6/13/2010 REPORTS: OK/TX

[Skip Talbot]

After chasing for five days in a row across most of the country and thinking I'd come home tubeless, I finally bagged a tornado for this Plains trip near Slapout, OK. I followed what looked like a junky linear storm that presented mostly shelf cloud from Perryton, TX all the way into the OK panhandle. The storm would wrap itself up on the northern periphery of the shelf and I saw it put down a brief, rain wrapped tornado. I was driving at the time and couldn't pull over in time to get a steady still so here it is... thousands and thousands of miles working my ass off for this brief, blurred, rain wrapped tornado... and it was worth it:

 

[J Trueblood]

*MODS This storm report includes some info from 6/12/10.
This weekend was my first opportunity to chase in Texas/Oklahoma since I got to Norman for the summer. (I got tere on the 25th so missed all the other storms) This was the first time I'd ever chased in the southern/central plains and had a BLAST.
We got to the Amarillo Texas yesterday right as the 'gorilla hail' was beginning to fail on the northern storm. We chased it down all the way up into Spearman, before heading back south to the Dumas storm. By time we arrived in Dumas the storm had gone tor warned. From my location a beautiful beaver tail stretched out as t was chugging into the stout updraft. We were SE of the storm when it took a hard right forcing us to sprint East and south. The main core went right over Dumas and we saw a very distinct, albeit not rotating, wall cloud. We then got blasted by RFD and called it a day since it quickly became HP. The day ended with a flat tire, so we stayed at a friends house in Amarillo. Being in Amarillo anyways we decided to chase today.

Our starting point was Canadian, Texas. When the storms began to fire we moved Northeast. We had a route to the Booker storm but got cut off due to a flooded stream. This forced us to backtrack into the storm that was trailing the initial cell. It went tor warned and we saw some great rotation, but it never put down.
We moved back south to get a glimpse of the incoming HP monster, then east, then north again and repositioned in front of it. We saw a funnel but it never produced for us either. This process pretty much continued with each cell getting more HP than the last, or so it seemed.

All in all, I am very happy with how this weekend went. It was my first REAL storm chase (as far as central plains) and the storms were HP, the road network was tough, and my wireless internet card was not getting any service. To anyone we met out there, it was very nice to meet you!

Pics will follow when I get back to Norman.


EDIT
I forgot to mention. For the first time ever, I was able to stand in the inflow notch of a big time supercell. Feeling that hot humid air against my back as it gusts into a powerful storm is amazing as everyone says it is!

 

[JR Hehnly]

After three days and 1800 miles of chasing I was finally able to catch the multi-vortex and later fully condensed tornado southwest of Slapout, Oklahoma. Began the day in Pampa. Drove north as the storms developed near Spearman. Was about to give up on it and drop to the more southern storms near Booker when it finally started wrapping up. Had incredible turquoise hues to it as I watched it from the south (east of Booker, I think) as the first tornado reports came in. Rain had wrapped completely around obscuring the tornado from my vantage point. Made my way east, then north toward US270 in the Oklahoma Panhandle skirting just east of the meso and was able to catch a few spin-ups on the surface a quarter mile or so to the west as I went by. After I turned east on 270 the tornado finally condensed all the way, though the rain was again wrapped around to the southeast side likely obscuring it from anyone south of the storm. After this lifted I saw a couple more funnels to the south, but I'm not sure any were ever in contact with the surface. Here's a photo from just west of Slapout. I'll post more on my site after I get some sleep.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Me and the TWISTEX crew bagged a pair of tornadoes; the first south of Elmwood and the second the Slapout tornado (always wanted one there, haha).

Looking west as the tornado crossed EW 34 Road at its biggest stage.

More pics and video to come on my website.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Fell behind the "Slapout" storm due to our road being washed out by floodwaters so we had to backtrack. Decided to drop south to the next storms in line but apparently too late and missing the tornados. Seeing as this was the last day of the trip and I had data I decided to wait for the big hail.

Added some new trophies to the chase ride [luckily no busted windows] thanks to these things.

Thanks to Bart Comstock [who was behind me] for picking them up to get a picture since once they started to fall I fled for shelter under a gas station awning.

