Wednesday, May 07, 2008 South Central Oklahoma

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12::01 P.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 13 Hours 1 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 775 Miles
2007 Mazda 6

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No


The Storm Prediction Center predicted a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over Eastern Oklahoma, with a 10% chance of tornadoes over the Southeastern Oklahoma area. I figured this would be a good enough chance to make the trek to Southeast Oklahoma once again.

I decided to make the trip with hope that I would see some severe weather. I'm not all about seeing tornadoes when I storm chase. I'm just as happy to see any type of severe weather. It's just the power within a severe thunderstorm that keeps drawing me to them. I ended up in Sherman, Texas, just a few miles south of the Texas and Oklahoma border. I knew that the Red River would be rough to chase around, since there are only a select few ways to cross the river. I decided to go after a severe storm that fired up near Ardmore, Oklahoma, and it seemed to be moving east.

I finally caught up with the updraft portion of this thunderstorm east of Marietta, Oklahoma on Highway 32. I stopped and took some photographs of a non-rotating wall cloud. The severe thunderstorm became outflow dominant shortly after I took my photographs of the wall cloud. I decided this storm would be my only chance at severe weather today, so I decided to stay to the east of it and attempt to photograph any shelf clouds it may produce.

I was treated to a spectacular sight when I stopped on Highway 70, where the highway crosses Lake Texoma. I was able to photograph the thunderstorm's shelf cloud as it passed over the lake, which made for some decent photographs. I was between the towns of Kingston and Mead, Oklahoma when I caught my first glimpse of what this severe storm was all about. The shelf cloud/gust front of this large storm produced cool winds of about 40-45 MPH as it passed over head.

I proceeded eastbound on Highway 70, and once again got in front of this storm. The storm sirens were sounding in Bokchito, Oklahoma as I passed through. The only reason for this would have been the high winds that were expected with the leading edge of this severe storm. I proceeded to travel south when I arrived at Bennington, Oklahoma, for another chance at photographing the shelf cloud. I got lucky. I stopped on Highway 70E to the east of Wade, Oklahoma where I was treated to a very menacing shelf cloud. I took several photographs of this awesome looking storm structure. The storm was no longer severe in this area, as I did not receive very much wind at all and the storm produced very little rainfall.

After being to treated to a photogenic storm, I decided I had better head for home. The trip ahead of me I had already made a few weeks ago, and I knew it was a long one. I didn't see any tornodoes today, but I was still satisfied with what I saw. As a storm chaser, I'm not all about tornadoes. Any type of severe storms will please me, especially when I can get some good photographs.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas