Interesting Weather Day And Planning.

I knew today was going to be another probable tornado outbreak day and definitely severe weather. I like to really dig in to forecasting.

I also had a good idea of what I'd be hauling, when and where.

The conditions predicted were level 4 out 5 for tornadic events, spawning around eastern OK, possibly Northwestern AR, around 1500 to 1700 central. Then the storms would increase and follow a N NE track. Although there were other systems at play around KC and in NE as well, they're well outside of where I would be.

It put a high likelihood of severe weather at Fort Smith AR, right on the border of OK at nearly the same time I'd be arriving. Up to baseball size hail, long track tornados and damaging winds 70 to 90 mph.

I had a live unload 200 miles east of Ft Smith in Searcy at 1100. Knowing it would be slow, I figured I'd be in ft Smith at 1500. So for the 200 miles empty, I monitored wind speed real time and storm formation along the way.

I called my DM at 1400, let him know the weather and my plans. That I would shut down if I saw the weather coming in faster than predicted, before i got to any weather. I told him my hunch was that i would be an hour or two north of the storms if they take the track theyre forecasting and that i should be able to manage that for the duration of the event. He said thanks and all good. I had already picked out numerous spots to shut down along my route from Ft Smith, going north on I49 if it went bad.

I caught a break and the strongest cells moved east slower than expected. Several tornados spawned in OK along US75, which I've been on weekly for the last month or two. Kind of unsettling to hear towns getting sacked that I regularly stop at.

By the time I got to Fayetteville on 49, there was tornados and severe Storms with high winds and hail moving into Ft Smith. Definitely chasing me. I'm getting heavy downpours and erratic high winds, but nothing else.

By the time I get to Springdale, I had to stop for about 15 minutes to let an errant strong cell and T storm pass east ahead of me, reports of tornados and storms hit the Fayetteville area where I has been shortly before.

Just before Joplin, the same pattern, this time they shut down 49 behind me for a bit due to flash flooding which makes sense, there were waterfalls on the rock walls and the road bed was turning into a pond when I went through there.

My 70 was on borrowed time, so I couldn't run too much today, past 50 miles north of Joplin or so, but as predicted, the storms moved off almost due east towards st Louis, leaving a trail of damage up I44.

All in all, it was a tense day, but interesting. A couple take aways.

I was reasonably certain that I would be to the north and east of the storms before the conditions would spawn tornados. That prediction was accurate, although they did get closer than I would have preferred.

I knew my route, the weight and the times that I needed to be at specific locations, if I couldn't make those times then I would have shut down.

I use the following tools to build an overall picture of weather and storm tracks:

Driveweather app (general prediction on route),

NOAA base reflectivity radar and velocity radar,

MaxVelocity channel YouTube audio feed (really accurate tornado and severe weather spotters, forecasting and community observation),

NOAA all hazards radio (real time NWS observations, Alerts and warnings),

Ventuski app (predictive and real time radar, wind speed, pressure and velocity images).

And just basic NWS radar.

I enjoy building a good trip plan and watching things move accordingly, I like tactics and strategies as well, so its interesting, but also must be safe to work.