Pretty classic Tornado signature on radar at 2153Z.
Category: General
General Information and News
Southern OUN CWA warnings
Comparison of soundings
Continuing to Monitor Storm to the SW of OKC
ProbSevere success with sub-severe hail
Another Update on the Northern OUN Storms
Wall Cloud Reports in Saline/Lincoln counties KS
While monitoring the two storms moving northward in our area across Saline and Lincoln counties, which is in the most favorable area for shear with effective shear around 300 m2/s2, we received multiple wall cloud reports and one lowering wall cloud report. However, the base data did not really indicate a severe thunderstorm regarding hail as the 50 dBz core was struggling to push through 20kft and no hail signature in the ZDR product and VIL values remaining below 50 kg/m2. Unfortunately, both the ICT and TOP radars were showing range folded data in the SRM product for these storms but both radar bean heights were above 7000 ft anyway and would not be representative near the surface anyway. The ProbSevere values never got higher than 17% on either storm and the ENI flash rates peaked at around 30 flashes with no DTA’s issued.
So in this case, I did not see anything in the traditional base radar data that would lead me to issue a warning, and the ProbSevere and ENI data did not support a warning so in this case I might be inclined to consider this a positive null from the experimental data.
Jack Bauer/V. Darkbloom
Northern storms update
NUCAPS Sounding Du Jour
Unfortunately the 1830Z pass of the NPP just barely skimmed the ICT area. The only points available in relatively clear air were on the western edge of the swath, so we are taking the data with a grain of salt.


The sounding after editing the surface data (used the nearby Dodge City obs)
Overall the sounding doesn’t look too terrible. The CAPE is way higher than the GOES-R LAP…in fact it was around double.
To compare a real (and way more impressive) sounding, here is the 18Z KOUN obs:
which had SB CAPE over twice the GOES-R LAPS values There was decent cloud cover at the time.
For what it’s worth, the 18Z RAP analysis was overdone in both locations, though much closer (within ~400 J/kg) near OUN compared to about 1,000 J/kg near our NUCAPS sounding.
-V. Darkbloom
Hastings WFO initial thoughts/warnings
First glance at GOES-R products indicates a CAPE gradient from around 700 J/KG for the southern portions of the GID CWA to about 200 J/KG for the northern portions of the CWA. We had a satellite data outage affecting CAPE/PWATs at 17Z. The southern portions of the CWA remain in an area of confluence between southwesterly flow DDC area and southeasterly flow from the ICT/TOP area. Satellite PWATs remain above 1 inch across the region with surface dewpoints in the upper 50s to lower 60s. Initial look at radar indicates multicellular appearance for southern portions of GID. Viewed the adjusted NUCAPS sounding around 19Z and found CAPE values near 2000 J/KG. Biggest threat appears to be large hail, damaging wind gusts, and isolated tornadoes.
So far have noted a few hail cores aloft with All-tilts though ProbSevere has remained mostly below 50%. The westernmost SVR warning (#2) had 60 dBZ to near -25 C. One cell approaching from the south possessed rotation in the lower levels and thus we issued a TOR warning. ProbSevere for the TOR built as high as 64%.
Brick Tamland/Alexander Darkband












