The 2012 severe weather season took off with a roar yesterday as several supercells spawned numerous tornadoes in SW Oklahoma yesterday. Here are a couple pix. I'll post more later including video. It was an amazing chase.
-Steve Douglass
RELATED STORY: OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Several possible tornadoes damaged electrical power lines but caused no injuries when they touched down in western Oklahoma on Sunday, authorities said.
Tornado warnings were issued for sparsely populated areas of Beckham, Greer and Washita counties just before sunset.
Beckham County Emergency Management Director Lonnie Risenhoover said crews were still surveying the area, but no injuries or damage had immediately been reported.
"I actually saw the tornado in the Spring Creek area near Carter, and it looked pretty large," but touched down in a rural area, Risenhoover said. Another possible tornado was spotted near Retrop in the southeastern part of the county.
In Greer County, emergency management director Glynadee Edwards said a possible tornado damaged power lines near Willow, but officials hadn't received reports of injuries or additional damage. A tornado warning was issued for Washita County, but the sheriff's office hadn't received reports of injuries or damage.
Thursday marked the beginning of the spring tornado season in Oklahoma, so Sunday's storm aren't unusual, National Weather Service forecaster Daryl Williams said.
"We have this upper-level disturbance creating a lot of instability in the atmosphere and we had a least a few short-lived and small tornadoes develop," Williams said.
A tornado watch for 14 counties in western Oklahoma was allowed to expire as the tornado threat appears to have diminished, Williams said.
A flash flood watch for eastern Oklahoma remained in effect for another anticipated round of severe storms, which Williams said may not have as a strong of a tornado threat as those on Sunday.
The weather service said 4 to 8 inches of rain could be widespread and isolated totals approaching 12 to 15 inches were possible in flash flood watch areas, which could lead to catastrophic flooding.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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