Tornadoes over central Oklahoma!

Check out some of these pictures and videos of a storm chase I performed on May 19th, 2010. These storms were relatively easy to chase as they moved at about 30mph due east. This allowed me to easily catch up or outrun the storms, as well as being able to stay on the same road for the entire chase.

Chase Mileage: 660 miles
Number of tornadoes seen: 2

I departed from the Dallas Metroplex headed twards Lawton, OK. A new day 1 outlook from the SPC was then issued, which included a ‘High’ risk of severe storms. The high risk area was further north and east of my original target area. I changed my target area to a storm that had initiated and was moving towards Hennessey OK. This was the correct decision, as I arrived in Hennessey just as the storm popped down a large cone tornado! (the video will be forthcoming later).

Next I decided to stay with this storm and travel east along SR-51. This also ended up being the best decision, as the storm ultimately put out a large funnel cloud near Stillwater, OK but didnt quite make it to the ground. Unfortunately I did not see the tornado that damaged mobile homes in Stillwater however. The rest of the chase was spent driving around attempting to target a few other storm cells, but ultimately I was either too far away or the storms sucked in too much cold air.

Either way, it was a good day for tornado viewing. For now, a few videos I was able to get online quickly. I will get the Hennessey OK tornado video online soon.

View the complete photo gallery by clicking here!

Taken at Latitude/Longitude:35.710027/-97.018004. 2.96 km North-West Warwick Oklahoma United States <a href="http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_35.710027_-97.018004.html"> (Map link)</a>19-May-2010 19:46Canon Canon PowerShot SD10, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 200	Taken at Latitude/Longitude:36.119742/-97.898945. 1.17 km North Hennessey Oklahoma United States <a href="http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_36.119742_-97.898945.html"> (Map link)</a>19-May-2010 16:43PENTAX Corporation PENTAX K10D , 7.1, 50.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 100	Taken at Latitude/Longitude:36.119792/-97.899009. 1.18 km North Hennessey Oklahoma United States <a href="http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_36.119792_-97.899009.html"> (Map link)</a>19-May-2010 16:45PENTAX Corporation PENTAX K10D , 5.0, 50.0mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 100