May 3, 1999

For information on this day, including a map of the tornado tracks, click here.

Many said it wouldn't happen due to the cloud cover. Our group didn't take off until 4:00 pm, when cells were starting to come in from Texas. I again rode with Danny Cheresnick and Tony Waters, while we followed Jeff Basara and Jerry Brotzge. Just as we were coming into Chickasha, a tornado warning was issued for the storm just to our southwest. As we hurried to catch this storm, Danny was pulled over by the OK State Patrol, even though he was the middle of three speeding cars (I think it was the out of state plates).

So we had lost Jeff and the tornadic storm was bearing down on us. We busted west on Highway 9 to get out of the way, but were caught by the edge of the precipitation core. We were just outside of Anadarko when we caught sight of the end of the Cyril tornado. (Tornado A3 on the map) We had just pulled over when it dissipated.

We then decided to follow the storm that was developing farther to the southwest. We turned south on highway 281 towards Apache. We pulled off onto a gravel road to watch the mesocyclone. A small funnel appeared, the condensation never reaching the ground. We didn't know it at the time, but it was a tornado, producing F0 damage (Tornado B2). As the storm approached we went back to the highway, watching the storm and the wall cloud. Our view was blocked by trees, so we moved further up and saw that the dust cloud forming on the ground.


The tornado produced a long path just west of Highway 281 between Apache and Anadarko. (Tornado B3 on the map). Eventually the condensation funnel reached all the way to the ground.


After that tornado dissipated we (and a ton of other chasers) followed the storm past Anadarko. It was becoming harder to see the storms features, so we decided to follow a storm still further west. The storm had very nice structure as we followed it north, but didn't produce anything until after dark (one of its tornadoes hit Dover).

On the drive home we began to hear of the horrible destruction in the OKC metro. We drove through Newcastle to avoid the backed-up interstates, and every road leading south was blocked off, with a dozen ambulences rushing by as we went through the area.

While I would like to someday see an F5 like the one that occurred that day, I hope it would be travelling through a field, not through a populated area.