Day 11: (Oklahoma or) Bust

Yesterday was supposed to be the day. One of the biggest severe weather events in United States history. The SPC outlook was red and pink, twitter was aflutter with panic and excitement, and all of the parameters were in place. The stars seemed to be aligned for a day we would never forget. In some ways, the day was exactly that: unforgettable. However, it wasn't because of the severe weather we had been expecting.

all of the severe weather that didn't happen

Long story short, the day was pretty much a bust:(

During the morning weather brief, the team was faced with two options: either stay up north and play along the warm front, a zone that was highly anticipating severe and potentially violent tornadic activity, or head down into Texas and try our hand at the dry line. Although both areas had their strengths, the severe activity underneath the warm front was all but guaranteed, so we decided to position ourselves in southwestern Oklahoma and wait for some serious tornadoes.

Although at first it was looking good, as the day progressed we realized that the day was under-preforming. Where were the violent and dangerous storms we ordered? Not in Oklahoma and not in Texas. We started in Altus, Oklahoma, and then drove into Texas, our 14th state. Although there was a tornado warning in effect for Childress, the area we were driving through, the visibility was so low we didn't really see much of anything.

low visibility gang #yeet

Storms continued to form and move northeast into southwestern Oklahoma, so we returned just in time to see the end of a rope tornado in Magnum. It was really REALLY hard to see, but we managed to come away with a couple pictures, so it wasn't a total loss. Although the tornado was pretty cool, what I found the most exciting was the sudden inability of every single storm chaser on the road to drive well. Instead of choosing to core punch through the storm, the storm chose to core punch through us, and we got slaughtered by heavy rain, wind, and hail. Thank God for LCDR Burich, who handled the entire situation with the grace of a C-2 Greyhound pilot and didn't even bat an eye at the idiot in front of us with no lights on in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.

Eventually all the action decided to happen down in Texas, on the dry line. At that point we were too far away to continue to chase, so we decided to retire back to Norman, Oklahoma for the night. After falling asleep the SWIFT 2019 team had its closest tornado encounter to date, clocking in at 6 miles away at 0400 in the morning:)

our closest chase yet

Overall, not a bad chase day. We were disappointed that the parameters didn't produce stronger, or like, ANY tornadoes, but ultimately the group was thankful for the outcome on behalf of Oklahoma residents. Regardless of the potential for a good chase day, real lives will always be more important than some pretty pictures.