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VORTEX targeted NW TX. Upon arriving in the vicinity of Seymour
at about 19Z, the NSSL4 M-CLASS team obtained a sounding that
was essentially uncapped, had large CAPE and SREH. We expected
supercell initiation in that area. However, the only clouds
showing vertical development were slightly behind the dryline.
Our mobile mesonet showed that cooler air behind a NW-SE warm
front just to our east was advancing westward to the dryline,
removing the narrow sector of high-CAPE air ahead of the
dryline. VORTEX continued advancing south and east with the
remnant warm sector, until we reached MWL. Several teams
assisted with storm (non-)initiation studies in conjunction with
the NOAA P-3 aircraft.
The only severe storms on 3 May formed in SW OK, in a very small
region where CAPE had been restored due to dissipation of low
clouds. VORTEX is interested in determining if any of these
storms had discernible cloud-base level rotation (one observer
reported that there was none; if you observed rotation, please
email me).
Erik Rasmussen
Jerry Straka