So we caught the South Haven tornado yesterday. Is was pretty surreal watching it emerge from the gloom. We only had sight of it for about 5 minutes, after which it became completely rain-wrapped and we had to head out of there.
The chase started in Russell, Kansas. It was a 3 hour drive south to get into position near Enid Oklahoma. We were there when the stormclouds started to build. A group to our nothwest and a further-away group to the south.
We went for the northern group as they were closer. (If we had gone south we would have caught the group of cells that produced the damaging wedge tornado near Oklahoma city). As we got close, we pulled off the I35, just north of the Kansas/Oklahoma border and drove into South Haven. It looked like the storms were starting to congeal into a line, but we got there just in time to bag our first twister.
I think I’ll frame this one. Here it is below, the untouched photo and the high-contrast one I posted yesterday.
unadjusted photo
My first ever tornado