May 9, 2003 Storm Chase |  Central OK and later Tulsa

What a day I have to say.  The models actually did a good job handling the theta-e advection in OK 24-36 hours before the event and my initial forecast was almost dead on.  Though I never made it to the original target of Lawton, OK, the treat that I was presented upon arrival in OKC around 3pm was just right!  I initially chased the high based storms north of the city near Stillwater and saw a rather impressive non-rotating wall and tail cloud there, though I didn't get stills or video of it (so technically I shouldn't be mentioning this).  After this I decided to head south towards the city and check out a potential supercell near El Reno.  The storm was organized early on, but I ended up entering the core deliberately to get a better view on the other side which was not available.  Just some 1" stones were encountered, but after this I got hung up in the crazy suburb known as Edmond and wasted about an hour's worth of time trying to get back to I-35 with rather heavy traffic (my GPS was not with me today and I paid the price).  It was then sunset and low and behold my ears caught the NWS office describing a large supercell west of the city.  I said to myself it wouldn't be worth chasing since it's nearing a metro city on a Friday night with darkness closing in.  If I were in that situation again, I'd likely do the same thing based on the number of chasers that actually did take that greater risk for almost nothing to show other than a multitude of power flashes and RFD micro/downbursts (except for a few folks).

Anyways, I headed up to Tulsa all the while listening to Gary England describe how the supercell was looking more impressive with time.  I did consider turning around on I-44 halfway to Tulsa, but decided it was still not worth it (though it is very tempting when hearing of the radar signatures being exhibited!).  I grabbed the Super 8 on the west side of Tulsa just as the first reports of power flashes came in.  I set up the laptop and grabbed data and soon realized that this supercell had just gone tornadic as it encountered the richer low-level moisture (better low-level CAPEs) ahead of the retrograding dryline.  As an hour or so passed, I realized this supercell would be nearing my location very soon and that's when the OHP shut down westbound traffic on the Turnpike.  I didn't need to question this supercell's intensity as Tulsa's observation at 11pm was something like T=80, Td=72 and 15016G22.  Well it had been just 6 days since I cursed the left mover that terminated the supercell I was chasing east of Miami, TX when this highly cingular supercell decided to kick out its first (and only?) left mover aimed right at me.  On radar, it almost appeared cyclonic with a classic hook, but the structure quickly died and the hail went just to my north.  Of interest, I did for the first time finally witness and video the "constant thunder" effect sometimes described by persons near tornadic supercells.  However, this was associated with the left split so that takes all the fun out of that! :(   Nonetheless, the anvil and vault were alive with ICCCCG strokes and this helped create the low rumbling sound.  Other than that, the right mover hit Stroud, OK very hard and by this point I was telling the crowd of people in the parking lot watching the lightning that it would move to our south.  Thankfully it did and we just caught some heavy cores of rain/small hail.

I wasn't even planning on chasing the next day since I'd have to haul butt back to St Louis for work late that night and would have to get some measure of sleep in the afternoon.  But conceivably I could have easily chased the behemuth near Quincy, IL and still made it to work on time...though extremely tired!  Instead, I got home after 5pm and did a quick analysis upon which I nearly filled my pants when I saw what was a mere 120 miles to my northwest.  Ahh, at least some of the Wisconsin crew caught the action.  FYI: May 10 was the second tornado outbreak in two weeks (May 4 being the first) which I was unable to chase due to work and May 9 was the second tornado in two days to hit OKC!
 

Turkey tower explodes northeast of OKC Better towers ensue
  The base of the intial convection looking west...rather linear.  I blew this stuff off and decided to head south on I-35 and west on I-44 to near Chickasha. About 30 minutes later I see the storm that I blew off explode to the north.  I give in to temptation and head back north after it.
Right about here the supercell acquires a TVS I see this new activity to the northwest and adamantly exercise some patience with it.
Here is the base of the new cell near Stillwater which later developed a nice wall and tail cloud...which I don't have pics of. I wasn't impressed with this and headed back south for more activity.
An inflow band greeted me as I'm getting closer to OKC for a supercell southwest of El Reno. Nothing worthwhile here again as this storm dumped its core fast.  I did at least get some good hail out of it though.
At the Super 8 west of Tulsa as the historic tornadic supercell spit out this left mover which proceeds to put on an awesome lightning display.  This was during the "constant thunder" or continuous low rumbling as some have described. Very impressive arcing CG.
All photos copyright © Matt Ziebell

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