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

Elmwood, Oklahoma Tornado

WOW Thanks to OFB and SPC extreme Meso Page http://www.youtube.com/user/TornadoAlleyVideo

 

[Mikey Gribble]

We were on the tornadic storm that went through Buffalo Oklahoma. We got on it west of Buffalo about 15 miles. It was a big HP beast. I'm not a big HP fan, but it was still a pretty cool looking storm. We got one weak short lived tornado west of Buffalo. It was brief and far from impressive, but a tornado none the less.
The gust front kept catching up to us and it was pretty damn strong. I am not good at judging winds, but they had to be around 70mph a couple of times. We just kept leep frogging along with the storm until the outflow totally took over and we ended up under a whales mouth. That was a nice end to the day. We timed it just right so that we were in rain the entire way from Buffalo back to Wichita. Other than the drive home it was an awesome day of chasing. I had a lot of fun. Here is a quick video clip from the weak tornado. I'll edit the full video and post some more stuff tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/user/loadedgunchasing#p/a/u/0/wZirg5KkiEo

 

[Bill Schintler]

We (www.twistertoursusa.com) chased two tornadic storms near Lipscomb, TX - my target posted 18 hours prior: http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?p=275195#post275195

We observed a largely rain-wrapped funnel or tornado from 2.9 miles north of Darrouzett, TX (the "Slapout" storm) - Slapout is 16 miles north of my target of Lipscomb - we were due south at that point so visibility was poor. We then let that storm go to chase one of two mesos further west. The second (most westward) produced a broad bowl-shaped lowering from out perspective looking due west from 7 miles north of Lipscomb...

- Bill

 

[BrandonWhittington]

Chased the Slapout Tornado as well..

Saw the initial tornado right on the border of the TX\OK. Then after that, the smaller tornado got hardcore rain-wrapped. Then a fairly large cone\wedge tornado emerged through the rain. Not sure exactly if it was the same tornado. The larger tornado stayed on the ground for a while and kept wrapping in rain. The tornado was quite large at times...

 

[Charles Kuster]

We also chased the HP tornadic supercell that formed near Perryton, TX and tracked northeast through the Oklahoma Panhandle. At first, the storm looked disorganized and outflow dominant as it moved north of Perryton, but that changed as it crossed into Oklahoma. It produced the first tornado at about 4:15pm CDT to the east of Elmwood, OK. This tornado transitioned from a multi-vortex tornado to a cone tornado at about 4:17pm CDT. We moved north and east with the storm and caught a brief view of what may have been a second tornado dissipating between 4:44-4:46pm CDT to the north of Slapout, OK. Congrats to all who saw storms yesterday!

Picture taken at 4:20pm CDT from about 9.5 miles west of Slapout, OK and is looking south.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2iw99he.jpg (Earlier stage of the first tornado. Picture taken at 4:16pm CDT from about 12 miles east of Elmwood, OK or about 5.9 miles northwest of Logan, OK and is looking south southwest.)

 

[Eric Bucsela]

...finally bagged a tornado for this Plains trip near Slapout, OK....so here it is... thousands and thousands of miles working my ass off for this brief, blurred, rain wrapped tornado... and it was worth it

lol, yeah one little torn sighting can make your day/year! Same deal for me, after spending the night before in KS, I got on the storm in Booker, TX and followed it to Slapout, OK. Intense rotation in the meso with rain curtains wrapping around, then the torn was visible for a couple minutes or so. Here's a photo of the torn and the mammatus show afterwards:

 

[Sam Barricklow]

Perryton / Booker, TX Tornado

I chased the Booker storm with Al Moller and my wife, Patti. We almost gave up on the storm southwest of Perryton, but stuck with it even though it appeared to be ingesting rain cooled, worked over air. Here are a few pictures from the chase. The first image was shot southwest of Perryton:

The next image was shot from the Allsup's in Booker showing the shadow of the tornado in progress, partially hidden by the rain curtains:

The next image is a combination of two images. Unfortunately, these were shot 30 seconds or so or more apart and do not line up exactly, but I think you'll get the general idea:

And finally, here's a photo of Carson Eads and Al Moller observing the storm from the west side of Laverne, OK. Al thoroughly enjoyed the chase.

Unfortunately, we never made the trek north from highway 15 due to timing issues, such as staying at one stop too long shooting photos.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Started the day off near Pampa, TX. Of course, storms were ongoing in the NE Panhandle, but I was trying to stay a little further south to get on more isolated stuff. Saw a nice storm firing SW of Miami and took off after it. It looked ok for a while, but it died a slow painful death. Decided to head up to Canadian as storms were ongoing near there. Got to Canadian and saw a pretty good storm to the west. Sat for a while and watched it, then decided to get closer. Headed to Miami, and then north from there. Got to a nice hilltop and watched a very nice supercell take shape with a great anvil and a textbook flanking line. Steve Miller TX pulled up and we chatted and watched the storm for an hour or so. It never even came close to producing a tornado, but it was still a great storm to watch. At dark, we decided to head home.

Storm NW of Miami, TX

Another view of cell NW of Miami

I don't know what Steve was measuring, but I hope it didn't involve me!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full report now online. Huge hail and a structure fire were the highlights

http://aerostorms.com/061310.php