The first wall cloud
we saw produced a brief weak tornado near Greenfield, Oklahoma that we
only were able to capture on video. I start off with the most spectacular
sight of storm structure I have witnessed. It is the "drier hose" I talked
about above wrapping around the meso. We soon caught up to the storm getting
closer to the main updraft base very near to the same feature. The wall
cloud in the next pic is the second rotating wall cloud we saw that day.
We watched it from it's infancy through tornadogenesis and dissipation.
It was really cool to watch the entire process from beginning to end. Blair
got some great zoomed-in video shots showing the rotation up close. It
is interesting to note that while the storm was moving east, the wall cloud
and tornado developed and moved slowly north on the west and northwest
side of the storm. It was obvious that the rotation was being
stretched northward from the storm's outflow. As it moved further away,
the rotation increased accordingly to the point of producing a tornado.
Some may argue that it is technically a landspout; however, the rotation
originated with the meso updraft and persisted until the tornado died.
I call it a tornado. You be the judge.
These are the best
pictures out of the 100 that I took. You may notice some slight color variations
due scanning and/or different film. I can assure you that these are the
real McCoy and not electronically faked.
I talked about this earlier. I believe this to be the column of mesoscale
horizontal vorticity being stretched into the meso updraft. Blair Kooistra
described it best as a clothes drier vent hose. I thought this was truly
awesome. I welcome any input or comments on this.
A nice rotating wall cloud just east of Kingfisher, Oklahoma on Hwy. 33
looking east. The storm had previously weakened, but we watched it regenerate
and intensify rapidly right before our eyes. A wall cloud soon formed and
began rotating and organized quickly after the RFD started flowing into
it.
The wall cloud is now
producing a funnel cloud as it continues to move slowly northward across
the highway. The rotation is pretty rapid at this point.
The wall cloud is continuing
it's slow northward movement. Funnels are constantly forming and dissipating.
The entire circulation is becoming much better organized about a central
vertical axis.
Here is the sidewinder
that I mentioned earlier. We were watching the main action under the wall
cloud when I glanced up and saw this long rope funnel sticking out the
side. It was really gyrating and snaking around...very cool. The rotation
was strong enough that is was pulling in air quite rapidly from all around
as evidenced by the inflow cloud above the sidewinder. There are some very
interesting dynamics going on here.
Here is a shot of the
wall cloud and funnel with the explosive updraft associated with it. This
was taken just after the sidewinder had just about dissipated. If you look
closely, you can still see the remnants of it being drawn into the funnel
cloud at the base as well as the upper left section of the frame on the
bottom of the inflow cloud.
The funnel cloud continues to row and intensify as
it treks slowly to the north. You are now looking ENE and the funnel is
now on the WNW side of the storm.
Continuing to develop and form. In looking at the video very closely, we
could see some debris swirling around on the ground although we didn't
notice it at the time. The swirling rotation was really beautiful within
the entire cloud structure...a symphony of delicate and smooth, fluid motions.
It is also about this time that Glenn and Bronwyn Dixon, chase partners
and friends, showed up from Fort Worth. There was much chaser rejoicing
including a rare performance of the sacred forbidden dance of chaser merriment
by yours truly.
The mark of Zorro? Our funnel cloud finally gets stretched enough to concentrate
the circulation....similar to an ice skater drawing their arms in to increase
their spin.
Tornado about 3 miles NW of Guthrie. Notice the debris cloud between the
trees. Just another bit of good luck we had this day. (Somehow, the scanner
only duped this in B/W. I'll endeavor to get this redone in color.)
Alas, our wonderful little tornado has finally begun roping out. We would
follow another bulging wall cloud with good rotation further east
until it died just past I-35 east of Guthrie. We quickly turned our attention
to the SW on another supercell approaching OKC.
Just as we got clear of the precipitation shaft, we saw the huge meso as
it approaches Yukon just west of Oklahoma City. We are near the 35/44
split by Remington Park looking west.
The meso is gaining more strength and growing as it begins to striate and
take on a 'mothership' type appearance. It was quite evident at this
time of the entire storm structure slowly rotating. It is approaching the
Lake Hefner area. At about this time that I start thinking of a large
violent tornado forming over OKC....not a very pleasant thought.
Now becoming beautifully striated and layered while also becoming more
sinister as it bears down on NW OKC. The rotation was incredible. Although
you cannot see the condensation funnel due to drier air, the tornadic circulation
is in progress producing damage. This definitely looks like a scene out
of Independence Day with a spaceship hovering over the city. I was expecting
a swarm of F-16's to attack it at anytime.
The back edge of the meso is just about overhead. Words and pictures cannot
describe nor capture the sensation of this moment...it was very surreal...a
religious experience to say the least. The 'stacked plates' appearance
is quite evident here and the rotation was mesmerizing. We could clearly
see the black boiling mass of the underside of the meso.
We have now moved south abit for safety's sake as a couple of funnels were
trying to form on the outer periphery of the meso. The RFD had really intensified
punching into the main rotation. The result was a very rapid lowering and
organizing of the wall cloud which quickly produced this funnel/tornado.
It is bearing down on Frontier City. I was very apprehensive at this point
of people taking shelter. The only good thing about this
tornado is that it had waited until it had passed out of the densely populated
areas of OKC. We are now looking NNW.
The tornado just seconds after hitting the Frontier City area.
Although no connecting condensation cloud was evident, as most of the tornadoes
this day, it is still producing F1 to F2 damage in a sparsely populated
residential area around Arcadia Lake.
We thought it best to pursue along Hwy 62 east out of OKC paralleling the
tornado and meso in case it were to redevelop a little to the SE.
Plus, we expected the main highways and roads further north were clogged
by traffic and possible debris. The entire wall cloud is quite large at
this point and nearly on the ground. It was picking up forward speed and
keeping up with it was difficult. The hill hid most of the tornado (dang
it) ...just one of the pitfalls of chasing in the city although the red
lights weren't too bad.
The tornado strengthens again slightly taking on the classic funnel shape.
More strong F2 damage to some houses. Again, the trees are in the way.
We kept trying to go north but could never get in front of it enough to
do so. Shortly after this picture, it became more disorganized as well
as the contrast became very low. We started turning our attention to the
SW for yet another tornadic supercell...#3 for the day.
A very majestic anvil of supercell #3 approaching Mustang, OK just to the
SW of OKC. We tried to pursue this one and get into position, but abit
of a bad intercept decision and bad road network cost us valuable time
to get into position.
Our last glimpse of the OKC storm off to the east...a spectacular sunset.
Yes, this was the actual color. A very poetic end to an incredible chase
day. A total of seven straight hours of chasing.
USA Today has a brief writeup about the events that day that you can view here.
To see an ideal and
perfect vertical wind profile for tornadic storms, see the Purcell
wind profiler.
Some other chasers
also tracked the storms as well. These pages offer different angles of
the storm. It is interesting to compare as all of our photos were taken
nearly at the same moment, but look like a different storm. Check out
Gene Moore's OKC Page and
Guthrie Page ; as well
as Matt Engelbrecht's
Page. Excellent work!!
Email me, Steve Miller,
with an comments or questions at txt@gte.net
go back to my stormpage
or my chasepics
page