Gorky

I was on the same storm, pretty much under the meso as it started to develop a wall cloud. I chickened out punching back East under the meso as I thought it could drop at any time, but the as I looked for alternative paths, I pretty much was screwed by a river which none of the county roads crossed. I headed north to Taloga then East behind it in it's wedge state. Was stuck behind oversized vehicles for most of the way and a cell went up over me dropping lots of rain and slowing traffic more. Never saw the wedge. Saw an intense ropeout with tons of dusst and debris flying about. House took a glancing blow losing some of the roof and the entire building looked twisted. Owner was ok and phoning family ahead of the storm to warn them. A grove of trees on the opposite side of the road had taken the direct hit and were splintered and partially debarked. The tornado crossed a mile ahead of me and dissipated maybe a mile on from that house. Had to help clean debris from the road and watched another nice elephant trunk tornado in the distance which was horizontal for a length before touching down displaced from the meso by some distance. Didn't get that on camera as I was 100m up the road from my car lugging roof material off the highway. Tried playing catchup but was not interested in punching any cores over about 35vil Got ahead of the storm by Stillwater eventually. Couldn't find a good vantage point and it was rain wrapped so headed south. Same issue with the tornadic cell north of Okemah which I let go despite being in position to intercept. Headed east to position for tomorrow and get some lightning shots. Also, I suspect there has been a very strong tornado pass East of Fort Smith. Had incredibly strong Northerly winds in Sallisaw as the storm passed south of me indicative of a strong circulation to the south. Given it's now night, it gives me cause for concern for those parts of AR

And there are the tornado warnings. A couplet at 630ft above ground on radar moving north of Fort Smith. That thing went just south of my motel!

That was intense... must be something spinning up to my south as that was 70mph+ winds from the north. Not outflow winds....

Hoooooolllly Crap it's windy out! They just upgraded the Tstorm warning to 90mph gusts.... I'm not surprised. entire motel is shaking!

Sat in Sallisaw at the moment. Amazing light show, but looking at the radar.... a rough night ahead. Hoping those cells heading right for me don't go tor warned...

Storm north of me has a nice couplet but it's just way too foresty here so I'm giving it a miss. tor warned cells will be heading in my direction from the South west so I'll have to keep an eye out.

I made a bad road choice eaarly and missed the wedge phase of the tornado west of watonga. Caught the rope out as it crossed the road a mile in front of me but it unfortunately hit about the only house for a mile and debris blocked the road. Not able to catch up after that. Saw a second tor as the storm sailed away. Heading to Ft Smith to prepare for tomorrow.

I'm in Watonga. Cell gone up to me WSW and it should head right towards me. Should be one of several rounds of storms to fire off the dry line. I expect the later storms to be the more prolific tornado producers as the upper support arrives late afternoon.

Anyone got a map with a higher EHI scale on? :o Link Last time I saw such a large area maxed out on these maps was April 27th....

Rope tornado near Okeene. Was on the ground with faint dust swirl to start with then the more focused area below for about 4 minutes. During all 4 minutes, I forgot to hit record on the camera. Set up focus and everything else.... Doh! Still.. wasn't exactly the biggest tornado to grace this planet.... Structure on the Kingfisher cell near nightfall. Large hail which fell in Edmond at the hotel I'm at. Luckily the large stuff (2.25 inches at least as it's wider than my credit card) was very sparse with most being quarter to golfball maximum. Car survived ok! The most stressful bit of the day was near Enid. Storms had been moving ENE and right moving East all day. A storm just north of me grew a hook right over me and started moving SE. Another storm had formed behind with a couplet too so no going back. Once I got a radar update with VIL maxed ontop of me and a 120kt couplet on top of me, I bailed south on the first non mud road I could. Winds were easily 50mph from the north wrapping round the back of the hook and so precip filled I had no idea if there was something in the rain ahead of me. (North winds meant I was behind any circulation at least but liable to get hail wrapping around towards me). With the exception of the first storm, they were all very outflow dominant. Complete lack of any notable 0-1km helicity probably did the tornado threat in. That certainly won't be the case tomorrow...

