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

[Andy Berrington]

Surprised there is not a dedicated reports thread for this event yet, as it was one of the more impressive N OK tornado events in recent years. I'll get it started with my first post in a long time given this was a top 5 chase in my career.

I left Norman solo at about 2 PM and drove north on I-35 to SR-51 westbound to Hennessey. I could see towers forming on the dryline to my northwest, so I decided to wait at the SR-51/SR-74 junction for awhile. The typical preconditioning cycle was going on, although there certainly wasn't much in the way of cumulus ahead of the dryline in the warm sector, which definitely had me a bit skeptical about the chances for initiation. Surface observations looked reasonable enough though, with temperatures in the mid 80s and dewpoints in the mid-upper 60s. There was a point where I nearly bailed south when some of the towers had gotten quite mushy and it seemed as though initiation would not happen (around 5 pm or so).

Driving south to Crescent, I did notice some pulsing in the TCu in my rearview mirror so I decided to stop in Crescent and check satellite/etc. Upon doing this, I saw a message from someone at OUN stating that the ascent was approaching N OK from the west. Deciding that the dryline in SW OK looked too diffuse and cirrus was beginning to overspread, I turned back north, only to find that the TCu had grown markedly in the span of about 5-10 minutes; they were wider, and resisting the entrainment that had killed updrafts all afternoon up until that point. The southern cluster of updrafts eventually developed a very healthy flanking line of about a half dozen strong incipient updrafts, so I figured this was the play for the time being. This was the developing stage of the Braman supercell and was concurrent with an observation of 86/68 at Blackwell.

Eventually the storm intensified rapidly, there was ~20-30 kt very warm/moist inflow at the surface, and a large inflow band formed on its forward flank. A wall cloud formed quickly and began rotating quite strongly, to the point of producing a number of short lived ground circulations and one definite tornado with a bowl funnel. At this point, I figured things were about to go quite well, although it took quite a long time (to almost the point of frustration) for the main show to begin, during which time I relocated E to where I was SSW of Braman in a wind farm. Eventually, the main tornado formed as some precipitation with the RFD wrapped around the backside, and then had the satellite carousel around it, which was incredible to witness. The tornado morphed into a number of shapes and sizes as well, and I loved the dark base above it adding contrast to the below photos...









After watching this show for about 15 minutes, the tornado eventually got wrapped in rain and disappeared from my vantage point. While the storm was definitely transitioning more to HP at this point, I decided to follow it a bit east to north of Blackwell. However, a closed road prevented me from getting east, which actually turned out to be quite fortuitous. Realizing I'd be behind the storm, it was becoming increasingly HP, and that terrain started to deteriorate closer to Ponca City, I abandoned the storm and drove to Blackwell. Checking radar, I noticed the new TEC forming near Waukomis and it immediately exploded, which was of course the incipient Enid storm. Immediately, I hopped on I-35 southbound to Perry, then took US-412 west as this now massive updraft was filling nearly the entire western horizon ahead of me. Eventually, I saw reports of a tornado in progress near Vance AFB and figured based on the radar signature that it would be visible, although I did not know precisely the magnitude of the tornado nor what it looked like.

Knowing I needed to quickly position myself given fading light, I turned south on SR-74 again towards Covington and eventually got a glimpse of the tornado to my west (which predictably led to a number of emphatic expletives, to say the least). Even from around 10 miles away, the motion was evident. This was a very intense tornado. Hurriedly, I stopped at the first open vantage point I could find and snapped some quick shots that managed to turn out alright of my first official violent tornado. Fortunately, this was not a fatal tornado and very fortunately, it did not track about 3 miles north through the heart of Enid. The tornado absolutely reminded me of Chickasha 2011 (well, actually all of the violent tornadoes from 5/24/2011 except for Lookeba and El Reno/Piedmont).





This marked the first time I have ever seen separate tornadoes on different storms on the same day. Not sure how I pulled this off, but I ended up with a total of 5 tornadoes including the Braman satellites. The lightning from the Enid cell was also incredible and I watched it for a time after the tornado left my view. Towards the end of the evening, I came up to the SR-74/SR-51 junction again, which was being used as a staging area for EMS heading to Enid. I chatted briefly with one of the firefighters and let them know that the tornado threat had lessoned, before driving back to Norman tired, but amazed at what I had managed to witness. What a day.

