On the way to SW Oklahoma I ran into a speed trap on I-44 and then made a stop on the edge of Fort Sill. While sitting there I saw 2 Apaches and Chinnok passing by so I aimed my camera to them. The Apache didnt like that and swung his nose toward me. After lowering my camera he turned the other dirsction and followed the other 2. Shortly after I ran into Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor, and Ken Cole who had just started filming for the the first season of Storm Chasers.
After talking to Reed Timmer at Indiahoma, OK I decided to try and approach the storms near Vernon from the N on 183. I tried to dodge the hail by going west to Vernon as I entered TX, but all I did was force myself into the area of largest hail. Near Vernon I caught a glimpse of a large wall cloud to my SE through the rain and hail. I went SE down 287 as the storm really began to wrap up. There was only one way to be able to see the wall cloud again and it was to make my way into the bear's cage by going through the hook.I slowly made my through the hail as it got bigger. As I made it into the baseball size hail, the large lowering became visible just south of the highway. I drove all the way down to Electra to try and put some room between me and the growing wall cloud. The rotation intensified a lot as the storm moved towards Electra. I was only a few miles away, but as the wall cloud grew so much it was hugging the ground blocking visibility of any tornado. I knew something was touching for sure in there. As the rotation occluded it moved N into the rain and was no longer visible, I noticed the new area of rotation forming right above me to the east of Electra.
I went east and then south trying to get back in front. I got back to 287 but ended up directly under the rotation and for some reason I decided to stop and check it out. This was at the intersection of 287 and 2384 4 miles SE of Electra. I grab my video camera and began filming straight up as it swirled above me. It began to get very warm and really windy, so I knew something was about to happen. I looked over about 50 yards away in the field next to me to see dirt and tumbleweeds launching into the air. I watch the debris cloud move east away from and cross 287 going right through traffic about 150 yards away from me. There was still good structure for an hour after this, but the most exciting parts were done for me.
I figured the day was over and grabbed a bite to eat at Subway in Iowa Park when I saw some storms to my south exploding. I had to punch another core of hail up to quarters to get through, but was treated to another real nice wall cloud and pretty good rotation. With another storm directly to the south of it, it never really had a chance even with the good inflow it had for a while. I did notice a funnel hanging out the back of the southern storm for atleast 5 minutes, but it never came close to going all the way down.
