Scott Weberpal
EF5
Caught a few tornadoes between Cherokee and Medford on SR11 just southwest of Wakita. Got fairly close to the tornado as it did some wild multiple vortex action over the road...
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5/10/10 REPORTS: OK/KS/TX
- Thread starter Scott Weberpal
- Start date
Michael O'Keeffe
We also caught a few tornadoes SW of Wakita, OK to Medford, OK. Below is a picture of the crazy multi-vortex beast SW of Wakita. Sorry for the blurriness.
sdienst
EF2
I was also on the storm early on western Grant county. We watched it prouduce a few brief tornadoes southwest of Sand Creek then we proceeded east where it touched down along SR11. I was east of the storm looking back towards it as it raced east towards it. Similar views as Scott but from opposite side. Eventually made it into Blackwell where we viewed >3" stones near I35 and lots of car damage.
Verne Carlson
EF5
Looks like Scott and I were very close! Watched the Cherokee, OK cell flirt with putting out a tornado when it finally did it made sure it was a good one!
This thing was spinning vortices on both sides of the road tearing off tree limbs, at least one farm house roof and was rolling 12 foot diameter metal stock tanks across the road and into the fields. After this it grew legs and completely out flanked us to the northeast. I saw numerous other rainwrapped touchdowns to my north. Too many to count. My excitement is tempered by the later death and damage in OK.
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Jeff Piotrowski
EF3
Oklahoma Tornados
Kathryn & I filmed too many tornados to count.
Nailed the tornado near Cherokee, Seminole, Henrietta, Lake Eufaula Wedge, and Checotah. Pics & Video ASAP.
Kathryn & I filmed too many tornados to count.
Nailed the tornado near Cherokee, Seminole, Henrietta, Lake Eufaula Wedge, and Checotah. Pics & Video ASAP.
Jeremy Jones
I got a late start to today, due to work matters. But I was able to catch up to the Super cell that went over Enid. I fortunately missed the 3"-4" hail that battered some vehicles at the Billings Exit, on I35. Not quite sure but there might have been an injury with the occupants of the vehicle at that exit. I decided to let that storm go, as I was already behind it. I did manage to stop and get a shot of the only 2 hail balls I could fit into my hand! I am SO glad I was a running a few minutes late!
Andrew Ryan
EF3
Crazy day today. Couldn't get out so thankfully the tornadoes came today. I believe there was a brief spin up in my apartment complex in Norman. This same storm dropped a much more violent tornado east of Norman. Will have video from inside the "tornado" in a bit.
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Elinor McLennon
Played the south targets. Caught the rotation in Edmond. Then raced south. Did not see the tornadoes south but arrived just after the Love's truckstop on I-40 was hit. Unbelievable that nobody was killed there. Saw the trucks and cars that were flipped off the highway. Made it further east to check damage but the roads were too clogged. Got pics I'll post later.
Chris Sokol
EF5
Caught a couple of brief spinups around Red Rock, while the big show occurred just miles from my house. Did attempt to go south for the 2nd round, but was cut off from the southerly routes in Tecumseh due to the damage from the earlier tornadoes.
I would like to add this, hoping that these folks are members here. East of Red Rock...about 1.5 miles East of Hwy 177 on a dirt road. There were two vehicles stopped in the road with several guys out watching the storms as they moved on Eastward. You guys are a prime example of what is wrong with chasing nowdays. I was in the blue van that stopped to see if you were aware of what was going on to the south. Your arrogance and rudeness were absolutely unbelievable. You are a prime example of why some people dislike chasers so much.
I would like to add this, hoping that these folks are members here. East of Red Rock...about 1.5 miles East of Hwy 177 on a dirt road. There were two vehicles stopped in the road with several guys out watching the storms as they moved on Eastward. You guys are a prime example of what is wrong with chasing nowdays. I was in the blue van that stopped to see if you were aware of what was going on to the south. Your arrogance and rudeness were absolutely unbelievable. You are a prime example of why some people dislike chasers so much.
Jeremiah Rosson
first off, congratulations to all who seen and caputred tornadoes.
We started our day fairly early from south of Tulsa. Initially targeted Perry, knowing storms would be flying we stayed east a little too long and could not catch the northern storm near wakita. Fortunately, another storm formed just south along 412 we could not see it as is was hit and miss but due to damage knew something was going on. We got out to 177 and headed north to possibly get better viewing. while driving captured about 60 secs of a spin up aqnd debri cloud. The storm lifted as it passed 177 and as everyone knows roads kept us from making another play.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have lost loved ones and sustained damage.
