Texas Storm Chasers' Connor McCrorey chased the beginning of a difficult
and deadly tornado outbreak. While the majority of this event will be
remembered for the Alabama tornadoes, the event actually began further
west in Arkansas. Discrete supercells didn't fire until 6 PM, well after
sunset, across Central and Southern Arkansas. It wasn't until around 7
PM when Connor approached a tornado-warned supercell. Around the time
the cell approached De Witt, the mesocyclone intensified and a fairly
sizable tornado was produced. Because of the difficult chase conditions
(night time and hills/trees of Arkansas), getting good video was
difficult.
This may not be your classic, up close tornado
footage, but this does show what it's really like to chase storms in
Dixie Alley and why it can be so dangerous. Since the tornado was only
being illuminated by power flashes, this video contains several
slow-motion scenes to make it easier to identify the tornado.
