Chase Log 10-24-2010

My chase day started at around 2 p.m. on October 24th. I headed north from Clinton, Ms. on Hwy 49 toward the Ms. Delta to intercept the first of two rounds of severe weather forecasted that day. After traveling through Yazoo Co., I stopped to take a look at the still remaining damage in Yazoo City from the April 24th wedge tornado. At that time I noticed a storm on radar that had gone severe warned and was close to crossing the Mississippi river. I continued north from there on Hwy 49 toward Humphreys County to intercept the storm as it came across moving northeast from Issaquena County.

I got in front of the storm and pulled over on the side of Hwy 49 and waited while it slowly made it's way toward me. The storm had some very nice structure to it, and I noticed a lowering under the meso that appeared to be occluding. Shortly after the storm weakened and the severe thunderstorm warning was allowed to expire. I headed north on Hwy 49 again and crossed into Sunflower County just north of Isola, Ms. and decided to stop and check out the radar to see what else I could intercept. There were plenty of storms to my north, but none of them had any severe warnings associated.

After I decided that there was no point continuing north, I turned around and headed back south on Hwy 49 to Madison, Ms. to wait on the second round of storms that would be moving through central Ms. later that evening. I arrived in Madison around 7:30 p.m. and grabbed a bite to eat while studying the radar and mesoanlysis. I sat for a couple of hours waiting to see when initiation would start in this area. I then drove back to Clinton to wait there after seeing no storms at all by about 9:30 p.m.

I ended up calling my chase day at around 11:00 p.m. At this time the main line associated with an advancing cold front was crossing the Mississippi river from La., but no warnings had been issued at all. Round two ended up being just a line of thunderstorms much the same as the storms in north Ms.

Some pictures from the severe storm in Humphreys County:

Jason Brooks