Immediately coming into this chase, I was worn out to no end. From Houston, Texas to Dumas, Texas to York, Nebraska to now about an hour from Enid, Oklahoma. Around 22.5 hours and an estimated 1,450 miles, not including the number of miles actually chasing, all in less than 5 days, my body was begging for a break. I knew a rest period was coming around the corner but good grief, it couldn’t be here soon enough! The decision of where to start for the day was its own challenge because I knew things would fire off rather quickly. While my faith in the overall tornado potential for the day was not the greatest, I did feel like there was a chance for an isolated one, at best. Though, I did want some redemption from Nebraska so this was a chase with hopes for that. As I was getting more into northwest Oklahoma, closing in on just north of Enid, I noticed the storm passing just north of town and I remember being fixated on the amount of lighting I was seeing on radar. Not to mention, what I was seeing and also hearing from the lightning as I was driving, I had to stop and capture something to show for it. The biggest issue of everything I was trying to do was that my target area was shrouded in cloud cover, even though the storms had the chance to fire off in a better thermodynamic environment. At one point, the satellite image I saw looked like Ms. Pac-Man was coming to eat this part of the state. Finally, I began to make it a goal to get just west of Enid. Though the storms coming in did not show significant or notable tornadic features, I was hopeful one would develop a hook and I’d be in the perfect spot. Due to my exhaustion, I actually almost gave up, because of the fact of where they formed. Needless to say, the view on them was not all that impressive either. As this one storm in particular got closer and began to push just north of my location, heading towards Hillsdale, I saw what appeared to be a potential wall cloud. I did point it out in the episode, as well. Unfortunately, limited visibility and distance made my confidence not the best in what I was seeing. It wouldn’t take long for this feature to disappear from view and soon after, its parent storm went tornado warned with a confirmed large tornado near Hillsdale, which gave me confidence that I did in fact see a wall cloud. This tornado would come to be rated as an EF1. At one point, I tried to get out ahead of it but insufficient road networks and the amount of rain falling made it very challenging to accomplish my goal. Going back to my original starting point seemed like the right idea but as the next storm was coming over me, I began to get fixated on this beautiful blue/ green sky that was before me. Although it wasn’t anything tornadic, it was extraordinarily dramatic in the color tones. Truth be told, I really hope I did justice to what I saw, within my efforts to do a solid color grade. Once the view was over, I decided to start pushing south to get near Kingfisher. There were new developments coming up from the south and I was tired of not getting more than what I already had. Not to mention, the feeling of being tired from everything was becoming more and more of a conflict. The more I drove, the less energy I was having. While the storm coming towards me was kind of impressive, I was not in a viable intercept position. Plus, I was entering into a “hangry” mood and I was not liking that either. Instead of pushing my luck, I stopped to have some Sonic in Hennessy. Yes, I had food in a town named after a famous drink! Ha! From the first bite, I felt so much better and all I wanted to do was crawl into a ball and fall asleep. Well, I didn’t fall asleep but instead decided to push to just outside of El Reno. At this point, I was only concerned with getting lightning photos once the night set in. The chase was mostly over and seeing that I only had captured one decent lightning photo the whole year, I wanted so much more. While I waited for the night to come in, I went Facebook Live to tell my friends and followers my thoughts on the entire chase. Being that I do not chase tornadoes at night, I never gave any consideration as to what would or could happen after dark. Needless to say, southern Oklahoma and north Texas both saw some absolutely gnarly and scary tornadic activity. Fatalities and injuries both took place this night and widespread devastation that was even more apparent the following morning. I’m grateful I didn’t try to chase it but watching the radar that night was definitely painful from a distance. The most notable tornadic activity was an EF4 just after 11:00 PM, which had hit near Marietta. Finally, I called it a night. I knew I needed to rest and I also knew another quality chasing opportunity was not too far away. I just needed the models to hold themselves together because I really didn’t want to drive all the way back to Houston. Fortunately, a very dear friend of mine was home and I got the chance to stay with him for a few days. More about that in the next episode, when we take A Look Back. You won’t want to miss that episode for anything. See you there.