"Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?" (Job 37:16) This video frame from just outside Cherokee, OK, pretty well describes northern Oklahoma on Saturday. It was by far the most successful chase anyone in our group has had--thanks to Tim and Branden for driving.
With all the day 2 high risk hype for Saturday, Friday was overlooked as a tornado day. I left work about 2:30 as the Norman supercell took form out across I-44 near Chickasha, since I was planning to leave for a church retreat in Madill at 4:15. I called our campus minister at the Westside church of Christ as the hook echo became well-defined and learned he had already decided to delay leaving Norman. In disbelief that this large right-turning supercell with a velocity couplet was not tornado-warned, I went to Hwy 9 on the west side of I-35, to spot as much as to chase. A foray right up to the precip core, followed by a speedy retreat eastward, brought me to the Sonic across the highway from Riverwind Casino. I watched curtains of rain wrap from south to north into the circulation, increasing in speed, and realized a tornado was spinning up less than a mile in front of me. I ran back to the car and the college-age guy in the spot next to me casually asked, "Are there gonna be any tornadoes today?" "I think that's one RIGHT OVER THERE," I said and drove off, calling NWS Norman as I dropped south on I-35 to avoid the outer edges of the rain-wrapped tornado. Just as I got out my description of the forming tornado, I got the "call failed" tone, and that was the last phone call I got through to anybody for a half hour or more. It's unclear whether my report was what earned Norman a tornado warning, but I like to think it had a part. My video from Sonic is so shaky and dark that it isn't worth posting, but that wasn't my main concern at the time.
I turned around and headed back north to Norman once it was clear the danger had passed, and saw damage up 24th from Hwy 9. Taking 9 eastward out into rural parts of Cleveland County, I watched various areas of rotation and ascent at the back of the storm, catching a brief funnel on the far eastern outskirts of Norman. Little Axe was a convenient and necessary stop for a couple gallons of gas before closing on the storm near Pink. I met up with three friends and fellow chasers/met students in another car and we chased together from there, drawing extremely close to two areas of rapid rotation on Lake Road west of Shawnee. We followed the storm west to Shawnee and saw a brief tornado several miles to our north, so far away and short-lived that nobody has a good photo of it. It was about that time I finally got through to our campus minister, who told me the Norman tornado had struck the church building with a group of people inside waiting to leave for the retreat. Thankfully, everyone there was uninjured, but the building's roof was peeled off in places and trees outside were uprooted or broken. The decision had been made not to hold the retreat due to the damage and the expectation of more storms. First and above all, I was relieved that my friends there were kept safe. We were all a little disappointed that the weekend was canceled, but it was a small matter in comparison. Pretty quickly after that, though, I started thinking about Saturday. It had never occurred to me that I wouldn't be in Madill during the weekend outbreak, but now I was going to be chasing my first high risk day. How often is road tripping to the atmospheric display of the year your backup plan?
On to the exciting part with pictures. Saturday was a circus in northern Oklahoma, and it was typical of the day that our little caravan comprised two cars with five people in each. Our jumping-off point was Fairview, OK, a small town that we later realized was not all that small compared to others in the region. It was my first trip to northwestern Oklahoma and the area is just as remote as it appears. Cell service is spotty at best, and data is available maybe a third of the time. There was a Sonic in Fairview where our group spent an hour or so watching storms blow up on radar, unwilling to run to the dryline if there was a chance of anything initiating ahead of it and becoming dominant. Finally, we headed through Seiling to Woodward on the first tornado-warned storm that came close to Woodward. Chaser traffic became evident in Woodward and was present for the rest of the day. The car I was in, with Tim driving, got north of Woodward on OK-34 and turned east onto back roads to cut over to OK-50. Back roads turned to dirt, and dirt turned to sand, but Tim managed to keep the car both on the road and on pace with the storm.
OK-50 took us north to the Cimarron River at Freedom, OK. Coming across the river and into town, a long, skinny funnel may have touched down briefly north of town. This storm remained tornado-warned as we turned east on US-64 toward Alva to follow it. We saw several rotating wall clouds and lowerings on the road to Alva, stopping to watch twice, but the storm was moving off to our north and was not producing at the time. Confident that we could catch another tornadic storm by staying south, we let the first storm go and dropped from Alva southwest to the outskirts of Waynoka on US-281. A Woodward radio station was giving the play-by-play account of the new tornado-warned supercell approaching Waynoka, and we watched from a hill east of town as it tried and failed to drop a tornado. There may have been a rain-wrapped twister in there somewhere, but at that distance we couldn't say.
Our mistake came here. None of us could get radar on our cell phones (we're just college students, no satellite connections or anything) so we were unaware of the strengthening supercell catching up to that one from the southwest. To stay with that storm, we rushed into Waynoka--where there was a rattlesnake festival going on and thousands of people had had to take shelter in town--and north from there on OK-14. We went through heavy precip, but managed to avoid hail. On 14 we found cell service somehow, and realized the southern supercell was the only reasonable choice. Turning east on 64 toward Alva once again, we drove through more intense rain and gusty winds as the northern storm sucked in precip-laden outflow from the strengthening southern one. Tornadoes were being confirmed on our new target as we made a quick gas stop in Alva, then headed east on US-64 and south on 8 to intercept at Cherokee.
Driving through Cherokee was a surreal experience. We were seriously concerned that this town full of mobile homes and other tiny houses could take a direct hit. The sky was orange in the west as we rolled through the heart of the town, Addison hanging out the window of the lead car yelling at residents to take cover. Most continued to gawk on the sidewalk, even those in front of a trailer park. Tornado sirens sounded just before we made it out of town and into the chaser convergence just to the south.
We pulled off the wide shoulder of OK-8 there, at the end of a long, long line of chase vehicles. A well-defined lowering, clearly rotating, came into view over an open field to our west just as we climbed out of the car and set up. The show began immediately, as a funnel emerged, flirted with the ground for a few seconds, then touched down definitively.
The first tornado dissipated, although it's entirely possible a circulation remained on the ground until the next touchdown moments later. This new tornado quickly took on a mature stovepipe shape.
As if this spectacular tornado wasn't thrilling enough to the chasers lining the roadway, a second funnel dropped, pencil-thin at first. Twins! It intensified as the first one began to fade and slowly rope out. The latest tornado appeared to pose a threat to Cherokee, and chasers waited to see whether help would be needed in town. Thankfully, the tornado passed northwest of most of the town, knocking out power and reportedly destroying a barn (we saw something lofted, probably the barn roof) but doing little else.
By the time we headed back north through town, we had seen the entire life cycles of three tornadoes from one location. This storm went on to produce several large, likely violent tornadoes after dark on its way to southern sections of Wichita, where significant damage was reported. We left the storm at the intersection of OK-8 and US-64 north of Cherokee and headed home for the night. About the time we returned to Norman, a tornado slammed parts of Woodward, killing at least 5 and changing the face of the outbreak. Sirens reportedly did not sound, maybe due to the storm itself. The daytime chase was exhilarating but for the second straight April 14th, the event will be remembered for a tragedy in a small Oklahoma town. Thoughts and prayers are with Woodward residents today.
