The majority of the forecasters stayed in the HWT to watch the storms as they approached the National Weather Center. Live data from the PAR along with area TDWRs and the KTLX radar showed an impressive evolution of two confirmed tornadic debris balls as the storms moved towards us.

The 3DVar products all handled the track and evolution of the storms very well and the combined radar products also have an excellent track of the tornadoes as well. Continuity was maintained as the storms moved into the cone of silence of the KTLX radar.

As the storms started to move into the metro OKC area, attention to the details/operations was lost as we watched live TV feeds and could see the hail falling outside the WFO window. The excitement rapidly turned to sorrow however as the live TV feeds showed homes and structures being ripped apart.

One last item that made it very clear how close we were to being impacted by the tornadoes directly; leaf and light matter debris was falling from the sky when several EWP members went up to the roof of the NWC to see the dissipation of the tornado moving south of Norman.

Back to operations…

-Jason Jordan