May 3, 1999......Oklahoma Historical Outbreak Part 2 (night)

After witnessing the most damaging tornado in Oklahoma history, I started to
aim my sights on yet another violently rotating supercell near Yukon to the west
of Oklahoma City. Radar was showing a very large hook echo developing right
along I-40 in Canadian Co.. I could see the nearly vertical updraft wall to my
distant west, and the back sheared anvil was also very impressive. Just after
8pm, I left the tornado damage scene in Midwest City along I-40, and headed
west across Oklahoma City. This outbreak was far from over!! East to southeast
winds remained strong and were feeding deep moisture into the supercell in
Canadian Co. The further I went west on I-40, the more impressed I was with the
storm structure. Cellular service was grid locked for obvious reasons so I was not
able to contact KFOR chief meteorologist Mike Morgan for an update. My laptop
continued to show intensifying rotation near Yukon. Low level moisture feeder
bands started to develop at this time(8:20pm). A tornado warning was issued
for E.Canadian, NW Oklahoma, SE Kingfisher, and S.Logan Counties. Radar
indicated a tornado just north of Yukon moving n-ne . Richland and Piedmont
were in the path of the circulation/tornado. Between 8:20 and 8:40, the storm
wrapped up a mean hook echo on radar, and tornado reports were being aired
on amateur radio near Richland. The night chase was just beginning.

While I do not favor chasing at night, nor do I recommend it to anybody, tonight
was one of those special nights when you've got to keep going. Since the core
was well removed from the circulation on radar, I figured my chances were very
good that I would be able to spot and video the tornado. A tornado was moving
northeast towards Piedmont at 8:50pm. I was on OK-4 at this time about 5 miles
south of Piedmont (Canadian Co.). I was unable to spot the tornado at first, but
lightning soon revealed a large tornado to my northwest. The tornado's track
appeared as if it was going to head right into Piedmont. Another major supercell
was to the northwest of this supercell near Kingfisher. Both storms had extreme
circulations and both were tornadic. It was going to be a long night for residents
of C. Oklahoma!! At 8:54, I reached Piedmont and the tornado was west of town.
Fortunately , the tornado track became more northerly and Piedmont was going
to escape a direct hit. The tornado was starting to weaken to the w-nw of town.
I headed north from Piedmont and could see a new tornado developing just to
the northeast of town. A total of four circulations were now seen on radar over
NE Canadian, Kingfisher, and approaching SW Logan Co. Now the night was
going to become even more interesting-if that was possible!!

A new tornado also developed about 2-3 miles to my north just before 9pm. I
was on an unknown dirt road trying to keep up with the n-ne moving tornado.
Based upon observations limited by lightning, I estimated the path width of the
tornado from 1/4-1/2 mile wide. The tornado was slowly moving north, but I
was not going to be moving much further north. For some reason, the dirt road I
was heading north on, abruptly ended as a large mound of dirt blocked the road
completely!! A large tornado was not much more than 2 miles to my north, and
now I was forced to backtrack!! I was able to finally get cellular service and I
called in my report to KFOR in Oklahoma City. I saw city lights about 10 miles
to my n-ne, and was trying to figure out what city that was. After checking my
map book, the town was discovered to be Cashion. The tornado looked like it
was headed right for town. In fact, the tornado blocked my view of the city lights
so I knew it was on that heading. I called my report in and then back tracked to
a paved road that went north towards Cashion. At 9:10pm, the tornado was
still 6-8 miles southwest of Cashion heading towards town. The size of the
tornado remained nearly constant on its track n-ne.

With time, the tornado hooked more to the north and now was going to pass
about 2-3 miles west of Cashion. I watched the tornado gradually dissipate
to my north. Unknown to me, a new tornado was spinning up about 2 miles
north of location(1 north of Cashion). I did not see it at first, but frequent cloud
to ground lightning soon made it hard to miss. The tornado was intensifying
right on the Kingfisher/Logan Co. line about 4 miles southwest of Cimarron City.
My map showed better roads for intercepting the now 1/4-1/2 mile wide tornado.
Between 9:38-9;45pm, the tornado nearly doubled in size. I plotted its track and
it was headed immediately east-southeast of Crescent. No doubt about it, this
was becoming a very violent tornado. Width of the tornado was approaching a
mile wide, and winds in the vicinity of the wedge tornado were becoming more
and more dangerous.Extensive tornado damage prohibited me from chasing the tornado on county roads southeast of Crescent (Logan Co.) I made it into the town  of Crescent as the wedge tornado was now passing east of Crescent. The huge tornado's forward speed increased and it was tracking more northeast. Crescent would be spared just as Piedmont had been earlier. I was on OK-74c just east of Crescent at 9:45pm. The tornado was now even larger than 1 mile wide and I could hear a loud roar to my north- east.The tornado was on a heading towards Mulhall, 10 miles to the northeast of Crescent.

