5/10/10 Chase Recap

Yesterday we had a successful, frustrating, exhilarating, and stressful chase. We got a later start than we wanted in the morning, so by the time we reached our target area, storms had already fired and even gone tornadic to our north. Since my original thought was to play the KS/OK border, I do have to say that a very impressive storm dropped a string of tornados and softball sized hail along the border on the OK side. We were too late to intercept this northern cell. Since I was torn between Ponca City and Stillwater as a target, we decided to split the difference and set up right between the two. We stopped two miles east of I-35 along Hwy. 77 just north of Hwy. 15 near the small town of Ceres. At the time, we were watching a cell develop on radar. It originally initiated along the dryline just north of Clinton, OK. It continued to develop and move northeast towards Enid. Even before the cell was developed, we decided that it was going to be our target. As the cell neared Enid it took and right turn and became tornado warned. We were perfectly positioned to intercept. As the storm approached, we realized a we needed to reposition a couple miles south to get out of harm's way. We ultimately set-up about a mile south of Hwy 15 and had a perfect visual of the storm's mesocyclone as it moved east. As the storm approached we experienced some very strong inflow winds. I estimate we had gusts in the 60 mph range. The backs of my legs got sandblasted as I shot video towards the WNW. I shot quite a bit of HD video of the storm as it continually rotated and kept forming small wall clouds and funnels. I will be bringing you some video clips in the next few days. I could not tell if any of the funnels reached the ground. I was not able to see any debris clouds but the NWS storm surveys being conducted will show if any of these funnels touched down. As the storm moved ENE of our position it did drop at least one confirmed tornado just to the north of the town of Red Rock. At this time, we were following behind the storm along Hwy 15. We stopped along the side of the road near Red Rock and saw one quick tornado very briefly touch down and dissipate a few hundred yards to our north. From our vantage point we were not able to see the main tornado but we saw evidence of it's existance as we turned north on Hwy 177 to catch back up to the storm. A small indian casino had sustained minor damage and a power pole had been snapped off. By this point, the storm was racing off to the east and we were faced with a serious lack of road options. Our only option was to blast north to Ponca City and try to catch up to the storm along Hwy 60 moving through the Osage Indian Reservation. We caught back up to the back edge of the storm near Burbank and continued to follow it to the east. I was not able to shoot any good video as we were moving at 60 mph and the storm was mostly rain-wrapped. I will be interested to see what the storm survey shows from this storm because it appeared to drop multiple short-lived tornados as it quickly moved east. At one point as we crested a hill, we were able to see dual tornados to our east. They disappeared however as we descended into another valley and a rain curtain wrapped around behind them. After that, we made the decision to core punch the storm to attempt to get out ahead of it. There was a small area of rotation on radar to our south and another to our north. I figured there would be blinding rain but no hail and that it was safe to proceed. We safely navigated through the storm and followed it for a few more miles. We followed the storm as far east as Pawhuska at which point we made the decision to peel off from the cell as it appeared to be weakening.
At that point, we were captivated by the cell that produced the deadly tornado near Oklahoma City. It continued to have a large tornado reported on the ground as it raced eastward paralleling I-40. Even though it was a long-shot to catch the storm, we made the decision to head southeast to try to intercept the storm as it passed south of Muskogee. As we travelled down the Muskogee Turnpike, southeast of Tulsa, it became evident that we were not going to be able to get ahead of the storm. Once again, we would have to core punch the storm. Had we continued on at the same pace, we would have driven straight into the tornado as we neared I-40. Thanks to some skillful radar and map work on my behalf, we stopped along the road couple miles north of the tornadic circulation. We experienced blinding rain and some pea sized hail but were no worse for the wear. After I was confident that the circulation was a couple miles to our east, we continued south and actually drove through the western edge of the hook echo. By the time we reached I-40 we were out of the precipitation along its flanking line and were able to parallel the storm to the east. Due to bad terrain, waning light, and a serious lack of road options, we were unable to get close to the storm. We continued to parallel the storm as it moved off to the east about 10-15 miles north of us. We decided that we would make one more play for an intercept just across the Arkansas line north of Ft. Smith. At this point, the storm had moved into a much less favorable enivronment and over very rough, mountainous terrain. We figured it was our last chance to see anything and that the storm would quickly weaken. We set up shop along I-540 south of the small town of Chester. We were able to see a nice lightning illuminated wall cloud but nothing more. After we waited a few more minutes for the trailing precipitation to move east, we decided to call it a day. We headed north on I-540 through the Fayetteville, AR area, picked up I-44 in Joplin, and headed back to St. Louis, arriving home a little after 4:00 am.
The frustrating point was that due to very fast 50-60 mph storm motions and a lack of good road options, especially on the Osage Indian Reservation and in eastern OK, it was very hard to get back in good position once the storms had passed us. We were caught on the tail end of the storms and unable to get an unobstructed view of the tornados. We were able to see a couple tornados, but unable to set up shop in order to get good pictures and video. It was also frustrating that, while our storm was tornadic, we missed the devastating Norman, OK tornado.
The stressful part was taking gambles on the storms. We made some gutsy calls and maneuvers. While they didn't completely pay off, they were successful and we stayed safe in the midst of potentially dangerous situatons. It took an immense amount of concentration and a pinpoint knowledge of location to keep us out of danger.
Given all of our experiences, it was a successful chase. We saw a couple tornados, at least, and were able to avoid danger. I was also able to get some very good video with my new camera. It was the kind of chase that draws you back for more. We experienced a little bit of Great Plains magic and are ready to go experience more.