Report & Pictures/video Chase Day 23

[Paul Sherman]

I thought yesterday was Insane but this beats it hands down, not only Structure but Wedge Tornadoes, Cone Tornadoes and debris flying across the road, Power Flashes and the most Incredible LP Supercell Structure I have ever witnessed! And we had the Tail end Charlie all to ourselves :o

Started the day late at DFW Airport then drifted up to just 35 Miles SW Of OK City. The Lawton Cell took some time organising but when it did it dropped an amazing White Cone Tornado just 1 Mile to our North, to get there we core punched Golf Ball Sized Hail to find an amazing White Funnel crossing the road in front of us. Went East towards Dibble (Ok) and viewed the Cone Tornado to our North. This Supercell started trundling towards Norman but I had my eye on a Discrete Supercell about 35 Miles South. Blasted down the Eastern Edge then went West and South to be greeting by an Organising Wall Cloud on an LP Structure. Pulled over and heard Hail Roar once again, then went South and within 10 Minutes this thing organised a Mesocyclone that was rotating in front of us. When you see the Timelapse you wont believe it. The Structure was Mind Blowing. Had a group of Canadians getting worried next to us and I said to them "When I say Go Floor the Pedal"

By this time the Rotation was Insane. We blasted South with a developing Multi Vortex Tornado on the road in front of us, some tree Limbs and Leaves flew from West to East across the Car. Drove under the Multi Vortex Tornado and Pulled over and looked behind to see a Large Wedge Tornado on the ground 1/4 To our North, this was moving East! This then Occluded and another Cone formed and Crossed the Road (Tornado 3) We then went South some more and East to see yet another Cone Tornado being Lit up by the Lightning. Some of the Shots of the Whole Storm/Mesocyclone with Lightning and Tornado are Insane.

The Videos we have of the Wedge and Cone have Power Flashes which we will upload.

Cut off the Chase with a Wedge Tornado destroying the Town of Joy which was now rain wrapped!

Gutted for Jo and the Others on Tour 2 and also the Newbies on Tour 3 that were too late on this. This Rates as my best Chase Ever!

Incredible Chase day and when you see the Pictures and Video I hope you will agree.

Paul S & Team

[Gorky]

I got caught up the the chaser convergence craziness in NC OK. Had trouble keeping up with storms going 30mph and barely missed the east road at Hitchcock which would have given me a East West road option (and the only one at that) with good views of the tornadoes the storm produced around Hitchcock, Loyal, Oakwood etc.If there had been a few hundred less chase vehicles on this storm, I'd have probably got them!

Day started off well with a nice cone tornado near Leedey. Was quite brief and was off the ground by the time I switched to a zoom lens, but seeing the tornado with the full storm above it is quite unusual! I'm sure people will find it interesting to see where in the grand scheme of things, the tornado forms! (Super Wide 10mm shot. It really is much closer and much larger than it appears )

The second possible tornado I saw, though I'm not convinced to say so. Embedded in rain - image contrast enhanced a little to try and draw out the features. I personally say it could easily be just rain shafts but it correlates with a report. Wouldn't be surprised if this is just nice structure though

A few structure shots, taken pretty much all taken whilst driving in convoy Hence blurry foreground and some funky angles. Had to concnetrate on who was the enxt person who was going to pull out right in front of me forcing me to slam on my brakes!

The best part of the day for me.... Sick Mammatus on my drive north after the storms.... Utterly beuatiful and made up for missing out on the Loyal - Guthrie tornado action.

[SteveB]

Gorky, you got to be proud of those photo's, utterly amazing.

Well down the rest of the team, looking forward to seeing your photo's and videos.

[stevestorms]

Couple of Pics from me really need to sleep ngt ngt everyone glad you are all safe tomorrow is another day in the Alley.

[Gorky]

I shall have to look at the teams photos tomorrow. After only a couple of hours sleep last night.. I'm about ready to crash. Not going to chase tomorrow... Recuperation day for me and then looks like SPC seems to support my NWKS/NECO/SEWY area for Friday! Shall leisurely drive up through central Kansas to that sort of area tomorrow (500 odd miles of leisurely driving probably! Why does America have to be so big!)

[Paul Sherman]

First batch of pictures thanks to Dave Vicary, more pics and vids to come....

Just checked footage we actually saw 5 confirmed Tornadoes!

Structure when we first intercepted the cell

After it had dropped 2 Tornados

Lightning at rear of cell

Large Tornado

First Tornado

Bolts from Meso

[AudMun]

Cracking, superb, wonderful. One chase/travel day beats 2009 in one go! Bring it on!

SAM

[Paul Sherman]

Unbelievable day in Oklahoma. Saw a cone tornado on the first storm intercept, and then dropped down to the storm to the south and witnessed 2 large multi-vortex tornadoes that formed 1/4 mile behind us. We then tracked the storm East as it dropped another smaller tornado with the most incredible mesocyclone above it.

Mesocyclone gaining strength and organizing.

Rapidly rotating wall cloud and tornado developing on the occluding side of the mesocyclone.

First Large Violent Multi-Vortex tornado develops.

