Storm Chase Details
Miles Logged: 361
States Chased: OK
Tornadoes Witnessed: 1
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Severe Reports: Storm Reports
With an MCV evident in Oklahoma as well as a warm front, I decided to take a chance on low topped supercells along the warm front in Southeast Oklahoma. When leaving Norman, the rain was falling hard and flooding was occuring. We’d head down to southeast Oklahoma and witness a tornado near Bokchito.
Forecast
HRRR
What we noticed on the HRRR was a wave at 700mb with optimal timing. Storms would end up happening a bit further south, but i believe that wave aided in convective initiation. The morning storms managed to stabilize the air near and south of OKC Metro, so setting up a bit further south was beneficial.
RAP
The RAP had a similar solution actually.
Departing Norman
Chance picked me up at 10:45 while it was pouring rain in Norman. We headed down I-35 southbound towards Ardmore where we took US70 east. The drive down was mostly wet and cold. We questioned each other on why we were stupid enough to be chasing.
We worked our way east through Madill and to Durant. We stopped in Durant and hung out for a short while before seeing the storms growing to our south. We positioned a little east between Bennington and Bokchito where we could see under the storm. Locals were out riding dirt bikes as very low-topped storms started forming just south of US70.
As storms quickly intensified, we had to readjust a couple miles west in Bokchito at the T2 store just west of town along US-70. The rapidly rotating wall cloud passed right over our head, heading north/northeast. We repositioned again to OK-22 and north about 4 miles.
Bokchito Oklahoma Tornado
As we repositioned north on Highway 22, the Bokchito Oklahoma Tornado would touch down just to our south and to the east of 22.
