April 27, 2016
Weak storms in Missouri

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments / Like this
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The fourth day of a week long chase vacation featured a very marginal setup across Northern Missouri. SPC had outlined a slight risk which encompassed much of the middle and lower Mississippi Valleys. Our target for the day was the Kirksville area where some low 60°F dewpoints might sneak their way into the triple point. With a negatively tilted trough with a 50kt jet rotating through Missouri, this seemed like the place to be.

Visible satellite at 1515z with location marked

Massive convective overturning from the night before threw any substantial chances at severe weather out the window. A large cloud deck covered the entire area early in the morning, but as afternoon wore on a clear slot formed across Western Missouri. We moved east to take advantage of the clearing where temperatures rose into the mid-70s and dewpoints edged into the 60s.

We arrived in Kirksville just before 19z as the SPC issued a mesoscale discussion for the area indicating a possibility for tornadoes in NE Missouri later. Meanwhile, back to our west, storms had fired up along the pacific cold front and a squall line was quickly under way.

KEAX reflectivity at 2001z with our position marked by red dot near Kirksville
Visible satellite at 2015z with location marked

We continued to hold position in Kirksville hoping for a pre-frontal storm to chase. Of particular interest on visible satellite was the developing cell to our south near the I-70 corridor. Much to our surprise, the SPC did actually issue a tornado watch for our area despite the slim chances.

We held out at Kirksville for another couple of hours watching the cell to the south develop. It looked pretty substantial on visible satellite, but it’s radar signature left a lot to be desired.

Visible satellite at 22z with location marked
KEAX reflectivity with location marked near Macon

We intercepted the storm near Cairo and it had a very small updraft base which indicated to us that it probably wouldn’t be hanging around for too long.

We stuck with this for a little while, then hopped on a storm immediately to the west. It became clear none of this pre-frontal stuff was going to do anything. Mesoanalysis showed a meager 10 kts of 0-1km shear, so it appeared that the lack of low level dynamics were preventing the storms from doing much.

So, we called the chase and started back towards Wichita, knowing we had a long drive to get in position for a southern Oklahoma play the following day.

Chase Recap

STARTENDDURATION
Cameron, MO @ 27/1531ZWichita, KS @ 28/0419Z12 hours, 47 minutes

INTERCEPTSCHASER ENCOUNTERS
NoneJonathan Williamson (56)

Chase Map

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