Synopsis: Intercepted the tornadic HP supercell in Stephens / Murray Oklahoma counties. One definite tornado at Marlow, possibly one or two more near Pernell and Elmore City. Additionally there were many wallclouds, areas of rotation and funnels with this storm along with occasional nearby violent, brilliant forked lightning. Much kudos to Lon Curtis for consultation and informing me of the nice convective attributes in place in north Tx and southern OK while on the road.

Account (traditionally long):

This ended up being a very fun and adrenaline charged chase. The whole time I thought I was the only chaser on the storm as I didn't see any others. Imagine being that close to Oklahoma City on a weekend in June and see no other chasers! I did see some locals out which were possibly spotters.  I later learned that there were at least 3 more chasers on this storm. All the rest had apparently gone north to the high risk. I mostly ignored the forecast for Kansas and Missouri from previous days because I did not intend to drive up there. Sunday morning I was in the middle of doing other "home" type stuff when I checked my cell messages. One mentioned the High risk of the day. I didn't immediately jump on it. Instead I procrastinated and continued to do other things for a bit but finally started looking at the models. I felt I needed to be at the OK/KS border by probably at least 4pm or 5pm. The day looked to have a strong cap so I thought it would go perhaps even after then although SPC was mentioning a possibly mid afternoon time. With strong parameters all the way down into OK, and TX I felt I had to chase it even if I couldn't get to the High risk.  I thought the dryline might have good opportunity if it truly fired. I might note that both the NAM and RUC were showing no convective precip for any of these areas. I left Austin at 12:30pm up IH35 shooting straight north.  I made good time and was in Ft Worth around 3pm I believe.  Some time around then I called Lon and asked what he was seeing.  He mentioned 6000 cape west of Ft Worth and -10 LI's showing on SPC's Mesoanalysis tool. That just seemed incredible so I was very tempted to take his advice and not worry about the OK/KS border or points further north. When I got to Gainesville I got a wifi connection and looked at model progs and mesoanalysis tool myself. Decent winds were in place all through north TX and southern OK for supercells though as I recall either the 700's or 500's were better in OK extending south to near the Red.  This I felt was an important distinguishing feature for where I wanted to chase (south of the Red versus north). Further analysis of Digital Atmosphere and mesoanalysis showed the beginning of a possible slight meso low near Wichita Falls with backing winds around to it's east and north. Additionally I was also seeing 6500 CAPE and LI's of -12!!! LOL! It just said "chase me"!

Sure enough right after that storms started forming near Wichita Falls and moving northeast a bit. Others were breaking out a bit too. I started shooting up toward Ardmore.  It eventually became apparent that the cell approaching Lawton would become the most interesting / dominant of the day even by looking at smoothed Threatnet radar. I plotted a course for that cell.  It then became severe warned and as I was getting even closer it was tornado warned.  However I was still about 25 to 30 minutes out to the east when the warning was issued for near Pumpkin Center.  I was seeing Threatnet show multiple strong shear markers west of Duncan with winds up to 132 mph (which is the highest I've seen it go).  All the while I wasn't there yet!!! I hate it when you see it happening and you are racing but still late.  Earlier in the day I had remarked to someone how often you miss the tornado by only 10 minutes. In this case I had ten minutes at home and at least 30 in Ft Worth trying to eat an Arby's in my car. I thought it was a quick thing to do on the road, but with Arby's sauce and BBQ sauce it was so messy it was all over and I couldn't drive and eat at the same time.  Had it not been for this. I would have been sitting at Pumpkin Center perfectly early. Anyway I digress.

I finally got to the town of Duncan greeted by a couple of local cops parked on the east side of town and a very low 30 mph speed zone. Compared to what I had been doing and knowing the tornado was likely in progress it felt like I wasn't moving. Then came the long, slow drive through Duncan with all the traffic and street lights.  An eternity later (it seemed) I finally began punching out of town north on hwy 81 almost to the town of Marlow. The view at this location was apocalyptic.  To my north toward Marlow it was almost black as night, and the same to my northwest. Due west was the end of the precip and a slanted hard wall that I pondered could be a large rain wrapped tornado. Next to that feature was a somewhat "rain free" area but I hypothesized it was probably full of large hail and high wind.  It was a bizarre orange brown color at that location. Already a new wallcloud and funnel were approaching to the northwest. I shot some pictures of all this and did have the dashcam running on some of it. I didn't get all the features on dashcam because it was a busy road and the shoulder and ditch was small/deep and prevented me from turning the vehicle facing west easily.

