2011-05-24 REPORTS: OK/KS

[JeffGonzales]

I got this nice rope tornado just south of Fairview, OK. I got on the storm early and watched a wall cloud too long and due to bad road options the storm passed me, so we played catch up and missed the Canton tor since rain blocked our view. We got back into position just in time for this nice rope

Watch video >

 

[Keith Turner]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sav26yxYdmk
intercepted the chickasha tornado right as it touched down. We drove right up next to it and it destroyed several houses 1 block to our east. We continued to track the tornado until it dissipated over moore

 

[Dave Chapman]

Watched Canadian County tornado move from north of El Reno to just west of Piedmont:

Full report and photos:
http://www.stormdude.com/stormchasing/2011Storm/storms113.html

 

[Trey Atterbury]

Chased with Keith Turner and we intercepted the Chickasha torando at close range as it was moving through town. Followed it back up into Moore.

 

[Brandon Clement]

Had targeted the Ponca City area the night before but after seeing some HRRR and Ruc runs switched my target to El Reno. After it looked as though the dryline was a bit farther west than forecasted decided to move west to Weatherford. Just as we were about to get off the Weatherford exit the first little blip showed up on radar and we followed it up towards Canton Lake where we got the wedge.
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DYA7svNtFls" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

A few minutes later got the rope near Fairview.
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t1vKfkbYf2E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Then went after the storm that moved through El Reno. As I'm sure most of you know the drive from Fairview to cut off that storm wasn't easy since punching a couple cores were required but we got in positioin to intercept at Guthrie. Unfortunately the storm had gone somewhat linear and was wrapped in hail and rain. I didn't want to risk getting any closer to the rotation with zero visability so ended up backing off and going after the cell that moved through Moore/Norman area. Intercepted it at Choctaw Rd and Alameda Dr. The best place we could video was not very good and as the wall came over us it put a very brief weak spin up down that had us fleeing. Wish we could have had video because it was quite a sight looking out the rearview and seeing trees bent over in half. It did very little damage other than a few small limbs down before picking right back up. Not knowing the area, I got cut off by the Lake and got decent video of the wall moving over the lake just before it put a tornado down that ended up flipping the 18 wheeler on I-40.

As I got back to I-40 another area of rotation tried and came fairly close to putting a tornado down.

We then dropped south to try and get some of the cells moving through the red river area. One cell south of McCalister looked great as we passed it by but decided not to chase because of terrain, it was getting dark, and an extreme lack of roads. This cell ended up tracking all the way through East OK and put down a large tornado just to the East of Ft. Smith. Managed to get south to Paris, Tx to see the cell that moved through Sherman, Tx. We watched it cross over the Red River and it had amazing structure. At times I think it put some small tornadoes down but couldn't confirm since it was dark. It certainly had numerous funnels and was a lot of fun to watch.

Shortly after that cell died and we decided to stay in Little Rock so we wouldn't have a long drive in the morning. The drive from Broken Bow, Ok to Little Rock is a disaster and one I'll never make again.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

EDIT: I've finally been able to capture some video, which is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.c...h?v=TaTZE8DU98E. After full condensation, contrast got sub-optimal as rain streamed inward towards the circulation. The data we collected are spectacular, with extreme radial velocities as the tornado moved from 3 km to 10 km to our south through east. The data are also very preliminary, and we want to make sure it's correct before giving specific numbers.

I was out with Howie Bluestein and Jana Houser Tuesday, in the operator's seat of RaXPol. Our initial target was somewhere W of El Reno. We knew that we wanted to get west of the I35 corridor, but there was little latitudinal clarity. When I went to bed Monday night, it looked like the OK/KS border was going to be the hot spot. By the time I awoke early Tuesday, the latest model data and observations seemed to indicate clearly that almost the entire central 1/3 of Oklahoma was going to be under the gun, and I could find little reason to pick one location over another. My primary hesitation with heading northward towards the OK/KS border region was the forecast of relatively backed mid-level flow, whereas the flow was progged to be more veered aloft S of I40. Since we didn't really know where we wanted to end up, we just headed westward from OKC towards Hinton.

