2011-05-24 MISC: OK

[Tim Vasquez]

I am not a religious person but I am praying for Rocky Rascovich's safety, as he's a friend of many of us. The dot marks the exact location of his house (Piedmont OK)... the overlay is the storm relative velocity at 2148Z... the next frame unfortunately was range folded or had noise, so I couldn't figure out how close this couplet (140 kt) came.

If anyone knows if he's ok, please let us know. I am wagering a guess from everything I've looked at that the couplet went just slightly south of his place, maybe by mere hundreds of feet.

Tim

 

[Michael Riedl]

You stay safe yourself Tim..

 

[Matt Starkey]

Rocky's Home and family are okay!

We went chasing with Rocky this afternoon. It was a very close call, as the damage path of the tornado passed about 1/2 mile south and southeast of his property. Homes with extensive damage just south of Apache Rd from southwest to southeast of his property.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Unfortunately my cousin's family had their brand new house, in Piedmont, leveled to the ground. The only thing that remained was the safe room. And we are talking about a very well constructed home. Glad to hear Rocky's house was spared.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Was in the Piedmont area right after the strike. Looks like EF3-4 damage near the "lake"? Three children still reported missing. We helped search until almost dark. Very unnerving looking though the debris. Fish were actually sucked from the lake on to land. Glad Rocky is OK.

W.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere yet, but it seems like quite a significant event to me, and suggests that the El Reno/Piedmont etc tornado was at least EF3 by measurement: http://www.mesonet.org/index.php/news/article/oklahoma_mesonet_site_records_tornadic_winds.

Here is the data itself as best I can obtain right now. Look at the 2125 UTC observation: http://www.mesonet.org/index.php/dataMdfMts/dataController/getFile/20110524elre/mts/HTML/

 

[Brandon Clement]

Congrats on that grab Jeff, can't wait to see the data because the video is absolutely amazing. I love how the outside of the wall began to rotate around the tornado but instead just became the tornado. Then of course, the horizontal vorticies much like the Tuscaloosa tornado.

[mod: moved from REPORTS thread. This post is in reference to Jeff Snyder's report]

 

[Richard Cox]

My partner and I were about ten miles WSW of Hinton on OK-37 and saw the massive wedge coming up from Binger. We called it in and then shot some video of the storm before heading east and south on 37 to get out of the way. With low contrast and rain we didn't want to get close to a storm that clearly had a bulge that I guessed was one of those rolling pin-looking horizontal vortices advancing ahead of the tornado (and which I have since seen on videos from other angles). We finally found a gravel road and turned due south to see if we could watch it roll by. Instead we saw a cone tornado that was nowhere near the size of the wedge, and which eventually roped out, as you can see at the link below.

It seemed odd that such a massive tornado would so rapid weaken, but visibility was terrible, and the tornado was right where we expected it to be. Eventually we headed back to I-40 and went into El Reno, where we were blocked by downed power lines. In fact there were plenty of emergency vehicles already on the scene, so we assumed a tornado had passed through several minutes prior, but then we saw and shot video of a white cone funnel that seemed closer to us than what I would have expected looking at the first responders on the scene. We ended up losing the cell, which re-intensified over Piedmont and eventually hit outside Guthrie and damaged three homes in my parents' neighborhood.

The reason I mention all this is because after looking at other videos from this supercell, and looking at this radar loop, I suspect there was a separate tornado touchdown either behind or just east of the wedge that crossed I-40. I'm just not sure how they could be the same tornado. If you look carefully at the main supercell on radar, it looks like there is a small trailing cell just south of I-40 that could have produced a brief touchdown, and with all the storm interactions that day, it wouldn't be surprising. In fact I think the confusion caused us to wait too long and the wedge was well past us before we moved. I'm wondering if we'll see at least one more tornado track show up after the damage surveys are complete, if not more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyw_0kM1-R8

 

[Jeff Snyder]

The reason I mention all this is because after looking at other videos from this supercell, and looking at this radar loop, I suspect there was a separate tornado touchdown either behind or just east of the wedge that crossed I-40. I'm just not sure how they could be the same tornado. If you look carefully at the main supercell on radar, it looks like there is a small trailing cell just south of I-40 that could have produced a brief touchdown, and with all the storm interactions that day, it wouldn't be surprising. In fact I think the confusion caused us to wait too long and the wedge was well past us before we moved. I'm wondering if we'll see at least one more tornado track show up after the damage surveys are complete, if not more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyw_0kM1-R8

There were at least two tornadoes with this supercell -- one that ended up crossing Hwy US 281 near Lookeba, and another that started SE of Hinton / SW of El Reno and became the long-track violent tornado that affected Piedmont and Guthrie. We deployed and collected data a couple of miles south of Exit 108 of I40. When we first deployed, a tornado was apparent to our rather distant southwest (in the data, not visually). This tornado dissipated NE of Lookeba, and there was a several minute break before the next tornado developed near the Canadian river E of Rt 31. This tornado intensified rather rapidly, and had some extreme radial velocities as it crossed I40 and moved ENEward.

Remember that that NWS graphic is preliminary, and surveys and assessments are ongoing.

 

[Rocky Rascovich]

I can't thank you enough for the prayers and well wishes during this event. We all emerged unscathed, unfortunately I can't say the same for my neighbours to my immediate south and east. I will post a summary very soon concerning this day and the days previous now that I have power back.

 

[Richard Cox]

There were at least two tornadoes with this supercell -- one that ended up crossing Hwy US 281 near Lookeba, and another that started SE of Hinton / SW of El Reno and became the long-track violent tornado that affected Piedmont and Guthrie. We deployed and collected data a couple of miles south of Exit 108 of I40. When we first deployed, a tornado was apparent to our rather distant southwest (in the data, not visually). This tornado dissipated NE of Lookeba, and there was a several minute break before the next tornado developed near the Canadian river E of Rt 31. This tornado intensified rather rapidly, and had some extreme radial velocities as it crossed I40 and moved ENEward.

Thanks for that insight, Jeff. I know more information will emerge as the damage surveys progress. It must be a challenging task to find the various damage paths of smaller spinups while focusing on the more obvious ones. I'll be watching with interest to see what else the crews turn up.

 

[Richard Cox]

Binger-El Reno-Piedmont-Guthrie tornado upgraded to EF-5 by the Norman NWS office. Estimated peak winds of 210+ MPH according to University of Oklahoma mobile Doppler measurements.