I began doing research on severe storms using the internet sometime in 1995, beginning with zero knowledge of storm structure or forecasting. (The March 28, 1984 tornado outbreak in my area (eastern NC) was the catalyst for me. I was 9 then when people died in brick homes less than 10 miles to my NNW just after the sun set that evening.) In the spring of 1997 after about 18 months of studying, I began storm chasing. And I chased for 10 years thereafter, mostly in the trees and hills of NC/SC/VA. My worst scare weatherwise from chasing came 1 year later March 20 1998 when I mistakenly drove directly into rain wrapped circulation crossing I-440 in Raleigh. My rookie mistake that day was assuming the radar data I was using was live, when in fact the meso was WAY farther northeast. I stopped chasing regularly in 2007 due to the gas price hikes and other personal reasons, but still keep up to date with model reading and SPC forecasts most days, looking down the road for any supercell-favorable 500mb flow days across the country. Like Tim Samaras said in one interview, I really couldn't tell you why I storm chased, only that I was drawn to it from childhood. My point is, even with 18 solid months of almost daily internet research, and a year of experience 'in the field' chasing multicells and lewps, and even arriving late on a couple supercells in the trees in 1997, I was not prepared for my first tornadic encounter, and had that tornado been intense there's a high probability it would had been my last. The learning curve for beginners is steep, and is 100 % neccessary to really have even a snowballs chance of safely 'chasing' a tornado, and even then I/we all know the risk we are taking.
The El Reno tornado Friday: 1. I've never witnessed a tornado/meso behave like it did after it crossed 87 south. And the NWS analyses now are horrific of what really happened at that time. The storm expanded from ~1mi to ~2.6mi in ~1/2 minute, made the 75 degree turn left, and developed and rotated subvortices already rotating near 300mph with a forward movement/propagation of ~180 mph. All the while the entire mesocyclone of the HP supercell is dropping to the ground. Add to that: ~3 miles SE of the monster wedge an anticyclonic tornado touched down. I am still shocked/sad/angry we lost our friends Friday. I initially thought after hearing the news Sunday morning that if I discovered every single detail I could as to why, that it would help. It's Wednesday now, and there are no more unknowns of what went wrong I can imagine to look for, and knowing most of the details hasn't (and likely won't) helped me reach any closure.
