The first chase of the year had finally arrived! We decided to head out around 12:30PM even though the chance for any tornadoes seemed pretty low. We really just wanted to make sure everything would work like it was supposed to so that we would be better prepared for future chases. We initially started out heading up to northwest OK, but on our way there we noticed that southwest OK was clearing very rapidly so we decided to head south on 183 towards Hobart, OK and then from there we headed southwest to Mangum, OK. By now it was about 4:15PM and a few storms started firing just to the west and southwest of Sayre, OK (33 miles to our NNW). With nothing else firing we decided to head back north and get on these storms. We lost signal for a while so we had no radar data to look at, but we had a good visual on the storm the entire time so we knew where to head. We finally got within a mile of the rain-free base near Sayre, OK but didn’t see anything too impressive at first. After a few minutes there was a small lowering that formed and it started to rotate rather rapidly, albeit a ways off the ground. We stuck with this bit of circulation until about 5PM when we decided to head a little south to catch the storm that was going up since it looked more impressive on radar. Within 10 minutes of leaving the storm we received a call from a fellow chaser and was told that there was a large tornado on the ground! We couldn’t believe it, the storm looked very disorganized when we left it and it still looked disorganized on radar. We immediately turned around and the chase was on!
We were about 8 miles south of I-40 when we heard the news and the tornado was a couple miles north of I-40 (the exact place where we were just 20 minutes ago!) We headed north on 283 and then hopped on I-40 northeast out of Sayre. We were told the tornado was still on the ground but we couldn’t see it. We kept looking off to our north and then out of nowhere, “THERE IT IS!”, we finally saw it! It was huge! We were still a good 10-15 miles from the tornado, but it was so high based we could see it perfectly! We continued heading northeast on I-40 and then took 34 north towards Hammon, OK. We had the tornado in our sights the entire time and it had showed little sign of weakening. We were about 2-3 miles south of Hammon when the tornado passed through the southern part of town and it then roped out shortly thereafter. We rolled up on Hammon only a few minutes after the tornado passed through and the damage was unbelievable. Five homes were completely destroyed along with the county barn.
The police were blocking our route through Hammon so we turned around and found the quickest way to get back on the storm since it looked like it was going to produce another tornado. A few miles down the road it produced again! This time it was a very brief small tornado that caused no damage, but it was a tornado nonetheless! Nighttime finally arrived and the storm started to lose its “structure” so our chase was over. Needless to say the first chase of the year was quite a successful and entertaining chase! We have finally seen our first (and second) tornado after 2 years of chasing! The first part of the footage (below) was taken by Colt Forney and the second part was from my team. The video on the left was also taken by my team. We ended up driving 450 miles in 10 hours.
The preliminary tornado report is shown below. The first tornado has been preliminarily rated an EF-2 and the second an EF-0. The path length of the EF-2 tornado was approximately 10 miles long and the max width has yet to be determined. A path length or width has yet to be determined for the EF-0.
000
NOUS44 KOUN 092239 AAA
PNSOUN
OKZ004>048-050>052-TXZ083>090-101800-
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
440 PM CST TUE MAR 9 2010
…PRELIMINARY DAMAGE SURVEY – HAMMON OK TORNADO…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONDUCTED A DAMAGE SURVEY IN ROGER
MILLS AND CUSTER COUNTIES THIS AFTERNOON. WHILE WE ARE STILL PUTTING
TOGETHER SOME OF THE DETAILS…HERE ARE THE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS…
TORNADO ONE – HAMMON OK
THIS TORNADO HAS BEEN RATED AS AN EF2 ON THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE.
THE RATING IS BASED ON SEVERAL SPOTS OF SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE…
INCLUDING A HOME AND THE COUNTY BARN ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF HAMMON.
THE DAMAGE IS APPROXIMATELY 10 MILES LONG.
TORNADO TWO – NORTHEAST OF HAMMON TO NORTH OF BUTLER
WE WERE NOT ABLE TO FIND DAMAGE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TORNADO…BUT
EVIDENCE FROM VIDEO INDICATES A SECOND TORNADO DEVELOPED SHORTLY
AFTER THE HAMMON TORNADO DISSIPATED. THE PRELIMINARY RATING IS EF0.
CHECK OUR SPECIAL EVENT PAGE AT
WEATHER.GOV/NORMAN/?N=EVENTS-20100308 FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE THIS PAGE AS WE GATHER MORE DETAILS.
IF YOU HAVE IMAGES OR VIDEO OF THE TORNADOES THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO
SHARE…PLEASE LET US KNOW. SEND AN E-MAIL TO
SR-OUN.SPOTTER@NOAA.GOV.
THANKS TO THE OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT…AS WELL
AS THE CUSTER…ROGER MILLS AND WOODWARD COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGERS
FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE.
$$
SMITH
What we saw:
Severe Storms – 1
Tor-warned Storms – 1
Tornadoes – 2
