My Thursday Tornado Adventure in Enid

Five, four, three, two, one.

Hey Buzzheads, Shaggheads, and Zoinkers — Curtis Tucker, a.k.a. Shaggs, here from Shaggy Duck Studio with another episode of The Curtis Tucker Podcast.

This one is a little different.

If you’re watching on YouTube, this may be an episode worth seeing instead of just hearing, because I’ll be mixing in some of the tornado footage I captured during one of the wildest Thursdays I can remember.

I’m almost 63 and a half years old, and this past week may rank as one of the craziest of my life. But today, I’m focusing on one part of it:

My Thursday tornado adventure.

That title sounds casual on purpose. In Oklahoma, tornado watches, warnings, hail, and wall-to-wall weather coverage are part of spring. You never get careless about tornadoes, but after you’ve lived here long enough — and especially after you’ve storm spotted a few — you learn to stay calm, watch closely, and respect what’s happening.

Still, this one was different.

It formed near my hometown. It was clear, slow, powerful, and close.

A Normal Thursday Turns Fast

The day started like a typical Oklahoma spring setup: warm air, moisture, a dry line, and the possibility of hail, severe storms, and tornadoes.

Most of the day felt normal. I wasn’t glued to the weather. Later that evening, after taking Mr. Saucy Pants for a haircut and picking up dog food, I headed out to the studio to work on the podcast.

I turned on the TV and landed on David Payne’s weather coverage. A storm north of Enid, near Bremen, was showing signs of rotation. Bremen caught my attention because Todd and I had been there before to interview Gene Simmons and later Paul Stanley.

For a while, it looked like a tornado might cross I-35 near Bremen. The highway was even shut down north and south of town. Then, just before it got there, the tornado lifted and disappeared.

I thought about jumping in the Jeep, but by then it was too late.

Then I noticed clouds building south of Enid.

I checked WeatherBug, and there was a tiny little blip on radar. Nothing huge yet, but the ingredients were there. So I grabbed my phone, grabbed Mr. Saucy Pants, and headed south to a spot I use for storm photos — a flat oil road in the middle of a wheat field southwest of Enid.

My plan was simple: get some cool storm cloud pictures.

That plan lasted about thirty seconds.

By the time I parked, the storm was already on top of us. It started raining, then hailing. Inside a hardtop Jeep, hail is loud, and Mr. Saucy Pants was not impressed. He climbed into my lap, trembling, ready for the adventure to be over.

The rain was too heavy to see anything, so I headed home.

The Tornado Warning

When I got back, Denise and Piper were home, and the weather was on TV. Then all our phones went off at once. It was a tornado warning.

In Oklahoma, a watch means conditions are favorable. A warning means something may be forming or already on the ground.

Right after the alerts hit, David Payne said he thought he saw a hook south of Enid.

I looked at Denise and said, “I’m going to be so mad if there’s a tornado and I’m sitting here at home.”

So I left.

Because it happened so fast, I didn’t grab my good cameras, tripod, or extra gear. Just my phone.

I headed south on Cleveland toward Vance Air Force Base. The rain had stopped, but a few big pieces of hail were still clunking off the Jeep. The sky was dark, but visibility was good.

When I turned onto the dirt road along the north fence line of the runway, I saw it. A wall cloud!

And not a messy one. This looked like a spaceship dropping out of the storm. Smooth, dramatic, obvious. I knew immediately that was where the hook was.

It was right in front of me.

Watching It Form

I started filming out the window as the wall cloud lowered. I stopped on the dirt road with the runway, the storm, me, and Enid all lined up.

The cloud kept spinning. Little vortices started moving underneath it. I was about to say, “I think this is going to become a tornado,” when I saw dirt and debris spinning on the ground.

Just like that, it was on the ground.

At that moment, I had to choose: record high-quality footage for myself or go live on Enid Buzz and tell people what was happening.

I only had one phone.

So I went live.

That meant giving up the better video, the polished shots, and the classic “me with a tornado in the background” photo. But it also meant people in Enid could see where the tornado was and hear what it was doing in real time.

That’s the difference between storm chasing and storm spotting.

I wasn’t just trying to get cool footage. I was trying to help people know where the danger was.

The Tornado Moves Around Enid

The tornado became clearer as it picked up dirt and debris. It started as more of a tube or column, then later grew darker and more cone-shaped. The view was unbelievably clear — no heavy rain hiding it, no messy clouds blocking it.

It moved near the south side of Vance Air Force Base, then east. From my angle, it looked like it might be going through the base, but somehow it went around it.

