May 8th Needle in a Haystack Tornado!

May 8th, 2015 would be my third chase trip of the year and my second plains run of the storm season. The week would start out like any other, as the GFS computer model began to come to life, showing a deep digging trough in the southern plains. My work schedule came out for the week and I should have known it was to good to be true. Magically, I had gotten that Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off of work.

About 5 days out the SPC highlighted a risk area from Texas, up into Kansas with mentioning of the magical "T" word storm chasers love to hear. The following day the SPC highlighted a 30% area from again, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas as it was becoming more clear Saturday could be a potentially big day. However, some veer back veer issues were preventing me from getting to terrible excited. That is, until the NAM did what the NAM does and was forecasting a high end tornado outbreak from Southwest, Oklahoma up into Kansas. With some of the signs even being compared to April 14th, 2012. Regardless, Saturday was looking like the most significant chase day since April 14th, 2012.

Just days before I messaged my good friend Brennan Jontz about teaming up for this chase. During that time we had planned to chase Saturday and drive North for Sunday along the triple point. Well, the NAM was trying to make Friday look like an absolute classic "Day before the day" setup. Meaning a small scare tornado outbreak, followed by "The" tornado outbreak. So, we both cleared our schedules and headed out to the great plains that Thursday evening.

My trip got off to a rocky start. After driving through the night after leaving my shift at work. I was becoming so tired I was seeing things, and with Norman only 1 hour 30 minutes away I didn't feel like sleeping in my car. I sped up because I was so ready to sleep at this point I didn't care. I set my cruise for 10mph over and sure enough. I see red and blues in my mirror as I hop on 35 in OKC. Yea, I made it clear to OKC before it happened. Got a ticket for doing 85-75, but the cop was nice about it so its whatever. Live and learn.

This system was 3/3 on tornado days, and me being stuck at work and now having much more parameters to work with I was very excited. That is, until the new outlook came out talking about how morning convection was possibly going to ruin the day. Looking over briefly at modes when I arrived in Norman before heading to bed. It sure seemed like a real possibility.

None the less, the chase was still on! 9am rolled around and I hopped in Brennan's car and made our way towards Wichita Falls, Texas. We made it to Lawton when a severe storm was trolling us just off to the west by about 40 miles. It wasn't out of the way and we could simply drop back South into Texas. So we made our way to just South of Roosevelt, Oklahoma before realizing this storm was junk and leave it. While on our way South, I noticed an area of some enhanced helicity over top Vernon, Texas (about 40 miles or so West of Wichita Falls) and we decided to adjust our target to Vernon. It wasn't long after we arrived at McDonalds for our storm to initiate and for the chase to be on.

On our approach the storm was getting its act together fast, with a very well defined hook on radar and already severe warned with rotation showing up on radar. We blasted West towards Quanah and on our way the first tornado warning came out. It was also becoming clear, that yet again, we would be chasing another HP (High Precipitation) storm, making it hard to see tornadoes. We chased this storm very aggressively and it would eventually pay off big time. But we'll come back to that.

After battling a one lane construction road we cleared the precip and got our first view of the base of the storm. At first glance you'd swear a huge wedge was on the ground. But it was actually the meso scraping off of the hill side. Can you say low LCL heights? We parked off the road briefly, and although there was some rapid rain bands a tornado did not appear imminent anytime soon. Texas has a very limit road network, and the side roads were nothing but mud. So we went back North into town and were in the core clear back until almost we entered Vernon again. The whole time there were insane inflow winds feeding into the storm, and the low level clouds were screaming into the meso. Go figure, we clear the core to get back into position and a confirmed tornado report comes in. Thankfully, it was brief and not photogenic.

We chased this storm for another good hour or two with nothing to show besides a massive inflow tail that was basically scraping off of the earth and the brightest green glow I have ever seen. We did notice a small area of rotation to the North. So, we took highway 183 and positioned ourselves just East of the couplet. Well, that couplet quickly faded away. We continued East on Farm to Market 370 before pulling off again for another look. Frustrated, we both agreed the only way we were seeing a tornado today was by getting right up in the bears cage.

It didn't take long to see the area of interest. Rain bands began to dance, and twirl. Clouds began to move and it was go time. We quickly blasted East towards this area only to have it kind of slow down and rotation be almost gone. Discouraged, I looked down at radar, and to quickly check Facebook and to find roads home. When I look up and see a huge wall cloud, followed by rapid rotation and then.....you guessed it! Tornado! Not just a spin up either, a large multi vortex that began to wedge out!

We filmed the tornado as it grew in size for about 3-5 minutes before it became rain wrapped. Then I looked over and saw rain bands moving faster than I have ever seen rain move. It looked like a freight train was flying past! I'd estimate winds easily over 100mph. Power lines beside us began to bend and lean over as we scurried South. Then, out of no where boom! A tree branch clips the front of the car and flies into the field beside us. The RFD we were in was absolutely awesome. Once it passed, we went back to check on damage, only to find the stop sign we were parked beside was bent forward and down from how strong the RFD winds were.

What could have made this day any better? We were the only chasers who saw it! Which as everyone knows is a very rare occurrence in this day and age. Brennan and I did everything right this chase day and could not have been any happier. That is, until nature wasn't done showing off! On our way home she put on this stunning mammatus/sunset combo display near Lawton, Oklahoma!

Brennan celebrates the end of an awesome chase day, with a very frustrating, but well played chase day ahead!