October 9, 2001 TORNADO OUTBREAK
This was my first big "outbreak" day since I came to Oklahoma in August of 2000. There were a number of tornadoes this day in Oklahoma, including three F3's. We observed three tornadoes and four supercells this day. We were present for the entire life cylce of the Elk City tornado, and we were able to catch the very end of the binger tornado. The October 9th supercells all had incredible structure, some of the best I've seen in my short time here. The video we shot during the beginning of the Elk City tornado was aired nationwide on ABC and The Weather Channel, as well as locally on KOCO 5 here in OKC.
Funnel Cloud begins to drop over Elk City
Tornado touches down on the east side of Elk City
The Tornado began to really intensify as it left town
Within a minute of touchdown, the tornado developed a large debris cloud
After this shot, we took off down the road to get in better position
About 20 minutes later, the tornado grew to more than 600 yards wide, and produced F3 damage
The tornado became harder to see as the mesocyclone began to wrap rain.
I increased the contrast on the previous image so that it was easier to make out the tornado.
This is the official track of the Elk City tornado. Click on the image to enlarge. Notice that the tornado only hit one or two structures. It is likely the tornado may have been stronger than F3, since it grew much larger and more organized after it produced the F3 damage. luckily, the tornado was is open country for most of its life.
After the tornado roped out, we headed south toward a large supercell near Binger. As we crossed I-40, numerous supercells could be seen. It was an incredible site.
This is the supercell that produced F3 damage in Cordell
This is the backside of the Binger supercell. This storm was producing a large tornado at the time of this photo.
Another view of the storm as we got closer. This storm had great structure.
Tornado Outbreak Map: Click on the imge for actual size.
BREF from KFDR at 22:20 UTC. Storm B is what produced the Elk City Tornado.
Click to enlarge.
MCD. Click tp enlarge.
MCD. Click to enlarge.
MCD. Click to enlarge.
SPC Storm Reports for October 9, 2001.