Boswell, OK, May 9, 2016
I left Oklahoma City this morning for a target near southeastern Oklahoma or adjacent northeast Texas. This is not exatly the part of Oklahoma that you want to be storm chasing in, due to hills, trees and windy roads. It wasn’t long before I lost cell service, including radar data, in a very rural area. Once back “on the grid,” I quickly realized that supercells were forming well to my west, along the dryline.
My initial opinion in the morning was that winds were not going to back “enough” ahead of the dryline, so I favored an area where winds were already out of the southeast, in vicinity of a remnant boundary. Well, short-range computer models in the morning showed southerly winds along the dryline, but the actual observations showed winds backing to SSE/SE by early afternoon. Fortunately, I had enough time to turn around, once I realized this, to change course and get back west in time to see a tornado.
I set up south of Boswell, OK, on the Texas side of the Red River. While fumbling with multiple cameras/video cameras, the “best” footage I managed to get was from a camcorder that I placed on the roof of my car, which can be seen above.
It’s not the most compelling tornado video ever, but considering my initial target was over 100 miles off, I’m lucky I saw anything at all. For logistical reasons, I couldn’t get much closer than I did. I managed to find a partial clearing in an otherwise heavily forested area. Unlike the Plains of western Oklahoma, the area in south-central/southeastern Oklahoma near the Red River is full of trees.
Shortly after the tornado lifted, I headed east and eventually north, but I did not witness any more tornadoes. I did, however, catch a vivid sunset just north of the Red River in the same general area. It was a nice finish to what almost ended up being a total chase debacle.
This event was a good reminder to not overlook the dryline, especially if there is favorable shear/instability expected along it. Even if near-surface wind fields had just stayed southerly, upper level winds were southwesterly with favorable timing of an approaching shortwave. The end result was a much better wind profile than I had originally expected. Based on OUN soundings, 500mb winds veered back to a more westerly direction by 00z 5/10.
A little more background about the area I was chasing. If you’re not too familiar with southeastern Oklahoma, it’s probably the worst part of Oklahoma you’d want to be chasing in. Aside from hills and thick forests, some of the roads are very windy and there can be little to no data service for radar access, observational analysis, etc. At one point, I was driving on a paved road that had corners so sharp that the road sign suggested a speed of 10 MPH around a bend. This is clearly not ideal for chasing and the area I was in reminded me more of West Virginia than Oklahoma.