It was apparent that we weren't going to be able to catch the storms N of I40 considering the initial motion that looked to be NNE then NE. I also was very concerned about getting behind the storms, since observations and numerical forecasts indicated that the low-level shear wasn't going to be particularly favorable for the high-end tornadoes until after 4-5 pm. The RUC and 12z NAM looked to be much too far west with the dryline, and the HRRR seemed to match the more eastern position of the dryline considerably better. At any rate, we opted to try to deploy ahead of the southernmost updraft of a cluster located near Lookeba and Alfalfa. When we were up and scanning, there was an apparent tornado in progress to our southwest. Visually, we couldn't see a tornado, at least there was no condensation that was hanging lower than the already-low wall cloud that showed its face after the FFD moved through. Rotation rapidly increased to our immediate southwest. I went from thinking that we may be too far east (using the then-current NE motion) to realizing that the meso was making a beeline at our location. The low-level meso looked to turn right further, and we got a fully-condensed multivortex tornado to our SW shortly thereafter. The tornado grew in size to our immediate (~2 km) south and moved relatively slowly to the east-northeast. Although we were out of the hail (presumably under the updraft enough), we did experience some light rain at our location. Combined with the lightning, we were forced to remain in the truck, preventing any tripodded video.

This tornado had a spectacular horizontal vortex on its north side. We'd see occasional horizontal and U-shaped vortices to the immediate northeast of the condensation funnel of the tornado, although the horizontal rotation took on a rolling pin appearance at times (very wide cylinder rotating on a horizontal axis - see video starting around 4:15). The tornado moved off to our southeast then east, and we were blasted by Howie-estimated west-northwest winds of ~70 mph. We left the storm when the tornado moved into the range beyond which we experience complete attenuation / extinction. Since we couldn't get E on I40, we had to tracked W, S, then E on on 37 towards Tuttle, crossing an apparent damage path on US 281 between Lookeba and Hinton (IIRC). We collected another close tornado dataset at the 37 / I44 interchange, approximately 2 km from the northward-moving, weakening tornado that had been a beast NE of Chickasha. Farther to our southeast, we could see (via radar) the tornado near Goldsby. We tried one last attempt to get ahead of this storm and the one closer to PVJ, but those attempts were futile as the storms moved more rapidly to the northeast.

 

[Austin Funderburgh]

Piedmont Tornado

Started in El Reno. Sadly, I decided to move north to play the Canton storm. Lost internet data so I tuned to a radio station broadcasting KFOR's coverage. Heard about the southern storm producing near Hinton. Decided to go back south (great way to waste an hour). Had to move east to take 81 south to intercept. Made it to Okarche and realized that I may not make it if I stayed on 81 so I took the NW Expy. a few miles east to Banner Rd. which I took south to nearly Hefner Rd. and waited. Was treated to possibly the last great, mostly rain-free view of the beast. Took Britton Rd. further east and ended up giving up trying to intercept again, realizing that it would likely remain very non viewing friendly. The rest of the evening was quite frustrating as I was ever so slightly late to other tornadoes (Chickasha, Goldsby, Shawnee). Very brief video (that does no justice to the power) below:

Watch video >

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Like many others, intercepted tornadoes and observed multiple supercell storms. May 24 was a typical high risk chase day, with nearly all the supercells in a cluster of supercells producing tornadoes, so there are many different aspects of this day from chasers all around.

I started out for storm initiation near I-40 and Highway 183, near Arapaho and worked my way east. The first real significant storm was the Canadian county storm from near I-40 and highway 270 and to the east-northeast through Piedmont. This storm produced a possibly violent rain-wrapped tornado. The second storm was later east on I-40 northwest of Shawnee, with a small but very intense tornado crossing the road and ripping a semi-trailer to shreds (driver was injured and I stopped to assist).

Above: Looking south towards I-40 in some of the darkest conditions I have ever seen at the rain-wrapped wedge (loud roar also audible at this time). This was south of Calumet on Highway 270 about a mile 1 or 2 north of I-40.

Above: Radar image (velocity) from GRLevel3 about the same time when the first picture of the rain-wrapped wedge was taken.

Above: Tornado crossing I-40 NW of Shawnee, OK.

Above: Closeup of I-40 tornado near Shawnee. Debris is from the semi trailer it hit and tore up.

Above: Remains of large semi-trailer after the tornado hit it. The (very lucky) driver had a sprained leg and some cuts, but was otherwise OK.

 

[Derek Weston]

Caught the wedge near Canton Oklahoma and the rope out near Fairview. Chased with Terrence and Brittany Cook.

Started the day in Hoisington KS. Departed for the border of KS/OK around 11am and quickly determined that we must push further south. Leaving Kansas behind was hard as we knew there was going to be some action near the low & WF. This turned out to be quite true with a number of tornadoes within 15 miles of our home base. Thankfully we scored in Oklahoma and didn't have to shoot ourselves...

This chase was a bit difficult due to A) mediocre road network/terrain and B) poor data. We were amongst the trees when the first tornado(wedge) was getting its act together. This forced us to fly east out of the trees to get to a nice N/S highway where the tornado was viewable:

The plan was then to intercept along the highway as it crossed north of us. Unfortunately (or not) the tornado wrapped with rain and weakened as the meso occluded and another area of rotation became dominant closer to the road. Thankfully we got a much better look at this little tornado.

