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We resumed the chase and
were heading south on Ok 74 towards the town of
Marshall. The portable tv finally was able to pick up a signal from an Oklahoma
City station. Kathryn saw the outline of a tornado on the tv amidst the horrendous
static. We were all wondering where this was. Much to our dismay, we soon found
out that this was near Watonga and had been on the ground for 10 minutes now!!
A state of frustration set in to this chase group!! For the next 10 minutes, the tv
showed us great video of the slowly moving nearly perfect tornado. The position
of the tornado was just southeast of Watonga by spotter reports on the amateur radio.
Radar also indicated that a storm was rapidly developing closer to us and
was actually approaching Marshall. We picked up our low hanging heads long
enough to see this small storm coming right for us!! The storm was rotating and
I do mean rotating!! Lightning sparked around us almost like a wake up call, and
the base started to take on a "cinnamon roll" appearance. We watched the storm
spin away like mad, and even develop a small funnel cloud. Now it was time to
make a decision!! This was almost like a "Let's Make A Deal" scene. Do we take
the closer storm or do we give it all away and high tail it for the Watonga storm?
Tough decision- all we needed was Monty Hall throwing cash in our face!!
The answer is.....we
decided to take off for the Watonga storm since it had already
dropped a very picturesque tornado and was far from over!! Later we learned,
that both decisions would have worked out- this will be explained later. No flat
tire for us Monty!! We planned to catch the storm near Kingfisher or Dover so we
headed towards Crescent where we could get a road option east. Time to fly!!!
The Watonga storm weakened some but was still spinning on radar. A storm
exploded southeast of the Watonga storm, and quickly prompted a tornado
warning for Kingfisher Co. We were in fat city!! We still had lots of distance to
close between us and the developing tornado near Omega Ok. Brian Stertz was
cleared for take off and soon we were zipping west on the road to Dover. The
storm was becoming organized quickly, and soon a tornado was reported to the
northwest of Kingfisher. The sun was shining right in our faces but with the help of
sunglasses, we could make out the lone tower to our west some 20 miles. We
blazed a trail west on the bumpy but paved road. A scene from a storm chaser
fantasy book (if there was such a thing) was right before us. The suns rays soon
were blocked by the large storm tower, and a tornado was now before us. The
next 10-15 minutes would make the chase!!
We could now see the
complete picture!! A large "snapping turtle tail" inflow
band poked into the wall cloud from the north. Meanwhile, a well developed
tornado was pendant from the relatively flat base. The tornado was reported to
be crossing U.S.81 north of Kingfisher at this time and 260 degrees at about 7
miles from our location. We gained a lot of distance over the next 5 minutes
and the tornado crossed the road we were on just 3 miles before us. The intensity
of the tornado remained unchanged for the entire time we approached( F1 to
possibly weak F-2). We were on Kingfisher Co. road 730 for those plotting our
path. As we finally closed within a mile of the tornado, the tornado visually took
on a ropy appearance although the debris swirled violently still around the small
funnel. We pulled up for video as the tornado was about 1 mile to our northwest
in a grove of trees doing quite a bit of tree damage. The width of the vortex
was probably in the 50-70 yard width at this time 6:40 pm. The position of the
tornado would be placed about 3 miles southeast of Dover Ok. The tornado did
hit a structure (of unknown type) at 6:42pm as chunks of debris was spun up
into the air. Between 6:42 pm and 6:45pm, the tornado started to weaken to our
north. The tornado dissipated about 3 miles east-southeast of Dover at 6:46 pm.
We tracked the storm east
as it was heading e-ne at about 30 mph. The storm
rotation was still very impressive even after the tornado lifted. We shot some
video to the south of the storm as a strong RFD punched into the updraft. The
storm tried to reorganize the circulation, but a storm to the south was interrupting
the warm inflow into the storm. As a result, the storm started a slow weakening
process. We were unsure what to do next. The main action was now either in
the Oklahoma City Metro or near Stillwater. The storm to our south would also
become a play a little later. The storm near Stillwater oddly enough was the storm
we left near Marshall earlier, and yes this did produce a tornado!! We thought
about trying to catch up to this storm, but we turned our attention back to our
south for a supercell which was now approaching Guthrie Ok. We reached I-35
as the storm was entering the west section of Guthrie. Our location was about
20 miles to the north near Mulhall.
The storm crossed in
front of us about 10 miles but we were unable to catch the
storm until 20 minutes later near Langston. As we passed behind the updraft
area, we could see a pronounced RFD cutting into the storm from the west. Very
impressive lightning within the storm illuminated the base often. A large wall
cloud was seen to the west of Langston and we had glimpses of a pronounced
cone shaped funnel pendant from the wall cloud to our east-northeast. We were
able to track the storm into Payne Co. but could not see the wall cloud anymore.
We followed the storms back to Tulsa and watched an incredible lightning show.
Meanwhile just 50 miles to our southwest, several tornadic supercells wreaked
havoc near Meeker and Prague Ok. causing lots of damage and a few injuries.
Radar was showing very impressive supercells in Pottawatomie, S. Lincoln, and
Okfuskee Co., so we decided to head south towards Okmulgee and tried to get
in the area where these storms were projected to track. The rotation continued
into Okmulgee Co. but not to the degree it was earlier. We called it a chase!!
As all of the tornado
paths were surveyed and documented later in October, it
was determined that this was the largest tornado outbreak ever in October not
only for Oklahoma, but for the entire U.S. A week later, Brian Stertz and I did a
survey of the area between Meeker and Okmulgee. We found lots of F-1 and
F-2 damage in this area. Multiple tracks were found near Prague and further
east in Okfuskee Co. Several small towns were hit by tornadoes and these were:
Center View, Prague, IXL, Haydonville, and Mason Oklahoma. Fortunately the
advanced warning saved lives this evening when supercells were too numerous
to count and even harder to decide which storm to follow!!
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