TORNADO NUMBER 125 - Snyder, Oklahoma

Date: June 5, 2005

Location: 5 miles W of Mountain Park, Oklahoma to 5 miles WNW of Snyder, Oklahoma

Time: 1836 CST to 1839 CST

Length: 1 mile

Width: 50 yards

Rated: F1

Killed: 0

Injured: 0

STORMDATA:

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This tornado was observed by numerous chasers and media personnel. The tornado caused major roof damage to one home. Another home received light roof damage. A barn was also destroyed. Trees and limbs were also reported down. One home was located 5 miles west and 1.2 miles south of Mountain Park. The second home was located 5 miles west and 1.5 miles south of Mountain Park. The destroyed barn was located 5 miles west and 1.75 miles south of Mountain Park.

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Going to sleep the night before... and after the excitement of June 4... I wasn’t thinking too hard on a forecast and didn’t give much thought to the possibility of supercells. But looking at morning data... I not only felt strong about supercell potential... but that there would be a tornado or two as well. The target was in southwest Oklahoma... an area bounded by Lawton/Altus/Hobart. We took our time and headed into the Wichita Mountains... stopped atop Mt. Scott... took a few pictures and started toward a storm that was forming to the northeast of Altus. This storm produced some hail and photo ops in Roosevelt.

As the storm drifted south... hail size increased and so did the supercell structure and rotation in a wall cloud near Tom Steed Lake. The area of rotation drifted south to the northwest of Mountain Park where we saw the first tornado (small) about 3 miles west northwest of the town. The second tornado of the day formed about 4 miles west northwest of Snyder: one two three. This tornado only lasted about three minutes... but managed to find a couple of farm houses where damage was done.

Areas of rotation continued until dark... but we never saw any more signs of tornadoes and the rest of the evening was spent watching lightning (one two)as we drove toward home.