March 8, 2011: Tom Santillo, Jim Bishop and Simon Brewer documented a large wedge tornado west of Clarksville, TX. Jim, also, briefly witnessed a rain-wrapped tornado southwest of Paris, TX prior to the Clarksville tornado, but no decent footage or photographs were obtained of this tornado.

Report:

Jim, Tom, and Simon punched the core of an HP supercell near Paris, TX. A large RFD clearslot began to occlude a rapidly rotating mesocyclone west of Clarksville, TX. The chasers were NNW of the meso when a cone tornado developed, turned into a large wedge and then changed shape rapidly between a large wedge and multivortex structure. The tornado was partially wrapped in rain decreasing visibility and the tornado eventually became completely wrapped in rain.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a wedge appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a wedge appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a wedge appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a multivortex/large cone appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a multivortex/wedge appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a stovepipe appearance.

The image on the right is a video still of the tornado with a multivortex appearance.

The image on the right is a photograph looking NNW at lightning and the beaver's tail feeding into the supercell (most likely elevated at the time of the picture) in extreme SE Oklahoma near the Oklahoma/Arkansas border. We followed the storm a little past the border into Arkansas and let it pass over before driving back to Norman, OK.