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.

April 17th Southwest Oklahoma Tornadic Supercells

The hype of April 17th didn’t live up to its billing. Only a few brief tornadoes occurred, and most were not very visible or photogenic. We chased a supercell near Lawton that produced a messy tornado in town, and then dropped south to the Red River of a near dark supercell that produced a small tornado before we could get there.

April 22nd Leedey, Oklahoma Beautiful Supercell

April 22nd took me to northwest Oklahoma to play a dryline/cold front intersection. A couple of intense supercells formed near Enid and northward across the Kansas border, but we waited till the dryline storms formed by early evening. A magnificent supercell formed southwest of Woodard, and turned moving southeast towards Leedey. The structure of the storm was simply stunning, with the best photography occurring just as dusk as intercloud lightning illuminated the highly striated updraft!

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