March 18th, 2012 -Willow, OK Tornado and Parent Supercell- SW Oklahoma
Despite this season’s over all lack of chase days for me there were still some mildly successful days this past tornado season. One such day that comes to mind was March 18th of this year.
Hoping for this day to be the start of another busy season I marched off towards Childress, Texas after a slightly better than marginal chase setup. While this day did not garner much in the way of of high probabilities the chance at seeing at least one or two quality early season storms was enough to make me drive for the Panhandle town of Shamrock, TX early in the day. As the day progressed it was evident that I would need to reposition to the south where storms began to fire to the southwest of Childress, TX.
Just as I began to intercept the cells as they moved a few miles north of Childress I was treated to some small hail which can be seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nLj5_nMI2w
Shortly after filming the video of the small hail I had to break off the storm for a moment so that I would get ahead of in on the Oklahoma side of the Red River so that I would not lose the storm to the lack of river crossings along its path. It would now be another 45 minutes before I would be back on the storm again which is where the primary video of this post picks up on.
From that point on I would follow this cell until it finally produced a tornado near Willow and Mangum, Oklahoma. The cell made several attempts and exhibited everything from classic, to low precipitation, to eventually even high precipitation structure as it constantly cycled and evolved along the southwest Oklahoma countryside.
To see an extend video of the tornado as well as some extra footage be sure to click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b63gLtkpypg
For a summary of this severe weather event on the local National Weather Service office’s website, click here: http:www.tinyurl.com/7wg4uzv
All of the video shot in this was shot exclusively with my GoPro Hero2! This little camera is an absolute champion!
