Tornadic Oklahoma Supercell

Tour Type: Tour 3
Chase Date: 2007 MAY 03
Target Area: Shawnee, OK (6 miles E of Shawnee along I-40)
Images: 5

Today was the start of the third tour for 2007 and SPC had a slight risk area painted over Houston, TX.  Starting tomorrow a trough will dig its way into the central plains, so I did not want to pursue storms in extreme southern Texas today in fear that I would never be able to reach my target areas for Friday.   However, I did notice a slight possibility for some convection in central Oklahoma today - I didn't think it had any tornado potential, but I was proven wrong by my own efforts.

Initial convection popped just south of Oklahoma City near the Newcastle area.    We watched from our hotel as the skies to our south turned dark gray and I started working up an interception plan - which took us east out of the metro area on I-40.    There were two cells that I had interest in and I usually pick the southern cell to play, but after getting a quick look at the northern cell in this case I decided to stick with it and give it a chance - and I'm glad I did.   It went on to produce a brief tornado and took on some nice LP structure before it merged with a line of storms. 

This was a brief chase for the first day of the third tour - again a tornado on the first day of a tour!

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