Storm Chase Details
Miles Logged: 550
States Chased: TX, OK
Tornadoes Witnessed: 1
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Severe Reports: Storm Reports
Chase Recap:
A frustrating chase day from the get go. I knew that storms would fire early based upon the NAM and left as soon as I could, which happened to be around noon from Norman.
Heading to Texas
By the time we made it to Elk City, there were already tornado warnings north of Pampa. Storms appeared to be lining out already. So we continued along I-40 instead of taking 152 to Pampa. This happened to help us out.
Panhandle/Groom Texas Tornado
We exited 40 at Highway 70 towards Pampa northbound. We ended up heading west on FR293 when it was obvious the wall cloud on the storm to our west was better. The wall cloud to our north was dying. We took Farm Road 293 as far west as Panhandle where we observed a huge dust plume under the wall cloud. This was later confirmed to be a tornado.
Into the Hail Core
As we headed south back to I-40, we saw some more gustnado/tornado swirlies in the dust. Eventually I got bored with that and headed north into the core to see the hail. There was some pretty incredible hail fog in the wind farm captured in the video below.
Heading East towards McLean
We headed north up highway 273 and it took us right into the notch of the storm. The storm was undergoing a transformation into an HP supercell as one updraft seemed to become dominant. Highway 273 curved around to the west to take me right into the core of the storm.
We witnessed a nice clear slot with wall cloud, but never saw anything touch down in the notch. As we continued east, the road options were non existent. At one point we saw Zac and James and watched a wall cloud that seemed to be rotating the wrong way.
We continued further east of Kellerville, and went north to get back into the notch. Inflow picked up markedly and I thought for a minute it may produce. It may have produced, but I have no evidence of such. We continued east to Wheeler where we finally got into the Hail Core.
Tornado near Sayre
We finally decided to call it a night and head east to Sayre when they issued a tornado warning and the tornado reports came in. We got to that storm about the time it was dying out. We grabbed dinner for the second time that week at Denny’s in Sayre.
