Logo

  • Home
  • CHASE 2020
    • May 14
  • CHASE 2019
    • May 17
    • May 20
    • May 28
  • CHASE 2018
    • May 1
    • May 2
  • CHASE 2017
    • March 28
    • April 15
    • April 25
    • May 25
    • May 26
    • June 16
    • October 1
  • CHASE 2016
    • April 15
    • April 26
    • May 21
    • May 22
    • May 23
    • May 24
    • May 25
    • June 22
    • July 7
  • CHASE 2015
    • April 2
    • April 12
    • April 16
    • May 3
    • May 19
    • May 22
    • May 27
    • June 4
    • June 5
    • June 6
    • June 11
    • July 1
    • July 13
  • CHASE 2014
    • April 12
    • April 23
    • May 7
    • May 11
    • May 19
    • May 20
    • May 21
    • June 4
    • June 20
    • June 27
  • Chase 2013
    • April 7
    • April 17
    • May 7
    • May 8
    • May 18
    • May 19
    • May 20
    • May 27
    • May 31
    • June 3
    • June 5
  • Chase 2012
    • March 18
    • March 28
    • April 13
    • April 30
    • May 18
    • May 19
    • May 22
    • May 25
    • May 27
    • June 12
  • chase 2011
    • April 3
    • April 8
    • May 19
    • May 21
    • May 22
    • May 23
    • May 24
    • June 19
    • June 20
  • chase 2010
    • March 10
    • April 6
    • April 22
    • May 10
    • May 19
    • June 3
    • June 8
    • June 19
    • June 20
    • June 21
    • September 10
  • chase 2009
    • February 10
    • April 9
    • April 25
    • April 29
    • June 15
  • Weather Links
  • Case Reviews
    • April 12, 2014
  • BLOG
    • Top 10 Supercells
    • December 20, 2014 - My Rude Awakening to the Plains
    • June 2, 2013 - Lessons Learned (or not learned) from the May 31, 2013 OKC Chaser Convergence
  • Tornado Map
  • Winter Weather
    • Christmas Blizzard - December 24-25, 2009
    • Blizzard - February 1, 2011
    • Winter 2012-2013
  • BIO
    • WORK HISTORY
  • Best Photos
    • Supercells
    • Tornadoes
    • Shelf Clouds
    • Lightning
    • Scenic
    • Black and White

April 23, 2014

Target: Shamrock, Texas                    < April 12 | May 7 >

  • High based Supercell near Wellington, Tx
  • Tornado look-alike

april 23, 2014

Target: Shamrock, Texas

Left Kansas City around 7:30 am and met up with Bill Gargan in Topeka, KS for a trip to the southern High Plains. The set up was expected to be marginal from the beginning, but considering this day presented a rare chase opportunity to the early 2014 season we made the trip out to western Oklahoma.

As we approached Shamrock, TX deep convection initiated in the far eastern Texas panhandle. At Erick, OK we dropped south toward Hollis, OK but stopped short of Hollis as the high-based supercell became very organized. We repositioned to the east/southeast toward Mangum, OK and watched the storm go through several mergers as several weak mid-level updrafts went up to the southeast of the storm. Throughout the storm's lifespan it produced several scud formations that looked at first glance like tornadoes. This was a classic case of tornado-look-alike scud formations that could have and may have fooled many chasers/spotters into erroneously reporting tornadoes.  Unfortunately due to the strong mid-level forcing and perhaps a weak cap the storm never successfully survived all of the mergers with other updrafts. Aside from the numerous weak storms in the area perpetual mid-level clouds precluded good viewing of the main storm's updraft, making photography of the storm very difficult. While the storm's inflow winds (35 mph) were very strong, indicating it had no intentions of weakening the terrible viewing and the seemingly uphill battle it was facing to fight off the other updrafts we opted to drop south to a cluster of supercells in far northern Texas.

As we drove south through Altus, OK we decided that we would not be able to reach the northern Texas storms in a reasonable amount of time, so we ended the chase in Altus.

Post event

  • SPC Event Page Archive

Copyright 2020 Slight Risk. All rights reserved.