Then it crossed Highway 81 and did its worst damage in the Grey Ridge area.

At one point, I had to move my Jeep out of the middle of the dirt road. When I got back to filming, the tornado looked darker and more intense. I think that was when it was hitting Grey Ridge and pulling in debris from homes, roofs, trees, and everything else in its path.

A guy I knew showed up with his family and offered to drive while I kept filming. That was a huge help. We followed the tornado down Southgate as it hit random buildings, a barn, homes, and the dump, sending debris everywhere.

Power lines were down. Poles were down. Signs were scattered. Emergency vehicles were moving in. Traffic was building fast.

The tornado eventually moved toward the east side of Enid near Brookside, then lifted before reaching Enid Woodring Regional Airport.

It missed Brookside. It missed the airport. It missed Vance. Considering how strong it was, Enid was incredibly lucky.

The Aftermath

The tornado damaged more than 40 homes and buildings, with Grey Ridge taking the hardest hit. Some homes were flattened. But somehow, there were no fatalities.

That is the miracle.

Later, the National Weather Service classified it as an EF-4. Trees were stripped of bark and leaves, and some homes were reduced to slabs. This was not just another weak Oklahoma spin-up. This was serious.

After the tornado lifted, my phone battery was almost dead. I headed back to the studio, charged it, and started trying to keep up with information coming in.

People wanted to know where to donate, where to volunteer, what was needed, and what was not. Reports were conflicting. Some people said take supplies to the Expo Center. Others said don’t. Some said nurses were needed. Others said they weren’t.

So at 12:30 that night, I drove to the Expo Center to find out for myself.

I talked to the Red Cross contact there, and she said they did not need nurses or volunteers at that moment. They had water, food, and clothing, and they asked people not to bring more items until they had a better system in place.

The next morning, I was back at it — posting updates, checking press releases, interviewing people at the Expo Center, and trying to keep Enid Buzz followers pointed toward the most accurate information.

Then the media requests started coming in. CNN, NewsNation, storm chasing crews — everybody wanted to use the footage.

It turned into 24 hours of nonstop tornado coverage.

Why This One Felt Different

When you storm spot in another town, your job is mostly technical. You report the location, direction, size, and whether it’s on the ground.

But when it’s your hometown, everything changes.

You know the roads. You know the neighborhoods. You know who might be in the path.

Watching that tornado move near Enid was eerie because I knew exactly what it could hit if it shifted just a little north.

My best friend Stayton and his wife were watching the live feed from Dallas, and she was yelling at the screen for me to go home to my family.

I get that.

But from where I was, I could see the tornado clearly. It was moving away from me. It wasn’t rain-wrapped. I knew where it was the whole time. In that moment, I felt safer watching it than driving back into town and losing track of it.

Had it turned toward town or disappeared into rain, I would have made a different call.

The Footage

Because I chose Facebook Live, I didn’t get the highest-quality video I could have captured directly on my phone. But I did get the live information out when it mattered.

I’ve downloaded the live videos and plan to edit them into one cleaner version, cutting out the parts where I’m moving the Jeep or getting situated. I’ll post that edited version on Enid Buzz so it stays available permanently, since Facebook Live videos eventually disappear.

I’ll also embed the footage on the Curtis Tucker blog page for this episode and include some of it in the YouTube version.

Just Another Oklahoma Spring Day — Almost

This tornado was strange. It formed quickly, moved slowly, shifted oddly, and missed several major targets by what felt like a miracle.

It missed Vance Air Force Base.

It missed Brookside.

It lifted before Woodring Airport.

But it still caused serious damage for the people it did hit.

That’s the reality of tornadoes. They can be fascinating from a distance and devastating up close. You can admire the power and still feel sick for the people who lost homes.

For me, this was probably the clearest, slowest, strongest tornado I’ve ever watched form from beginning to end. I’ve seen tornadoes before, but I don’t believe I had ever spotted an EF-4.

It was incredible, eerie, heartbreaking and it was very Oklahoma.

Have You Ever Seen One?

So that was my Thursday tornado adventure here in Enid.

Have you ever seen a tornado in person? Have you ever gone storm chasing or storm spotting? Would you want to see one, or would you rather stay far away?

And if you saw my tornado footage on CNN or NewsNation, let me know.

You can reach me at shags@shaggyduck.com or curtis@curtistucker.com.

Thanks for listening, thanks for watching, and if you’re in Oklahoma this spring — keep one eye on the sky.

PODCAST

VIDEO