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As we travelled back to Norman on May 5, we discussed our plans for May
6. It looked like things would explode just west of I-35. Indeed,
they did. We wound up with a nice local chase on our hands for the
day. We even saw some cool things without even leaving home.
Target: Norman, OK
| Chase Partners: |
Aaron Kennedy, Nathan White
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Location:
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Central and SE Oklahoma
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Miles Travelled:
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180
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Total Time:
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6 Hours
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We knew from the day before that this would be another active severe
weather day. We figured storms wouldn't develop until about 3:30pm, so
we had plenty of time to run some errands. I left campus about 1:00pm
and headed to my grandmother's in NW OKC to do some things. As soon as
I got into Moore, I noticed clouds building due west. Storms began to
exploded up-and-down the I-35 corrider. A Tornado Watch was issued for
most of Central and Eastern Oklahoma. Just before I got back to the
dorms, a Tornado Warning was issued for Grady Co., OK. The storm was
approach Normna, and we had no chance to drop south without core
punching.
I got back to the dorms about 3:15pm. Aaron,
Nathan, and I rused to the 12th floor of Couch Center to watch. We had
a great view of the storm approaching Norman (Storm-A). Less than two
minutes later, Aaron saw debris on the ground. It was hard to see, but
it appeared to be a very weak tornado. Less than one minute later, a
Tornado Warning was issued for Cleveland Co., OK, for a Doppler
indicated tornado. This included the south side of Norman and OU. We
later emailed NWS-Norman about what we saw. They did not think it was
tornado, but I think it probably was...just really weak. Finally, it
was safe to proceed on the chase. So, we ran through the hail to my
car, jumped in, and sped off campus. Just as we came up to OK-9, a new
Tornado Warning was issued for Cleveland County (2.4 MB). We turned south on
US-77. The wall cloud was very well defined and was only a couple of
miles away from us.
After about 40 more minutes chasing Storm-A, we
noticed a new cell just beginning to form south of us. Since the wall
cloud was dissipating, we left Storm-A and made our way towards Sulfur,
OK. The new storm (Storm-B) was actually north of Sulfur; we set up
near the town of Stratford, OK. The storm was not yet severe, but we
did notice what appeared to be a developing wall cloud. We moved
farther down the highway until we were just south of Stratford. We
stopped to observe Storm-B for a while. However, Storm-A was
approaching from the north. Storm-A was moving SE, and Storm-B was
moving NE. Storm-B was a goner; it was about to merge with the much
bigger Storm-A. We decided to keep ahead of the leading edge and watch
it for some gustnados and also for some cool pictures of turbulence.
Farther south of us, near Sulfur, OK, and along the Red River,
supercells were producing some small tornadoes.
The two storms merged near Ada, OK, forming
Storm-AB, and clobbering Ada. We turned east on County Line Road (E
1650 Rd). This road eventually turned into nothing but rock. I was
sure my car would either drag bottom and get stuck or some serious
damage would be done to my undercarriage, but it was okay. We then
took OK-1 to Ada, OK, called off the chase, ate some dinner, and headed
back to Norman. During the drive back, we saw a decent lightning show
from some storms on the north side of Oklahoma City. We got back to
campus at 10:00pm, just in time for our mandatory floor meeting.
SUMMARY:
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Another incredible day. Another landmark. The end of my first
multi-day severe weather event. It was awesome chasing the storms near
Norman and seeing the incredible storm structure. This was officially
my last chase of my first year of college. I can't wait for next
season.
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