Tornadoes - Garfield County, OK - May 24, 2008

On the afternoon of May 24, 2008 an isolated supercell thunderstorm developed over north-central Oklahoma, to the northwest of Oklahoma City, and quickly became tornadic as it moved slowly east-northeastward. The cyclic cell became a prolific tornado producer and, over a four hour period, generated no less than 15 individual tornadoes... possibly more.

That morning our chase team (Michael Laca, Jim Leonard, Ray Walker, Eric Baker and Max Hagen) began the day in Hutchinson, Kansas and had opted to forego a northern chase target in Nebraska, in favor of an area of less vertical shear but deeper moisture to the south in Oklahoma. As we headed south on I-35 we quickly noticed the rapidly developing tower well to our southwest, and it wasn't long before we started hearing reports of confirmed tornadic activity in the Bison/Hennessey area (one of these tornadoes was made famous through widely seen aerial footage as it destroyed a hog farm near Hennessey). Assuming the activity was going to be relatively short-lived, we quickly turned west on highway 64, and then south on 74 towards Covington, Oklahoma. All the while, continual reports of new tornadoes kept flowing in. We stopped very briefly for gas and noted an obvious "stacked plate" appearance to the cell.

We continued south on 74 and then turned west on E0520. Almost immediately the base came into view to our southwest and we could see a smooth lowered wall cloud towards the right-side of the rainfree area.

As we neared the cell, the wall cloud became more defined and, after passing a clump of trees, a small funnel appeared right in the middle of the rotation. We quickly stopped and filmed as the funnel briefly extended to the ground and then quickly lifted before dissipating.

Before reaching the town of Douglas, we turned south on a dirt road and approached an ominously rotating mesocyclone, which was now fully backlit and very dark. The cloud motion was absolutely incredible, both the strong rotation within the meso and the seething, boiling in other areas of the base. As we watched, another small funnel appeared near the center of the base and then quickly dissipated

We got back in our cars and drove a little farther down the road positioning ourselves just north of a now extremely well-defined and violently rotating wall cloud. Shortly after stopping, we noted that the entire base of the wall cloud was quickly getting closer to the ground and a small tendril-like funnel appeared right in the middle. The funnel rapidly rotated to the left side of the wall cloud and extended down to the ground, just as a second and then third suction spot appeared, coiling around one another. The multi-vortex circulation dissipated as the wall cloud continued moving on.

As the meso approached the road directly in front of us, a new larger cone began to peek out from the middle of the larger circulation. The funnel briefly condensed to the ground, before lifting into a large bowl shaped protrusion.

Continuing on, the funnel extended downwards again and this time planted itself firmly, swelling into a large cone. Simultaneously, the previous circulation also briefly generated a new multi-vortex tornado. Inflow winds, which were already strong, increased significantly at this time. After a couple of minutes, both the large cone and the new multi-vortex circulation lifted and dissipated.

A few minutes later, a new lowering appeared and within seconds extended fully to the ground as a large, ragged, multiple vortex. The tornado lifted quickly, only to be replaced a few minutes later by another large funnel, which quickly connected with the ground and grew into a large wide cone.

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[jmeier37]

Great video. Hey @vmax135, I'm a amateur chaser from WI, great footage, love the multiple vortices in that storm. Highly rain-wrapped storm

[vmax135]

@jmeier37 Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked the clip. Yeah, this cyclic cell just kept producing tornado after tornado... and the big one (I have a couple of other clips uploaded with that one) was completely rain wrapped. That said, the doppler velocities were highest during that time... so I'm sure there was a monster in there.

[DustinMFromEnid]

Are you the Mike off of News Channal 4?

[vmax135]

@DustinMFromEnid Hi Dustin. No... I'm a veteran storm chaser from Florida.

[Deanostorm10]

Fantastic footage! congratulations Mike!

I wish we had chosen the southern target instead of ending up near Grand Island NE for a total bust!

[vmax135]

Thanks so much, Dean! Yeah... we were torn between the going all the way up to NE too...or staying closer to where we had stayed the previous night (in Hutchinson, KS). Ultimately we were so exhausted from the previous day & night, we decided on the closer target in OK... which also had better moisture to work with. We got real lucky with that decision.

[lincolnweather]

Did not see a tornado that day I wint to Nebrska were I that there was going to be an outbrack.

[pkar08]

the tornado's sound at 4:54 - 4:55 or so is so damn creepy and erie giving goose bumps and giving me the chills along with adreniline the entire time.

[33Godsangel]

Amazing footage you captured!!! 5/5

[Torn80cj]

Some how I missed this video. I believe the multiple vortex tornado you have in here was the other one I saw. Unless this storm had another muliple vortex that you didn't film. But this looks a lot like the one I saw, so believe this is it.