boundaries as they progress south.

BTW, the main event which is the cold front we are all waiting on is still in central KS. It should make it through the area tonight and if it happens to connect with a boundary we have a chance of more storms. That said, I am not optimistic for the Tulsa area. I think we will see an MCS to the west and one to the south. The good news is we will have very nice temps the next few days. More importantly, dew points are going to get knocked down about 10 degrees so you won't start sweating the moment you head outside.

Enjoy the next 5 days. Summer will return soon enough...