The tornado was very wide and very violent when it passed southeast and east
of Crescent. My safety was paramount , and I was just to the southwest of the
very destructive tornado. Extreme tornado damage soon was seen all along OK-74c. The tornado had plowed through the area, much like the earlier violent tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area. The wedge tornado did not vary from it's northeast course, and unfortunately the town of Mulhall(Logan Co.) was directly in the path. The time was now 9:58pm. Fortunately early warning and spotter reports allowed the residents of Mulhall time to head for shelter. I continued east on the
paved road OK-74c into more significant /violent tornado damage 4-5 miles east
of Crescent. I could still see the wedge tornado to my north-northeast, and the lightning also revealed more and more damage. Several farms were completely   destroyed . I was forced to take a dirt road north because of the massive amounts
of debris on OK-74c. Some of the damage was consistent with the higher end of F-4 damage as most buildings were leveled and debris was wrapped around trees. Power poles were missing, and 150 foot power grid towers were twisted,
leveled and nearly pulled from the ground. I came upon a farmstead that had taken a direct hit by the violent tornado. The damage swath was well over 1 mile
wide. As I pulled up to the farmstead that had been completely destroyed, the
owner of the property was yelling for help. I looked around and could not see him.
Finally I saw him climb up a hill out of the creek bed. The sequence of events to follow were high on the list for scary storm chaser encounters/survivor stories.

The property owner/farmer advised that he had survived by heading down into
the creek bed as the tornado roared in from the southwest. He was watching the
continuous live coverage on KFOR, and the tornado was 2 miles from his property
moving northeast at 30 mph. He took out a stopwatch and timed how long he had to gather up his 2 dogs and head for the creek. He heard the tornado coming and fled his mobile home for the creek. He held on tightly to a tree and eventually was lifted into the air horizontally. Other trees in the creek bed knocked down a lot of the debris around him fortunately. As a result, he was able to avoid serious injury and pounding by airborne debris. I was glad I was  there for him to advise me about the traumatic and life changing experience he just survived. Seconds save lives in tornadoes, and this person made a life saving decision to head into the creek bed. WE THOUGHT WE WERE SAFE!!! This seemingly never ending chase grew increasingly eerie. My van was now stuck in mud, and the roads were blocked by power poles/electrical towers. Both he and I were going nowhere.
Yet another supercell was approaching quickly and my radar was now showing
a strong circulation southeast of Crescent. Radio reports indicated that another tornado was on the ground southeast of Crescent, along  the same path as the
earlier wedge tornado. Several emotions collided within me all at once. A tornado soon was seen on the ground to the southwest 3-4 miles. and was headed right for us. While the tornado was not of the magnitude of the earlier wedge tornado, this tornado was strong enough to be scary. To top off the scary situation, millions of pieces of already reduced debris surrounded our location. I will never forget what was about to happen!!!

The tornado was strengthening rapidly to our southwest-probably in the F2 or
strong F-1 intensity. The tornado meandered northeast right for us, changing
shape and size quickly. Occasional baseball sized hail was followed by a
dramatic increase in the winds from the northeast. OH NO!! Mr. Whiteman soon  headed for the creek bed as the tornado was now 2 miles and closing. He was obviously shaken by earlier events and did not want to tempt fate. I watched the tornado approach to 1 mile, and thought this is it-my first tornado encounter that
I couldn't get away from. I prayed and prayed as the tornado's whirling/whistling
sound was now very apparent. The tornado funnel was directly overhead, but
the ground circulation was about 1/4 of a mile south of me. A large debris cloud was seen, but good new for us soon appeared-the rope stage of the tornado was starting to occur. Although erratic movement is a common feature of roping out tornadoes, a gradual decrease in intensity is also common. Today, none of the earlier tornadoes went into a rope stage. I kept the ground swirl in my sights at all times fearing that if I lost sight of it, I could actually be hit by the 50-70 yard wide vortex. The vortex passed less than 200 yards from me and then lifted. We were spared, but my stomach was in knots by this time. My heart was racing too as one might imagine with how close we were to being hit by a tornado. Another scary night chase for Jeff!!! After our close call, I tried to figure out how we would be able to get free of the area we were trapped in. Numerous attempts to reach the Logan
Co. Sheriff's office and the power company proved futile, especially since the
town of Mulhall was blasted by the earlier tornado. We remained trapped for
almost 2 hours before finally getting my van out of the mud. We had to back up
for nearly 1 mile down a muddy debris filled road to finally get out of the strange predicament. I dropped by the sheriff's office to get help for the farmers still trapped in the damage farms east of town, and then went on to Oklahoma City
for chaser convergence at 1:30am. I could finally start to unwind from the very
extreme storm chase that was now in it's 14th hour. The phone continued to ring
almost non-stop as media contacts and family tried to reach me to make sure I
was safe. Safe now, but what a day!!!!

IN RELATION TO THIS STORY......The Tulsa Connection

While I was stuck in the mud northeast of Crescent, and the tornado was bearing
down on me, Kathryn Ray (chase buddy) in Tulsa called me about the tornado
that was coming into the west side of Tulsa(Sapulpa). She lives in Tulsa and was wanting to know what she should do. What are the odds of this!! Both of us were
in the path of approaching tornadoes. My son Rocky lives on the west side of
Tulsa and he too was in the path. Fortunately by the time the tornado approached
the western city limits of Tulsa, the tornado weakened to strong F-1 to weak F-2.
Just southwest of Tulsa, the town of Stroud did not fare well. The F-3 tornado
struck the outlet mall/motel on I-44 and then damaged town extensively. This
tornado was the predacesor of the tornado that struck Sapulpa and W.Tulsa.