I remember my son and I starting out on a chase March 12, 2006. It was a Sunday afternoon & I had my gear ready "just in case". I was outside helping my wife plant flowers and I just felt "that feeling" I get when a big severe weather event is coming......
I went inside about1:00pm to check data when I see a high risk hatched area on SPC's website. I think to myself, I gotta go now!! So, we fill up, call & check in with Dan, and go west towards the Drumright area. we sat & watched several "turkey towers" go up & down before dark & decide to head back into Tulsa in order to stay ahead of the advancing dryline. We got into a little pea-sized hail in SW Tulsa and saw on radar a storm that was looking real good heading towards Claremore. We race through Tulsa (at the speed limit) and get to Claremore only to be outran by the storm....time approx. 8:00pm. We saw another storm getting it's act together in south Tulsa county & decide to try to intercept it in Pryor. We get to Pryor & storm has taken the classic "right turn" often associated with a rotating storm so we head south, towards Chouteau. These storms were moving about 50-60 MPH. After being outran by the storm, we almost headed home but my gut told me to go east on Hwy 412. The storm was heading almost due east so we tucked in behind it and saw a giant hail core. I called this in to the station while hearing over the ham radio that there was a tornado causing damage in Rose, Ok (to my east-southeast)....I decide to slow down as we drove across the hail-covered turnpike around Locust Grove. we saw several cars headed INTO this tornadic storm at night---do not ever do this!! It was about 5 miles west of the Rose exit that the beast revealed itself during a lightning flash---I asked my son, "did you just see what I saw??" He said yes dad, there's a tornado up there. We stopped and watched for a few moments and flash, again in the shadow of a lightning strike, I saw it again....I called in to the station and reported that tornado on the ground directly to my east. We soon halted as the tornado brought down the huge overhead transmission power lines across the turnpike. we waited about 90 minutes before the road was opened while "yahoo" chasers were panicking stranded motorists telling them there was another tornado headed this way!! I tried my best to calm them down and to tell the "yahoos" to stop scaring folks as I was in constant contact with Dan and there was not any dangerous weather coming.....
Well, to make a long story longer, we teamed up with a reporter & drove into Colcord and filmed some of the damage--that's another story, though. We returned to the station to download video about 4:am......made for a very tired fellow.....Hats off to the KJRH team for keeping these folks safe during a dangerous nighttime F-3 tornado!!
J