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Special Note : VH-1 Airs The Chase On " Where Are They Now"
With Cinderella's Fred Coury. Feature Airs Tuesday 2/16/99 at
7:00 pm cst....Please Tune In and Enjoy The Thrill Of The Chase!!
May 24

May 24 , 1998 NW and NC Oklahoma Cyclic Supercell

Today was one of many days this year which were dominated by the infamous
cap(warm air aloft). Much of Oklahoma and Texas were strongly capped, while
a weaker cap was in place over extreme N.Oklahoma and S. Kansas. Also at
the surface, a boundary extended across S.Kansas into NW Oklahoma and the
Texas Panhandle. A dry line was across the Texas Panhandle as well, resulting
in a dry-line/warm front intersection in the Texas Panhandle near Pampa. This
area normally would be the perfect chase target area. The only exception was
an increasing cap situation was expected to set-up in this area. Temperatures
would have to reach into the 100's to break the cap. The Storm Prediction Center
acknowledged the strong cap in their outlook, and favored N.Oklahoma and
S.Oklahoma for the best chance for supercell development by late afternoon.
We also recognized this tremendous cap which would only get stronger during
the day. As a result, we targeted the area around Woodward/Alva Oklahoma
for our chase today. Early in the day, elevated storms were numerous in Central
Kansas as the deep moisture went over the top of the boundary. The storms
developed above the cap, and only a few struggled to reach severe levels. A
more important feature was noted on the water vapor satellite imagery. Mid-level
energy(i.e. vort-max) was swirling over E.Colorado during the morning hours.
This feature was expected to be the trigger for supercells later in the day. We
left Wichita Ks by mid-morning and headed for our target area in Oklahoma.

Kathryn Ray was my sidekick was again today, and Pat McMahon followed in
his vehicle. We met Pat at the Pleasant Hill NWS office yesterday. He was on
a 3 week storm chase odyssey from Detroit, Michigan. He was definitely ready
for more action, especially after yesterday's chase. Pat was ready to roll; but
unfortunately, rolling was about all Pat could do later(explanation later!). Brian
Stertz called us to let us know about the vort-max which was becoming more
pronounced over E.Colorado. He also advised us that instability showers were
breaking out over E.Colorado and NW Kansas. He also thought that once the
vort-max reached the deeper moisture, that storms would explode over W. Ks.
Sure enough around 11am, storms erupted near Oakley Ks and immediately
reached severe levels. The storms initially moved e-se, but later started to move
in a s-se direction. This hinted to us that the vort-max was starting to dig south-
southeast towards our target area. For much of the early afternoon, tornado and
severe t-storm warnings were issued for Gove, Lane, Scott, and Ness counties
in W.Kansas. Numerous supercells were slowly tracking s-se with the vort-max
now located south of Goodland Ks. We decided to hold our position as the mid
level disturbance was tracking right for us!! The days first cell rapidly tried to
develop near Woodward Ok at the edge of the cap. The tower exploded and
tried to become established. The cap, however, was too strong and soon this tower vaporized/dissipated. This told us that maybe the action would develop
further east later.

We patiently waited around the Waynoka area for other storms to form.The day's
earlier storms north of Dodge City started to weaken/gust out. Now it was time to
wait for the big show! The Storm Prediction Center still maintained their outlook
for a moderate risk over S.Kansas and N.Oklahoma for late afternoon and into
the evening hours. Little did we know, that the storm which was about to form
over S.Kansas, would be the most tornadoes I would see from one storm. The
Plainville/Tipton Ks supercell (June 14, 1992) was my previous highest number
of tornadoes from one storm.

The chase officially started from Waynoka Ok around 6pm. An organizing storm
was over Harper Co. in S.Kansas. The storm was in the pulse stage and was at
times severe producing large hail. We headed north towards Alva, and now we
could see a small overshooting dome with the storm. A good sign for storm
chasers!! We continued on to Alva where we refueled and were able to get to a
road option east. The storm was fairly anchored at this time over S. Harper Co.
Kansas. A severe t-storm warning was soon issued for N.Alfalfa and NW Grant
counties of N.Oklahoma as the storm started to move slowly southeast. At 6:32
pm , the storm was centered northwest of Manchester Ok very near the Kansas/
Oklahoma border. Time to get into position!! The storm continued to rapidly
intensify to our northeast as we charged east into Alfalfa Co.. Circulation was
already forming on the sw/s section of the storm as the updraft area was now
completely into Oklahoma. A tornado warning was quickly issued for N. Alfalfa
and NW Grant counties as a tornado was detected by NEXRAD near the small
town of Amorita.Our position at this time was near the town of Driftwood, and the
area of rotation was 12 miles to our northeast. We raced on to Byron and hoped
to intercept the storm east of Byron Ok on Alfalfa County road 80.

We started to notice a pronounced RFD punching into the back of the storm as
it was now about 5 miles northeast of Byron. The storm was heading right for
Wakita(kind of reminiscent of the movie "Twister"). A tornado was soon to be
born! At 7:02 pm, tornado #1 touched down 5 miles west of the Alfalfa/Grant Co.
line and about 14 miles northwest of Wakita. The tornado was a brief dust swirl
(F0) and had no condensation funnel above the swirl. We continued east on
Grant Co. road 80 as the rotation started to intensify north of the road. Almost as
quickly as tornado #1 dissipated, tornado #2 organized over open country 3-4
miles west of Ok 132 and 1-2 miles north of Grant Co. road 80. At 7:05pm, the
truncated cone tornado was underway to our north. The tornado had a striking
orange color probably from the soil color and low sun angle. The combination
of factors provided great contrast for video, especially since the dark core was
well to the east of the tornado. This tornado moved rapidly southeast(estimated
speed at 35-40 mph) and was well west of Wakita.(A good tongue twister, eh!!)

Now the excitement begins!! A cow was on the road (just passin' through) and
the intense vortex was closing in on the cow. We pulled over when we figured
the tornado would pass by our location and watched the tornado bear down on
the startled bovine. The tornado was less than 1/2 mile from our video location
and the cow now realized that it was in danger. The cow reversed its path and
struggled to get out of the tornado path. As the cow moved a few strides, the
outer edge of the tornado swirl struck the backside of the cow. The tail lifted and
the cow actually was shifted slightly from its path away from the tornado. Lucky
for the cow that it moved, or a scene from the movie Twister might have been
authentically duplicated!! Between 7:08 and 7:10 pm, a rare sequence of events
unfolded right in front of us at close range. The F1-F2 tornado was extremely
compact (probably in the 70-100 yard width range). As the tornado approached
County road 80, several vortices within the tornado were rotating cyclonically.
However, as the tornado passed over the road, the vortices appeared to be
disturbed by something within the circulation. The vortices abruptly reversed
rotation (now anti-cyclonic) and the inflow into the tornado was now from the
opposite direction!! (Later study and review of the video indicated a very strong
suction vortex aided the switch in rotation). The damage intensity increased
significantly when the vortex reversed rotation. Numerous theories ranging
from optical illusion to a strong downdraft within the tornado were developed by
meteorologists and other chasers who have seen the video. A very weird and
hard to explain situation indeed!!

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