2025-06-03 REPORTS: OK

[Randy Zipser]

Not sure why there is no chaser discussion thread about today's tornadoes and flooding rain events in OK/KS/MO and points NE up through WI, so I was wondering if any video/still photos were taken by ST members, particularly in Central OK. The following links from late today are about warnings and tornado sightings in the Norman area:

Tornado reported near Norman, Oklahoma

Live: Tornadoes spotted, multiple tornado warnings issued as storms push across Oklahoma

 

[John Farley]

Mods, we probably need to add a lot of other states to this thread title, given the large area affected to some extent by today's severe weather. I had a surprise local chase today in southwest Colorado that turned out pretty good. No tornado, but a nice wall cloud with some rotation and a possible funnel, and my first chasing landslide event. Saw one once some years ago coming over Wolf Creek Pass, but was not chasing then. Nothing but nowcasting involved in this, as I was trying to get some yard work done at home in Pagosa Springs, CO before it rained, saw a decent-looking storm passing to my northeast, so checked radar on my phone and saw a much better looking storm to my west. So I hurried up to finish the yard work and headed out. Definitely exceeded expectations, as I was treated to this looking SW from the SW edge of Pagosa Springs at Veterans Memorial Park:



This was taken looking southwest and the storm was moving southeast, so between the mesa and the core of the storm moving in front of the area of interest, my view of that area was hidden pretty quickly. But this piqued my interest enough to head down past Chimney Rock National Monument toward Arboles and Navajo Lake to see if I could find a hail swath or any damage. About 8 miles down Colorado 151 past Chimney Rock, I came to a swath of accumulated hail about a mile wide, along with this mudslide/rockslide which happened as the hail and heavy rain fell on a steep slope on the east side of the road:



Some of the rocks were around 6 or 7 inches in diameter, definitely not something you want to hit, so once I got back to where I could get a phone signal, I called this in to both 911 so that CDOT could get out and clear it and to the NWS. The biggest hailstones I saw were around 1/2 inch, but there were not many safe places to stop and look around so there could have been some bigger ones.

All in all, not a bad little chase for less than 60 miles of driving. BTW, there were at least 5 SVR warnings today in the Grand Junction CWA, for other storms west of this one, and this one got 3 special weather statements for dime to nickel size hail. Also saw a report of 1.33 inches of rain near where I took the pictures just above, though some of that was likely from another storm a bit later that followed a track similar to this one. As always, I will eventually get a fuller report up on my Webpage, though it may be a while as I will likely be chasing tomorrow.

 

[Randy Zipser]

Mods, we probably need to add a lot of other states to this thread title, given the large area affected to some extent by today's severe weather.

Yes, John, I fully agree, and debated whether to include more states but limited my post to OK because that's where most of the tornado action seemed to be at that time (yesterday evening). I was also aware of the heavy rains in eastern KS and most of MO, however, but was not aware of CO events.

I had a surprise local chase today in southwest Colorado that turned out pretty good.

Perhaps a lot of chasers were caught somewhat by surprise at just how severe some of the storms became yesterday, let alone the areal extent of this system. I suspect that it would have been very difficult to chase many of these storms, due to the QLCS, high-precip, and quick spin-up modes.
I look forward to any future reports/photos from other states.