Second Large Violent Multi-Vortex tornado develops to the left as first tornado occludes round the mesocyclone.

As tracking east, the mesocyclone takes on the rare mother-ship formation and drops a 3rd tornado from this storm. BEAUTIFUL, FANTASTIC, HUBBA HUBBA!!

Time lapse video and tornado video to come.

Pictures courtesy of James Menzies (UKStormChaser)

[dallas]

simply amazing photo's, I think i would have been rooted to the spot in awe at that mesocyclone

[iangec]

Fantastic pictures - what a structure - just superb!

interestingly there appears to be a half moon in the third of audmun photo's

[NL]

Excellent target choice Paul away from the madness further up north.. Beautiful structures and 5 tornadoes.. brilliant, wish i was there... Couldn,t even be there virtually last night as my laptop kept crashing.. working fine now:cc_confused:...

[Harry]

That has to be one of the most beautiful storms I've ever seen! Absolutely stunning!

Amazing pics guys too, fantastic!

[pottyprof]

I'm running out of fantastics...

Fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nick F]

Stunning stuff Paul and team, what incredible storm structures and at least the tornadoes didn't manage to get rain-wrapped too quickly.

[Paul Sherman]

Having trouble uploading video. Will upload it in the morning. Sorry all. Its worth the wait believe me.

[SteveB]

Can't wait for the video,

A day to remember.

[Craigers]

amazing photos! this year has been so good for storms in america! keep up the good work!

[Craigers]

This is mad! dont know if you lot have seen this!

[dallas]

This is mad! dont know if you lot have seen this!

Now that is proper mental........unreal

[Nick F]

I shall have to look at the teams photos tomorrow. After only a couple of hours sleep last night.. I'm about ready to crash. Not going to chase tomorrow... Recuperation day for me and then looks like SPC seems to support my NWKS/NECO/SEWY area for Friday! Shall leisurely drive up through central Kansas to that sort of area tomorrow (500 odd miles of leisurely driving probably! :lol: Why does America have to be so big!)

I wouldn't rule out TX Panhandle for a chase target tomorrow, even though SPC highlights the area you say were you are headed, WRF pics out some convective ppn around AMA Sat 00z (Fri 18z CDT) with some stronger CAPE values and perhaps some dryline magic to get storms going in that area as the DL moves in from NM:

[dallas]

I wouldn't rule out TX Panhandle for a chase target tomorrow, even though SPC highlights the area you say were you are headed, WRF pics out some convective ppn around AMA Sat 00z (Fri 18z CDT) with some strong CAPE values and parhaps some dryline magic to get storms going in that area as the DL moves in from NM:

Storms not to distant at the moment,

SEL3

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 193

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

205 AM CDT THU MAY 20 2010

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

MUCH OF SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS

LARGE PART OF SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA

PARTS OF NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST TEXAS

EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY MORNING FROM 205 AM UNTIL 900 AM CDT.

HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70

MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 65

STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 40 MILES SOUTHWEST

OF ARDMORE OKLAHOMA TO 40 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF HOT SPRINGS

ARKANSAS. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE

ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU3).

REMEMBER...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE

FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH

AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR

THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS

AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY

DO PRODUCE TORNADOES.

DISCUSSION...THUNDERSTORMS...SOME SEVERE CONTINUE TO TRACK EWD

ACROSS SERN OK INTO AR WITH A PERSISTING SWLY FLOW OF MOIST UNSTABLE

AIR. ADDITIONAL STRONG/SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP

AHEAD OF COLD FRONT AND UPPER TROUGH MOVING EWD SWRN OK/NWRN TX.

STORMS WILL FORM VICINITY RED RIVER VALLEY AND WITH MLCAPES AOA 2000

J/KG AND 40-50 KT OF SHEAR...POSE A THREAT OF LARGE HAIL AND

DAMAGING WINDS.

AVIATION...A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT

TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60

KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM

MOTION VECTOR 26030

[Barbmac]

Hi everyone, this is my first post although I've been lurking for about a year! Just have to say this year's storm chasing has been incredible, am really enjoying watching the online stream or catching up with the pictures - awesome shots, guys. Just watched the OK hailstorm clip on YouTube, ended up watching a few more there! Unbelievable - have only ever seen hail of about 1 cm diameter, that was in Australia.

Anyway just wanted to say well done to the team and good luck for more exciting and safe storm chases!

[Arron]

Just a quick post to say what a fantastic last 2 days chasing I've had, especially yesterday! Sad to see my tour end for this year and just want to thank Paul S and the rest of the team for an awesome 20+ days chasing. I've got loads of pics and video to go through from the last 2 days so hopefully will get something uploaded over the weekend.

Thanks again

[Coast]

More excellent photos - some of those are awesome and should be made into a storm chasing calender for 2011!

It's just like watching the Discovery Channel on here isn't it?

[Darren Bown]

Excellent! Brilliant! Fantastic! I really wanted to stay up all night last night watching these beasts on Vortex2 and the OKC live weather feed, it was unbelievable. Felt like I was in the thick of it! Any reports of damage/injuries/(god forbid) fatalities?