May 22, 2000 Storm Chase Account

May 22, 2000 Pictures from this day.

On this day, I heard of a tornado watch box issued for the northwestern part of AR. while at work. After recieving a message from Scott Blair saying that he was on I-40 and heading for the area, I gathered up my equipment and headed west on I-40 as well. A beautiful supercell that had a tornado warning issued for it was moving eastward into Sebastian County, AR. and was visible from Conway. I quickly looked at my map and determined an intercept route, but I was hesitant to chase it since it was moving into horrible chase territory. Soon after making my intercept route I noticed some strong convection firing to the north of the tornado warned cell. This convection continued to grow rapidly, and from what I gathered from other chasers who were also on this storm, the original storm split, and the new convection was the left moving cell from the split while the right mover was the one placed under a tornado warning. Since the left mover was moving into better chase territory, and it had a promising look to it, I decided to target that storm instead.

Scott had also decided to go after the left mover and was near Ft. Smith watching it while I was still getting into position. After deciding to use HWY 22 to track the storm, Scott and I met up near Fort Chaffee and exchanged greetings. We continued on our eastward track along with the storm and pulled off again once we had a decent view. The storm was a beutiful LP with some of the hardest looking convection that I've ever seen. It was high based and obviously wasn't going to produce a tornado, but the LP supercell was a gorgeous sight to behold.

Another highlight of the day came when sevral other chasers pulled up near our location, and a chaser convergance was born. I never thought I would get the chance to see a chaser convergance in Arkansas, but this year has thrown in quite a few suprises. It was a pleasure getting the chance to meet up with Chris Kridler, Dave Lewison, George Kourounis, Dr. Jason Persoff, and David Stillings. After talking with everybody for a while, Scott and I decided to continue east on 22, and we once again decided to pull off again once we got another clear view. At this point, we met up with chasers Chris Sokol and his fiance, and we decided to watch the storm from this location until nightfall.

The supercell was acting strangely as it pulsed several times, and eventually, the anvil left the updraft as it was pushed downstream by the westerlies aloft. After producing another anvil, the storm quickly died after sunset. The day ended up being quite a fun after work chase, and getting to meet several other chasers made the trip well worth it.

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