5/10/10 REPORTS: OK/KS/TX

[BHastings]

Ron R. and I intercepted a cell north of Nash, OK on Hwy 132 as it spun up multiple funnels, fairly close to us. I will try to post a picture of one that seemed to have three distinct vortices as it went over.

Had trouble getting back on it after it screamed by due to storm speed and our location on the road. We wanted to hang back from the dryline with a little leeway in how to approach cells that were forming, but after chasing the northern cell, found ourselves spending the rest of the day trying to catch the cells forming to the south, but found ourselves consistently struggling due to the crazy storm motion, road network issues, and a lack of desire to core punch. Still managed to get into position on several cells east of Ponca City, but despite some moments that implied they were about to produce a funnel, never quite got their act together while we were watching. Congrats to those who got much better results.

Thoughts and prayers to those affected by the storms.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Saw numerous funnels, but can't say for sure I saw a tornado. From the reports I'm reading, I either just missed the multi-vortex tornado people are reporting here or fell behind the storm as it produced it. All in all, experienced everything but the tornado, so I am satisfied considering the situation. Unfortunately also reminded of the damage that nature can do.

more can be found at...
nmstormchase.blogspot.com

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Joel Wright and I got a nice cone tornado near Zenda, KS. We originally went after the cell that produced the Wakita tornado, but we figured we wouldn't be able to catch up to it (were punching east, then try to get south before we got cored). That storm was an absolute A-bomb of an updraft.

We opted for the storm to its northwest, which was also very impressive and much easier to intercept without worrying about losing a windshield. Turned out to be a good idea. Skipping ahead quite a bit, it finally put down a fairly short-lived, fat cone tornado right around Zenda. There was only one other person on the road we were and they appeared to be locals.

Anyway, below are a few pics. I will upload video later and post it up.

EDIT: Just uploaded video here....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQQv13UQNDA

 

[weskranz]

South Side

I played the southern targets in Oklahoma this afternoon due to work commitments. This actually turned out quite nice since the roads were totally vacant. I initially targeted Pauls Valley but never even made it that far due to the 3 cells that popped to the southwest around 5:00. After treking through pounding rain on 76, a nice rain-free base appeared south of Healdton (about 1/4 mile north of 70). It rapidly spun up a tornado with significant debris just after 6:00. I watched it blow over the road and through some fields before roping-out. Unfortunately my camera locked as it flew over the road, but I did catch it just on the other side.

I also caught the tornado in Ennville on 32 NE of Marietta. Brief touchdown with very minor damage.

 

[Eric Bucsela]

It was a tough day to chase - congratulations to everyone out there who caught some of these fast moving storms, and to the few of you who managed to glimpse a torn or two - some of your photos are beautiful!

Here's what I saw of the tornado just west of Medford, OK. It evolved so quickly from a needle funnel to a near wedge - and then disappeared in the rain - that I barely had time to stop the car and grab a couple quick pix. After that, I never caught up with the storms. And unfortunately they went on to do a lot of damage.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Good job to everyone who managed to catch stuff despite needing a Bugati to keep up with the storm motion. Staying ahead was the name of the game, and what a day i had as well, starting with the storm near Medford / Wakita from early initiation to multi-vortex, then jumping on the storm east of Ponca City and seeing two tornadoes nearly simultaneously (one in the distance near Pawnhuska and one to my north near Shidler, OK).

Above: Convective initiation of the soon-to-be Medford, OK storm about 50 miles to my WSW, coming at me at 55 MPH.

Above: Multi-Vortex / dusty wedge phase of Wakita / Medford tornado.

Above: Multi-Vortex tornado appeaching Renfrow, OK near Highway 81.

Above: Second tornado on another supercell east of Ponca City and south of Shidler, OK.

 

[Chris Sokol]

The power plant off to the east had huge coal dust billows coming up.

So that is what that was! We couldn't figure it out...thought it was smoke for a bit, but it didn't have the right substance to it. That and the local fire Dept did not seemed too concerned with it.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Wichita KS was my target. Then jumped SE to Derby and Mulvane KS. Basically I shuttled between the three on K-15. Had to move when what appeared to be a spin-up near Derby. It looked promising for about thirty minutes; then a couple of storms merged, struggled to form a a hail core, and then fell apart. So did my laptop's hard disk (the 'click, click, click of death' - then the BSOD) after I just bought a Verizon air card and 5 gb service. On the bright side, I didn't get hit by that big hail if I had made Enid my target; I passed on that.

Not a real happy day for me; I have to get another hard disk and reprogram it all over again.
Spent a bunch of money on a few needed things and have to start over.

Oh well, I am grateful to have seen that black monster before it fell apart over Wichita. Saw some great storm motion - heh. I got this laptop wired together with tape, spit, and chewing gum before I can fix it. Hope to have this replaced with a solid-state hard drive and ready for the next few weeks.

Congrats for those who bagged and got some really great shots.
It was fun as it was.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

Started in Medford, Moved West to Wakita then dropped south through Nash and Jet, and jumped on the northern OK cell before it dropped anything. It showed some nice structure but nothing which indicated to me a tor was imminent so I headed east again, and made the mistake of not heading back north at Nash to Wakita. Storm motions were so insane that I would have struggled to beat the meso back to the main east/west highway if I had but I'm sure I'd have seen the cool first multivortex tornado. Instead I hauled ass east, then set up north of Medford again. Got to witness the second multivortex tornado wedge out north of Medford, but then got stuck in a chaser traffic jam trying to catch up. Just missed being able to beat the Seminole storm whilst heading south, but didn't fancy core punching. Same thing later on with the cell south of Muskogee. If storm motions had been 10kt lower, I'm sure I'd have had half a dozen tornadoes rather than just one!

