February 27, 2011 Northern Oklahoma Tornado Warned Supercell
Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 March 2011 14:30 Written by Roger Hill
I couldn't resist the first chase of the year. A strong, but shearing short wave was forecast to emerge into western Texas/Oklahoma, and race east northeast. A lee cyclone was developing in southeast Colorado and was forecast to move eastward along the warm front. A strong dryline was moving east into Oklahoma and would be the culprit in developing the lone warm sector supercell west of Pond Creek by mid afternoon. We intercepted this storm in its formation stages and virtually had the storm to ourselves early in its life. As it moved into a moistening environment along the warm front it eventually became a nice supercell that rode and occasionally went north of the boundary. Finally, just northeast of Newkirk, OK, the storm produced a tornado, albeit fairly short lived. The storm had pretty structure through most of its life cycle.
Pretty storm, with stout updraft in its developing stages in western Oklahoma.
High based storm becomes severe with hail as the main threat.
Supercell continues to intensify. Wide angle 17mm lens catches the updraft, FF core, inflow band and anvil.
My favorite shot of the structure, just north of Blackwell, OK. Notice the ragged "cold" looking wall cloud. The storm
would have to get back on the boundary to produce a tornado.
Northeast of Newkirk (as we ran out of roads!) the storm means business. Funnel cloud forms and later drops
down as a truncated elephant trunk tornado. Couldn't keep up with it in the poor road network! (Video grab)
Supercell moves closer to Grainola where the tornado formed. Looking north with the clear slot, RAPIDLY
rotating wall cloud and nice structure. A few folks blasted east on other paved roads and were treated with a
gorgeous sight and brief tornado! It's 60 mph motion kept us from getting back in front of it.
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