David Hoadley has to come to mind. He saw his first tornado in the 50's, started chasing regularly in the 60's amd still chases today... Oh,he also started StormTrack (the magazine version pre-internet). He's a proper legend, no offense to Paul and company

The storm came over me in Edmond with the core dropping hail primarily quarter size (1") with the occasional a little over 2" albeit irregular in size. Most of the storms today exhibited very strong circulations in the midlevels but couldn't produce more than funnels. Saw a rope tornado up near Okeene earlier but that was one of only 2 reports today in OK.

It appears that you were behind the cell taking lightning also. Can't have been more than a few miles down the road when I decided to call it a night. Wish I'd been in position sooner to take stills. Highlight of the chase today was riding out a nice core just west of Ada (the cell with the lightning) hail was dime to quarter size and just as the quarter size stuff started to fall, this poor couple rides in on their Harley wearing nothing but shorts and t-shirt (no helmets). They were soaked through and only just avoided a pummeling by 1" hail which I don't imagine would have been fun. They were grateful I was able to confirm when the worst would be over and which route to take to avoid any trailing storms.

I'm in the Days in in Norman catching up on the days events up in Missouri and Minneapolis. One of the guys I was with in Ada was from Minneapolis so some tense moments earlier. I was probably on the same storms as you. Very grungy. Not too photogenic. Made a brief bid to go for the Tulsa storms but bailed when I lost net connection. Some truly horrible footage coming off TWC. Looks like another high end EF4/EF5 going through a heavily populated area. What is it with this year.... All or nothing..

SPC mesoanalysis is showing 9500 cape, still capped, in and around Midland, Tx and that was the 11am sounding. Certainly some major instability out there this morning! With such values, I'm less worried about any veered windflow as I'm sure the strong inflow into such cells creates their own little environment with heightened helicity.

Gonna try and avoid the dead end mud roads leading to farmers fields, this May 22nd Dom't want a repeat of last year

Original Chase target as of Yesterday was Topeka, Kansas. I even shot up to Salina yesterday to be in position. Looked at the morning models and the veered winds didn't appeal to me at all (or the SPC who never put out more than a Severe Thunderstorm watch). I liked the combination of good helicity and cape near Ardmore but the obvious concern was the cap. Well 'he who dares wins' more often than not leads to a bust in Storm Chasing but luckily not today. Still, a 5 hour drive down I35 commenced! I was sat at a scenic turnout midway between Ardmore and Davis watching the Topeka radar lighting up. Multiple tornadoes up there as the winds ended up backing very nicely contrary to early morning models which only progged a slight improvement. It was about 5:30 before the first TCU started to really look like they would break the cap and at about 6pm, the storm was Severe Thunderstorm warned as I drove right beneath the bears cage through Davis. As I got through Sulphur, I noted a brief needle funnel over halfway to the ground. I drove to the top of the hill and pulled over but it had dissipated having apparently briefly touched down. I sat on the hill East of Sulphur and watched the RFD drive in and spin the meso crazy fast just a hundred yards north of me over a field. How it didn't drop I don't know as it was very quick motion. Lots of lowerings and a couple of funnels but no touchdown. I moved East to a N/S highway (7 I think) where I witnessed a multivortex funnel to my West with 2 funnels over halfway to the ground and a 3rd funnel to the north shown below from a separate mesocyclone. I moved north and repositioned and then managed to lock myself out of the car. Whilst figuring out I could get back in using the keyless lock system, another tornado dropped down. My camera was facing at it, stuck in the car but not being able to get in, I couldn't set manual focus and the video moved between in focus and out.... This tornado was fairly brief before the storm reorganised with 2 more notable mesocyclones both producing lowerings/funnels. There were quarter sized hailstones and slightly larger around this area. As I moved East, the storm consolodated one ground scraping wall cloud which rotated unbelievably fast. The photo obviously doesn't do this justice but I have some amazing video showing this. The RFD cut driving this rotation was very well pronounced. I'm sure there were multiple spinups going on under this but it was difficult to make out at this distance. AS I was repositioning East of the storm for another intercept, it took a downward turn. I punched the core North and on the other side, got a view of the amazing Ada supercell which was really ramping up. One quick shot before I drove much closer. The Meso was really cranking on this storm. I'm sure there is a very large tornado on the ground behind the trees but being east of I35, there's often not much place to take photos from. I finally found a relatively clear area and indeed, there is a nice cone tornado in progress. As the storm moved north, I wanted to jump ahead for some lightning shots, but the road options were slim. Checked into a La Quinta in Ada. In good company with dozens of other chasers and the TIV2 is parked in the car park Good day though it cost me probably a full tank of gas more than just staying up near Topeka

