Severe weather today in OK/TX

overdrive148

overdrive148

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overdrive148
Brace yourselves, severe weather is coming!
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html
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We flew through that area yesterday to KTUS. We waited in Monroe LA for a storm to pass. Now we are trying to figure out how to get to Seattle after overflying the Grand Canyon and possibly spending tomorrow night in Sedona.
 
They've closed a lot of schools in Oklahoma today.

Reed Timmer posted a slightly different outlook, which covers less of Texas and more of Eastern Oklahoma. Anywhere in Oklahoma or North Texas, I would keep an eye on things today.

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Had a radar-indicated tornado go right over the top of us Saturday morning while I was swapping in some new struts on one of the trucks. I wasn't expecting tornadic activity, so I had the front/rear garage doors open and was enjoying the nice cool breeze and light rain. Next thing I know, I could hear a tornado siren going off in the distance and it took me a second to consider that it wasn't an accident. Closed the doors on the garage and went into the house to round up the baby/wife/dogs. Got the TV turned on and the radar showed it was a mile away and headed right for our area. Luckily, there wasn't anything that touched down in Broken Arrow, but it was a bit tense for a few minutes when I was just trying to scramble to grab everyone and get the news on to see what the situation was. The rain/wind really wasn't anything abnormal for a heavy thunderstorm, but they do say it sometimes gets kind of "still" when a tornado is about to drop. It probably wouldn't have been anything more than an F1-F2 if it had touched down, but I really don't need any tornado/hail/wind damage. Just got a new roof last year!
 
SoonerAviator said:
Next thing I know, I could hear a tornado siren going off in the distance and it took me a second to consider that it wasn't an accident.
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I grew up in the Texas Panhandle and I've been chasing storms since I was young. Tornado sirens still give me chills.

SoonerAviator said:
The rain/wind really wasn't anything abnormal for a heavy thunderstorm, but they do say it sometimes gets kind of "still" when a tornado is about to drop.
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I remember as a kid, we were on the playground at school in Pampa, TX, on a very hot and muggy day and suddenly it got chilly. They sent us home and I didn't know why. A little while later, we had 7 tornados on the ground at one time.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I grew up in the Texas Panhandle and I've been chasing storms since I was young. Tornado sirens still give me chills.


I remember as a kid, we were on the playground at school in Pampa, TX, on a very hot and muggy day and suddenly it got chilly. They sent us home and I didn't know why. A little while later, we had 7 tornados on the ground at one time.
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Well, having grown up in OK, tornado sirens don't bother me in particular. I actually love mid-western violent t-storms and such, but usually I know about it in advance. It's when I wasn't expecting tornadic activity and was caught by surprise that had me scrambling around! If I had seen the local news the night prior or that morning, it wouldn't have been quite as dramatic. As a nod to the statistical data regarding tornadoes, I have lived in OK for all of my 36 years and have never seen a tornado or been in one. They just don't hit major cities/suburbs that often. Another tidbit is that, given the typical location of the dry line in the TX/OK panhandle, most tornadoes/t-storms don't hit the Tulsa/Northeast OK area until 9PM or later, so actually seeing a tornado in the daylight is pretty difficult anyway (another reason I wasn't expecting one @ 10AM).
 
Back in the early 90’s I raced home after work just ahead of a nasty thunderstorm. I just made it into my apartment when all of the sudden it seemed like the gates of hell opened up. Out of the sliding glass patio door I could only see debris flying by at incredible speeds. The apartment complex took a direct hit from a tornado. Apartment complex took damage but remained standing. A couple of buildings in the path before and after the apartment complex were leveled including a Taco Bell (no loss). The next day you could clearly see the very defined path of the tornado. It was just a trail of uprooted trees, damaged buildings, and debris. One of the scariest moments of my life. I’ve seen the inside of a tornado and hope never to see it again.
 
What does bother me about tornado sirens is they've switched from the old mechanical air sirens to digital ones, at least in Kansas they have.

