The best thing this day had going for it was that it would not force me to burn any vacation days. And for a couple of days it actually looked like a good setup for Kansas and Oklahoma. Models regularly showed the trough becoming more negatively-tilted during the day on Saturday. The moisture was there. Lots of wind, though not at a great angle across the surface boundary. So, I thought there would be a small number of early tornadoes in east-central Kansas down through northern Oklahoma, and then the thing would line out. And then I would shoot lightning. Well, the suspense must be killing you.
So it was mostly near or after dark, two were rain-wrapped, and none were in Oklahoma or Kansas. I got the total number of reports about right.
From afar, it looked like a frustrating day to be on the road. Storms began early, many of them became linear but a few were isolated supercells. But there were a lot of thunderstorms out there, especially in Oklahoma.
There were a few tornado warnings in northern Texas, and way south in southern Texas. The stuff near the Red River (above) had a warning for awhile.
Let's look at what I thought was the main drawback.
That's what I'm talking about. The upper flow has a large component along the boundary axis. I have learned the hard way that this is not good for tornadoes. It isn't fatal, but the good days with good tornadoes are unusual. This is one time that I'm happy with my decision.