We started our day fairly early from south of Tulsa. Initially targeted Perry, knowing storms would be flying we stayed east a little too long and could not catch the northern storm near wakita. Fortunately, another storm formed just south along 412 we could not see it as is was hit and miss but due to damage knew something was going on. We got out to 177 and headed north to possibly get better viewing. while driving captured about 60 secs of a spin up aqnd debri cloud. The storm lifted as it passed 177 and as everyone knows roads kept us from making another play.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have lost loved ones and sustained damage.
CZandbergen
EF2
A lot of miles today but no tornado on the ground. Started out near Enid but decided to head south and east as I wanted to keep some distance from the dryline as the cell that eventually went through Medford was out of reach. Ended up on the cell that crossed I35 at Billings and saw a couple of funnels while on 412 still west of I35. I intended to take 77 north to intercept but didn't realize there was no exit on the Cimarron (chasing alone too much going on). Ended up taking the Ponca City exit and came up on a huge convergence about 19 miles south of Ponca. I decided to press on a bit and stopped about a mile to the north. I was right under the notch and the storm had three TVS markers pretty much over my head but didn't see what I would consider strong rotation.
After a minute or so the freshly plowed field to my west started kicking up dust and debris. No time to run so I hopped back in the truck and was immediately hit by what I would estimate as close to 100mph winds directly from the west with debris/rain/dust. The truck was rocking so much I was afraid it was going to go over. The whole episode lasted maybe 30-45 seconds. Just like that it was gone. Not sure if it was RFD a brief spin up or what but I rode it out hiding under the dash of the car. If anyone has video from a vantage point further south I would love to see it. Visibility was zero so I am in the dark as to what got me. However there was a power pole just down the road that was sheared off about 2/3's of the way. There was at least one other car a couple of hundred yards ahead of me so someone out there rode it out as well.
Decided I didn't like the road network on that storm and it was looking as though it would fall apart so I decided to see if I could rush SE to try to intercept the storm coming out of Norman. I headed down highway 99 and then 16 when it looked like the storm was headed toward Okmulgee but it turned right and by the time I got there I was going to have to punch the core to try to get to Henryeta. It had a confirmed tornado on the ground at that point and looked to be rain wrapped so I decided one close call for the day was enough and headed back to T town.
Very sorry to hear about the fatalities in OKC.
After a minute or so the freshly plowed field to my west started kicking up dust and debris. No time to run so I hopped back in the truck and was immediately hit by what I would estimate as close to 100mph winds directly from the west with debris/rain/dust. The truck was rocking so much I was afraid it was going to go over. The whole episode lasted maybe 30-45 seconds. Just like that it was gone. Not sure if it was RFD a brief spin up or what but I rode it out hiding under the dash of the car. If anyone has video from a vantage point further south I would love to see it. Visibility was zero so I am in the dark as to what got me. However there was a power pole just down the road that was sheared off about 2/3's of the way. There was at least one other car a couple of hundred yards ahead of me so someone out there rode it out as well.
Decided I didn't like the road network on that storm and it was looking as though it would fall apart so I decided to see if I could rush SE to try to intercept the storm coming out of Norman. I headed down highway 99 and then 16 when it looked like the storm was headed toward Okmulgee but it turned right and by the time I got there I was going to have to punch the core to try to get to Henryeta. It had a confirmed tornado on the ground at that point and looked to be rain wrapped so I decided one close call for the day was enough and headed back to T town.
Very sorry to hear about the fatalities in OKC.
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Bill Schintler
EF4
Got the storm that initiated southwest of Enid. Saw a funnel and a few brief ground circulations southwest of Ponca City, and expercienced extreme and damaging inflow winds (but very little in the way of RFD) in this location. We'll get some video here: (http://www.kcrg.com/weather/chase) soon - a crew from KCRG TV9 in Iowa is joining us this week.
EDIT: in response to CZandbergen post above...
We were in the same location as you, and experienced the wind (it might have been 100mph) and dust. But I believe the winds were out of the southeast until the circulation moved east of highway 177 - inflow?
- Bill
www.twistertoursusa.com
EDIT: in response to CZandbergen post above...
We were in the same location as you, and experienced the wind (it might have been 100mph) and dust. But I believe the winds were out of the southeast until the circulation moved east of highway 177 - inflow?
- Bill
www.twistertoursusa.com
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Me and my chase partners are some of the chasers that went home empty-handed today. We left Ames, IA at about 9 AM intenting to make Wichita by 4 PM. We did make that in time, but as we approached, we saw the monster tornadic supercell to the southwest near Wakita and decided to take a shot at it.
