Prior to producing its first tornado, a supercell got better organized, with a large updraft base preceding a growing wall cloud. This is a quintessential southwestern Oklahoma scene, the sparse vegetation of a semiarid climate interspersed with exposed areas of red-clay soil on either side of the primitive road. In wetter conditions, this path would be deeply rutted, extremely slick mud—impassible for a two-wheel-drive sedan, and hazardous even for a high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle such as I was driving. Fortunately, it had rained just enough in the preceding week to compress the clay and suppress dust, but dried enough to offer a firm transportation base.
4 WSW Shrewder OK (18 Mar 12) Looking N
34.7462, -99.8243