Tornadoes are capable of spawning any time of the year. Most people think of Spring when they hear about tornadoes. In reality, any day in the year can produce a tornado.
The "Second Season" occurs in the fall months of October and November. As the earth wobbles back the opposite direction as it did in the spring, the sun tracks back to the south of the United States, shifting Jet Streams and air masses along with it. It is the volatile time while this shift happens that tornadoes are most likely in both the spring, and the fall, with spring being much more potent.
On October 21st, 2017, Storm Tracker and Chaser Aaron Jayjack had the opportunity to chase storms with the potential for tornadoes as the National Weather Service had issued an outlook favorable for severe weather and a few tornadoes.
Storms began to fire near Vernon, Texas along the Red River where Aaron was located, traveling northbound on I-40. Tops of the supercells can be seen to my west.
Aaron would first make contact with the storms near the town of Frederick, Oklahoma, where rotation could be seen in the cloud motion.
Tracking the storms to the north east, Aaron monitored the storm closely for tornadoes. Two signs of a tornado being ready to produce are a well pronounced wall cloud, and a large clear slot. As air rises into the updraft of a supercell, it cools down several miles into the atmosphere and then comes crashing down to form a Rear Flank Downdraft, or RFD. This RFD creates a hole in the clouds that let's sunlight through and in this picture it is well pronounced as it lights up the wall cloud.
A Tornado Warning would be issued during this photo.
Eventually this storm would produce a brief weak tornado, but put on an incredible and mesmerizing rotation display in the sky.
Video highlights for this day can be seen on Aaron Jayjack's YouTube channel here (don't forget to subscribe!):
And a short time lapse video of the funnel forming is available on Aaron's Twitter @aaronjayjack :
You know you are in the right spot when the finger of god points at you... #okwx #tornado #indiahoma pic.twitter.com/nHeQryyOWo
— Aaron Jayjack (@aaronjayjack) October 23, 2017