Who has been "in" a tornado [Archive]

Danny Neal

01-26-2008, 05:40 PM

June 1st, 1999. Was chasing intense squall line with embedded supercells just north of Bloomington, IL. Had no radar just based squarely on eyes and local spotters and the NWS. Was on the north end of the line and was slipping south to at least get some wind. Well got more than I bargained for. As we were slipping south we noticed a "lowering"(more like scudy look alike crap) to our SW all the while intense lightning was spouting out. I really wish I had radar to see what exactly this storm looked like. I know NWS ILX issued blanket severe thunderstorm warnings and this storm had a history of producing at least one confirmed tornado earlier. We meandered west on a frontage road adjoining I-39. I had lost the area of interest through rain and hail and quickly emerged from the precip to find this wall of "darkness" to my west. We stopped and got out and started shooting video because it was such a clearcut difference between this "large rainshaft" and clear air. I assumed it was the leading edge of the gust front as it from the point looking due west stretching all the way southwest was the same feature. As it was getting closer, however, rotation was evident. From the naked eye it just looked like a rainshaft but in the video you can clearly see a rain wrapped cone tornado about a mile off to the west. Needless to say the weather started deteriorating significantly and we were caught in it. In the video we were driving south to get out of it as visibility dropped to zero. The van was rocking as winds i would guestimate approached 80 mph. We found the only shelter behind a big shed from some industrial company. In the video we faced to the north behind the shed as winds were blasting us from the south southeast, when the circulation passed it was blowing from the west northwest and within a matter of 3 minutes light rain was falling. About a 1/2 to north of us there were powerpoles snapped off and tree damage for about a football fields length. We called the local 911 office about a possible tornado 10 miles north of BMI moving to the E, but never did hear a warning. A warning was issued for a cell just south of us, but never ours. I don't officially call this my first "true" tornado because it came from literally out of no where. No wall cloud, none of your prototypical tornado precursors. I muse at the idea of it being one of those northern echos on a large bow echo pattern that briefly produced a tornado. With out radar and any of the resources we have today it will be hard to confirm it. At the time I personally thought of it as a mircoburst, but after going back and watching the video, there is definitely a hint of rotation and later on a major windshift. If I knew how to convert VHS to DVD or Youtube I would gladly post it and get your thoughts. That right there, however, is the closest I have been to a "tornado"

Kem Poyner

01-26-2008, 05:55 PM

I have been "in" two tornados. The first was in 1964. My parents owned a mobile home park in Northeast iowa. Our trailer was completely destroyed. It ended up about thirty yards from our lot on its roof. It was one heck of a ride. Though we all sustained injuries, none were life threatening. The whole trailer park was destroyed as well as everything we owned. That is why I have been obsessed with tornados my whole life and why I chase them today.
The second was about 4 years ago near Shamrock Texas when I miss judged a nightime tornado on I-40. I took a direct hit while crouched along the side of the Lela overpass. Trashed my New Sport Trac and I had a bump on my head. You may have seen my video. Kem Poyner

jeremy wilson

01-26-2008, 06:35 PM

march 2006 at 1 a.m. i took a direct hit from a weak tornado that was moving at 70 mph.
I saw the funnel lit up by lightning and it looked to be well off the ground. I had Paul Stofer giving me nowcast and he can attest to my hysterics when the funnel got over me and there was wild ground circulation. Hail with huge spikes on them whirled about my car. My car lifted about a foot off the ground and was set in the ditch oppisite of me and then lifted again and was sit right in the middle of the road. All i lost was a couple of tail lights and gained some nice dents.

Very stupid mistake i made that night,letting the circulation over take me like that. Thats why I hate rocket booster supes!

AndrewFabel

01-26-2008, 07:34 PM

June 13th, 2007 (4 miles west of Orienta, OK on Highway 412 in the Glass Mountains)

I knew I was in a bad spot w/ MTN showing strong rotation to my south. I basically was right under the huge meso when the tornado dropped approx. 800 feet to my south. It was a sidewinder but def. moving directly at me. I was so close that I could see cactus being ripped out of the ground.

It was mesmerizing and I didn't want to leave my front row seat so I didn't. In a split second, I planned to keep filming until it got 100-200 feet away then jump into the steep ditch and take the hit. Since I was directly in front of the tornado, I was getting hit w/ light precip so my XL-1S was constantly going out of focus (I was even on manual focus too) which really pi**ed me off.

