My First Real Storm Chase in the Plains
Written by: Katie Lock — Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!
On Wednesday, June 7th, 2023, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) released their Day 3 outlook that had enough of a chance for tornadoes for me to decide at the last minute to book a flight for Saturday, June 10th to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my first real storm chase. In late 2022, I made it my New Year’s resolution to see a tornado in 2023. I had been in contact with a good friend about when the best time to actually go out would be, and with the Day 3 outlook, it was good enough for me.
I flew by myself for the first time from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the midst of the dense smoke and poor air quality from the Quebec, Canada wildfires to Tulsa, Oklahoma early that Saturday and met up with three experienced veteran storm chasers for my first storm chase in the Plains. Our five-day chase began as soon as I arrived in Tulsa. The journey began not with a storm, but with an adventure to Gloss Mountain State Park in Fairview, Oklahoma. My sister had moved to Oklahoma a few years prior to pursue her Ph.D. in Biology, which I always thought was ironic considering I was the storm nerd, not her. I’ve only been to Oklahoma once before when she moved and I thought all of Oklahoma was utterly flat. Boy, was I mistaken! I was amazed by the plateaued mountains of the state park. We spent a short time there, then began the long drive toward the Oklahoma Panhandle and eventually worked our way into the Texas Panhandle. While still in the Oklahoma Panhandle, we could see the towering anvil clouds of low precipitation (LP) supercells that were developing along the New Mexico/Texas border. As we got closer, we could start to make out the base of the supercell while still being almost one hundred miles away from it. We kept getting closer as the storm continued to develop. At first, when we finally got under the shadow of the anvil, the storm didn’t seem like much, but we chose to stay on it. There were two LP supercells right next to each other that began “Fujiwhara-ing,” which I later came to learn meant that the two separate cells begin to interact with each other. The LP began to produce more and more lightning as time went by, which I already knew that meant the storm was intensifying. Eventually, the storm began to develop some structure to it and you could see the entire cell begin to rotate in the updraft. Although we were not in the forecasted target for tornadoes, that LP supercell put on the most beautiful structure display I’ve ever seen, something that I’d never see in Pennsylvania. I also captured some of the best photographs I’ve ever taken.
I remember feeling so much joy that I just couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. We were on that storm from birth until death, and every second was breathtaking. The LP even developed a tiny funnel for a few seconds, which I managed to snap a photo of right before it dissipated. We also had a pleasant encounter with a Texas ranch owner, and I was told those encounters don’t often occur pleasantly. The day didn’t end there, though. After the storm died, we went to a random Wendy’s, and none other than Mike Olbinski showed up! Mike recognized one of the other chasers I was with, and I recognized Mike. I introduced myself to him and told him I’m a big fan and got to take a picture with him.
The next day we decided to stay in the Texas Panhandle. We met up with a group of other experienced storm chasers and spent some time chasing with them. Once again, we drove up to the New Mexico/Texas border, but never crossed into New Mexico, and watched on a dirt road as storms developed. These storms were “Fujiwhara-ing,” but they weren’t LP supercells. In fact, these storms were high precipitation (HP) supercells and had intense hail cores, which we almost made the mistake of driving into. My friend endured two or three baseball-sized hailstones to the windshield that shattered the windshield. Luckily for us, the windshield wasn’t shattered enough for us to end our chase. We quickly turned around and made our escape and continued chasing. This storm produced a nice wall cloud but still was nowhere near producing a tornado. The storm ended up giving off another beautiful structure show into the night.
Sunday, June 11, 2023 - Wall Cloud
Monday was the most intense day of our chase. This time we headed to central Texas where there was a small tornado threat around Brady, Texas. Storms began to initiate and we put ourselves in the perfect position at just the right time. Another HP supercell, the storm quickly developed a rapidly rotating wall cloud. For whatever reason, though, the storm eventually fell apart and never produced. It did, however, continue to produce more wall clouds and a barrage of lightning in which I was able to capture my first lightning bolt! What’s ironic about that is I captured it on pure luck without a tripod or a lightning trigger. We continued to chase throughout the evening and into the night where we all were able to capture some nighttime lightning and distant storms with the Milky Way rising behind it. We even saw some meteors!
Monday, June 12, 2023 - Wall Cloud
Tuesday was the most uneventful day of the trip. We had a late start to our target and even when we got there, the storm we targeted developed and then failed. We began back to our base in Tulsa and stopped at a gas station only to look back at where we came from to see a towering anvil cloud on a storm that successfully developed after we had driven two hours away.
Nearing the end of our trip, I was able to spend some time getting to know the three experienced chasers who had taught me so much throughout our trip. Although I didn’t see a tornado during the chase, I still saw and accomplished amazing things that I’d never be able to see in the mountainous state of Pennsylvania. I also came to realize that I believe there’s a reason I didn’t see a tornado on that trip: because I have a plan, and everything is going according to that plan.
In late 2022, I attempted and failed at low-light nighttime event photography. I vowed to myself to improve, and then I incorporated my passion for weather and came to the conclusion that low-light nighttime event photography must be somewhat similar to capturing lightning in terms of settings. I developed a plan to first improve in low light nighttime event photography since it was the off-season for storms, then when storm season came around I would focus on weather photography and capturing lightning. Up until then, the only lightning shots I had were screenshots from videos. After my trip, I realized that I had accomplished both my goals of mastering low-light nighttime event photography and capturing lightning bolts with my camera. The next goal is a tornado, and after all, 2023 is only halfway through!
