April 15th Eva, Oklahoma Tornadoes

April 15th had potential. We weren’t sure how storm modes would end up, and the bigger question was how good of quality would low level moisture be this day. The various models were at odds with each other. We decided to target the northern Texas panhandle dryline and hope storms could form, mature and then move off the dryline into better air. We sat around the Dalhart, Texas area waiting for initiation to occur. By mid afternoon storms started to form, but due to many splits, storms never maintained for very long without having merging issues. A couple storms did intensify and one particular supercell even became tornado warned southwest of Stratford. It actually tried hard as a wall cloud formed and was steadily rotating. However, its rear flank downdraft became too strong and undercut the storm’s updraft causing it to weaken. It cycled up and down a couple times, and then near Stratford, something happened. The storm was ingesting very unstable air as inflow dramatically increased. You could see a huge dirt plume skyrocketing upward as rapid lift was occurring in the storm’s forward portion of the updraft.

A tornado warning was reissued as the storm crossed into the Oklahoma panhandle. Soon a cone shaped funnel formed and was visible for about 5 minutes before it dissipated. The structure of the supercell was top notch as a sculpted liberty bell formed and spun wildly. We raced up the highway towards Eva and sat on US 64 east of town about 5 miles. An elephant trunk shaped tornado soon formed and stabbed the ground a few times and dissipated. Quickly another larger truncated cone shaped tornado formed and stirred up dirt and debris for a minute or two and also dissipated. As the supercell crossed 64 heading towards Eva the supercell had a very strong RFD surge as a new wall cloud quickly lowered to our northwest. Soon a pretty white elephant trunk shaped tornado formed, followed by a second one just to the east of the first. These two danced around for 10 minutes, often creating multiple vortices under them and then dissipated soon afterwards. By this time darkness was approaching and the storm was weakening, so we broke off our chase and headed for home. Great day and fortunately all tornadoes occurred in open country!

March 30th Northeast Oklahoma Tornadoes

March 30th took us to northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas on our first chase of the season for a day that promised intense storms and strong tornado potential. Things got messy pretty quickly in southeastern Kansas so we dropped south into northern Oklahoma. First, just south of Caney, Kansas an intense supercell formed. This storm had an amazing wall cloud that was rotating rapidly. It became tornado warned, but due to too many cell mergers, it never produced. We dropped south towards Nowata, Oklahoma as a tornado warned supercell approached. This storm had incredible structures and soon dropped a truncated cone shaped tornado (rated EF1) northeast of town that skipped across the countryside for 5-10 minutes before dissipating. The supercell continued northeast from there and dropped a second tornado (rated EF0) in open land. This tornado actually looked stronger as darkness set up, but we were never able to get close enough to it. Fun chase day, great results, and a long trip back to Denver.

May 19th Terral, OK Tornadoes

Day 1 of our Prime Time tour lived up to it’s name. A warm front/outflow boundary was situated over southern Oklahoma with an extremely moist and unstable airmass. CAPE values were in the 2500-3000 range with 50 knots off bulk shear. We sat near Wichita Falls, TX awaiting messy initiation, which did not disappoint! By mid afternoon tornadic storms formed just north of Wichita Falls and moved into southern Oklahoma. This storm became HP quickly and a rain wrapped tornado occurred. We decided to drop a bit south and play a tail end storm east of Wichita Falls which ended up being the Terral, OK storm. It spun wildly and was extremely electrified! Soon a wall cloud formed but wrapped in precip obscuring its view. We decided to drop south and sneak in behind the area of precip and were rewarded with 2 tornadoes, one of which nearly wedged. A fun day, a lot of work, but very high rewards!

May 16th Elmer, Oklahoma Violent Tornado

An amazing day was to unfold across southern Oklahoma on May 16th. A dryline and outflow boundary intersection would become the favored point for intense supercell storm development by late afternoon. We cut east to get in front of the Elmer, OK storm and watched as the updraft started spinning wildly. Within a few minutes a very large tornado formed just southwest of town. This tornado would grow to enormous proportions and skirt the south side of town on its way towards Snyder. We were on the north side of the tornado as it moved northeast and had an amazing view! Soon, though the approaching tornado would require us to move eastward along its path and it continued to give us a fanastic view!

After the storm became messy, we dropped south to Walters, Oklahoma where a beautiful supercell, highly striated, would produce a cone tornado. It was a day nobody on tour will ever forget! To see and hear the raw power of a violent tornado is something to remember forever!

May 6th Southern Kansas/Oklahoma Tornadic Supercells

A complicated scenario was unfolding this day. Chase well north along the warm front or play south on the nose of the dry punch. We chose the latter. By mid afternoon storms exploded freely in the warm sector and produced a few tornadoes. We intercepted one tornadic storm near Goddard, Kansas, followed by a beautiful supercell near Renfrow, Oklahoma. Fun and exciting day for everyone!

March 25th Central Oklahoma Tornadic Supercells

The first chase day for us for 2015! After a long drive from Denver, Caryn and Roger ended up near Stillwater, Oklahoma where several storms developed. Following the first supercell towards Tulsa, which weakened, we dropped southwest towards Moore, Oklahoma to catch this highly striated supercell at the tail end of a line. This storm produced another damaging tornado in Moore, which had been hit several times by violent tornadoes in the past 15 years.

May 7, 2014 – North Texas/Southern Oklahoma Supercells

What a fun chase day this was! We intercepted several storms in northern Texas and one in particular near the town of Henrietta would become one of my favorite supercells of 2014! The structure was top notch, it’s motion was nice and slow, and it was extremely photogenic! Although not tornadic, it came close a couple of times to producing. Later, a second supercell formed west of Wichita Falls, Texas and moved north across the Red River into southern Oklahoma. This storm was extremely electrified and also tornado warned. Both supercells produced hail baseball sized as they churned across the countryside.

June 3rd Oklahoma Panhandle Severe Storms

June 3rd was an interesting day. Poor moisture, but decent shear would result in a cluster of outflow dominant severe storms. Many were quite electrified and pretty. Most produced marginal severe hail and severe outflow winds.

May 30th Oklahoma Tornado Warned Supercells

Last day of Tour 4, so we stayed close to home (OKC). Several storms formed as the environment continued to prime for the culmination on May 31st (which we couldn’t chase due to commitments to be back in Denver that day!). An active dryline spawned several supercells, of which most were tornado warned. From Chickasha all the way down to the Red River south of Ardmore, it was a treat even though no tornadoes actually occurred.

April 26th Western Oklahoma Supercell

April 26th was a surprise day for me. I wasn’t figuring on much happening, however nature gave us a pretty supercell west of Clinton that had decent structure, hail and was tornado warned, despite limited moisture and shear. Here’s a few shots of it.

Tag Archives | Oklahoma