2/10/09 REPORTS: OK/AR/TX/MO/KS

[Eric Wolf]

By the time the line of storms had cleared the DFW metroplex, it had drastically weakened (for some reason, still strong to the north and south, though). According to what I heard from the Dallas County RACES net, there were power flashes due to above average wind, and the rainfall was a little over 1" per hour, with a few reports of pea sized hail. There was TOR warned cell moving into the southeast corner of Collin County, but didn't seem to produce anything significant above large amounts of rainfall and 30 - 35 mph winds. Once the line reached Rockwall County, we endured 20 - 25 mph winds and rainfall of 3/4" an hour (1" in some places) for about 30 minutes and then everything cleared up and continued tracking east. Not very much excitement to report, but that's how I prefer it when the storms come to me, rather than the opposite when I go chasing.

 

[Dan Cook]

Guys please read the forum rules. That's why they are there. Report threads are for YOUR detailed reports, not discussions!

 

[Steve Gray]

Left the DFW area at 3pm with a target of Gainesville, TX. While parked at the travel center on I-35 in Gainesville, I observed on radar the cell building north of Bowie, TX. I debated whether to intercept it traveling West on Hwy 82 on the South side of the Red River in Texas, or West on Hwy 32 in Oklahoma. Since there wasn't much sunlight left, I decided the sooner I could intercept the better and headed west on 82 hoping the storm would not accelerate north of the river before I met it.

In Ringgold, TX at the intersection of Hwy 82 and Hwy 81, I encountered blinding rain, pea-sized hail and heavy winds. The storm was tornado warned almost immediately upon my arrival, but I was not able to observe anything due to the intense rain I was in and the fact that I overshot the storm and was now on the western flank as opposed to the eastern flank. While I was pleased with my decision to chase west on the south side of the river, I feel I really made a mistake continuing west of Nocona as the storm was barreling to the NE. Had I stayed in Nocona, I suspect I would have seen my first tornado for 2009. My decision too continue west out of Nocona led to me getting to close to the storm and not having a chance to witness a tornado.

With the storm now to my Northeast, I traveled North into Oklahoma on Hwy 81 and observed the incredible cell racing north in the distance to my east. In Ryan, Ok I turned on to Hwy 32 and headed east. By this time, the sun had fully set and the lightning show really kicked into high gear.

With the dry line storms close behind me and the soon-to-be infamous Lone Grove cell in front of me, I stopped in Grady, OK and observed incredible lightening on the horizon in every direction around me, and a break in the clouds directly above me with stars visible. It was an odd experience.

Traveling East on Hwy 32 near Petersburg, I did encounter some debris in the road. It appeared to all be smaller branches from trees along the road way. None of it was very large, and none appeared to be anything other than tree limbs and leaves. I did not encounter any precipitation or strong winds during my drive from Ryan to Marietta.

I arrived in Marietta around 7:45pm and stayed near I35 for about 30 minutes and began to hear over the radio some of the sad reports from Lone Grove and see several EMS vehicles race north on the interstate. During this time I also experienced a brief but intense wind blast out of the NW and assisted a visibly distressed woman take her kids from her car into a nearby restaurant for shelter and then calmed her down (she believed a tornado was heading right for us).

As the dry line storms began to roll into Marietta, I began my drive back down south on I35 and fought the storms all the way to Sanger before the squall line passed over the interstate. I arrived back in the DFW just as southern Collin County was T-warned and pursued the storm East of I35 on HWY 121 but did not see anything. Arrived back home in Plano at 10:20pm.

Miles traveled: 287
Tornadoes Witnessed: 0

Side Note: This was the first time I took my new Jeep Patriot out for a chase and I must say I missed my old Dodge Durango. The Patriot felt lighter and less stable than the much heavier Durango was, and I was frequently losing traction on the wet roads. At a minimum, a tire upgrade is in order before I go out again. On the positive side, it was sure nice to be getting the 25 mpg from the Jeep as opposed to the 13mpg I got from the Durango.

