2003-05-19

People: TELEX 2003 Crew

Miles:

Time: approx 5:30 to 8:30pm, and 11:15pm to 3:30am CDT

The first deployment for the TELEX crew took us south on I-35 to Purcell as a few thunderstorms were slowly approaching the area but falling apart before they arrived at our position. Further south there were more storms along the passing cold front, but not being within the 3d lightning mapping array coverage they were unchasable. From Purcell we drove after a storm approaching from the west, and as it neared Goldsby, at our position, it fell apart. A few scud cloud fragments were observed below cloud base to the south of our position at this time (see photographs). From Goldsby at around 6-6:30pm we drove south on I-35 once again to try to intercept some storms on the extreme southern edge of the 3d LMA coverage area, but gave up south of Purcell due to the storms falling apart once again. We arrived back at NSSL NOF at 8:30pm and dispersed. We deployed for a second time on this day at 11:15pm to try to intercept a large storm complex located between Pauls Valley and Chickasha, moving east. These post-frontal storms were a little suprising, but the complex which moved eastward had some very intense lightning activity. Driving south from Norman through Noble to Lexington on HW 77, we observed quite heavy rains and strong winds, with some lightning strokes no more than a few hundred feet from our position. North of Lexington we found a launch site and released a balloon carrying an electric field meter (EFM). Driving back to Norman we were informed that the EFM had recorded an electric field of about 70 kilovolts per meter, meaning it was within very close proximity to a lightning stroke at that time (most likely a few hundred feet). Photographs One of the very few pictures ever taken of the elusive sasquatch: New Mexico Tech University, Balloon Van, Crew Van, and NSSL 6: From left: Dr. Dave Rust, Dr. Don MacGorman, and Dr. Jerry Straka: