Day 5: The Lonely Oklahoma Supercell

Today was a very hot and humid day and had the potential to be great but in a very localized area. There was a small window of opportunity for these storms to get going but if one did trigger in this area, it was going up. We left Norman, Oklahoma and headed to Clinton, Oklahoma not before stopping in Cherokee at a gas station where we met up with Cloud 9 Tours (storm chase tour company, George Kourounis is one of the drivers) and a lot of other chasers. Today was a "hurry-up-and-wait" day. Basically we got into position and had to wait for the storms to fire up. Eventually some started to pop up on radar and where visible in the sky. They bubbled up quickly then faded out fast. We were almost giving up hope on the day when 2 cells popped up on radar which looked promising. We followed the cells and eventually one became tornado-warned. About 90% of the chasers in Oklahoma were on this storm. It was getting near sundown but we managed to see a beautiful rotating updraft as the storm was low precipitation. After that the storms fizzled out for the night and are firing off in Kansas. Looks like just north east of Dodge City, Kansas is getting hammered with a storm that is hooking like crazy (for you non-weather nerds, a hook on the radar is indicative of a tornado).

We hear for the night and tomorrow looks like storms will be in this general area. Not exactly sure where we'll be chasing but that will be decided in the morning. The big news here is still the tornado outbreak on Monday. We're hearing a lot of stories from locals about damage. We actually met a storm chaser who just moved here from the UK and while he was out chasing, his house near Oklahoma City was destroyed by a tornado. Later in the week if there are some fair-weather days we'll be going out to look at the damage. Keep checking out The Weather Network for videos and live feeds from us. We were live-streaming the rotating updraft, not sure if they broadcast it but it was beautiful.

Sorry for the lack of video and lack-luster pictures.  The first real storm day I was in the front manning the camera for The Weather Network then couldn't get out because of the tornado.  Today I was in the back of the van manning the live stream.  Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get some good footage or get some from the others I'm with.