We managed to make it to 166 just as the FFD of the supercell began working in. We caught some hail...probably up to 1". It was sporadic though. We got through Arkansas City and sat on a hill a few miles east of town trying to see anything we could. Cloud bases were so low and there were trees everywhere, so we had great trouble seeing anything. We were in the inflow of the HP supercell and winds were howling, probably 40-50 mph out of the southeast. We could see a mass of black to our immediate west. Not sure what it was, though. As I tried to stand on top of a pile of cinder blocks, another chaser drove by and said, "Do you have radar?" I don't know who it was, but I'm guessing he was trying to tell me there was a beast heading straight for us. We got out of there and stopped every few miles trying to see anything, but the low cloud bases kept us from seeing much other than RFD and scud. We took "Road 8" north from 166 to 160 west of Sedan and Moline. Our driver Ryan performed excellently despite fishtailing and nearly losing it like 8 times.
We got to see how difficult it is to chase in that region of KS: crappy road network, crappy county roads, and terrible data coverage. My phone died for 2 hours and we were going blind for awhile. We're rewarded with a 400 mile drive home.
We managed to make it to 166 just as the FFD of the supercell began working in. We caught some hail...probably up to 1". It was sporadic though. We got through Arkansas City and sat on a hill a few miles east of town trying to see anything we could. Cloud bases were so low and there were trees everywhere, so we had great trouble seeing anything. We were in the inflow of the HP supercell and winds were howling, probably 40-50 mph out of the southeast. We could see a mass of black to our immediate west. Not sure what it was, though. As I tried to stand on top of a pile of cinder blocks, another chaser drove by and said, "Do you have radar?" I don't know who it was, but I'm guessing he was trying to tell me there was a beast heading straight for us. We got out of there and stopped every few miles trying to see anything, but the low cloud bases kept us from seeing much other than RFD and scud. We took "Road 8" north from 166 to 160 west of Sedan and Moline. Our driver Ryan performed excellently despite fishtailing and nearly losing it like 8 times.
We got to see how difficult it is to chase in that region of KS: crappy road network, crappy county roads, and terrible data coverage. My phone died for 2 hours and we were going blind for awhile. We're rewarded with a 400 mile drive home.
Mike Hollingshead
Saw the same tornado as Weberpal, etc south of Wakita. Ain't that twister town? lol I decided the storm wasn't ready yet so flew back east and went north towards Wakita. Pulled off not far from Wakita. It looked like cops had traffic stopped from coming south. I was pretty much the only car around in this location, which felt quite odd.
Pretty dang cool vorticy and rfd action there with all that. I wonder what it did just past that. Structure was pretty nice up there north of the track. I knew I was asking for it where I was but I didn't care as the tornado action looked to pass close to my south. First stone I saw was down right scary. Then a few more of those. I hope I got video of those when they were coming down but might have not been ready on those. Can't remember. These things made the hail bombs on the Oregon MO storm last year seem small. Seriously, these white streaks owned those things, as did their splats. This was just under the nw side of the meso/hook. The duration I saw these absolute monsters wasn't long at all before a lot of smaller stones took over.
I just wish I could describe that feeling as those white masses streaked down sporadically. Seemed about like bowling balls coming down, but again not many....but enough! The meso from that nw side right then was pretty sweet too, deep bowl with that intense area of rotation there that was producing the tornadoes. Really wonder what that area did as it went northeast more.
Then raced east for not much to show for it.
Pretty dang cool vorticy and rfd action there with all that. I wonder what it did just past that. Structure was pretty nice up there north of the track. I knew I was asking for it where I was but I didn't care as the tornado action looked to pass close to my south. First stone I saw was down right scary. Then a few more of those. I hope I got video of those when they were coming down but might have not been ready on those. Can't remember. These things made the hail bombs on the Oregon MO storm last year seem small. Seriously, these white streaks owned those things, as did their splats. This was just under the nw side of the meso/hook. The duration I saw these absolute monsters wasn't long at all before a lot of smaller stones took over.
I just wish I could describe that feeling as those white masses streaked down sporadically. Seemed about like bowling balls coming down, but again not many....but enough! The meso from that nw side right then was pretty sweet too, deep bowl with that intense area of rotation there that was producing the tornadoes. Really wonder what that area did as it went northeast more.
Then raced east for not much to show for it.
Wes Carter
EF5
Started the day in Woodward, OK and headed East with an intitial target area of Tonkawa, OK. We decided to go a bit South to grab a bite to eat at noon in Perry and found out that VortexII was there. Grabbed a quick bite and a splash of gas and decided to head South to Griffin where the cloud cover was clearing. Went there, and noticed the cells popping up near where we spent the night. So we headed back North and went after the Wakita/Medford cell and saw a nice multi-vortex tornado become rain wrapped just north of Medford on SR81. We then headed East on 11 and could not keep up with the cell, it was hauling donkey. We then tried for a cell heading to Ponca City but could not get South of it. Storm motions were ridiculous. There was some damage to a casino just South of Ponca on 177.
Photos taken by chase partner Allan Detrich
Photos taken by chase partner Allan Detrich
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