Upon awakening and grabbing the 1300Z METARS, and 1200Z upper air data it was immediately obvious we had made a good choice. The cold front had sagged much further south than anticipated. Dew points and surface temps were pretty grim up to the north. The front was draped through central KS at that time. Surface dew point. and temps in southern KS and on down into OK were in the 60's at 1300Z.

We decided to eat breakfast and just hang loose for awhile at the motel to see how things might transpire. Hourly checks of the METARS showed instability continuing to increase in OK which was where we had decided to head. Western OK was looking good and we initially planned to head west out of Oklahoma City. The dryline was setting up nicely into SW OK and that was our ultimate target area. The 16Z Day 1 had not changed the slight risk area much so we headed south. As we entered OK City at about 18Z a cell went up behind us in Logan county. At this point instead of heading straight west we headed SW on 44 towards Lawton. A tornado watch had also been issued which ran through OK on a NE to SW (Altus) line.

Skies were mainly clear, some strato-cu which had that nice "instability" look too them. The surface winds were SE at around 15 Kts. You could see the 850 Mb winds were SW, and looked to be maybe 50 Kts. We were having problems getting data through the cell phone so we kind of flew blind until around 22Z. Just like the old days ;-). We stopped at a truck stop just north of Lawton and jacked in there. Grabbed METARS and a peek at current radar. Just the storms in north central OK were all the was visible on radar. The 22Z METARS showed the dryline was very close to Altus, so upon arriving in Lawton we drove around a bit and grabbed a bite to eat. We then headed west on 62 toward Altus. At 2345Z we stopped and took some nice sunset shots of the Witchitas. Skies were still clear and it was starting to look like we might bust. After taking the photos we turned around and looked west. Wow ! Dryline boomers going up.

We picked a line of backbuilding cells that were still in TX. A quick call to get some NEXRAD storm data and we were heading south on 183 toward Frederick. These storms all were mesos and were heading NE at about 40. As we headed south it was becoming apparent that the nothernmost storms were beginning to soften up. The southerly storms were still gaining strength. At that point we opted to head back west on 5C to try and get into better position for the southerly storms coming in from TX. We continued west on 5C which turns into 5. At the intersection of 283 we headed back north toward Altus.

After a quick fuel stop in Altus and a look at the storms we continued north on 283. Just north of Altus we stopped to watch a cell that was to the NW and  getting cranked up. It was dark and the lightning was absolutely spectacular. Not alot of CG but prodigious amounts of it inside the cell. My chase partner Matt set up his new Sony digital video camera and we sat back to watch the show. This cell produced golfball sized hail, and 3 reported tornadoes. It completely dominated it's environment. The skies all around were crystal clear and filled with stars. The lightning was so intense you could watch this cell go through several evolutionary phases. We eventually headed north on 283 to try and get a little closer. We started to run into hail while the storm was still 5 or so miles west. We backtracked and waited for it to cross 283. It was late (0300Z) so we decided to break off and head for the motel. This storm did continue NE and dropped a tornado north of Clinton. Upon our return to the motel we single stepped through the digital video and saw we got at least one very nice (and large) tornado on the ground. See www.stormchase.com for the captures of this and some lightning.

All in all a nice day on the first chase of the season for us.