Tornado Chasing Around Enid

Fast forward to today! This afternoon Enid was surrounded by tornadoes on the north and the south. None of the tornadoes made their way into Enid but the cell south of Enid near Bison became huge and spawned at least a half dozen twisters.
Being the tornado chaser that I am, I took out after this storm just as it passed Bison. I made it out near Douglas but soon discovered I was on the wrong side of the storm and was getting pelted with high winds, flooding rains and small hail. This cell was one of the largest ever seen in this area. As it stands at the time of this posting, the storm has been going for two hours and has only moved from east of Hennessey to Orlando.
The picture is a radar image of the storm as it neared Orlando. Multiple tornadoes were still dropping out of the super cell at this point.


















6 Comments:
That was a little strange to say that Enid is "fairly tornado free"...
Every town is fairly tornado free until it hits.
Hey sdg831, thanks for the comment. My thought was that Enid is rarely hit by tornadoes, whereas, many other cities in Oklahoma are hit on a regular basis. Like Moore, OK.
I've lived in Enid pretty much since first grade (I'm 45) and I do not ever remember a tornado hitting Enid directly.
Does anyone know the last time a tornado directly hit the city of Enid?
I don't remember one hitting Enid directly, but I remember some close calls.
The main one I remember was in the very late 70's/early 80's when I was a kid.. We lived in North Enid and were sitting in the parking lot at the Northgate Evans when a huge wall cloud formed to the east.. By the time we made it home, the sirens were going off. We had just enough time to make it to the cellar before the serious winds hit, although I don't remember there being that much damage..
Who knows, perhaps the fog of youth exaggerates things a bit.
A tornado hit north Enid in 1966 I believe.It did a lot of damage.
June 5,1966 Enid was hit with one that hit the East side of Enid. We went across the railroad tracks on E Chestnut as it hit by Davis Park Church. It zig zagged through the East side and did a lot of damage before lifting. It was early one Sunday evening (about 6 )and I do not believe there were injuries except possibly from flying debris. There were also 2 others that evening that were out in fields on the west side and did not do any damage. The one that hit was "red with Oklahoma dust."
I can remember it being in the early 60's...and Enid was hit directly by a Tornado! It flattened most of the Trailer Park on North VanBuren and many homes on the eastside of Enid. I can recall the Army National Guard being in the neighborhoods. I also remember us in the lower part of our home, tucked away with blankets, pillows and the twin mattresses pulled down over me, my siblings and parents....and we heard it go over the house. I'll never forget it, then afterwards when it was over, we all went outdoors, the neighbors were all outside too.......many roofs torn off, garage doors busted wide open, and trees down everywhere. We were thankful to be alive and together.
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