Although central Oklahoma was only in
a "general risk for thunderstorms", as forecasted
by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), all were surprised when
out of the blue, the Norman, Oklahoma National Weather Service
office issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Grady county
(SW of Norman) around 8:30 PM. A cell explosively developed,
quickly went severe, and was associated with the passage of
a cold front. As uncommon as it may have been, Norman was perfectly
in the path of these storms(!!) and prompted a handful of subsequent
severe thunderstorm warnings. Although the SPC issued a Mesoscale
Convective Outlook for the area (viewable
here), no watch box was issued.
Valerie and I drove 5 or 6 miles NW
of Norman, near Tecumseh Rd. and 48th Street, to watch the storms
roll in. The lightning proved to be quite impressive with a
high percentage of horizontally propagating "anvil crawlers".
Once we were hit with rain, I packed the cameras up and we drove
east of Norman, to the west side of Lake Thunderbird State Park,
to watch the rest of the show.
