Our
initial target was Ponca City, Oklahoma. On the
way there, we grabbed lunch in Blackwell,
Oklahoma. As we finished lunch, a storm went
tornado warned with a quick hitting confirmed tornado
(EF2) to the
west of Blackwell. We moved westward down
Highway 11, but as we approached the storm, it became
non-severe and fell apart.
We backtracked to Interstate 35 and moved south to
align us with another severe storm coming toward the
Interstate. We got off at the Tonkawa, Oklahoma
Exit as the storm was aimed at that location.
Radar indicated large hail in the storm, we took cover
under a gas station overhang to watch the storm go by.
As the storm went over
us, it dropped tennis ball size hail.
Once
the storm passed over, we traveled south on Interstate
35. We exited the Interstate at Highway 412 to
line ourselves up with another approaching tornado
warned storm (EF0) coming
out of the area by Stillwater, Oklahoma. It
approached our location with some rotation, but passed
us by with no tornado and moved into no-mans-land with
no road network to follow it.
With no option, we backtracked to
Interstate 35 once again, we dropped south to
Guthrie, Oklahoma to watch another tornado warned
storm approaching from the southwest. We
took Highway 33 west and then north on Highway 74
to line up with the approaching storm. We
stopped at Marshall, Oklahoma to watch the storm,
but it passed once again with no tornado.
From there we moved east on Highway 51/62
back to Interstate 35. At this point, we had about an
hour of daylight left. A look at
weather data showed no more severe storms within
driving range of daylight, so a decision was made to
call it a day and start heading back toward
home. On the drive back north on Interstate 35
as we entered Kansas, storms were increasing in
intensity to our east. Ryan insisted that we
give these storms one last chance. So we drove
east toward the storms.
Daylight
turned to darkness as we caught up to the
storms. We now were driving through blinding
rain as we worked our way east through the
cores. These storms did eventually become
Tornado warned in the darkness as they were wrapped in
heavy rain. We finally broke free of the heavy
rain as we moved east. After stopping for a late
dinner at the Taco Bell in Independence, Kansas, we
continued northward now having to once again work
through the blinding rain, but now avoiding the hidden
rotations and adjusting our route to avoid the flooded
highways.
The
daylight tornadoes were for the most part, weak and
quick hitting. After dark, the wave triggered
the storms to produce many more tornadoes with much
stronger intensity. We were very disappointing
that the daylight hours did not live up to the hype
and that most of the tornadoes occurred after dark.
April 27, 2024 
