^ That rainbow + rope tornado + windmill pic is amazing.
What a day yesterday and one that will probably remain in my top 5/top 10 chases for a very long time. Started off the day in Norman targeting Quanah, TX with the expectation that the cold temperatures underneath the trough base, good shear, and adequate low-level moisture would yield robust updrafts near the triple point. We were mostly socked in with stratiform until we reached Altus and turned southwest on OK 6 towards the Red River. About 2-3 miles south of town, we broke out into nearly full sunshine near/south of the warm front and temperatures jumped into the low 70s. The storm that would eventually become the tornado machine was already ongoing near Childress and the core was moving in our direction so we decided to bail south a bit on TX 6 instead of east on US 287 (a good decision considering the multitude of >2" hail reports from that area later).
Eventually we came to a position across from the entrance of Copper Breaks State Park and watched the storm approach, with intermittent wall clouds and scud rising into the base. A funnel cloud was also present for a short time as inflow really began to increase from the ESE, which was warm despite gusts exceeding 35 mph. There were all kinds of inflow bands and other laminar features racing into the updraft at this point from multiple different directions in the low-levels, including evidence of the streamwise vorticity current, and that told me that something interesting was likely going to happen. Large 0-3 km CAPE and substantial near-surface vorticity was helping to overcome some of the weaknesses in the low-level wind field in terms of strength, and it seems that boundary/storm-scale interactions were also occurring, both with the cell immediately to the south and the one that developed in behind (e.g. Cameron Nixon's tweet while the event was going on).
Ariana and I both agreed that we needed to drop south as the chaser caravan moved into the area from the north. No complaints from me in terms of behavior yesterday despite the number of people on the storm by the way, people were doing the right things as far as pulling off the roads/etc. We crossed the Pease River and found FM 3103 north of Crowell to take us east and parallel the intensifying mesocyclone to the south. Sometime after that (around 5:45 PM CDT IIRC), Ariana spotted the first tornado of the sequence in its weakening phase partially hidden against the dark background and we pulled off to watch it occlude. A second rope tornado formed not long after the dissipation of this one (unless it was simply the same tornado lasting longer than we were able to continuously visualize).
By this point, motion in the wall cloud and along the forward flank became very intense, and we were able to visualize the RFD punch/cut coming around the back side and streamwise vorticity current rising almost straight up into the updraft at nearly a 90˚ angle, which was amazing to see visually. Not long after that was the period where the "Simla anticyclonic look-alike" and eventually twins happened looking north from FM 98. We would've certainly been satisfied with this as the whole chase...
...Little did we know that the greatest part of the show was still coming as the storm cycled once more as we jumped on US 70 and stopped across from the Western Trails Cowboy Church (how Texan is that, eh) west of Lockett. This was in time to watch the evolution of the spectacular 4th/5th tornado of the sequence (depending on what happened with tornadoes #1/#2). Ariana got a few absolutely phenomenal pictures during this time as the tornado moved ESE around 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile away. It looked fairly strong and destroyed an outbuilding at one point. This was certainly the best tornado I've seen since the Dodge City day in 2016, and I got better pics this time around. It reminded me quite a bit of a combination between the white Hill City KS stovepipe on 6/9/2005 and the Bryce TX/Palo Duro Canyon tornado on 3/28/2007 with the red dirt. As the tornado passed to the east (see the second photo of it below with rain, small hail, and the occasional tumbleweeds rolling by) and eventually weakened after about ten minutes, I noted how warm the RFD was, with a ∆T of only around 3-5˚C between it and the inflow air.
We made our way through the town of Lockett to get ahead of the mesocyclone and RFD again, and about five minutes later I took a look in the rearview mirror to notice the cone-shaped funnel cloud that would become the last tornado of the day forming. Again complimented by a shower of red dirt in the debris cloud, the tornado unfortunately moved into portions of town and sent debris flying (glad to know that no one was hurt). Unlike the other tornadoes prior, we had the backlit view of this one, with blue sky in the background as the tornado went through a lengthy occlusion and rope out, with windmills in the foreground.
Following this, the storm began interacting with others to its south and assumed more of a stable look to its base, so we made our way to US 287 at Harrold in order to get back towards Wichita Falls and I-44, hopefully to get some structure pictures in the progress, but we found it difficult to find a better angle that was not impeded by low-level cloud cover. We decided to call the chase and grab takeout in Wichita Falls (which was promptly interrupted by a hail storm and we were forced to wait inside Chipotle). Finally, we left Wichita Falls at about 10:00 PM and got quite a lightning display heading north/northeast from Grandfield to Lawton, including several close positive CGs that Ariana got on video. Arrived back in Norman before 11:30 PM exhausted, but adrenaline still pumping.
What a day, and one that neither of us will ever forget. Her first true A+/top 5'er chase day and my first since 2016. Congrats to everyone else who scored! That was a storm that looked great from basically any angle and from any distance. Have seen various amazing vault + tornado shots from ahead, rainbows + tornadoes from behind, etc.
