The various events from the afternoon of May 19th until the early morning hours of the 21st were just special (and somewhat odd enough) that I have designed this page to cover them all together.
My chase partner Thomas Yancey and I headed out on the afternoon of the 19th for a storm chase in western Oklahoma. We didn't come away with any tornado events, but we did see a very pretty supercell storm in southeast Roger Mills County. This storm put on quite the little display and pounded us with some golfball size hail, but produced very little in the way of visible lightning.
Only after we got back to the house and he headed home did I try for some lightning photography from the driveway. There were some weak storms trying to form nearby and I figured it was worth the shot. The result was one strike captured, but it was a good one.
Later that night - after storms had pushed well south and east of Okarche - I started hearing increasing thunder. We started getting anvil crawlers off of the north side of the activity spreading across us. They were not frequent enough to take a drive for, but I decided to sit on the deck and observe for a bit. I have to explain the photo here. The image was with an 11 mm lens - looking straight up. This explosive bolt started distant west, went overhead and crashed to the ground just to my east. In the image, the pole in the upper right corner is my anemometer and tower which was to my southwest. At left is the patio table umbrella which was to my northeast. The trees at the bottom of the image were to my southeast. The backyard surveillance camera was amusing as it showed me jump back in my chair. It was a bit surprising.
Storms during the day on the 20th left a lot of cloud cover and nearly ruined any chance at seeing any of the solar eclipse which occurred at sunset. I drove to the west side of town and hoped for a peak - and got one - just as the sun dropped below the cloud deck to my distant west. My view wasn't nearly the view others got, but was still special in its own little way.
Below are three different radar views of a very small storm which formed during the early morning hours of the 21st. Despite the size, this became an incredible lightning producer as it tracked east - just south of Okarche. I made the three mile trip to the cemetery south of town and caught many of the amazing cloud to ground strikes.
Finally, other storms formed around Okarche during the early morning hours of the 21st. Some produced incredibly close lightning strikes. The image at right is from my westward looking surveillance camera. Obviously, we aren't looking for quality here. There was an immediate flash/bang with this bolt that had to hit within 100 yards to the west. The map below shows the path that I walked out looking for a sign of a strike the next day. No luck there, but I did talk to a homeowner not too far away that said he sat up in bed in response to a "house shaking blast" about that time. Looking at the image of the strike, I can understand why.