 

[Brett Roberts]

A fairly ridiculous day for me. While working at home in the afternoon, I somehow convinced myself the Red River target was worth the gamble based on assorted NWP guidance (which my subconscious probably cherry-picked to justify my increasingly desperate fixation on crowd avoidance). So I departed southwest from the OKC metro at 4pm, then sat at the Chickasha turnpike Love's until 5pm... when I had a wave of regret and panic wash over me while looking at vis sat trends. So I booked it north, endured rush hour traffic in the metro, and pulled off I-35 at Blackwell about 2 minutes before the main Braman tornado began. I photographed it and its early satellite from a good distance to the S, probably 4-5 miles. It felt rather futile trying to "get close" due to several factors, and I was so relieved to have made it in time that I was content to watch from a convenient spot on the highway.



As it began to rain wrap while approaching I-35, I shot over to the E side of the interstate and went N there. I caught brief glimpses through the rain of a stout cone while dodging flustered locals driving erratically, but by the time I was within 2 miles or so, the rain wrapping was severe enough that I never saw anything definitive again. It wasn't long before the overwhelming HP trend combined with the hordes made me happy to start heading S in hopes of something better down the dryline.

I should mention that while approaching the Braman/Blackwell storm earlier on I-35, two new updrafts were exploding just to its SSW as I passed by... and they had what I call "the look." Very low, flat bases, and an incredibly crisp appearance for incipient cells that weren't even very wide yet and perhaps hadn't produced their first CGs. This is the same look I saw on the dryline before Katie/Wynnewood 2016, Andover 2022, and a few others. Right then and there, before even seeing the Braman tornado, I said to myself: "something else is happening to the south later, take it to the bank." Here's a cellphone shot of these towers at 6:45p CDT looking W from I-35 somewhere around Billings.



Anyway, I got back on I-35, initially figuring to get on the tail end of the closely clustered cells extending WSW from Blackwell... but the Enid cell exploded fast enough that I abandoned that idea quickly. Enid became the clear target in short order. The problem was that even though it was just a hair S down the dryline, it was so far west. I booked it W on US-412, and before I'd reached halfway to Enid, was listening to simulcasts of a destructive and highly visible tornado I couldn't see at all from the distant ENE -- in fact, I could barely even see the storm structure! Figuring that a view was hopeless unless I got farther S, I took OK-74 down to the E-W road that goes into Fairmont. I was surprised and dismayed to find that road was gravel all the way to Fairmont, but didn't see any alternative options. So for about 10 min during what was likely the peak of Enid, I was pushing it W down that road in torrential forward flank rain and hail, at times able to make out the large cone-to-stovepipe ahead in the distance. The road became paved W of Fairmont, but the FFD was so bad that my speed was still limited by serious hydroplaning concerns.

By the time I could make a close approach, rain wrapping from the E and SE was quite severe, to the point I was worried about whether I'd be able to see the tornado clearly before getting potentially too close. But eventually a break in the excessive rain wrapping gave me a clear-enough view of the stovepipe 1-2 mi to my WNW, so I was able to proceed to the intersection of Southgate and 30th. From there, I watched it moving erratically about 0.5 mi to the N, and heard an imposing roar when I rolled down the window.



Light debris was scattered on the road, and more was actively falling. It soon looked like the stovepipe/drillbit might be drifting back S at me, so I had to turn around and reposition a quarter mile west on Southgate Rd. from the intersection. Here's a very poor quality handheld wide shot looking NE from there:



After a minute or two, the tornado began progressing E again rather quickly. Finally out of RFD precip, I was able to get some tripoded wide-angle shots at this time at the very end of its-rope out.



With twilight fading, I was more than ready to call it a chase after the rope out. But I didn't want to core punch again by going E, nor to interfere with the chaos in Enid by going W into the path. So I took a slightly longer route S and W to Waukomis, then S to Hennessey, E to Marshall, and S into the metro from there. During the 30-mile drive between Waukomis and Marshall, I must've been passed by 30-40 or more emergency vehicles headed the other direction. It was like nothing I'd ever seen during or after a chase, which made me fear a catastrophic situation in Enid with staggering casualties. So it was a huge relief to learn the next day that, despite a handful of injuries, the path was just barely far enough S to preclude a true disaster.

Overall, a dizzying and absurd whirlwind of a chase; one of those cases where a 4-hour period winds up feeling like 12. The Enid tornado is a textbook example of needing to look at the glass as half full as a chaser. When I saw Daniel Shaw's footage, it was undeniable that I could've snagged career-highlight photos and video (the type that make everything you see the rest of the year gravy) if I'd dropped the Blackwell storm only 10 minutes earlier, which I easily could've. But, on the other hand, I just as easily could've been stubborn about wanting to play the SW OK target just a hair longer and blown the day entirely. As April days with serious questions about any dryline CI go, I'll take this result.