Given our data issues we ended up staying with the northern storms too long and couldn't make it down to the south for anything along I-40.

All in all... a good, if not difficult, chase.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Just wanted to put a brief update in here that I intercepted the El Reno tornado just north of El Reno and was within 2000 feet of the rain wrapped torn. I barely caught it due to gas and gps issues. I have some video but most if it is poor. No time for photos. Also intercepted the cell producing the Moore tornado and I believe I saw it in the distance as it was weakening but I got blocked / stopped by the damage path. I spent most of Wednesday driving the El Reno damage path and using Street Atlas and gps to mark debris path and damage track, measure widths and distances along with my distance from the torn. I'll try and do my full report soon, but here are some of my quick stats I logged regarding the tornado:
***
Overall damage path width including any / all peripheral damage (broken big tree limbs, etc): 3.26 miles
Primary extensive damage path width: 1.62 miles wide
Includes house removed from foundation and 90% of debris swept clean - large trees shredded, broken, debarked. This indicates
EF4 and possible EF5 strength at that location IMO.
(Note: Later after this assessment I saw earlier footage indicating more debris on the area - so perhaps some was cleared by the
time I arrived)
Distance from my location to perceived tornado edge 2000 feet.
Distance from my location to peripheral damage path edge 1.17 miles
Distance from my location to major / extensive damage path 1.6 miles

*****
This was my 4th tornado of the season so far. I'll have to review streaming and dashcam footage to determine if what I witnessed
just sw of Moore was the tornado (had many trees and hills in my way so only brief glimpses). Moore would make my 5th.

I also got Baird, Tx, Gatesville Tx, Nemo, Tx. I'm counting Itasca, Tx as a funnel because I never saw it touch ground though some claim it did. Guess I need to review that footage as well.

Unlike me to not document any of these chase accounts but just haven't gotten around to it. I haven't posted to my website, Stormtrack, WxChase, etc. I was about to start doing some of that and now for instance I look at the models and I may be headed to Oklahoma again tomorrow. I just got back late last Wednesday night and spent the day Thursday getting new tires, fixing side mirrors which had broken loose and other vehicle junk.

El Reno was a monster...sounded like a big waterfall with rushing water.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Myself, Colin Davis, Scott Kampas and Heather Brinkmann saw the Canton wedge from a rain wrapped distance, and then caught the Fairview, OK tornado in a much better position. Dropped south and caught the end of the OUN area tornado.

Video from Fairview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOcsiI3GXdo



More words and photos: http://prairiestorm.blogspot.com/2011/05/fairview-oklahoma-tornado.html

 

[Michael Towers]

Got the Canton tornado from birth and the Fairview rope as well. Canton was a totally serene experience, for a good 10 minutes prior to tornadogenesis I was alone without a soul in site. The open landscape provided a pleasant all natural backdrop enhancing the feeling of peace and solitude, while multiple areas of tight circulation reflected the turbulent and foreboding nature of the sky above. Not a shout to be heard, no motors or machines; the only sound the wind at my back being ingested into the storm and the occasional rumble of thunder in the heavens above. My ultimate goal is always to see tornadoes but to live that kind of experience is essentially why I chase.

Canton Tornado:

Watch video >

 

[jshields]

I had a very disappointing chase up in central KS. My original target was down around Wichita along the northern part of the high risk. I didn't have time to make it down to OK. My chase partner and I made it to Kingman, KS and realized there was nothing that was coming up from OK anytime soon except for one left split storm that was racing due north towards Pratt. There were other storms in western KS that were riding the warm front and were tornado warned. Since we couldn't make to near OKC, we jetted west to come up from behind the storm after it moved through Pratt. The storm was very high based near Pratt, but we figured LCL levels would lower as it approached the warm front. Also other storms were firing and moving towards the warm front, so we decided we would make it a warm front play. The storm going towards Pratt was moving due north at 45-50 mph so it took us a bit to catch up. We were almost to the storm when we came upon what was seemingly tornado damage south of Great Bend and northeast of Seward. Large tree branches were down in a group of trees to our left, and to our right a large center pivot system was tipped over. there were emergency vehicles up ahead and a fireman told us the road would be closed for a while and gave us directions on how to go around to continue on to Great Bend. Unfortunately it involved dirt roads that were now mud and after trying it for a bit, we turned around not wanting to risk the whole chase. We later found out that 2 people died here due to a tree falling on their car in the tornado, that was rated an EF-2. We eventually made our way back around to Great Bend, the detour costing us at least 45 minutes due to bad roads and no internet. There was a tornado warned storm towards Timken that we headed towards, but by the time we made it to the storm it was becoming outflow dominant. however it still looked mean! we made our way back east out ahead of the storms as the line filled in now along the dryline. any hope of individual cells along the dryline quickly vanished though, and the line was "only" severe warned for quarter hail and 60 mph winds.

