Apr 14, 2011 Southern OK
The Institute set out for north central Oklahoma, the original target, at 0500hrs. You have never had your soul sucked out of your body until you have done the trans-Arkansas sprint. Fortunately much of this was done in the dark.
Upon reaching Webbers Falls for food, gas and data, the forecast team quickly concluded that a new paradigm for the day was needed. The favorable parameters were largely converging over central Oklahoma, east of Oklahoma City, southward to just south of the Red River in north central Texas. LCLs were more favorable, the upper flow relative to the dryline's orientation was better, the jet axis would be over or just south of the River. At the surface, the best heat was coming into south central Oklahoma from Wichita Falls, and the best westerly push was over the southern Texas panhandle and the south plains, surging toward southern Oklahoma.
The moisture and better flow normal to the dryline were among the more persuasive arguments for going south. Trees and terrain would be the primary obstacles. Where we originally thought there was a 100% chance for tornadoes and an 80% chance of seeing at least one, the southern option's prospects were 100% and 40%, respectively. Sobering, but with the workload split among two members it would be doable.
We proceeded west on I-40 to Shawnee and turned left. SPC issued the first tornado watch for Kansas, and then one from the Oklahoma-Kansas border to a tad south of the Red River. FIrst cells fired near I-35 at about 20z.
We awaited the cell's arrival on the south side of Ada. The original cell movement was surprisingly northeastward rather than east-northeastward at first, but this changed during the late afternoon and evening.
Finally had to commit to the storm near Sulphur as it got better and better on radar. It was tor-warned but nothing was confirmed. In fact as other echoes developed they would occasionally look promising, but not for long. Finally a confirmed tornado landed near Madill and the hook was beautiful. We could not get down to it in time because we did not want to punch any cores with large hail expected. Another storm came up from the the southwest with a terrific bell-shaped updraft. We took pictures while marble to golfball hail fell around us. We considered that a success.
Taking pretty pictures cost us because the storm cut us off. It was periodically trying to spin but nothing imminent seemed likely, so we went south and then east. The longer version would include repeated questions of "I need a road that goes____," followed by the response "You can't have one."
So we were away from the storm for about 40 minutes as we dropped south and then east and then north up the main highway into Tushka. South of the town the suv in front of me make a banzai right swerve to go to the shoulder and I could not see why until I had already hit the power line draped across the road at eye level. At that point I decided to continue north to catch the circulation that seemed to be over the east side of the little town. At 7:28pm we saw a blue satellite tornado condense on the southeast side of the main meso. We could not see ground level so we missed the debris. But as we entered the first intersection in Tushka strong westerlies scooped up pieces of something--dramatic. But by this time only the outer periphery of the circulation was over Tushka. We saw damaged houses, an overturned semi, downed lines and busted trees. We gingerly made our way north having not seen anyone who needed assistance. In fact I can only remember two people outside in the whole town, and they were calmly surveying the damage.
We got back to the main road and headed north, but saw nothing tornadic to the east. Warnings continued. The fm dj we were listening to for warnings apologized and abandoned the station to look for his brother, who's house had been hit by the tornado. He left the station on auto-twang and we heard no more warning information.
Emergency vehicles sped southward toward Tushka as we approached Atoka. Eventually we had dinner in McAlester and proceeded back to I-40 for the trip back to the Institute.
The return trip across Arkansas was plagued by the developing mcs that gained strength and sped up as it traversed the Natural State. At 50-60mph and producing damage, it would have taken eternity to punch through, so I rested a couple of times to let it move on. Tornado warnings continued as the line reached eastern Arkansas. It was still creating carnage in eastern Arkansas at around 4am, killing one person in St. Francis county in a mobile home. We were glad for the end of this long rough ride.
Looking at the video from others, the best view was westnorthwest of the circulation from a group who took the Boggy Depot road that looked questionable to me. It went right into Tushka on the west side. They got some great stuff. Someone else southeast of the town got a nice clip as well. One of those days when sedan chasing made a big difference If the terrain and trees had cooperated we would have seen a large debris cloud, too. Still a success in some regards. Looking at the radar loop, this could have turned into a whack-a-meso battle. Another good forecast, but I cannot cure the world of trees and hills.