Clay County, Texas: April 30, 2019
For the first time in what seems like ages, a tornado outbreak was threatening a broad swath of the Plains and Midwest in April. With the focus of tornado activity expected to be around Oklahoma and surrounding areas, that meant I would probably not have to travel far for this chase. In fact, I stayed at home as my effective target until early afternoon.
I had options to either go northeast, east, south or even southwest. By waiting until afternoon, I was able to be selective with my target, even though I missed out on a rare midday tornado near Sulphur, OK, as a result.
The final plan was to head toward southwestern Oklahoma, where the environment was rapidly becoming favorable for tornadoes. Relatively discrete convection was maturing in an environment characterized by substantial low-level instability, favorable low-level shear and an overall instability/deep layer shear combination that was conducive for intense supercells.
Once I got to the Ardmore area, I needed to head west toward intensifying storms near Wichita Falls, TX. One storm in particular was starting to “wrap up,” suggesting that a tornado was likely to form in Clay County, TX. Just as I approached the storm from the east, a relatively narrow stovepipe tornado could be seen to the west, just north of Dean, TX, as early as 4:35 p.m. I took the first dirt road going west that I could find, in order to get a closer look, without too many other vehicles or obstructions in the way.
It was not long before I saw what initially appeared to be side-by-side tornadoes. In hindsight, while the funnel on the left was clearly producing a tornado, it was not conclusive if the funnel on the right was condensed to the ground. Regardless, the tornado to the left lifted moments later, just as the funnel to the right transitioned into a tornado.
I chased this tornado for about 15-20 minutes, watching it bounce up and down off the ground. At my closest pass, I watched the tornado about four miles northwest of Petrolia, TX, just to the south of the Oklahoma border. The tornado kicked up some debris, widened up and became rain-wrapped moments later, leaving my range of sight around 4:57 p.m.
That was really about it for the storm chase. The tornadic supercell crossed over into Cotton County, OK and quickly weakened, eventually absorbed by approaching convection from the west. I went east in a last ditch effort to possibly catch a discrete storm in the warm sector, but the storm mode was increasingly messy, so I ultimately went home.
It was my most successful April tornado chase, since I started chasing the Plains in 2014. I picked the right storm, given my target area, and watched two tornadoes for roughly 20 minutes. I didn’t have to leave home until the afternoon and made it back only about an hour after sunset.
The only thing that I would have done differently was capture more photos of the tornado, but I’ll consider this a practice run. I am ready for whatever May has in store in terms of storm chase opportunities.
