What better way to start the day than with a photo of windmills in Oklahoma? It was one of those days, stinking hot and super humid! The winds were howling and the skies were filled with growing cumulus. Everything about today had severe weather written all over!

The SPC had been calling for a high-risk some three days prior. The models were screaming about today and the SPC continued that lines of screaming. The outlook text was caution that there were going to be tornadoes today and people were going to lose property. Strong words back up with telling graphics!

I spent much of the night and early morning hours of the 19th driving back into Oklahoma from Texas. I knew it was big day and wanted to start off in position ready to go. I spent the night in Weatherford and basically awoke to find myself in perfect position. I was sitting on the multipoint. In meteorology and math an area where three lines / boundaries / bodies intersect is usually called the triple point. In this case, it was more of a multipoint since the warm front was there, a thermal trof was right overhead, an outflow boundary from an MCS that blasted through around 7AM had stalled out and the moisture axis was also right on top. The only thing missing was the dryline itself which was still to the west and starting to bulge as it pressed east. I spent most of the morning looking at maps, computer data and making sure I was making the right decision! High risk days are hard to call, there is so much activity to be had, and it's easy to chase the wrong storm or to get pulled away because you think your missing a good storm only to have one better form right where you were before. I decided I was playing the warm front and the boundaries. That was where all the best shear was and the storm chasers this day really split into three camps, those who chased west Oklahoma, those who chased central Oklahoma and those who were undecided in the middle. I was in the Central Oklahoma camp and boy am I glad I chose to play where I did!

As the morning turned into afternoon and things boiled the SPC upped the risk and started issuing chilling discussion that severe weather was imminent! It was all doom and gloom!

The warm front was just boiling but nothing was popping yet! I had ventured from my hotel, to the gas station and waiting beside the interstate. I did not want to dedicate to anything just yet. It was all a very tense waiting game.

This storm was not even a blip on radar, it was flying in the clear! I saw this one tower build into what looked like a storm take over the local environment. It was right where it needed to be and I decided to give chase. Once the storm came into clear view it became apparent that it was hugging the ground and completely low precipitation!

I finally got into position just west of Kingfisher. The storm looked incredibly and quickly began to appear on radar.

The storm slowly grew and really latched onto the warm front. All the shear and dynamics became visible as a 60 knot gate to gate meso quickly grew to 80 knots and then 100 knots. It was at this point I knew a tornado was imminent. The radio chatter also grew silent, chasers and spotters alike were just waiting.

Then as if someone flicked a light bulb on a funnel cloud rapidly formed and grew into a tornado as it touched the ground. I was excited! Jumping for joy! The forecast, the chase, all the decisions I made were perfect. I was where I wanted to be, I was happy!

The tornado grew into a cone shape and I zoomed in. It looks like there were some structure in the path but on the radio spotters reported it seemed to miss everything!