To be honest, it was real touch and go whether these cells got going anyway. You'd probably already started the trip south before the TCU even started, the SPC last meso was very unconvincing about the OK play even getting started so even if you had set off earlier, it would have been a risk to come north and take a possible bust over some guaranteed action further south. If I'd been in your position, I think I'd have headed south. Too jaded after the last few days to risk another bust. I had put myself in a position where it was all or nothing with the OK target and luckily, it worked out. I'm still amazed at where all the chasers came from. Only about 3 or 4 spotter network icons in the area and mine was one of two reports of the first tornado (although I only saw it in funnel form between trees whilst driving). By the time it was cranking up 20 mins later, about 40 vehicles were all over my little piece of highway I was watching from. I think a fair amount were locals however but it was crazy to see them all come out of the woodwork! As it happens it appears my original target as of yesterday, and the main reason I abandoned that chase to get into position in Salina was hit by an EF0 tornado (Topeka). A potentiallly very damaging tornado went through Reading also not too far from there. Paul Knightly stayed up north looking at Spotter Network and UKWW so hopefully he has some photos of those storms!

Letting you guys know I came south also and have set up near Ardmore. Watching some TCU try and make it just to my East at the moment. Magic hour is approaching so hopefully it pays off!

Sounds fun. I was actually pretty sure I was going to me stuck in the mud. Left the car, not stuck, but between two hills with ditches either side to walk to a farm I'd passed about a mile back and despite a light on, nobody answered the door. Thought about sleeping in the car and shifting tomorrow when it had dried, but noticed the amount of rain forecast and decided to go for it. I've never driven so slowly and still not been in control. I was doing 1 or 2 mph and the car was not going straight! It was moving forward however. If I slid into the ditch, I was able to reverse it back to the flat as I was going up hill, and tried again. On about the 6th attempt I got to the top of the hill and was able to do an 8 point turn and then try it all in reverse. I only had about 400m of mud to navigate, if that and I was there at least 2 hours including the walk . The Escape actually feels worse on the mud than last years Nissan Versa, mainly because I can't work out how to disable traction control on it. there's a TCS button but pressing it does nothing! Last thing I want when trying to gun it up a muddy hill is for the car to just remove power because the wheel spun.... Give me a manual anyday...

Well I pretty much busted. Got onto the storm south of Wichita. Looked pretty good with nice midlevel inflow band. Fairly high based but crazy shotgun lightning all around. The storm split halting development for a while, but it came back with a vengeance. It displayed a good lowering for a while but then pretty much went poof in just a few minutes. I headed to the eastern storms and as I got there, the tail end charlie took a downward turn. I stopped to chat with other chasers in Lyons and whilst there, it ramped up again. I got back on the chase and as soon as I got close, it died. I called that cell off and started heading east to find a motel and the cell came back from the dead a few minutes later, a funnel was reported and I'd just ditched that cell. It was down to a rain shower at best when I left. Got back on it near Minneapolis and it looked real evil. to get out of the way of the approaching core, I took a gravel road which became dirt and it took me almost 2 hours to navigate my way out! There was just no where to turn around so I had to keep slowly driving down the mud till I got to a junction and could swing it around and do the same in reverse. The car now is covered with mud, with most of it somehow ending up on the roof, but at least I didn't get cored. Fog looks like it'll put pay to any lightning shots tonight so I've checked into a motel in Salina to be in a central location for tomorrows chase. Hoping for better luck!

Cell going up near Kingman has a nice base and the towers are looking good overspreading directly above me. Also.. loving the radio at the moment. Thunderstuck by AC/DC then Rainbows in the Dark by Dio. Awaiting Gods of Thunder by Kiss next ... randomly... it was Kiss! but not God of thunder

Some pretty robust updrafts already here on the Kingman, Harper county line

SPC Raise it up to 10% hatched for much of KS and extreme northern OK. Not surprised looking at the latest HRRR WRF output which shows a nice string of supercells forming from about 3pm-4pm local time. Hutchinson was my target for today, yesterday and I don't see a whole lot of reason to drastically change that at the moment. Perhaps just a little west of there to be on the cells from initiation.

/Fell apart like the others.... I notice the HRRR is now no longer showing any initiation after doing so for most for the day