 

[Rebekah LaBar]

Jeff Markowski, Dean Narramore, Rob Warren, and I (as well as Rob Lee, Kate Brown, Pete Argyle, and Becky Hewins in a separate vehicle) left Norman around 12:30 for our initial target area of Gainesville to Bowie. By the time we got to Ardmore, we decided to head further west on Highway 70 towards the cells forming out along the dryline. We went as far as Waurika before backtracking to Ardmore again and then down to Gainesville, when we realized the supercells were quickly forming a squall line that would be nigh on impossible to safely chase, even if there was anything embedded in it. A little discouraged by how the day was playing out, we still held out hope that we might be able to catch any storms that formed out in front of the line.

After a quick stop in Gainesville to regroup and figure out what we wanted to do next, we noticed a small cell popping up near Graham. Knowing it was our best shot to see something before dark, we headed off to Bowie where we intercepted the storm. We saw a pretty decent updraft base but no rotation to speak of. After watching the cell weaken, we figured it was probably on its last leg, so decided to head back to Norman and get some fun squall line action on the way.

Typical, as soon as we turned our back on the storm it got its act back together. Driving north on Highway 81 and then up on 1816, we stopped to watch the supercell near Nocona. A low, weakly rotating wall cloud formed before our very eyes (just about the fastest I've ever seen one form) and we thought it was about to tornado.

A little farther up the road, we lost the wall cloud in the rain (low contrast as we were at a bad angle when the storm moved to our north). Shortly thereafter we picked out a beautiful, tall, white funnel cloud (though still a a little low-contrast) in front of the rain at about 6:30. It looked to be about halfway down, but we never actually saw it on the ground. The funnel curled up and roped out in less than a minute. We found out shortly thereafter that there was a storm report of an actual touchdown there at that time for a few minutes, so assumed what we saw was probably the dying tornado. I'd love to see pictures and/or video of it, as I was driving at the time, didn't have time to stop, and the pictures Jeff took didn't turn out.

We knew we wouldn't be able to follow the storm much longer, as it was racing away from us and of course we had the river to deal with. The lightning on the storm was amazing; I'd never seen such incredibly beautiful anvil crawlers, and there were a fair bit of CGs as well. After shooting some pictures and video of the lightning (I'm attaching one of the freeze frames from my video; most of them didn't turn out too spectacular, and the photos I took were with my film camera), we drove back to Gainesville for dinner.

Dean told the cashier at Whataburger that we were chasers and there was a tornadic storm headed their way (chased us back to Gainesville) and they gave him a free drink! After eating, we followed the latter supercell just northeast of the city and saw a large wall cloud on that one as well, nicely lit up by lightning. Once again we were stopped by the river, so gave up for the day and worked our back up to Norman.

All in all it was a fun and interesting chase; certainly my best first chase of the season, especially since we did see a funnel cloud. However, we were of course saddened to learn from the radio that the supercell we were following there for a while went on to produce a deadly tornado.

 

[Michael Ratliff]

Lone Grove tornado

here is the first screen grab as it came into view..

and the second view as it was approching the trailer park

and the third as it was hitting the trailer park

I'll I can say is these are the moments when I wish I was God. To witness the tornado striking that town and being so helpless was gut wrenching!
My chase partner Ray Walker and I arrived in Pauls Valley around 11 am with a target of ardmore to gainsville. But as we saw what was unfolding on radar heading towards Yukon ...My place of residence...we blasted north to catch the second cell as it was coming over the logan county line to see fizzle out ...... A little frustrated. We were feeling very strong on our southern target in the upcoming days and it had let us down sdo we thought. As we were heading back south we notice the small cell south of the ok/tx line. It was staying together and out ahead of the line of storms. So we commited back to ardmore. We arrived in Lone Grove about 6:45pm and headed south of town to a dark hill to watch for any sign of a lowering. We got our conformation of a possible tornado...Everybody knows what darkness =tor warn=see make bleive tornadoes/funnels/TREES in the distants. Boy were we right on the money we headed N into town ANd then 1/4 mile west of town. I could not believe what I was filming and little did I know the impact this storm would have in this town. It was absolute horror watching this tornado heading towards lone grove knowing that there nothing we could do. The sirens did NOT sound. I dont care what anybodys says They did Not sound. I have heard several reports that they were just installed in nov/dec. Even though there were warnings issued 30 mins prior by Nws. Yes there were a lot of trailers in this town but no one should of died ! God Bless every family in Lone Grove My prayers our with you! If anybody has a screen grab fro GRlvl could I please have a copy of it. It was to hectic to save one at the time . Michael Ratliff ---Ray Walker

