Earlier, pre-U.S.-81 stages of the long-lived El Reno/Piedmont tornado of 2011 weren’t visible to me, as we were navigating our way down to this supercell from a nontornadic one to the northwest. When we set up ahead of it, we saw what turned out to be the physical merger of a shrunken version of the long-lived main tornado with a newer, nearly-as-strong satellite vortex, several miles into the distant, hazy southwest. After that, the combined tornado strengthened fast, trucking along the extended track of the original main vortex, and growing into this ferocious, EF5 monstrosity with a roar audible for miles, even over the intense inflow. This beast would both move closer and get bigger…
4 WSW Piedmont OK (24 May 11) Looking WSW
35.6213, -97.8159