 

[Eric Treece]

Ben Holcomb and I started out near Tulsa after I had a planes, trains and automobiles trip to get there to rendezvous with him. We headed towards Enid and intercepted the tornadoes near Medford and Wakita. We tried to keep up with that storm but the after burners simply didn't keep up with it. Doing that caused us to kind of get out of position but we did catch a couple of other brief tornadoes east of Ponca City. After that we headed south out of Tulsa again and intercepted the storm that did all the damage in the OKC metro near Muskogee. The inflow winds to this storm were crazy, but it was all done producing tornadoes by the time we caught it. Pictures coming soon!

 

[Adam Lucio]

A crazy day indeed.

Medford was my target city so we sat their and waited. We went after the first blips that would eventually become the massive supercell that dropped the Wakita tornado.

We got into some golf ball hail near Cherokee which caused us to fall a bit behind the storm. We caught up to it by punching through the back side of the massive hook, eventually on 64 we were under a massive circulation as multiple vorticies spun up less than 100 yards away from us, watched a roof get ripped off and flung into the air.

After that we tried like hell to catch the storm nearing Ponca City but the traffic lights got the better of us and we were soon in the unfavorable terrain. We finally got a decent view west of Pawshuska Where we caught a brief trunk tornado.

A pretty exciting chase, congrats to all and my deepest thoughts are with the victims.

Full log will be up in a couple days.

 

[BrandonWhittington]

Was on the same storm that went southwest of Wakita, ok...This storm was tough to stay with and when we finally were in a good position, Cluster bomb of storm chasers (chaser convergence) slowed everything down, putting us in a very scary and dangerous situation...

After getting caught in the mass of chasers on the highway, Multiple vortex tornado literally dropped right in front of us. Trees were falling all over the place and power lines\poles fell as well...Here are some video grabs of how close we were..



Also, There was a group of chasers that need to get some stuff right and be a whole lot more respectful... DONT pull out in front of traffic to be the 1st there!!! There was a line of chasers cruising down the road in good manner and all of a sudden, several idiot chasers just flew off a county road and cut off everyone. They even tried to squeeze in between the cars...Totally rediculous and disrespectful!!!!!!

Was there anyone else on this storm that experience these people, and get caught up and get lots of damage to their vehicles?????

 

[Doug Mitchell]

Today was a frustrating but intense day. Left Lawrence and got on initial convection in NW/NC Oklahoma. Data went out on 81 near Renfrow, OK but by looking at the last couple of radar grabs, determined the storm was turning right and ended up on dirt roads east of Renfrow when I got data back. Nearly shat my pants when I saw the couplet, about 5 miles to our west. Only saw a big black mass with no discernible tornadic features and made no real effort to stop and view it. Really didn't feel like messing around with a possible mile wide + tornado booking it right at us on crappy dirt roads at 55-60mph. Inflow winds gusting to 70mph kicking up dust + haze made visibility a real pain as we got out ahead of the storm a bit as we crossed I-35.

Encountered some minor damage on the east side of Arkansas City, Kansas. Signs, trees and power poles down. Sheet metal wrapped around power lines. A wall collapsed on an old brick building.

Later caught up with another t-warned cell firing off the dryline near Sedan, Kansas. Had okay looking structure for about 15 minutes then got choked off and died.

 

[James Langford]

Tough chase day today with the insane storm motions. Started from DFW with my friend Colin around noon. We were targeting the area around OKC initially. My nowcaster informed us of several large cells that had formed near Lawton, OK, and we quickly headed in that direction. Shot video for a while SW of OKC near highway 37 and 4. Watch several very nice wall clouds with small funnels move by, and experienced some insane inflow winds. The last cell in the line had a beautiful RFD notch, and looked perfect for tornadogenesis, but didn't product at that time. This cell raced to the NE, and went on through OKC where it became tornado warned. The rest of the day we spent playing the cells as they fired along the dry-line back south towards DFW. A crazy day with not a lot to show for it. Pics and video later.

 

[Austin Funderburgh]

Targeted the Chandler, OK area. Good idea, poor execution. Left Chandler westbound on 44 just a bit too late. In hindsight, I shouldn't have gone that route anyway. I knew about the 20 mile stretch from Wellston to I35 with no exit options, and was certainly aware of the exorbitant storm motions but I thought I could make it to I35 and still be in front of the storm anyway. Wrong. Just started raining when I was about a mile away from the I35 exchange. Throw in a little rush hour metro area traffic and you have yourself one regretful decision. If only I'd gone south out of Chandler and west on 40...

In hopes of avoiding more interstate rush hour traffic I decided to head back east on highway 62. Might be another questionable decision but I believe I'd have been behind the storm either way. I ended up on Choctaw Road at almost exactly the same time that the Love's on Choctaw Road was hit, I was just 6 miles north of it. The highlight of the day came at 5:42 in Harrah where I was heavily rained upon by leaves and other light debris. Very impressive sight. I'm looking forward to reading the NWS report on that part of the storm.

I then tried to make a play on the second round that came fresh off the dryline, to no avail. That effort was hindered by the storm speeds and road closures/blockages around Tecumseh, where there was considerable damage.

Overall just a tough chase so I'm not too disappointed, just looking forward to more manageable setups this season. Congrats to those of you who had more successful chases and of course, my thoughts are with those who lost property or loved ones.

PS - Thank you to all of you respectful, courteous chasers. Makes me sick to hear about the morons who, thank goodness, didn't cause a major tragedy today.