Members of the Oklahoma news media are airing live images of tornadoes on the ground, a somewhat unusual occurrence in that the storms are often hidden by darkness or wrapped in heavy rain.
A storm shortly after 5pm dropped a funnel cloud in the Chickasha area, which began as a slender finger that – within minutes – evolved into a wedge-shaped, dark, and monstrous tornado. Tulsa CBS affiliate KOTV interruped its regular newscast to devote full-time storm coverage at 5:35pm, with meteorologist Travis Meyer and staff narrating images sent back from its helicopter chasing storms in central Oklahoma.
The activity in the central part of Oklahoma is moving steadily to the north-northeast, and will likely be causing problems in the Tulsa area around 7pm, and western Arkansas sometime around 9pm.
The Tuesday forecast began coming to fruition in the early afternoon hours, when a twister whipped through the Canton Lake area northwest of Oklahoma City.
Residents and emergency management crews in Joplin, Missouri are not out of the scope of the activity, which could move enough to the northeast to move into Jasper County before 10pm.
The weather has affected activities such as commencement activities in Norman, where sirens began blaring shortly before 5:30pm. The high school activity had been canceled in advance of the predicted severe weather. In other parts of the state, some businesses closed early, and shoppers were vocal about getting their errands taken care of before the storms began developing.
