Mother nature threw in a trick to start the day. The first
storm didn't develop on the surface low, but further northeast along the warm
front. If this cell had stayed together would have moved into the trees and
hills of far southeast Oklahoma, not the best chase country.
After the first storm died towering cumulus begin to boil
up along the warm front. The updrafts were quite strong during the late
afternoon. One shown here managed to spin up a little funnel, a preview of what
was to come later in the day.
A large mass of cumulus conjestus formed to the south of
highway 70 and moved northeast to the warm front. This was what we had been
waiting for all day.
As the developing clouds reached the front a storm quickly
shot up. The structure early on was just what we wanted to see, an isolated
storm with one rain core and a flanking line to the south.
A wall cloud was quick to form under the flanking line.
Here it is shown rapidly pulling up threads of scud clouds into the lowering
base. Already at this time rotation was evident.
What this storm was noted for was not the tornadoes it
produced, but the many variations on the wall cloud circulations. This was the
second change in the circulation as it got much larger and ragged. Rotation at
this time was quite dramatic over the highway.
The wall cloud is again changing shape and beginning to
tighten into a lower and stronger circulation, but again, this fails to produce
a tornado.
At this time the storm again attempted to produce a tornado
with strong rotation, but instead the circulation split into two lowerings,
both rotating. After hours of rotation we wondered if it would ever produce a
tornado.
Show here is the final and most dramatic wall configuration
of the day before the tornado, again appearances were deceptive. The strong
rotation in the center of the circulation did not produce the tornado. The
funnel appeared from a small knob hanging from the far southwest corner of the
lowering and away from the main wall cloud.
During this time I repositioned myself to get a better
angle of the storm and got caught on the road when the tornado came down.
Scrambling to regain position further south I missed getting the base of the
funnel in the photograph. As I got to the top of the hill the show was over, at
least for now. A damage survey found a short path 100 yards
wide.
A second funnel formed further north and turned out to be a
tornado as shown by a later damage survey. The path length was 1 mile with a
width of 33 yards. Here the funnel is surrounded by a rotating rain curtain.
Another funnel forms, but this one does not touch down.
Meanwhile the wall cloud goes through another dramatic change. This time it
spun into a beautiful concentric cylinder.
Finally the storm moved north of highway 70 and a new
circulation spun up. During this time the flanking line merged with an inflow
band from the east. This setup later produced a rain wrapped wall cloud and
another tornado, but it was rain obscured and could only be reached by mud
roads off the main highway. A few chasers tried to get north to the developing
tornado, but were stopped in the Oklahoma gumbo mud after a few hundred yards.
Another shot of the merging flanks to our north. It was
during this time the shot was made that was later put on the cover of
Weatherwise Magazine. The main precipitation core of the storm had moved north
and was causing flooding rains.
An OU chaser photographs the rotating low clouds just north of our position. We kept having to duck in the vehicles as nearby lightning strikes made standing outside a scary experience.
NSSL photo of the Waurika tornado taken from the west of the
storm.
NSSL photo of the Waurika tornado taken from the southeast of the storm.