May 6th, 2001 Oklahoma Tornadoes
Last Updated on Sunday, 10 January 2010 01:19 Written by Roger Hill
May 6 was an incredible day. It was to be the "day after the big day" type scenario. On May 5, a couple of weak tornadoes occurred, but did not destroy the set up for May 6. The morning models showed an explosive situation with over 5,000 j/kg of CAPE, strong westerly 500 mb winds across southern Oklahoma, and an old boundary. We headed south towards the Ardmore area to play the better shear, and much to our dismay, severe thunderstorms developed back in Oklahoma City where we had come from. The temptation to go back and chase these cells was short lived as two explosive supercells developed in a north/south line from Springer to Overbrook. The first storm produced the first tornado below, an F2 that was gorgeous. The second storm also produced an F2 near the town of Overbrook. Finally we ended up near Denton, Texas chasing a gorgeous LP supercell that is shown in the last photos.
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Beautiful striated supercell updraft of the Springer tornado.
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Awesome tornado!!!
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Rapid cascading motion was seen with this tornado.
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Tornado starts to rope out.
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Final rope stage of the Springer tornado.
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Gorgeous supercell updraft of the Overbrook tornado.
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Incredible hail roar was very evident as this storm produced baseball size hail.
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Funnel forms rapidly.
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Debris and condensation occurs.
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Awesome up close shot of the vortices.
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Another shot of the vortices.
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Second touchdown occurs.
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Tornado starts to dissipate.
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It continues to dissipate.
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The Denton, Texas LP supercell updraft.
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Gorgeous bell updraft!!
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At last night falls and lights up the mammatus.
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