The document discusses severe weather that was forecast to occur on March 17th, 2012 across parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Two meteorologists created an enhanced risk for severe weather in the region due to the storms being downplayed by the Storm Prediction Center. The author of the document went storm chasing and documented storms they encountered near Wellington, TX and Crowell, TX, noting intense storm structure of the latter. The severe weather threat was expected to continue overnight with a line of storms forming along a dry line bringing damaging winds, hail, and possible tornadoes to Texas and Oklahoma.

1. Severe Weather
March 18, 2012

2. Getting Prepared and Setting up our Graphics
It took many days of looking over
forecast models and finding where the
best chance for severe weather would
take place. When doing our analysis
March 17th, 2012, we notice how
severely downplayed SPC was taking this
situation. Due to the downplay from SPC,
Andrew Fleck and Braxton Snow created
a enhanced risk for severe weather
across the Eastern Texas Panhandle and
Western Oklahoma. A slight risk was
issued for much of Western Texas,
Western Oklahoma, and Western
portions of Kansas.

3. Seeing the First Storm of the Day
Well after looking at the storm models one more time before making the final plans of
where to go and chase this storm event, I decided that I would start West on I-40 and
head to Shamrock, TX, before making our next move. Looking at forecast models again,
I decided to drop South towards Childress, TX. On the way to Childress, TX, a small storm
moved by and I took a picture of this shelf cloud. No rotation was with this storm and
this storm dissipated shortly after taking this picture. This storm was located near
Wellington, TX, at the time the picture was taken.

4. Seeing the Final Storm of the Day
Seeing this intense super cell near Crowell, TX, made this day a whole lot better. It was
one of the more intense super cell thunderstorms that occurred this afternoon. While it
only ended up producing high precipitation and a couple of small funnels, it still showed
signs of a large hail producing thunderstorm as the storm structure was almost
completely vertical when looking straight up at the cloud formation.

5. Radar Currently Across the Region
The severe weather threat is still there overnight tonight. A
line of severe thunderstorms decided to form across
Western Texas along the dry line. Dew point temperatures
continued to rise and ranged in the 60’s to 70’s. Texas and
Oklahoma will have a long night as these storms begin to
pass through the region bringing strong damaging winds,
large hail and a few isolated tornadoes.