May 16th, 2015 would be day 2 of a 2 day chasing stretch and by far the most brutal amount of driving I have ever endured. The day before, I was chasing in the Nebraska Panhandle along the Colorado border, where I had a decent chase day. But, not before driving all night after working a 9 hour day at work all the way to Western, Nebraska. With only an hour of sleep, I made it to Kearney, Nebraska before I could not drive anymore. Falling asleep at the wheel, I pulled off in a rest area, and got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up and continue my trek for the next day of chasing. This chase day nearly cost me my job as well. I had called off work while sitting at a Perkins parking lot looking at model data for the next day (May 16th) while we waited on storms to fire. All models were showing ingredients for long track, and perhaps violent tornadoes. I woke up in Kearney thinking I'd only have to drive a couple hours to central Kansas and fall back asleep before storms initiated. I woke up to a 15% hatched tornado outlook issued by the SPC, stretching from Southern, Oklahoma up to Southern, Nebraska with the top analogs being some major tornado outbreaks like April 14th, 2012 where I documented 7 tornadoes. But, there was a big problem.
Not only did I awake to a 15% hatch tornado outlook, but I also woke up to Kansas socked in clouds and rain and 50 degree temperatures and pathetic dew points. I knew this was not going to do. So, scratching my eyes after waking up, I hopped into the drivers seat, feeling like death, and continued my long, and painful drive South. This wasn't just any ran shield either. Not one to where you could simply drive about an hour South and be in the clear. Nope. There was no clearing at all in Kansas! In fact the only clearing was in the Texas Panhandle into southern, Oklahoma and Texas! Ahhhhhh! Now, not only to I have to drive even further on no sleep. Its now a race against time, and to top it off I am now too far from home to make it home for work the next day! Thinking for sure this trip was about to come to a disastrous end, with me already being clear out here, and still possibly going to miss epic tornadoes. I text my boss asking if I can not come in tomorrow. I already knew what the answer would be, but I had to try. What I forgot, is that I had volunteered to cover someones shift tomorrow. I almost instantly got a "no" and at this point I am freaking out. Because I had been driving South and I was sitting on the Oklahoma border reading a text message saying my worst nightmare. But, I got a second text from my boss about someone who could possibly cover my shift. So, I make the phone call, just after slamming my car in park angrily and smacking my steering wheel out of frustration. But, a miracle happened. My co-worker agreed to cover my shift and it was go time. The chase was on! But.....it was a race against time. I was hauling through blinding rain as I crossed into Oklahoma, continuing my dive South. As models made it clear I needed to be along the Red River. A river that separates Oklahoma and Texas.
I finally reached I-40 and started blasting West. Storms erupted in the Texas Panhandle near Shamrock, Texas. ( I am flying down the highway at this point) and tornadoes are being reported on the ground. My chase partner who is already chasing documented a tornado already and I was missing it. To top it off? As I get within 40 miles of the border, the storms begin to morph into a squall line and become outflow dominant. So, I dive South even further at new storms going up along the dryline. I stop near Willow, Oklahoma and observe the storms approaching. I remember saying "this looks like ass" as I am frustrated, and irritable as i'm still running on 3 hours of sleep in two days. I continue South and I lose data for quite sometime. At this point, i'm hoping my decision to keep going South wouldn't prove to be a costly one. I arrive in Eldorado, Oklahoma and get data back. Storm to the North looked even worse than when I left it, and small, but isolated storms were firing just to my Southwest. at this point I feel better about my decision to continue South for storms initiating in a better environment. It took my awhile to notice, but I noticed I was almost on E in my gas tank. I arrived in Quanah, Texas to find no gas stations and I thought for sure the chase was over. Just as my storm went severe warned and was passing over town. I feared I'd run out of gas and watch the storm leave me in the distance. Thankfully, when I got to the West side of town and there it was! Gas! I run inside to fill up and the chase was back on. But we were fighting river crossings.
I pulled off on highway 287 to observe the storm. Honestly, it looked like absolute garbage. It was an elevated, elongated, piece of shit.
But the games were about to begin. I noticed a small storm going up just South of this storm. A cell merger was underway. I hopped onto my road option to cross the river back into Oklahoma and now tennis ball size hail was being reported my other chasers. This told me the storm was rapidly intensifying. I'll never forget watching the storm hook, and hook, and hook even more on radar as I approached with a rock hard updraft and sculpted meso.
