Mike McMahon,
Robbie Reeves,
Zac Keever
Target:
Guthrie, OK
Distance:
˜150 miles
Duration:
˜5 hours
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Partners: Mike McMahon, Robbie Reeves, Zac Keever Target: Guthrie, OK Distance: ˜150 miles Duration: ˜5 hours |
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The setup was favorable for an outbreak of tornadoes in Central OK, so I called up the gang to see who was available to chase. As luck would have it, all 3 of my primary chase partners were able to chase(although Mike needed some convincing to take off work early). We drove north toward Guthrie, where we planned to wait for convection. Storms did fire around mid-afternoon...only about 50 miles or so SW of our target. We actually waited, at first, for the storms to move NE towards us. The storms were backbuilding though, so we hightailed it toward El Reno, then south to Minco. As we did the storms began to advance toward El Reno, so we turned back around to intercept.
Just south of Union City, we saw a tornado to our NNW. The tornado was at least 6 miles away, but we all got excited. Mike, who was driving, stepped on the pedal and got us in position just in time to see the first tornado rope out and another tornado form. The tornado was backlit and photogenic . It was also moving slow enough that we were able to get out and get pictures...just as it struck a hangar at the small El Reno Municipal Airport. A secondary tornado also formed, and both were briefly on the ground at the same time. The tornado lifted, and we continued to chase the wall cloud ENE towards Yukon. The storm began to dissipate by dusk, but not before freaking us out with some nasty cloud-to-ground lightning and hail. Robbie was so focused on filming at the time that he actually had to be coaxed back into the car as CG's struck less than a half-mile from our location. We stopped in Yukon to eat, view our videos & pics, and pat ourselves on the back. It was Mike's first close range tornado (his first was 9 days earlier).
 The second tornado touches down SW of El Reno, OK |
 The tornado develops a visible vortex tube |
 Wide view of the tornado |
Tornado as it strikes El Reno Municipal Airport |
 Mammatus clouds at dusk in Yukon |
 Quarter sized hail in Yukon just after dark |