Chase Report: 6 Apr, 2010, Part 2 - Mulhall, OK wall cloud and funnel

Depart Hiawatha, KS: 11:00 a.m.
Arrive Austin, TX: 4:30 a.m.
930 miles, Solo chase
3 day total - 2030 miles

I caught up with Austin chaser Randy Denzer and his partner Cynthia at Perry, OK about 9:00. Reed Timmer was there, too, with the newly designed Dominator. Looks much better than last year's version, from what I saw. I fueled up, and Randy and I hit I-35 south towards Austin.

As soon as we hit 35, we began seeing rapid lightning flashes to our SW. We pulled off and found a good viewing location right off the interstate, near Mulhall, OK.



Our vantage point was relatively elevated, so we had a clear view for a good ways to the SW. There was one cell just to our SW, with a nice tower and RFB putting out continuous lightning. Soon after that, more cells fired to the SSW of the initial cell- a line was forming and backbuilding.

The initial cell was almost stationary, and soon exhibited a nice wall cloud. The tower was almost directly overhead, and would glow from within with the frequent lightning flashes. To the North and East of the tower, the sky was clear and starry. It was truly an incredible sight. At one point, a stout barrel of a wall cloud/funnel cloud formed and began to build toward the ground. The sequence of pictures here begins about 9:30 CDT and spans about 20 minutes. And next time, must remember to turn wipers on intermittent setting...











Shortly thereafter, we began to feel cool outflow, and the cell translated to our NE. The entire line began slowly moving E, so we took off down I-35 to stay ahead of it. Here is the backside of the initial cell:



Stopped once North of OKC to try to observed an area of enhanced shear indicated on GR3. Soon, we were engulfed in blinding rain, and took off south again to try to get back ahead of the line. Emerged from the core south of OKC, and continued southward, stopping once at a scenic overlook to observe the approaching line. Randy almost had a utility truck tip over onto his van, also. That was bascially the end of the excitement for the evening. The initiall cell near Mulhall was one of the more beautiful nighttime cells I have ever encountered. The low-light video captures from the Sony can't even remotely capture what we saw that first 20 minutes after the cell initiated.

We arrived back in Austin about 4:30 a.m., tired and exhausted, but rejuvenated thanks to that last storm.