My Tornado Story

May 24, 2011

The latest SPC forecast for May 24, 2011

Tuesday morning arrived. I checked the Storm Prediction Center's forecast for the day before leaving for work at the University of Oklahoma Athletic Department, knowing that severe storms were a possibility later in the day. The SPC had issued a high risk for the majority of Oklahoma. The office, and much of the town, was on edge as the day wore on and the first storms started popping up in western Oklahoma (around 2pm). As I worked, I was exchanging text messages with my friend and roommate, Trey, while keeping an eye on the weather. Soon enough, a tornado watch was issued and my co-worker had her office television on the local news coverage. By 3:30pm, the storms were escalating and looking more impressive on radar. Trey was convinced this was the time to go. I asked my supervisor if I could leave early and received permission. I hurriedly packed my bags and hopped on my bike to ride home.

I had been out on storm chases twice before, once in 2009 and once in 2010. Neither storm chase had resulted in more than a good time with friends and some cool-looking clouds. As the semesters went by, I gained more knowledge and strategies from my meteorology courses and reading materials. I was ready to put the new information into practice and see my first tornado. I had never chased on a high risk day before so hopes were high that this might be a day of success.

Arriving at home, I grabbed all my storm chasing essentials: power inverter to power my laptop, USB cord to tether my phone to my 3G data, and a camera. Two other friends would be joining us on this adventure: Luke (also my roommate for the summer) and Shelby. I checked my car, added some oil, and we were ready to go. We headed west on Highway 9 from Norman and targeted the dryline.

A large tornado (which became an EF5) was already on the ground near I-40 and moving northeastward, out of our reach. We continued westward on Highway 9 then turned northwest, crossing I-44, and stopping near the small town of Amber, north of Chickasha. We were targeting a storm with mid-level rotation but got caught on the wrong side of another supercell to the south. Our stop was brief as the updated radar image came in and small hail started falling. We retreated eastward then turned south ahead of the southern supercell.

As we moved south on small county roads, the storm began to show better signs of rotation. We reached our target, just south of Highway 9 on Colley Road, and hurriedly jumped out of the car to take a look to the west and southwest. The latest radar image showed a hook echo and we were in perfect position to see anything that would form.


Within two to three minutes, we saw low level rotation to our west-southwest. Soon after, dirt started breaking free from the ground and a funnel appeared. At 5:13pm CT (according to my camera's tag data), we saw our tornado.

We stood in awe of one of nature's most captivating and devastating phenomena. The tornado began with a small funnel cloud but quickly expanded and became bigger as it moved from left to right at our vantage point. Unsure of the distance between us and the tornado, we quickly became fearful as the tornado grew larger and appeared to be moving our way. Another group of chasers were jumping in their car and moving south, away from the twister. We made the decision to follow their lead and retreat as the sounds grew louder and the tornado moved closer. Fear and anxiety became panic as we searched in vain for the car keys. My heart had never beat so fast. We soon found them on the floorboard, fired up the car, and got south as quickly as we could.

From a safer distance to the south, we resumed our nature watching and took pictures with the tornado in the background (which my Twitter followers will recognize as my profile picture).

As the storm raged on and moved northeastward, the tornado grew larger and larger. By the time it was due north of us, it was massive. Shelby tweeted a picture (below) that would be picked up by the Associated Press and broadcast to millions on The Weather Channel, Yahoo!, and many other websites.

The tornado was rated an EF4 by the National Weather Service and was on the ground for 51 minutes. Sadly, one life was lost and 48 more were injured as the tornado grew and moved toward Moore. It would disintegrate two miles south of the OKC Airport. Oklahoma saw 12 tornadoes that day and the SPC received 58 tornado reports across the region, certainly verifying the high risk forecast issued.

May 24, 2011 was a day I'll never forget. In my mind, I cannot picture a better storm chase scenario. I spent the day with three great friends, we did not have to wait long or travel far, and I saw a tornado form right in front of me. Though I long to see it happen again, I have not been storm chasing since that day.*

*As of this writing on May 1, 2013.

Forecast graphic and radar images obtained from the Storm Prediction Center and National Weather Service (respectively) in Norman, Oklahoma.

For more pictures, see my Google+ album here: Tornado in OK (052411)