April 2, 2010 Bust

Departed Monroe, LA around 1:30pm with Wheeler and Ostarly, and met up with Cooper in SHV. After staging, we made our initial target area Longview, TX. On this day, we hoped to be in position to intercept severe thunderstorms before they went linear ahead of the cold front. However, stratus clouds plagued northeast Texas throughout the morning hours ahead of ongoing convection from the night before.

As we departed SHV, I observed a clearing in the low level clouds over our target area. As expected, temperatures increased rapidly and approached 80 degrees before a cluster of thunderstorms developed. These cells raced off to the northeast at 45mph making it impossible for us to get in position to intercept them. However, these cells never went severe and no reports were made by the plethora of chasers located along the I-30 corridor. This would turn out to be the only play of the day as stratus began to dominate the area once again effectively ending our chase as a BUST; the 2nd of the year for me (Jan 23 the other bust day).

The limiting factors on this particular day were the ongoing convection across North Central Texas, lingering stratus clouds that suppressed diurnal heating, strong meridional flow aloft, veering surface winds, the location of the main surface low (SE North Dakota), a weak secondary surface low (south central OK), and high LCL's (1700-1800m) further eastward into Louisiana. LCL height's of >1000m is considered ideal for tornadogenesis.

-JP