Simon Brewer documented 4-5
tornadoes in Southwestern Kansas; at one time there were 2 and possibly
3 tornadoes on the simultaneously on the ground.
Target
was the northeastern TX Panhandle/OK Panhandle, because I was hoping
to catch storms firing off the dryline, but a strong north-south differential-heating-boundary
developed on the edge of a strong cirrus canopy. Checked some data and
repositioned near the NW OK/TX Panhandle border near the town of Catesby,
OK. A nice supercell developed on the boundary and quickly developed
strong rotation. It appeared a brief tornado touched down northwest
of Catesby, while the wall cloud showed a multi-vortex appearance, but
can't confirm if there was an actual touchdown.
Eventually
we witnessed numerous tornadoes (probably 3-5) in the vicinity of Protection,
KS.
The first
pic is early in the day in the eastern Oklahoma Panhandle of a tree
with a hawk perched in the upper branches. I zoomed in on the hawk in
the second picture.
This is
a storm developing east of Perryton, TX; had two seperate updrafts,
but both were pretty crisp.
Storm near
Follet, TX approaching the TX/OK border; was rapidly developing into
a nice little supercell.
Wall cloud
developing southwest of Catesby, OK; notice developing tail cloud on
the right.
Wall cloud
west of Catesby, OK; very strong rotation and nice tail cloud at this
point.
At the
time of this photo the wall could was showing very rapid rotation with
'scud fingers' just above ground level; it appeared at the time a quick
vortex intesified as the wall cloud was occluding and a short lived
tornado touched down, which is shown in the picture.
Nice shot
of the supercell as it approached Laverne, OK.
This is
near the KS/OK border on SR183; it is a panoramic (combined 2 pics)
of the supercell.
This is
a picture of the supercell, which had a tornado on the ground, but can't
see it in the pic, when the supercell was SSW of Protection, KS. I was
east of Protection, KS at that time.
Supercell
shows amazing structure!
We drove
west to Protection to get some video of the tornadoes; I was amazed
at how well this turned out, because I was hand holding the camera with
a very slow shutter speed.
In this
picture I set the camera on the roof of the car, so it was not as blurry.
Tornado
WNW of Protection, KS
After witnessing
multiple tornadoes near Protection we drove east a few miles and let
the supercell get NNW of us, so that we could take lightning pictures
of the updraft.
The shots
actually came out very well; much better than I expected.
Notice
the big beaver's tail feeding into the updraft!
Lucky for
me quite a few bolts occurred in the vault, so I got to see some nice
structure. After this picture, or somewhere around that time, Dan Robinson
and another guy (sorry, can't remember his name) pulled up and they
began taking pics or video, and we chatted about the events of the day.
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