Name: Line of storms hammers part of Oklahoma with heavy rain and small hail
Uploaded: 2026-04-02T02:33:16.199Z
Duration: 4 min 16 s
Description: Storm chaser Tony Laubach reported live from a messy situation on the road in Oklahoma on April 1.

Storm chaser Tony Laubach reported live from a messy situation on the road in Oklahoma on April 1.

Oklahoma

A series of storms moved across western and northern Oklahoma, producing heavy rainfall and small hail, with meteorologists reporting hazardous driving conditions along major highways. The storms, which developed rapidly, prompted several severe thunderstorm warnings and a tornado watch covering Oklahoma City and nearby areas until midnight.

While most hail remained under an inch and a half in diameter, meteorologists noted the potential for isolated cells to intensify, especially in undisturbed air ahead of the main storm line. Residents in Oklahoma City and Tulsa were advised to remain alert as the storms continued to move eastward, bringing the risk of damaging winds, hail, and possible tornadoes.

Line of storms hammers part of Oklahoma with heavy rain and small hail

Farther south, storm chaser and meteorologist Tony Laubach is on the move for his 30th season chasing storms. And he's joining us now from Perry, Oklahoma. Man, the rain is coming down. Maybe some hail out there. Tony, how's it going? Well, Jeff, we are moving southbound on I-35 here. So we're just to the south of Perry at exit 180, kind of pointed in the direction of Oklahoma City. On a bunch of storms, we talked about it last hour. And if you remember the radar, there were just a few storms that were popping up and doing so quickly. It has filled in considerably since then. Obviously, right now, as you can see on the camera, it is a little bit of a, we'll call it an unfriendly drive here along I-35. So we are approaching the town of Guthrie in Orlando from the north. And we're punching through the core of one of those storms that have developed ahead of a line of storms here. Jeff can drive the radar. You can see just the mess that has unzipped here across western and northern Oklahoma over the last hour and a half. We've seen several severe storms that have kind of pulsed off and on. But as we get more of these storms, they kind of compete with each other for the instability. And the hail doesn't quite get as large as we would see with isolated supercells. So most of the hail that we are being warned for generally is under an inch and a half. So that is pretty good. Right now, the main warning is just to our north on a severe storm. And we are seeing, again, some small amounts of hail, occasionally getting some tinks on the car. But we haven't seen anything, I'd say, bigger than nickels so far. The storm that we're driving through right now is not severe. And again, right now, we're not seeing any hail with that as it crosses I-35 here. This would be just to the west of Stillwater and north of Guthrie. So this is the storm we're kind of focused on. You might be wondering why we're focusing on this particular cell. It is isolated and ahead of the line. So that's kind of one of the signs we look for in a setup like this is whether or not this storm, ahead, isolated, kind of in undisturbed air, has a tendency to intensify. And those kind of become the bigger tornado threats than anything we're seeing back further to the west, which is kind of a mess of line of storms that mainly is going to pose a damaging wind threat with some hail embedded in there at times. Right now, well west of Oklahoma City, the line extending all the way back into northwest Texas. We'll start to see that fill in. So unfortunately for cities like Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the storms are going to be working in over the next couple hours. Tornado watch in the area goes until midnight tonight. That does include Oklahoma City. It just nudges up to Tulsa. So Tulsa's threat likely going to be a little bit later tonight as opposed to Oklahoma City. But certainly the threat for tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds will continue. We'll keep track of these storms here as they push their way on off to the east. Again, that tornado watch, including Oklahoma City, goes until midnight tonight. So be aware, especially as those storms to the west continue to intensify and get organized. I do think there will be more of a damaging wind threat. But unfortunately, Jeff, even with that, some spin-up tornadoes not out of the question. So busy night here across central Oklahoma. Welcome to spring. We're getting into April, so naturally we're going to get right into things here. All right, Tony, we appreciate that report there from Perry, Oklahoma, as he's closing in on the Guthrie area, coming down from Perry southward to Guthrie, trying to sniff out the next area of development here as we get into hopefully undisturbed waters for Tony's sake there. But that's where some storms could be more volatile later on. Again, as he mentioned, a lot of competition between these storms. Just with the cell interactions, just a very muddy, murky, chaotic environment here. At one point we had four or five severe thunderstorm warnings in western and north-central Oklahoma. So the outflow from those storms interacting with one another and, again, just kind of in some cases choking off additional thunderstorms from becoming too severe, which is good news, but it is messy for anybody on the roads, obviously, with all that heavy rain.

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