My goodness!!
Not sure what else can be said about this day, but I'll try! Everything's pretty much a blur right now. I also saw 3 tornadoes, including one very dramatic-looking one from the Chapparal (sp?) High School parking lot right at nightfall about 9 to 9:10pm.
#1 was perhaps 5 miles south of Medicine Lodge. Didn't see it start, but got some video once we got up on a hill and looked to the east southeast.
#2 was very intense for me. I was behind two other chasers and we headed east into Attica. A few miles outside of town, sporadic golf balls with a few tennis balls started up. Once into town, I noticed their vehicles ducking for cover wherever a spare carport was available. I found mine off the main street and was scanning around for a clear view. I didn't like having the trees around at all. I looked up into an opening and saw a clear slot developing basically overhead. With no hesitation, I bolted west out of town in a *hurry*. Got about a mile west of town and started shooting video of the entire (at least to my eye) life cycle of the Attica tornado. I couldn't quite see the base due to trees and I was very concerned about the town.
After it dissipated (just guessing elapsed time was about 10 minutes, it will be interesting to see what the tape says) I filmed a local who picked up a legitimate baseball on the side of the road. I needed a little time to regroup and eventually I crossed past the roadblock on a couple of dirt roads to the north and east of Attica. There was very little rain and no lightning that I noticed.
Kept hearing ALL SORTS of chasers on some storm off to the east/northeast of Attica. Drove east for a while and from the back, we got in heavy rain and quite dark conditions. Now it wasn't easy at all to make out what was going on. Unsure of what time this was. Perhaps 8, 8:15? After the close call in Attica, I wasn't willing to try punching and seeing the other side.
Bailed south at the Hwy 2/160 intersection and by now it was almost dark. Saw some lowerings in the thin slice of dull orange off to the west. Pulled into the Chapparal HS parking lot and filmed. At 9pm, a new tornado formed (estimated) 3-4 miles to my west. Called it in to 911 just in case. It looked like it meant business. Had nightshot on and again, I'll be curious to see how it looked. This tornado became a real nice elephant trunk and got closer as it moved to the northeast. Not sure who might have seen this one. My impression was that most chasers had gone off to the northeast a ways.
The Chapparal HS tornado got closer and it was fully dark by now. Fairly frequent lightning helped. I didn't like the closeness and bailed back to the south on 160. Ran into some friendly local cops. One guy was from Attica and he confirmed for me that nobody was hurt in Attica. I did shoot video of the house that got whacked. It was on its own, about 1/2 to 3/4 mile east of Attica. Attica itself did NOT get hit. The house had the roof completely gone and a few nearby trees were basically stripped. Looked F2'ish to me. Maybe F3. I'll let the experts debate.
Kept hearing more chaser reports of a large tornado during the 9:15-10pm timeframe. I'd be curious to see their GPS logs. I'm low-tech and don't have that yet. I didn't want any more trouble and I broke off toward Arthur. Found a few folks who were closing up McDonalds. One had a scanner and all sorts of reports of road closures (mostly 160) coming in. Hoped to God that nobody had gotten hurt and no chasers had gotten munched. Lacking radar, I had no desire to go back toward the hot spot. But I bet it was tasty.
In Enid, and need to sleep and get ready for tomorrow.
Thanks to those who helped. Special props to Tony for his wi-fi and laptop help in Hays on Tuesday night. Tony, I've got wi-fi here at the Ramada in Enid! It works, LOL.
