After several years of ignoring it due to the low-light noisiness of my first DSLR, I finally decided to post this image and its story. The parent HP supercell had put on a nice structural show for us in the Oklahoma Panhandle, before becoming even more deeply rain-wrapped as it eased east-southeastward into deepening twilight. We honestly did not expect to dig out a tornado after it looked so outflow-dominant. But as we scooted east on U.S. 412, just south of the rear-flank precip area, we spotted a small, bent cone in that core, just a few miles to our north-northwest. We finally found a safe, sufficiently roomy pull-off, just in time to watch this final, wavy stage. We saw the last two or three minutes of what likely had been a much-longer-lasting tornadic vortex, just not visible for the preceding part of its lifespan. The spotting lesson: don’t stop spotting. If it’s a precip-laden surface-based supercell (even deeply wrapped HP), a tornado could emerge to visibility.
4 S Muncy OK (31 May 7) Looking NW
36.7621, -101.7631