OCTOBER 4, 1998
Dover, Ok CAPE 4500, SREH 450, a advancing dry line, and the left front quad of a 125 knot jet max all converged this day on central Oklahoma. SPC nailed this with a moderate risk. I got a late start, leaving Fort Worth about 1:15 pm and planned to just head north and keep going until I had a reason to go west. Before leaving the first storm already had warnings in NW Oklahoma and was moving ENE. as I crossed the Red River SPC had already issued a T-box with enhanced wording for northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. I learned from Mike Cohen my regular chase partner by cell phone that there were tornado warnings around Woodward, Ok. and that this was the southern storm and it was moving ENE so I just kept going north thinking that if nothing else I'd be able to catch it as it approached I-35 just south of the Kansas border. As I reached Norman, Ok. a second watch was issued for central Oklahoma. North of Oklahoma City I could see a tremendous back-sheared anvil to my NW. This storm was to my WNW as I reached hwy 51 and I-35 so I decided to go west and intercept. As I drove west a new storm SW of Watonga, Ok. prompted first a severe thunderstorm and then a tornado warning and was moving NE towards Hennessey. This was straight ahead on hwy 51 so things were looking up. The only problem with an intercept was a new storm now going up just SW of Hennessey and this would prevent a turn south there but would provide a chance to watch a new storm. This storm looked promising with a slowly rotating wall-cloud and good structure but was hampered by the precip from the Watonga storm now approaching the Dover area from the SW. While moving East on hwy 51 to get out of the anvil-precip I heard a report of a TVS signature on the Dover storm and looked over my right shoulder and could clearly see a funnel half way to the ground. The base of the storm was 10 to 15 miles to my WSW with rain and haze but the tornado was clearly visible for about 15 minutes. Note the one image with lightning in the foreground, tornado in the background. Not a bad day! I dodged tornadic supercells all the way back through Oklahoma City.