Stillwater, OK Supercell and Tornadoes- May 19th, 2010

On May 19th, 2010 we witnessed two tornadoes near the town of Stillwater, OK. The first tornado touched down while we still about 5 miles away, but we could see the debris swirl on the ground. The second tornado touched down as we approached the town on Stillwater. We pulled off the road right as it was forming about 1/2 mile away. The funnel never fully condensed all the way to the ground, but a debris swirl was very evident at the surface. After that, we were treated to some amazing storm structure and a few close calls with very large hail!! The road network didn't really cooperate with us today and we found ourselves in some pretty hairy situations. Most notable was when we had to make a quick decision on whether to take an east road which would most likely turn to dirt (but would get us out of the direct path of the approaching core faster), or shoot south and punch through the hook. We chose the hook since getting stuck on a muddy dirt road would have been very bad to say the least. Problem was, the storm wrapped back up as we were punching through the hook and the next thing I knew, we were slamming on the brakes and pulling off the road due to intense RFD screaming across the road! Actually, there was some talk that night that the outer circulation of a tornado passed right in front of us, but this wasn't confirmed. A house just off the road from where we pulled off started losing it's shingles and a piece of their overhang. It was a scary moment for us but thankfully we got out of there all right. Hope you enjoy the video! Thanks for watching