As you may be aware, yesterday featured some very explosive severe weather, mostly focused in central and eastern Oklahoma. My home town of Norman was the site of a few of these outbreaks, with funnels touching down near the National Weather Center, where I work, and moving along Oklahoma Highway 9, which passes a couple of miles south of my home.
Our deployment was further north, where different cells were expected to mature and develop tornados. Apparently these storms didn’t meet their potential. We witnessed one small mesoscale convective system form to our west, mature, and then pass to the northeast of us. I finally saw why people think that thunderstorms are beautiful, with the soaring cumulonimbus tower passing by, and the rotating downdraft on the rear of the cell. The cloud structures were amazing, and the speed at which everything was moving made it surreal. We got a little bit of pea-sized hail, and then it was over.
In the meantime, far to our south, our hometown was being ravaged by what would become a fairly violent tornado to the east. There have been lots of damage reports, and a few fatalities. Today, the day after, we’re heading off to chase another storm. I have to admit that it has shaken me up, the knowledge that I was sitting watching a storm, while my family was literally a couple of miles from a mature tornado. This lessens my excitement for the project, but we continue on.
Sean M. R. Crowell 