A Cajun's Weather Story: Day One!

And we are off! We officially began our chase at 4:00a.m. by leaving Hilbun Hall heading West toward Oklahoma. Along the way we passed through Winona, MS; Memphis, TN; Vilonia, AR, Oklahoma City, OK; and our final destination for the night, Weatherford, OK.

Along the way, we saw some pretty interesting sites, and this is just the start of many to come. In Memphis, we saw the massive Mississippi River flooding, especially in West Memphis. We even saw a school bus flooded in the path. Most of the flooding looked to be around fields. Thankfully, we did not see any homes flooded. According to Brittney Bell, another Mississippi State meteorology student along for the ride, the most affected area in the Memphis region is northern Memphis. The main cause for the flooding in this region revolves around the flooding of the Wolf River, which runs through North Memphis and Germantown. Germantown is ok, but there is flooding in downtown Memphis. Keep the people in these areas in your thoughts and prayers.

In Vilonia, AR, we saw a damage path of a tornado that hit the town on April 25, 2011, just two days shy of the recent tornado outbreak in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. According to local news, two people were killed in the storm. Although there were fatalities, we did see family, friends, and neighbors helping out with the clean up and rebuilding of the town. It was nice to see people lending a helping help in time of disaster. It really does make you feel very blessed with what you have.

Then, we made it to Oklahoma. Let the interesting town/county names begin. Our first interesting name was Kickapoo County. We got a good laugh at that one. I am sure there will be plenty more over the next 17 days. When we reached Oklahoma City, we came across our first storm. It was nothing too impressive except for some heavy rain and lightning. It was still pretty neat to experience a Great Plains thunderstorm. It got us excited to see more.

The reason we set out for western and central parts of Oklahoma was because the models showed a Low pressure system moving over the Great Plains, bringing potential severe weather to the area. The SPC issued a Slight Risk for most of the Great Plains for the Day One outlook. This risk area extended from southern Texas to the Great Lakes. A Moderate Risk was issued yesterday and this morning for portions over the OK/KS area; however, this risk was downgraded due to stabilization of the air as the storms moved through. Although the storms stabilized the air in our region, severe weather became more of a moderate risk for portions of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa.

As for tomorrow, we do not know yet. We will have a briefing at 9a.m., and then we will hit the road. Stay tuned for more updates!

Also, if you want updates during the day, follow me on Facebook or Twitter (klandry814). ENJOY!

INSIDE JOKES OF THE DAY: Peabody, Cow points, “All we did today was get calluses on our asses,” “I’ve never seen a chicken with breasts like that,” Taco Bueno, "It's Patrick!", and "I have to go to the bathroom...I have tissue!"