I stayed for awhile and watched all this.  It was apparent I wouldn't be able to stay long as high winds, rain, and hail would be there soon. It looked like a large tornado would form west of Marlow as well.  Eventually the wallcloud approached Marlow and a large bulbous somewhat conical shaped funnel appeared with rotation and movement.  I continued to watch and videotape, but contrast was awful because it was so dark. There was also a gas station and some distant trees in the foreground obscuring a bit of my view. A protuberance extended from the larger funnel and began to extend downward.  At this point it became obvious I had to go. I started looking at the features west quickly approaching and then the wallcloud / funnel was occluded by precip wrapping around. Actually the whole time I was a bit anxious because I thought it was possible for all these features to right turn on me.  I was very close and with traffic and traffic lights in Duncan during a hasty retreat - I felt I was pushing it. I broke out of there went through town and made and exit to the east using Cemetary Road.  Let me state here that others (Chris Sanner & Bill Hamilton) have confirmed and witnessed the tornado at Marlow also, and yesterday while reviewing my dashcam footage I saw the protuberance extend and snake around like it was on the ground so I feel confident that I captured the tornado barely before it was obscured. Chris mentioned on Stormtrack that significant damage was done at Marlow. As for the area further west which I though could be a rain wrapped tornado....I doubt it.  I'd like to hear from others who watched the Pumpkin Center tornado let me know how long it lasted. I was there probably 30 minutes or so later so I doubt it was still going on unless rain wrapped where no one could see it, and in that case I suppose it's possible my digital shots show the whole thing wrapped up.

I took Cemetary which turned into Baseline over by Tussy and it eventually hit hwy 76 which goes north to Pernell. Racing east on Cemetary Rd the storm was reorganizing east (as mentioned per NOAA radio) and the areas of rotation were being encompassed by outflow (probably from RFD). A very large shear area was created which Threatnet was indicating as 'strong' shear.  Fairly strong winds were hitting me.  At the same time a wallcloud and funnels began forming just to my north northwest as I raced east. As fast as I was going they were keeping pace, and appeared to be getting closer (southward) to me. This was a bit unnerving as it appeared it was about to form a tornado.  Even driving away at high speed quick glances back showed obvious quick rotation and up and down movement of the funnels/ wallcloud. As I neared 76 I stopped and saw a distant obscure tornado shape to my northwest appearing like it was on another flank. I don't know if it was but I took a shot of it. It was very faint. Later just SSW of Pernell I stopped and saw a distant white rope funnel extending somewhat horizontally out the back of a cloud. It appeared to be rotating and looked tornadic. It also appeared to possibly be in contact with the ground but hard to tell for sure.  At the same time the area just to the east of this feature appeared to sport a wider area of rotation and what looked to be a possible tornado mostly obscured by rain.  The white rope and possible tornado near Pernell corresponded with a new tornado warning issued very near the same time for that location. I videotaped these features. I continued north up 76 to Pernell where the tornadic portion passed and the clouds eventually looked mostly gutted by RFD. I then continued east on E1690 to Satterwhite where I stopped behind a white church with a vantage of Elmore City to the north. Here I photographed / videoptaped what appeared to be a large wide (wedge shaped) funnel.  This later morphed into what I felt strongly was a large tornado (as it appeared on the ground).  It seemed to have a snaking large elephant trunk shaped funnel to it's left side (west). These appeared to the east and possibly northeast of Elmore City at 8:12pm. The images are on my website.

I hung around a bit and took some shots of other nearby funnels and wallclouds very near my position (1/2 mile) as it was getting dark.  Lightning was also intensifying.  I would have shot some good shots, but didn't want to get out of the vehicle cause it was all over and around me.

Somewhat humorous: Later I decided to stop at the El Chico in Ardmore to scarf down some fajitas. I did this knowing that another tornado warning was issued due west a county away and my position was due east of where all the shear markers where located. I figured I'd bolt south if activity got too close.  I sat down, ordered, and as my food arrived requested the check, and a 'to go' container. Westerly view was somewhat obscured out my restaurant window to the west by trees but I was seeing some brilliant lightning flashes occasionally. This of course was an omen of things approaching. (Side note: perhaps I do this stuff for my own entertainment- not sure). Anyway it wasn't long before winds were blowing hard shaking the large billboard across the street and locals were beginning to gather outside the window looking west at the weather and discussing it. Then they turned on weather in the bar and turned it up where they were mentioning the area was headed for Ardmore and tornadoes "could not be ruled out". Well, it sounded like time to go to me as I didn't really want to possibly be in a tornado at the El Chico. It was now raining extremely hard outside, wind blowing, flashing lightning.  I hastily put all my food in the 'to go' and paid at the bar. I had hardly eaten anything. I dashed out to the truck splashing and getting dumped on by rain.  Inside Threatnet had gone to sleep. I started the engine and powered up the unit / notebook as I began driving in the onslaught back up the 2 way side road to loop around and eventually get back on I35 south. In the interstate lights I could see sheets of rain blowing and it was completely dark outside. With no data I began wondering if I was making the smart move as if there was a tornado it could be due south. Regardless, I banged away through town to the south yelling at Threatnet to update it's radar.  First thing it did was update the shear area which showed I was right in it.  That is not a good sign. Trying to drive quickly south down I35 in torrential rain in Ardmore I found is not easy.  Apparently the road floods.  I was driving and hitting large pools of water that was making my tires sound like I was driving on flats.  They behaved that way as well. This is probably maximum hydroplaning / pooling. There were other vehicles on the road as well and I had to slow down to maintain control. So much for my hasty retreat to the south. Eventually Threatnet updated and the shear marker was for the area just to my north... "whew".  All was good I continued south.

 

Account: June 4th Stephens / Murray County, OK Tornadic Supercell

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase