After watching chasers in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri have a little luck with storms developing ahead of a cold front on November 24th, Jonathan and myself set our sights on the 25th in the Mississippi delta in hopes of catching some storms ourselves. A slight risk for tornadoes was issued by the SPC for the day for N. Ms., Ar., and Tn. Once that was done, our decision was made, and we prepared for a chase. We spent the morning of the 25th looking over model data from the 12z run deciding where exactly our target area for the day would be, and though the numbers weren't overly impressive to us, we decided it was still worth the drive as we knew that Fall storm systems can be surprisingly strong in the deep south.
By early afternoon we were headed out of Clinton, Ms. on Hwy 49 north with an initial target area in the mid-Ms. delta around the Hwy 82 corridor. As we traveled north we got on to Hwy 49W and continued north through Humphreys County toward Sunflower County a meso-discussion was issued by the SPC that discussed the need to issue a tornado watch for the area. Once we saw that we knew our target was good, and we'd made the right decision to chase on Thanksgiving. As we drove through Sunflower County, we were studying our radar trying to decide if we would continue north on 49 or head west on Hwy 82 toward Greenville, Ms. The storms developing north of 82 closer to the Memphis metro were not looking that great, so we decided to stay south and intercept any tail end storms crossing the river. We headed west on 82, and shortly after the SPC issued a severe thunderstorm watch for our target area. We were disappointed to see this, but we were committed by then, so we continued on.
As we approached the junction of Hwy 82 and Hwy 61 N we decided to head north from there since storms were developing and about to cross the Ms. river north of Greenville. We intercepted our first storm of the day near Cleveland, Ms. The storm appeared to be intensifying as we got in front of it, though no warnings had been issued for any of the storms in the area. As the storm approached we stopped on Hwy 61 just north of Cleveland and waited there taking several pictures of a nicely developed shelf cloud. The problem with these storms was that cold air from the cold front kept surging forward and undercutting the storms out ahead of the line. This was causing them to weaken, re-intensify, and then weaken again. We didn't figure out what was going on until the first storm moved over us, and the temperature dropped from about 73 degrees to 59 degrees in a matter of a few minutes. From there we decided to head back south into the warm air to 82 and head east toward I-55. By the time we got about halfway down 82 E we pretty much knew our chase was over. Nothing was happening in our target area, and we were too far away to head north and get on the tornado warned storms in Tennessee. It was time to head home, but we took a few more pictures of a re-intensifying storm running along 82 before it was undercut by cold air again and weakened.
Overall Tennessee ended up with 2 tornado warned storms and 1 confirmed EF-0 tornado not associated with a warning, it was only on the ground for about 2 miles. Later that night an EF-1 tornado was confirmed with a storm that was moving along the cold front in S. central Louisiana. No injuries occurred with either of the tornadoes, but several houses were damaged.
Here are some pictures and graphics from this chase:
Storm north of Cleveland, Ms.
Storm on Hwy 82
Watch Area
Warnings and LSRs
Jason Brooks
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