This was probably the most unexpected outcome of the day type chases, since when I woke I was not expecting to chase. It was 2 days after my big bust in Kansas so I really didn't have the confidence to chase. Around 4pm, I noticed storms had fired to my east and had some great looking updraft structures. I noticed it was a line, but that southern storm looked great visually. After contacting a couple people about the parameters and what the radar looks liked, I decided to leave work @ 5pm, get my equipment, and jet east on I-40. I got to Groom, TX, when the first storm went tornado warned. I thought we were going to miss the show, but the storm near Wellington was looking really good, both visually and on radar. That was our storm, the tail-end charlie. We got to Shamrock, and made a quick decision to dive south to Wellington, then back east to Magnum, then north to be in a decent position. But by the time we got to Wellington, the storm was pretty far away, at least another 30 miles. We got to Magnum, and the storm further east was going insane on radar, but I knew we were a good 30 miles from that storm. My hopes were diminishing. I decided to stay on the furthest south storm, and see what we could get out of it.
I called my buddy Corey Sloan for a quick nowcast and he gave me the good news that we were in some good dynamics. We kept traversing north and east to get ahead of the storm. We were 7 miles south of Elk City on SH-6 about 2 miles south from the SH-6/SH 152 intersection. We saw a clearing in the clouds to our NE, and saw the edge of a nice wall cloud. Just then what looked like a funnel became clear, but we were sure if it was just scud or not. Then we noticed a large dust cloud forming under it, right then I knew it was a tornado. I pulled over, and tried getting as many pics as I could. Unfortunately, the lighting was crap, and I tried getting my tripod set up, but that didn't help. I still managed to get a couple pics, and after adjusting the contrast, the tornado is very evident. I couldn't confirm it as a tornado, simply because we were far away and couldn't tell if it was just scud or if it was rotating. Finally after calling Norman NWS and David Drummond, I could confirm it as a tornado.
After grabbing some quick McD's in Elk City, we attempted to core punch a couple storm coming out of Hemphill County, TX. We travelled up US 283 to Crawford, OK, but by then the storms had weakened and only got dime sized hail. We called it a day, drove home, and arrived around 1am.
Total miles for this chase: ~366
I called my buddy Corey Sloan for a quick nowcast and he gave me the good news that we were in some good dynamics. We kept traversing north and east to get ahead of the storm. We were 7 miles south of Elk City on SH-6 about 2 miles south from the SH-6/SH 152 intersection. We saw a clearing in the clouds to our NE, and saw the edge of a nice wall cloud. Just then what looked like a funnel became clear, but we were sure if it was just scud or not. Then we noticed a large dust cloud forming under it, right then I knew it was a tornado. I pulled over, and tried getting as many pics as I could. Unfortunately, the lighting was crap, and I tried getting my tripod set up, but that didn't help. I still managed to get a couple pics, and after adjusting the contrast, the tornado is very evident. I couldn't confirm it as a tornado, simply because we were far away and couldn't tell if it was just scud or if it was rotating. Finally after calling Norman NWS and David Drummond, I could confirm it as a tornado.
After grabbing some quick McD's in Elk City, we attempted to core punch a couple storm coming out of Hemphill County, TX. We travelled up US 283 to Crawford, OK, but by then the storms had weakened and only got dime sized hail. We called it a day, drove home, and arrived around 1am.
Total miles for this chase: ~366
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