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

I approached the Canton, OK storm from the west on SR 51 and watched baseballs fall from near the merry-go-round wall cloud. As I headed east I did take a fastball but the view was so electric I could not resist proceeding. After finding a break in the trees the storm finally planted an incredible tornado that was awesome to see and hear. I broke off and headed north when I lost contrast but did catch it again when it was producing the water wedge on Canton Lake. Now that was something you don't see everyday, including the RFD making breaks on the eastern shore. I did continue on and get the Fairview rope until I was alerted to the storms to the south.

The El Reno storm was moving NE enough where I thought I could make a play at Guthrie but when I got close enough it did not look possible so I continued east to Stillwater. Low on fuel I made the critical decision to make a quick gas stop so I would not have to worry about running out of fuel while ahead of the storm. As I headed south on US177 out of Stillwater I thought I could make out the outer edge of the tornado in the precip to my west so I thought it would pass to my north. It turned black as night as it approached and the telltale falling debris got my attention. Realizing I was not going to outrun anything headed my way I darted into a Tractor Supply parking lot and figured to make an attempt to block what was on top of me by heading near the store itself. As soon as I parked the circulation hit and flung the row of lawn tractors parked in front of me into the lot. As quickly as it came it exited, so I gathered myself and drove around noticing flattened billboards and scattered sheets of metal among downed trees and what looked like a smashed golf cart laying next to the highway.

All in all with the exception of Stillwater an incredible chase.

Watch video >

 

[Joshua Nall]

Lengthy post, but I saw a lot... Caught the tornado S of I-40 before it crossed, was sitting just south of exit 115. After I spotted it, was immediately blocked from view by some heavy precip to the E of the tornado that looked to be associated with new development, so I didn't get any shots of it. Ended up deciding to drop this storm completely due to all the precip E of the meso and go for the storms further S. On the way I was blessed with a stupid mistake... getting on I-44 at exit 107 when I intended to keep going south a ways. Ended up having to travel all the way to Chikasha with that being the first exit... and then I was able to get on hwy 39. This put me in perfect position to witness the tornado near Chickasha from atop a hill on Hwy 39. I've always wanted to witness the development of a tornado from an elevated position and be able to just sit and watch it churn across the countryside. Got around 12 minutes of video from what started out as a little debris whirl at the ground to what became a massive tornado wrapping in rain. I would have seen this or the next tornado anyway a bit further on, but heading back southwest to Chickasha was a good mistake. I live for this stuff, my best intercept ever, but I have to say this was the first time watching a tornado my thoughts were consumed with the folks in the path of that thing, due to all the personal stories I've been hearing lately I guess. Below are a few shots of this tornado.

These guys were hardcore about there video, willing to brave the hail for a steady shot.

transitioning into a wedge now

Wide angle of the storm with the wedge under it

I then headed east down 39 and caught the next tornado S of Dibble. This was a pretty crazy experience, photographing this just to the SE of me, golf ball hail and bigger bouncing off of my hood.

The tornado had some external vortices dancing around it at times

This was also my worst experience as for as personally seeing what a violent tornado is capable of. Crossed the damage path shortly thereafter dropping south from 39 and witnessed incredible damage. The thing that stuck out the most to me was the color change when crossing the damage path. Even the grass, it was still greenish, but was mostly flattened and mud colored. All the limbs and leaves from what trees were left were gone. Looked like the top layer of dirt had been lifted in some places and just plastered all over everything. I've seen it on TV, but never personally like this and I've crossed damage paths before... Tushka, this year and Yazoo City to name some notable ones. This was much worse. It was mostly a rural area, but will be interesting to see if this is upgraded to EF5. Having set there and watched the tornado cross in front of me I never imagined it was doing the kind of damage it did. I guess that speaks mostly of my inexperience with truly violent tornadoes. This was one.

When I was in Dibble I had several people yell at me to go to Dibble school... not sure this was the best thing to do, but you could tell they had a plan to get folks off the road. Firefighters where there at the main intersection yelling to folks as they passed. I felt bad about being there taking up their time.... just yelled OK. I was sitting there on 39 looking at it as two more people yelled this as they passed. I must say though that with a highly visible tornado like as in this particular case... for those outdoors and aware of the situation, I mean once you see it...the best thing to do is just get out of the way.

I then dropped down the Red River and caught a tornado warned cell that was dying and turning LP with good structure. And then got a little bit of lightning with some storms behind that.