A Cajun's Weather Story: Day 13: Mammatus Clouds!!!

After our three briefings and many hours later, we finally got on the road heading west toward Tonkawa and Blackwell, OK. Although it took awhile for storms to form, it was well worth it. We got to see some really great sights...

First, we encountered the biggest hail we had seen yet! We weren't exactly expecting to run into this hail storm, yet it was a very welcomed surprise! Many other people on the road would have disagreed again, especially since many of them were hovered underneath an overpass (clogging up the interstate...) Yea, that was very safe...NOT! However, we fully enjoyed the excitement! Check out the pictures below...

We decided to head a little south to track a rotating storm. This was probably among one of the coolest yet scariest things I have ever seen in my entire life! We saw some serious intense rotating clouds...We even saw a horizontal rotating tube...I wish pictures could describe what we had seen; however, a video could do only some justice. By the way, I have tons of videos, but it takes way too long to upload them to the blog. So, I will update the blog with a special edition entry strictly for videos when I return home. However, you can still check out the pictures of the storm below...

Below is a picture of an occlusion (something we will learn this coming year)...I still have questions about this concept, so I will explain it tomorrow... However, what I do know is that it can cause a tornado, and look how close we were!!...

Below is a Beaver Tail...Don't understand this concept either...I will explain this concept tomorrow as well! But, still, look how cool!...

Rotating storm...Man, it was sucking in air like CRAZY!

Then, we realized that it would probably be in our best interest to move in order to get into a better location...However, better did not mean safer... Once we moved to the east a bit, we found ourselves in a field watching multiple rotation in a confined area...This definitely had my adrenaline pumping, needless to say...

It started to get really hot, and we realized that we were right underneath a rotation marker, so we got out of there. Although there was good rotation, a big "T" did not drop...

After monitoring the situation, the storms unfortunately became very messy quickly, just like yesterday. This was not ideal for chasing. Despite this negative factor, there was a really good looking supercell we decided to track to our east. Since we were to the north of it, we had to try to out run it. We were getting close until we realized that it started to die down pretty quickly...Of course it would, right?!? Just our luck! So, instead, we turned around to find the mammatus clouds. And, thank goodness we did! Check out the almost perfect pictures we got! These suckers look like weather calendar perfect!

As for tomorrow...It looks like a classic Great Plains tornado outbreak...This has been all anyone can talk about for the past few days. We are even anticipating a High Risk for the south Kansas area...Check out the current SPC Convective Outlook for tomorrow (expect changes when the 1a.m. update comes out...)

Tomorrow looks ideal for storm chasing; however, it is not good for the area. Please keep the safety of these towns, families, and chasers in the area in your prayers. We will brief at 9:30a.m., and I will keep you posted as I know more.

INSIDE JOKES: Mike running in hail; Bear's cage..; "Umm...which way is that moving...;" "If that drops, will we be safe...?;" Momma and Daddy; "If I die, call my parents and tell them I love them..." (JK, Mom and Dad!); "Who has the key?;" Brittany's inappropriate comments; storm chasing tattoos; Double-D Mammatus clouds!; HOBBY LOBBY ACCENTS!; Tiger Woods jokes; who broke the laundry maching? (It was the boys...); "Hey, Matt...We need some help over here?!?;" disgusting trash bags; and the classic going to bathroom on the side of the road (and then driving off...); And, did I mention that there will be a hail stand off between Mike and Matt?!? Who do you think can stand out there the longest?!?

Oh, I can't forget to show you the wonderful techniques of our driver...