First Tornado Outbreak of 2015 Hits Oklahoma, Arkansas

This year had been a markedly (and thankfully) slow year for tornadoes. As of March 23, only four tornado watches had been issued in 2015. That luck ran out last night, when three were issued. The setup? Cold air from this winter had finally moved out of the way and Gulf moisture opened up.

On the two days prior, the government (NOAA SPC) forecast had Oklahoma City on the edge of the slight/enhanced risk, but yesterday morning that changed when a moderate risk was issued, including the city. In the end, all tornadoes proved to hit within that moderate risk, and all wind and most hail in the slight risk area accompanying it (see GIF animation above).

What resulted was 180 severe weather reports, with eight tornado reports from central Oklahoma into northwest Arkansas. Hook echoes abounded on radar; below are select radar loops showing the storms, courtesy GRLevelX software:

The severe thunderstorms formed suddenly, well west of Oklahoma, in clear air, with massive anvil clouds on satellite:

At one point the tornado that moved over Moore, Oklahoma, looked like a swirling hurricane in front of the storm on the OKC TDWR radar (it has higher resolution than NEXRAD):

It was about this time that our own Frank Strait, who happened to be in Oklahoma City, sent these pictures out over Twitter:

Even on the NEXRAD radar, the hook echo and rotational velocity signatures were evident:

The footage of the tornadoes in Oklahoma City was unprecedented. From a news helicopter, KFOR was able to see the circulation deep in the dark of the storm, with abundant close-up power flashes (this happens when the tornado tears down power lines or damages substations).

One LiveLeak user commented that the explosions reminded him of a video game. I was watching this on their live stream and it was chilling footage.

At one point, a hook echo wrapped almost entirely around the Oklahoma City NEXRAD:

When I saw the photo below of the aftermath last night, I thought it showed the power of the tornado well (as KFOR mentioned, F5 tornadoes have come close to these towers before without damage; it's probably not the strength of the tornado as much as hitting the needle in the haystack):

But then this morning, I realized that what we couldn't see from the ground is that two other radio towers had already fallen:

You can get additional damage photos and videos in our news story.