2026-04-23 Event: IA/MO/KS/OK/TX

[Dan Robinson]

I didn't look at this day at all beforehand, but there was a pretty obvious boundary those storms were firing right on top of. The radar loop almost had a Jarrell-esque look with updrafts unzipping back to the west on the boundary as the tornado was ongoing. I thought we'd be seeing more tornado reports from those new updrafts, but as of yet haven't heard if any others actually produced.

 

[William Monfredo]

It appeared the Enid storm's updraft was right on the boundary with the hook on the western flank of the storm.

Nice point about the radar images & the positioning of features. I also noticed that last year to good effect...
for example...during the hybrid event on June 16th, south of North Platte, the Wellfleet/Dickens, NE tornadoes.

 

[Randy Zipser]

The attachment below shows a neat satellite depiction from GOES-EAST of the Cbs exploding over NE KS, SE NE and NW IA during the afternoon of 2026-04-23. I could not find a similar satellite sequence online for the OK tornadic storms, however I did see a brief video clip of that on WeatherNation this afternoon, so this does exist; on that graphic, the dryline, cold front, and triple-point were also displayed for reference. If anyone on ST knows where to access and can post the OK satellite imagery, I'd be most appreciative.

Daily | CIRA Satellite Library

P.S. I found this post on Facebook showing the OK storms; note the city lights of the OKC metro area at the bottom of the clip:

36K views · 267 reactions | Satellite imagery of the damaging tornadic supercells in northern Oklahoma earlier this evening and tonight. Details: This animation contains the GeoColor and infrared (band 13) products from the GOES-19 weather satellite. It spans the three-and-a-half hour period from 23:00 UTC on 2026-04-23 to 02:29 UTC on 2026-04-24. | Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere

 

[Luke Penney]

COD NEXLAB: Satellite and Radar is my go-to site for satellite imagery for the US (and some places beyond it). You have to do it not too long afterwards, because they only go a certain number of images into the past. (To get imagery from April 23 today, you can max out the number of frames and decrease the frequency of frames a little so it goes back far enough: COD NEXLAB: Satellite and Radar.)

 

[Randy Zipser]

COD NEXLAB: Satellite and Radar is my go-to site for satellite imagery for the US (and some places beyond it). You have to do it not too long afterwards, because they only go a certain number of images into the past. (To get imagery from April 23 today, you can max out the number of frames and decrease the frequency of frames a little so it goes back far enough: COD NEXLAB: Satellite and Radar.)

Thanks for that reference, Luke. I'll bookmark it.

 

[Mike Smith]

The Enid storm started developing well to the southwest of the ongoing Blackwell storm/tornadoes.

The Enid Tornado evolved on radar in much the same way as the 2022 Andover EF-3. What is interesting is there was rotation near the ground visible in the velocity data (on both storms) before there were reflectivity echoes over the area.

Makes getting maximum lead time challenging as who looks for rotation in a "no echo" area?

 

[Mike Smith]

BTW, did anyone see any of the 3 new NSSL DoW's on the storms?

DaNa and the NOAA press release said the data would be available in real-time; he has since clarified to "in the future." But, if they got data I'd like to see what they found.

 

[Boris Konon]

The Enid Tornado evolved on radar in much the same way as the 2022 Andover EF-3. What is interesting is there was rotation near the ground visible in the velocity data (on both storms) before there were reflectivity echoes over the area.

Makes getting maximum lead time challenging as who looks for rotation in a "no echo" area?

The 2022 Andover EF3 was spawned from a LP supercell. The Enid storm looked like it was on the wet side of classic. So "ghost" hooks apparently are not confined to LPs!

 

[Randy Zipser]

The attachment below shows a neat satellite depiction from GOES-EAST of the Cbs exploding over NE KS, SE NE and NW IA during the afternoon of 2026-04-23. I could not find a similar satellite sequence online for the OK tornadic storms, however I did see a brief video clip of that on WeatherNation this afternoon, so this does exist; on that graphic, the dryline, cold front, and triple-point were also displayed for reference. If anyone on ST knows where to access and can post the OK satellite imagery, I'd be most appreciative.