CG's are being spit out about every half second or so. Its as if Thor himself was telling us something big was coming. Then.....I noticed it. The alligator. The alligator mouth began chomping away, I quickly jumped in my car and crossed the Red River into Oklahoma and pulled off on the Oklahoma side of the bridge. Then, the most ominous thing I have ever seen. I heard this deathly roar. It sounded like a constant roll of thunder. Then, whole trees began flying into the air. Tossed like toys. But, the tornado itself was still obscured by rain. It was almost mother natures way of saying "drum roll please" before entering on stage.
I couldn't get over the thunderous roar. It was on par, if not louder than the Stanton, Nebraska EF4 I witnessed on June 16th, 2014. I kept saying "You can hear the roar!" "Listen to the roar!" Then finally. The tornado showed its ugly face. Its massive in size. At least a half mile wide tornado as it briefly pokes out of the rain.
All of the crap I went through. Almost losing my job, feeling like falling asleep at the wheel, and grinding it from Ohio to Colorado, clear to Texas. All for this right here! Absolutely epic, and violent tornado in an open field, not tearing any town apart. I jump up and down screaming in victory. The coolest park? I randomly found my chase partners Stephen Jones, and Alex Bartholomew on the same road as me and we are parked side by side watching this epic beast! I scurry back into my car and parallel the tornado on the road. But, it takes a hard right turn. But I had good situation awareness and noticed the shift. So I slow to a stop as propane tanks explode inside the tornado!
I snapped this wide angle shot right as the tanks exploded. This video grab does it no justice as to how close we were to the tornado. But this video grab does!
My chase partner Stephen Jones zips by and we play leap frog until we get within 100 yards of the violent tornado.
As if this tornado couldn't get anymore awesome, it did the fastest break down I have ever seen to a multi vortex tornado. With three vorticies dancing around in the field beside us. But then.....BOOM! CRASH! Softball size hail begins to fall!!!! Although we aren't any where near the core, the RFD is so strong its hurling softballs around the back side of the tornado from the core.
My ears are ringing the hail is so loud. Hail stones were so big, they were hitting the ground and bouncing above my car, and as I continue North then begin my trek East to get back into position a baseball size hail stones slams into my windshield, breaking it. Followed by another one that seemed tennis ball size causing another spiderweb across the top part of my window. I didn't bring enough with me to replace the windshield so I couldn't lose it. I pulled off and face the back of my car into the hail. If I lost my back window, it'd be more expensive, but I could still drive home. I quickly analyzed roads and booked it back West, then North and then back East out of Altus, Oklahoma. This was a risky maneuver as it'd put me into the bears cage and North of the tornado. But it was my only option at getting back ahead of this 40mph moving tornado.
Winds roaring towards the field beside me, I know there is still something on the ground as I creep along interstate 62 West of Snyder, Oklahoma. The only other person I passed was Reed Timmer and Sean Schofer in Dominator 3. I guess I was doing something right? I hurry around them and continue creeping down the highway. Then. The wind shift and I see the rain bands clear revealing a tornado literally 50 yards ahead in the highway median. I slam on my breaks screeching to a hault and back up just a tad. This heavily rain wrapped tornado which I thought at the time was still the Elmer tornado, turned out to be a satellite tornado.
This tornado either lifted or got so rain wrapped I couldn't see it anymore after it crossed the interstate. I finally cleared the precip and we got to Lawton to decide our next move. I saw another tornadic supercell to the South (which ended up producing a beautiful tornado) but I decided against going because I was so tired at this point. I did however follow the still tornado warned storms up I-44 to Chickasha where I pulled over and assess the damage to my car from hail. I got out and saw a hail dent the size of damn near a bowling ball (my friends are convinced that its a record size hail dent) and I wear it with pride. All throughout my car baseball to softball size hail dents can be found. I got extremely lucky as a baseball size hail dent is visible just above my drivers side window. If my side windows were any bigger disaster would have struck as my drivers side window would have been busted, leaving my completely exposed to hail and flying debris.
Conclusion:
Hands down my best chase to date. Yes that's including the Pilger, Nebraska tornado. Made a perfect forecast this day, grinded out a brutal drive, got within a football field of a violent tornado, and topped off with massive, windshield busting hail. It doesn't get any better than that!
Footage:
Aaron's View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T232wibP20
Stephen's View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKIMw5DJvOY
Storm Reports