They say they're just as loud but the sound doesn't seem to carry. I can hear them outdoors but not always while indoors, they say it's they're primary concern to alert people outdoors but if I'm asleep at night, I want those old yellow Thunderbolt sirens scaring me out of bed.
 
labbadabba said:
What does bother me about tornado sirens is they've switched from the old mechanical air sirens to digital ones, at least in Kansas they have.

They say they're just as loud but the sound doesn't seem to carry. I can hear them outdoors but not always while indoors, they say it's they're primary concern to alert people outdoors but if I'm asleep at night, I want those old yellow Thunderbolt sirens scaring me out of bed.
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The one I heard on Saturday was barely audible above the light rain when I was in the garage with the doors open, there was no hearing it inside the house especially with our new windows. Weather radio with tornado alerts is the safer bet indoors.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, having grown up in OK, tornado sirens don't bother me in particular. I actually love mid-western violent t-storms and such, but usually I know about it in advance. It's when I wasn't expecting tornadic activity and was caught by surprise that had me scrambling around! If I had seen the local news the night prior or that morning, it wouldn't have been quite as dramatic. As a nod to the statistical data regarding tornadoes, I have lived in OK for all of my 36 years and have never seen a tornado or been in one. They just don't hit major cities/suburbs that often. Another tidbit is that, given the typical location of the dry line in the TX/OK panhandle, most tornadoes/t-storms don't hit the Tulsa/Northeast OK area until 9PM or later, so actually seeing a tornado in the daylight is pretty difficult anyway (another reason I wasn't expecting one @ 10AM).
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Hmmm. I think I'll stick with the cold and snow out my way in the Rockies - yes, it snowed again on Saturday. Weird weather this year for certain.

The path of the August 2017 tornado went dead center right over our shop and yard near E 51 St and the 64 in Tulsa. Very fickle storms these. Took parts of the metal roofs off the adjacent properties on both sides, but all we lost was the air conditioning units off our roof. And it buckled all the overhead doors on our shop. Didn't touch a single piece of equipment in our yard, including our little job trailer. Just down the street the lumber yard looked like a "pick up sticks" game.
 
GRG55 said:
Hmmm. I think I'll stick with the cold and snow out my way in the Rockies - yes, it snowed again on Saturday. Weird weather this year for certain.
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It was snowing this morning in Flagstaff AZ. Only 64 degrees in Phoenix this morning - very low for late May. It's been a cool spring here, for sure.
 
JOhnH said:
We flew through that area yesterday to KTUS. We waited in Monroe LA for a storm to pass. Now we are trying to figure out how to get to Seattle after overflying the Grand Canyon and possibly spending tomorrow night in Sedona.
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How was the ride, I see there are high winds.


Tom
 
GRG55 said:
Hmmm. I think I'll stick with the cold and snow out my way in the Rockies - yes, it snowed again on Saturday. Weird weather this year for certain.

The path of the August 2017 tornado went dead center right over our shop and yard near E 51 St and the 64 in Tulsa. Very fickle storms these. Took parts of the metal roofs off the adjacent properties on both sides, but all we lost was the air conditioning units off our roof. And it buckled all the overhead doors on our shop. Didn't touch a single piece of equipment in our yard, including our little job trailer. Just down the street the lumber yard looked like a "pick up sticks" game.
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Yeah, that one came within a block of our facility at 46th/Memorial (did heavy damage to nearby car dealerships). I was out of town at the time, so I didn't get to see it.
 
This weather has been following me around for the past three weeks! Everywhere I've been has experienced severe storms and flooding shortly after I arrived.

Gimme a minute while I find someone else to blame it on...
 
Pilawt said:
It was snowing this morning in Flagstaff AZ. Only 64 degrees in Phoenix this morning - very low for late May. It's been a cool spring here, for sure.
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We got snow this morning in Gallup, but it has all pretty much melted. High expected to be upper 40s today but so far it hasn't gotten above 38. I had to plug up the swamp cooler so we do not lose all the heat through the roof. This is after getting it going last week. Probably keep it closed up until next week.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
How was the ride, I see there are high winds.


