Hello from Clinton, Oklahoma!

We started the day very, very early in Warrenton, MO, had a quick breakfast then started to make our way west along the I-70. We continued west until Kansas City where we cut south on the I-35 toward Wichita, KS. Once we reached the Wichita area, we re-assessed and decided to continue further south. The environment in the Wichita area and southern Kansas had been worked over too much from morning convection.

The best area of play was in western Texas but that was just too far for us to make today. Some storms fired west of the Oklahoma City metro and though we vowed never to again... We ventured close to the metro to chase. We found ourselves in and around the Piedmont area but things were rapidly becoming very high precipitation and structurally weren't all that impressive. We tried to get east of the storms to cut south ahead of them but just couldn't make it. It also didn't help that Oklahoma City was flooding once again. They went from being record dry to be record wet in a matter of a week. After deciding to give up on the storms, we started to head west to our hotel for the night.

This path took us past El Reno, OK and that insane day back on May 31, 2013 was actually the last day we had chased in two years! It was eerie being back and being in the same spot we stood while the tornado barreled toward us. 

Today was a much different day in that spot... The sun was setting and casting beautiful colours on the storms heading through Oklahoma City as well as causing a couple of rainbows and beautifully lit mammatus. I've now added pictures to the gallery here but haven't edited any video yet. We haven't had too much in the way of compelling video yet but hopefully that changes tomorrow!

Tomorrow is another MODERATE risk day as per the Storm Prediction Center's 18Z update today. We're spending the night in western Oklahoma because it puts us in good position for several potential targets tomorrow. We're refining our target as I type this but will obviously reassess in the morning by taking a look at radar, satellite, soundings and observations. 

Storm Prediction Center's Day 2 (Saturday) risk assessment.

Oh, and note to chasers: there's no where to eat late in Clinton, Oklahoma except for McDonald's...