DALLAS (KRLD) - Mikayla Smith is studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. She never expected to come home to Rockwall for summer break and see this.
Rockwall, TX 3:05 PM @FOX4 @NWSFortWorth @OKwxlab pic.twitter.com/tWgkryVB2C
— mikayla smith⛈ (@m_smithwx) May 29, 2019
Smith, who is going into her sophomore year at OU, captured stunning video of a rope tornado from her backyard around 3 p.m. Wednesday.
When Smith saw the tornado indicated on the radar in her neighborhood northeast of downtown Rockwall, she made sure her brother and animals were safe. Then her meteorologist instincts kicked in as she shot the vivid clip of the thin funnel dipping out of a wall cloud.
Smith said she had done some storm chasing while at school in Oklahoma. "We did a couple of chases with some of my buddies, but we didn't have anything too big in Norman until after school let out and a lot of people went home. Oklahoma has really just started getting into their severe weather season in the last two weeks," she said.
Smith said it just goes to show that you never know when or where you will encounter severe weather. She said, "I never it would literally be in my backyard that I'd be able to catch a video of such a nice, rope-looking tornado."
No significant damage has been reported in Rockwall.