 

[AndyGabrielson]

First of all my thoughts and prayers are with those who were directly or indirectly affected in the Lone Grove tornado...
I came down from MN for this event, stayed overnight in Tulsa... Headed southwest and ended up in the Chickashaw area around 2:30pm. Was on a storm that showed some potential, infact in my video I belief I even capture a brief funnel about 15 miles southwest of Yukon. The ground was covered as I watched this unfold by about 3 inches of hail (nickel to quarter in size), so unfortunately when I capture this video it was very foggy (and the heavy precip didn't do much for the contrast either). I did a phoner with The Weather Channel while I was driving in Yukon and unfortunately due to traffic I lost this storm. Met up with the line again around 10:00pm on my way home, however it was non-svr at this point.

Heres a link to my video... I hope to have the HD video up sometime soon this is just from my sony handycam I use to stream.

http://www.findthetornado.smugmug.com/gallery/7334716_8vVjR#471991776_Xy3Pp

(trying not to thread hi-jack but if anyone would happen to have a clip of my phoner with TWC please PM me)

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Full account of two lead supercells in northeast OK now up here: http://www.extremeinstability.com/09-2-10.htm

 

[Tony Cook]

Lone Grove, OK

Left AUS about 9 a.m. with a newbie chaser buddy. Got up into OK near Walters by late afternoon when all the cells near OK City started to tornado. Watched the southern end of that line which looked outflowish and high-based visually, but it did produce one solid diagonal funnel:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/WaltersOK_Funnel.jpg

Started heading back east when the cells out in front of the line consolidated into a discrete supercell south of the Red River. Approached this cell from the North on 81 right at the state line, but had to stop at the river because we had no data, weather radio was not receiving, and the core looked mean. Did not want to punch it from the north. Decided to stair-step our way NE and try to work into position to see the active area.

Moving north on 89, documented a very ominous-looking wall cloud around 7:15 near Ringling. This was W or NW of the tornado or incipient tornado which would hit Lone Grove:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/RinglingWall_1.jpg
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/RinglingWall_2.jpg

Around 7:30, we were on 70, east of the town of Wilson, but still several miles west of Lone Grove. GPS log shown here, with the approximate tornado track in red.
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/LoneGroveGPS.png​

Witnessed a series of transformer explosions as the tornado impacted Lone Grove just south of Hwy 70:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/LoneGroveFlash.jpg

Here is the same image with some extra light noise cropped out:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/HesterMofet/10Feb2009/LoneGroveFlash_Cropped.jpg​

Never had a clear visual of the tornado, but it was quite apparent what was happening (btw Michael R- phenomenal images). Did not learn about the fatalities until we got home around 1 a.m. Sad start to the year, unfortunately.

15.5 hrs
~ 800 miles

TonyC

​

 

[Jeff Bartlett]

All in all, a fantastic chase with my first February tornado! Also, based on most of the reports, Spotter Network activity etc, it doesn't seem that anyone else observed this brief (2-minute) tornado? I'm curious if any other reports begin to surface from the later life-cycle of the Edmond storm.

First picture is from 3:24pm, second is 3:26 pm. Debris swirl is more apparent on the 2nd photo, to the right of the power-pole in the distance.

Chris,

Due to a sick kid and therefore a late departure from Stillwater, I pretty much picked up this storm right after the tornado you witnessed. I was about 1 1/2 to 2 miles further east of your location. This first shot is looking due west on 105 as it was crossing the highway. (Pardon the contrast...I had to borrow an unfamiliar camera for this event since my new D300 wasn't delivered until Wed.....*sigh*)

I then turned around and headed north on a gravel road about 2 miles as it passed about 1 mile to my north. The green hue of the storm as it neared my location was truly something to behold. Made for some nice pics.

It was hard for me to believe that this wall-cloud/tornado was not on the ground at this time. If it was not, then that has to be about as close as you can get without touching the ground. Due to the fact that it was just on the other side of that ridge, I could not confirm whether or not it was scraping the ground at this time.

