Target 1 was the dryline/triple point centered over the OKC metro. Target number 2 was the Warm Front draped across Northeast, Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri, and target number 3 which was just the dryline.
All targets had their pros and cons. A main concern this day was a Cold Front that was forecast to surge South, under cutting storm development before they would have a chance to produce tornadoes. Mesoanalysis was carefully monitored that day to see where the Cold Front was located and how fast it was moving South.
Target 2 was my favored location the day before, due to enlarged hodographs. The problem with that target is it would be much closer to the Cold Front and if storms did go up we feared they'd be undercut and not be able to do much. Hodographs mean nothing if the storms get undercut by cold air and die. Target 1 which ended up being our target offered more backing with winds, higher instability, and further away from the Cold Front when it decided to come crashing South. This would offer storms a longer time to take advantage of the parameters in place, and have a better shot at producing tornadoes before being undercut. The third and final target was the dryline itself in Southern Oklahoma along the river. However, with a large and almost unbreakable cap in place we feared storms would not go up down there at all. But, if it did go, those storms would be well ahead of the Cold Front and would likely produce tornadoes since it was in a similar environment as our target.
Later that day the forecast would prove to be harder than originally thought. At around 2-3pm a gravity wave pushed through clouding up skies and even bringing mammatus over the metro area (our target). I personally was not fearful that it would ruin the environment, I remained optimistic as I thought the cloud cover would help bring down temperatures and prevent higher temp/dew spreads which were already pushing 15-20 degrees. Anything above that is not good at all for tornadoes, let alone storms in general because they would be very, very, elevated. Then, as we were approaching our target of El Reno, Oklahoma. I clicked on radar, only to see a blimp showing up on radar. Completely out of the forecast area, and about 3 hours sooner than any model was predicting. Confused, with no way to catch it due to traffic accidents on I-40 we rushed up to Edmond, Oklahoma where we would sit and hope for later development.
As we waited wonder when, or if the cap would ever erode before the cold front arrived, we watched helplessly as the storms up Northeast quickly went severe warned. For the longest time we were not worried because the storms appeared to be multi cellular and elevated. It was not pushing 5pm and we still had no decent tower in site. We looked up calling a bust as cirrus still plagued the skies above us. We also noticed an ominous feature on radar. Crashy the Cold Front was now in El Reno!! This is when I started sending out the "bust party in Norman" invites. But, mama nature had something else up her sleeve. Not 15 minutes later a tower exploded in front of us, and bust through the cap that was in place. I was jumping for joy as if I had just witnessed a huge tornado. But wait? A storm forming behind a Cold Front? How? I'm still not really sure. My guess is it was a very shallow front and the temperature gradient wasn't substantial. With that being said, this was still unusual. There were multiple storms that blew up all around us that all showed supercell characteristics.
This guy blew up almost right over our heads as two storms exploded over by El Reno. See that line in front of the storm? That's the front. That the storm is behind. Again, not really sure how or why that happened. Visually, the storm looked like garbage. It was elevated, and there was cold air spitting out from it. But, what if we left this storm? It was very isolated and away from the other storms nearby. We made the decision to leave it and continue towards El Reno, where those storms were taking on supercell characteristics. After battling construction traffic and seeing the skies turn into darkness by the approaching storms we hopped onto the I44 turnpike and quickly made our way around the metro to hop on I-40 and shoot West towards the approaching supercell. The storm was visually HP but was getting an ominous hook echo feature. Again, not really sure how because its behind the front at this point.
We are now about to be faced with "The Bears Cage". This is an area where if there is a rain wrapped tornado you are going to have a better chance at seeing it. This is also one of the most dangerous spots to be in while storm chasing. But, limited roads and city traffic forced us to chance it. We continued West on I-40. Skies began to turn black, and a lower emerged into view. Lightning illuminated a very visible funnel cloud (which was also documented with damage by storm chaser Val Caster). Shortly after this we witnessed multiple power flashes. A tornado was now on the ground. Again, some how a tornado touched down while behind the cold front. I looked back just as the core was about to overtake us and as we were about to take an exit to turn around and follow the area of interest. Right before rain swooped in I saw multiple vorticies dancing around about 3-4 miles to our almost SouthEast. I'm still not sure if this was a separate tornado, the beginning of the Moore EF1 tornado, or the same tornado we saw earlier. So, I still count it as only 1 tornado documented that day.
This video grab you'd think was taken a long time later. This was actually only taken about 10 minutes later from the video grab of the tornado. This storm was so dark, it turned day into night. I will note it is only 6:30pm at this point and the sun had only began to set. 45 seconds after this power flash, multiple power flashes occurred beside us in/near the town of Yukon. Winds are roaring in this direction and rain bands are wrapping around.
Power flashes finally come to a stop, and it was time for us to find shelter and ride out the core as we entered the OKC metro area. At this point sirens are sounding (however no tornado warning was issued) this was prompted by the local area.. Which was a good call considering what had just happened. We parked near a car wash and documented golf ball-hen egg size hail and probably some tennis balls mixed in there some where. The core past and we hear on the radio "tornado on the ground in Moore". Our heart sinks and we immediately jump into the car and blast South. An area ravaged by strong tornadoes, and the SAME areas hit by the 2013 EF5 tornado were being hit AGAIN! Not only that, this tornado was moving Southeast in the general direction of Norman, where my car was parked and the homes of my best friends. From what we were visually seeing, and from reports the tornado damage looked no higher than low end EF2. This was later given an officially rating of a strong EF1 tornado.
Lots of controversy still remains about the amount of time it took the NWS in Norman to issue a tornado warning for that storm. But, i'll keep my opinions about that quite. I have not heard any confirmation on our tornado, nor will I ever most likely. Especially given the events that happened in Moore. The damage Val Caster documented looked like EF0 damage thankfully. My personal opinion is there was likely a couple spin ups. But I only count the one I visually saw.
Conclusion: It still stings that missed the very visible, and pretty photogenic Sand Springs EF2 tornado (located near Tulsa) which had been a target we were talking about the day prior. But after battling tough decisions, and a tough chase day in general we still came out with big hail, a tornado, and got the rust off the equipment! This was also my first March tornado!
Great read !!! Loved it, Thanks for sharing.
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