Tom
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At one point we had headwinds over 50 kts. Our airspeed in the Bo was what we used to see in the 172 all the time.
We only had a couple of strong gusts. Wound up almost sideways over a mountain peak at 13,000 MSL and 2,000 AGL.
Then another one just as we were about to touchdown at KTUS which lifted us about a hundred feet, but it was a long runway and we were able to get back down. It is windy here today too. We’ll see what it’s like when we try to leave tomorrow.
 
After i purchased my twin many years ago. while flying from texas to Mass. i was following a front. The storm turned nasty,while deciding on an overnight airport,i chose one but changed my mind when i found an airport with a hotel on the field. That night a tornado hit my first choice. wishing everyone in the affected areas Good Luck.
 
I feel like KS is getting the poo-end of the stick so far, at least with the intensity of t-storm activity. It's been a quiet day in most of central/eastern OK. There was a waterspout up on Grand Lake (near 3O9 pictured in my avatar), but it was out on the main lake and didn't do any damage that I've heard about.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=390139901598264
 
SoonerAviator said:
I feel like KS is getting the poo-end of the stick so far, at least with the intensity of t-storm activity. It's been a quiet day in most of central/eastern OK. There was a waterspout up on Grand Lake (near 3O9 pictured in my avatar), but it was out on the main lake and didn't do any damage that I've heard about.

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My partner in Tulsa just sent me this picture. Be careful out there!

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We timed out and had to go back to the gate today - just as were approaching the runway no less. What a friggin’ mess.
 
We got over 4 inches of rain overnight. What was amazing is that it was thundering the whole night long. But no tornadoes here, unless I just slept through them!
 
Unfortunately we got more than 6” of rain over a very short period of time. So . . . I was mopping up a flooded room/nursery at 3am and trying to get anything of value to dry ground. Rainfall cut a swath through the neighbors yard and filled my back patio with 3-4” of runoff which founds its way into the house. Now I get to tear out carpet and figure out how to get water out of HVAC ducting in the floors. . I would have rather been hit by a tornado, at least then the insurance company would be covering the cost.
 
We're about drowning here in T-town. Every lake in NE OK is about filled to the top of the spillways and starting to release water. They're currently sending 250,000FPS of water out of Keystone Dam (northwest of Tulsa) down the Arkansas River. The waterflow is pretty impressive, given that the river is typically a "Prairie River" around Tulsa which often has depths only a few feet deep across the middle. Haven't had flooding this bad since 1986. Too top it off, a couple of barges broke loose and hit the lock and dam near Webber's Falls, OK. Luckily the L&D held without any apparent damage while the barges sank at the foot of the dam within a minute. Multiple tornadoes all around the area for 3 days of the past 7! Kansas/Missouri getting hammered pretty hard as well.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, having grown up in OK, tornado sirens don't bother me in particular. I actually love mid-western violent t-storms and such, but usually I know about it in advance. It's when I wasn't expecting tornadic activity and was caught by surprise that had me scrambling around! If I had seen the local news the night prior or that morning, it wouldn't have been quite as dramatic. As a nod to the statistical data regarding tornadoes, I have lived in OK for all of my 36 years and have never seen a tornado or been in one. They just don't hit major cities/suburbs that often. Another tidbit is that, given the typical location of the dry line in the TX/OK panhandle, most tornadoes/t-storms don't hit the Tulsa/Northeast OK area until 9PM or later, so actually seeing a tornado in the daylight is pretty difficult anyway (another reason I wasn't expecting one @ 10AM).
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No, they don't typically hit major cities or suburbs. They do hit trailer parks, however. Seems like just about every time the news talks about a tornado they show a trailer park that has been leveled.

That snarky statement made, the four years we lived in Colorado the closest we had was about a mile and a half from us. And a co-worker at Martin Marietta Denver Aerospace had one miss his house by about 1/2 block. Not funny at all.
 
Trailer parks are tornado magnets for sure. Then, the news crews can't help but find the poor SOB that has the fewest teeth and worst grammar to interview.
 
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