May 6, 2024

An extremely volatile setup prompted the Storm Prediction Center to issue a High Risk for tornadoes on May 6 across Oklahoma. I’m apprehensive about chasing these setups. They often feature fast moving, violent storms in hazy, low visibility skies. May, Oklahoma, and High Risk is pretty much the trifecta for an extreme amount of converging chaser traffic as well. That combination can make a day like this quite dangerous. My plan was to play it safe, giving the storms a wide berth and maintaining an out if traffic got too heavy. I had low hopes of seeing a tornado on this chase, but the chance was there so I decided to go for it.

Driving through Missouri on 44 with the Twistex Cheeseburger on the dash, my safety reminder.

Awaiting initiation in Lamont, OK under characteristically grey skies for the start of a High Risk chase.

Storms fired in a north south line. I ran west out of Jet, OK after the first tornado warned cell and was greeted by a rather scrawny looking LP. It fell apart after a few minutes so I targeted the next one down the line.

The next cell was a classic that looked quite a bit beefier and was sporting a scuddy wall cloud.

Letting the tornado warned cell approach.

I repositioned east to stay downstream and a step ahead of both the storm and the anticipated storm chaser traffic jams. The wall cloud fizzled but a robust beaver tail was feeding into the base.

A line of cows mooed loudly at me from across the road while the sirens in the nearby town of Goltry wailed. It was a very Twister vibe.

The cell started to organized with a prominent RFD.

The cell looked like it was wrapping up and tornadogenesis might be imminent.

An occluded updraft behind the RFD gust front twisted away as a ragged funnel. Chasers closer reported a dusty circulation underneath as a weak tornado, but I couldn't confirm it from my position so didn't count it.

Moving east again to stay ahead of the storm, a line of headlights from the west prompted me to get back on the road again.

By chance I wound up at one of the shooting locations for the film Twisters, a truckstop outside of the town of Kremlin, OK. Brindley and I got to be extras in the film, and this van was even used in a shot at this location. It was rather surreal being back there, except now everything in the scene was real, including the looming tornado threat. The truckstop was already filled with chasers, but the expansive lot had plenty of room. I was hoping to bump into a few other chasers that were fellow Twisters extras, but didn't see anyone.

And endless parade of headlights approaching from the west spooked me. I didn't want to get caught in the path of a tornado warned supercell and then stuck in a traffic jam, so I bailed to the east through Kremlin. The cell would have missed to the north, and it was dying, so it wound up being a non-issue in the end.

I retargeted a cell to the south, what had been Tail End Charlie before a massive line started to form behind it. This time the cell was a huge, gnarly HP. The third tornado warned supercell of the day, I got well east before dropping down south in front of it. It was sunset by then, so I stopped to let it approach and setup for a structure time lapse. The colors and structure on the huge mothership of a cell were exquisite and pretty much made the chase for me. Prolific lightning raked the sky as the storm drew closer.

"I summoned the will to make the trek to the unholy land of Oklahoma for a High Risk setup, and this is no small feat for me. I have zero expectations for such chases, and have grown weary of them over the years. There is so much that can go wrong. You will fight a two-front war of dangerous, low visibility storms on one side, and a wall of dangerous traffic and road hazards on the other. Some of my chase partners had the wisdom to simply say, "Nah, I'm good". But the allure of experiencing that awesome spectacle just nosed out the dread of the high risk of bust, the high risk of an accident. And so I’m looking for it under every empty tornado warned base, now setup for one last shot down the notch of an HP before the light is gone. Out of the Southern Plains High Risk murk the spectacle emerges, not below the base but above it."

By dusk the menacing green core was getting close with no view of a tornado. Chasers were bailing east to stay ahead of the beast. The scene reminded me of Pac-Man eating the white dots. I jumped into the line soon after this shot.

Night fell, I called the chase, and started running east on 412 to stay ahead of the massive squall line that was eating the HP supercell behind me. What looked like little more than a shower was lifting up from the south, and I drove through it without giving it too much thought. But it was rapidly organizing over my head. My phone started buzzing for a tornado warning. "Ah, crap," I thought. I pulled over. The flat rain free base of the storm moved off of me to the north, and I could see it backlit by lightning.

I watched it from the side of the road, and sure enough, it looked like a cone funnel was starting to take shape.

I was convinced I was watching a developing tornado, but I was getting only momentary glimpses through lightning flashes. After reviewing the video, it didn't look like much more than a scuddy lowering though. This would be two times in a row I came back from Oklahoma confident that I had a tornado shot only to discover after reviewing the footage that there was actually nothing there.

The cell was moving away from me and the lowering appeared to dissipate, but I decided to go after it. As I was starting to get into the squirrely terrain of northeast Oklahoma, I decided to do a longer/wider approach on more major roads that I hoped would be faster. I went east on the turnpike into Tulsa and then north toward Bartlesville. The tornado warnings were escalating from radar indicated, to confirmed, and then a rare tornado emergency was issued. A violent tornado was heading for Bartlesville. I pushed north on 75, faster than posted 70 mph speed, but was still passed by other chasers as if I were standing still. The beastly squall line was encroashing from the west and it was now a question if I would get any kind of view back before I was overrun by the line. A few miles south of Bartlesville I had a view of the gust front. Trucks were pulled off on the shoulder, and then I was overtaken by heavy precipitation and gusty straight line winds. I called the chase, having never gotten a view of the violent tornado, and poked around for a quiet side road to car camp for a few hours.

Waking up to a foggy morning the next day after car camping.