AltoCu: Chase Day 4 - north central Oklahoma

SAT 31 MAY

I think it's fair to say that with each set of new data (models and observations) that today looked less likely to produce much in the way of severe convection, with an increasingly late initiation. We left Amarillo (TX) with a target of Medicine Lodge (KS), stopping at the Twister museum in Wakita (OK) en-route. I've been to this museum a couple of times before in the past, but there was the addition of props and memorabilia from the 2024 Twisters movie now added to the collection too!

We arrived at Medicine Lodge by late afternoon and sat by the lake watching convection bubbling along a S'ward moving cold front, gradually gaining some height/depth. Because it was hot (low 30s Celsius), cloud bases were fairly high. A cell went up more-or-less overhead and we soon had large drops of rain falling in the vicinity. We nudged south over the Oklahoma border to Alva to keep ahead of this slowly developing cluster of thunderstorms. Towards sunset it became clear that these storms were struggling to produce much aside from a few lightning strikes, some brief heavy rain and gusty winds, so we opted to find a hotel in Ponca City (OK) and enjoy some occasional lightning strikes on our journey there - although the frequency was on a par with UK standards quite frankly!