I then turned around and zig-zagged through the countryside on these gravel roads as the storm took off to the northeast to terrorize Perkins, Stillwater, and Pawnee. My attention then turned to storm number two as it trekked northeast along the same path. I took this last one just southwest of Perkins before it lost power for the next ~48 hours.

On the return trip, I was able to witness damage on Hwy 33 from a hay barn that had been destroyed and scattered about 1/2 mile to the northeast of its original location. I have not heard whether or not this was associated with a tornado, RFD, or straight-line winds.

 

[Matt Gingery]

I began the chase day on February 10 leaving SGF around 9:30 a.m. I headed down 44 to HWY 71 south towards Ft. Smith. Once in Ft. Smith I began heading towards OKC and once I passed Checotah cells began to initiate to my south along the warm front in SE Oklahoma and along the Dry line from OKC to Lawton. I was sort of between a rock and a hard place. I had a big decision because the cells to my south looked really good, and had rotation evident. However, I was an hour from OKC, and those cells were already being tornado warned, and it appeared on radar as if the cells were becoming linear. I decided to hang back and chase cells near Checotah.

Supercell near Checotah Ok.: http://i40.tinypic.com/140b2c8.jpg

There was a strong updraft associated with these cells. 1" hail, and lots of CGS. At this point I decided to head to the north on the turnpike to Tulsa to intercept to the west of town. I caught up with the massive HP cell in Pawnee county, and chased into Osage county. That particular cell wandered north of the warm front shortly after as it headed to the SE of Independence Ks. I ran into some very large hail. I am still getting the video together. I managed to catch the wall cloud that produced the Pawnee tornado, and a new area of rotation near Hominy Ok.

Large Hail Hominy Ok.: http://i42.tinypic.com/ifvrzr.jpg

Supercell Hominy Ok.: http://i41.tinypic.com/16a4lsj.jpg
Supercell Hominy Ok.: http://i44.tinypic.com/2vm6fxz.jpg

Hail covering HWY 11 from Hominy towards Bartlesville Ok.
http://i44.tinypic.com/1zgsqvm.jpg

I feel the trip was a success, and it felt good to get an early start to the season and get up to speed with the new equipment

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kITIZzQ8_-s

 

[Brandon Headley]

Edmond, OK

I started my chase day WAY TOO LATE. I had looked early the day before and thought nothing would form in C. OK so I threw the chase day out. The day of I happened to hear some people talking about the storms down in Chickasha. I pulled out my iPhone and looked and saw storms firing along the dry line to my SW. I contemplated skipping my next class and setting up somewhere in Edmond and wait for them to come to me. I decided to go to class. That was a mistake. I dismissed myself when the sirens went off and started my chase. I saw a large hook and a great velocity couplet just a few miles north of my location.

I drove to I35 and planned to jump on. However the highway patrol had other ideas. I drove over I35 and then headed north on Air Depot. I got a little bit of video with what appears to be a lowering. It is hard to tell due to the contrast. Tree cover and urban chasing prevented me from catching the storm.

I quickly turned around and headed back to 2nd street as the 2nd storm rolled through. Got a good look at a shelf cloud and then decided to head a little farther south to get the 3rd storm.

Headed down by the Turner Turnpike and sat watching a wall cloud with some really weak rotation. It was really outflow dominant, so I decided to get some damage video and call it a night.

I drove north again, but only got a few trees and some telephone polls. I called it a night and went to chili's with some friends

All in all it wasn't a bad start to my rookie season. I need to learn more and leave when I need too. Here is a video that I put together real fast.

http://vimeo.com/3208051

 

[Chad Cowan]

My video and some radar loops are up in the Videos section on my website: chasethestorms.com

 

[Matt Gingery]

Compliments Of Brian Hurst

This is the supercell that I had intercepted near Hominy Ok. Impressive Hook Signature on GRLevel 2. On page 4 of the thread my video denotes the wall cloud associated with this rotation, however it was near Hominy as the storm began to weaken.

More Video Of Supercell Structure Near Pawhuska/Hominy Ok. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8BFTL6lQq4