Daily | CIRA Satellite Library

P.S. I found this post on Facebook showing the OK storms; note the city lights of the OKC metro area at the bottom of the clip:

36K views · 267 reactions | Satellite imagery of the damaging tornadic supercells in northern Oklahoma earlier this evening and tonight. Details: This animation contains the GeoColor and infrared (band 13) products from the GOES-19 weather satellite. It spans the three-and-a-half hour period from 23:00 UTC on 2026-04-23 to 02:29 UTC on 2026-04-24. | Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere

With regard to Jason Stevenson's comment on the Facebook post "Ripples to the south...please don't pee on me and call it gravity waves!," the venerable Dr. Howie Bluestein might just disagree! Shortly after Howie published his excellent book, The Architecture of Clouds, in 2024, I had an e-mail discussion with him about that very phenomenon. These "ripples," or "cloud roll" formations, according to Dr. Bluestein, are a field of parallel Altocumulus castellanus or Cumulus humilis due to gravity waves associated with low-level jet (LLJ) moisture plume advection, and are commonly observed for several hours before supercell development on tornado outbreak days.

Since there are many examples of this for historical tornado outbreaks, could their presence also be a good, reliable indicator or precursor that severe weather is likely or imminent near the vicinity or region within, say, the next 6-8 hours? For that reason, perhaps logging onto DOD NEXLAB: Satellite & Radar website might be useful as a way to confirm a short-term forecast or nowcast while chasing in the field. Every tool or observation that could possibly give chasers "maximum lead time" to get into the right position should be taken advantage of...

 

[Randy Zipser]

BTW, I forgot to mention above that during my chasing days at OU in the TIP years, we always paid particular attention when Altocumulus castellanus (indicated by "ACCAS" on hourly obs) was visible from Norman by late morning to mid-day on potential Central OK chase days. This "rule of thumb" seemed to be a pretty reliable indicator most of the time for the Cbs to follow during the late afternoon/early evening hours. Back then, unlike nowadays, we didn't have fingertip access to hourly obs--unless nearby an NWS office--so we learned to "read" the cloud formations we were looking at. Specifically, we looked for sharp or sudden breaks in the moist-sector ACCAS field, where the ACCAS field gave way to overcast (indicating a cold frontal or anvil "debris" boundary) or disappearing (indicating a dryline). Of course, all such boundaries are focus mechanisms for future convection if they persist into the afternoon hours of maximum heating. A very simple, low-tech chasing tip that led us to a lot of chasing success back then...and it still can today!

 

[Mike Smith]

BTW, I forgot to mention above that during my chasing days at OU in the TIP years, we always paid particular attention when Altocumulus castellanus (indicated by "ACCAS" on hourly obs) was visible from Norman by late morning to mid-day on potential OK chase days.

Oh my gosh, Randy, you brought up one of the most successful forecast rules that I taught at WeatherData/AES the entire time. ACCAS becomes significant for thunderstorms after 12 noon local solar time. If you see significant ACCAS during the afternoon, look for thunderstorms in the region by evening; if you see them in the evening, thunderstorms will occur overnight.

You can't believe the resistance I received from young meteorologists who had never been taught anything but how to read models! On one occasion, I had to "order" a meteorologist to put thunderstorms into the late afternoon short-term forecast (nothing was on the models) for a client that was highly lightning-sensitive. Within two hours -- boom!

I have many more ACCAS experiences.

If only there was some way to teach experience.

 

[J Miller]

I didn't know if that was boundary zippering propagation or just nudgers, but if this is a boundary storm, then it certainly looks the part. Those tend to go tornadic pretty quickly because less storm interactions. I couldn't really figure out where said OFB came from, how it was draped, etc. I really want to see a timelapse of tornadogenesis before I start making calls on the evolution, but it seemed to have proper structure of a supercellular tornado as opposed to a hybrid. Storm/boundary interactions fascinate me to no end for some reason(probably my favorite thing in terms of storm dynamics outside of tornadoes and supercell processes themselves) and this is no exception.

 

[Randy Zipser]

I have many more ACCAS experiences.

If only there was some way to teach experience.

There is: print up a tee-shirt with the words in big red letters: FOLLOW THE ACCAS!
Wear it at every storm-chaser conference or informal chaser gathering...or for that matter, while chasing in the field! I guarantee that the current AI generation of chasers will come up to you and ask you what that means! A great chance to "teach" some of that old-time experience...

 

[Matt Zumbrunn]

BTW, did anyone see any of the 3 new NSSL DoW's on the storms?

DaNa and the NOAA press release said the data would be available in real-time; he has since clarified to "in the future." But, if they got data I'd like to see what they found.

They posted radar data on the Braman storm on the Doppler on Wheels facebook page. 38K views · 254 reactions | MiniCOW packs MegaPOWER! On April 23, we observed the birth and ingestion of a satellite tornado and Fujiwara effect around the parent Braman, OK tornado. The tornado transitioned two times between a clear eye and a debris ball. This is prelim data from our most powerful mobile radar, the 1 MegaWatt C-band storm-penetrating miniCOW. | Doppler on Wheels