The tornado lilfted when it got 400-500 feet away and passed directly over my head. I could see the funnel spinning away prob. 200 feet over my head. That was 1 of 4 that I saw that supe spit out that day (actually early evening). One of the tornadoes that I filmed that day (elephant trunk), you prob. saw on CNN, TWC, FoxNews.

That was a fun storm.

Darrin Rasberry

01-27-2008, 12:14 AM

Missed the W.F. tornado by two blocks when I was eight months old, although I have zero memory and my mom and dad have conflicting accounts of where we in fact were.

My grandmother's house was swallowed up entirely by the grand beast, and several of her neighbors perished. The entire ordeal is still an ongoing nightmare nearly thirty years later.

Karen Politte

01-27-2008, 08:58 AM

Me. And it's not fun, not interesting, not cool, and not recommended.

KL

AndrewFabel

01-27-2008, 09:37 AM

I checked my archives on the 6/13/07 Orienta (OK) tornado and my footage wasn't on CNN. I now remember I called CNN as well but they had already got that footage from another chaser.

Mark Farnik

01-27-2008, 01:30 PM

I've had the unusually bad luck to be caught in three seperate tornadoes in my life. The first up close and personal encounter with a tornado was during the July 21, 1993 eastern CO tornado outbreak (the day of the prolific Last Chance F3 monster tornado). I was only 3 1/2 years old at the time so I don't recall the exact time, it was right after sundown so it was probably about 9 p.m. What I do remember is a massive classic supercell came out of the northwest. It had a tremendous amount of lightning in it, it was one of the most electrical storms I've ever seen. As the storm got closer, the stiff southeasterly breeze suddenly picked up to howling 40 mph+ inflow feeding directly into the storm. We had just finished eating dinner, and I remember looking out the north kitchen window and seeing a very large, very ominous lowering from which dangled a thick elephant trunk funnel which dissapeared below the treetops of the north windbreak of our farmstead. Having just watched 'The Wizard of Oz' for the first time and remembering what the tornado had looked like and what Hunk had called it, I started pointing out the window and shouting "Mommy, Daddy, it's a twister, it's a twister! Come look!" My parents thought I was joking at first, but upon my insistence they finally came to the window. All the color drained out their faces and I distincly recall my dad saying 'Oh SH**!' A few seconds later we got a phone call from one of our neighbors who lived about four miles west of us who told my dad that we'd better get down in the basement because he could see a tornado on the ground a few miles north of our place and it was heading straight for us.
My parents dragged me and my then 1 1/2 year old sister down the stairs into the basement and we hid in a closet. I don't remember too much else about it, but I do remember the roar of the tornado as it passed overhead. As it turned out, the tornado destroyed a natural gas pumping shed 3/10 of a mile north of our place on the Weld/Morgan county line and threw the debris into my dad's wheat field immediately north of our farmstead, as well as destroying nearly a quarter mile of barbed wire fence. The tornado then lifted to treetop level over our farm and our neighbor's place, thanfully sparing us from nothing worse than some broke tops/branches of a few of our elm trees and ripping most of the shingles off our roof and our neighbor's roof. The tornado touched down again two miles down the road on the northeast corner of my aunt and uncle's farmstead and picked up five out of their six granaries (the first five were on wooden foundations, the sixth was bolted to a cement pad), two of them full of several thousand bushels of freshly harvested wheat, and dropped them randomly a tenth to almost a half a mile to the south and southeast, crushing them like popcans. It was rated as a low end F2 tornado by the Denver WFO. This same storm later went on to produce what was ruled by the Denver WFO as an extreme downburst (but from eyewitness accounts was most definitely a tornado) near the the town of Hillrose, CO, obliterating a rural mobile home and killing it's occupant, a middle aged man.

Mark Farnik

01-27-2008, 01:56 PM

My second encounter with a tornado came on May 17, 2000, the day of one of the largest tornado outbreaks ever witnessed across northeastern Colorado, as well as the infamous and well documented Brady, NE F3. Over two dozen tornadoes were documented across eastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska, the majority of them thankfully occurring over open country and causing no or minor damage. Our farmstead had the distinct misfortune of being hit by one of the few damaging tornadoes of the day. Between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., we had been affected by several vicious HP supercells and witnessed two seperate tornadoes and had spent most of the afternoon either looking out the windows or hiding in the basement. The last storm had affected us around 3:45 p.m., and as time went by and a storm didn't come, we were lulled into a false sense of security. Me and my younger sister were both home sick, and we decided that it was safe to go up into our attic and dork around up there. It was just after 4:30 p.m., and suddenly the sky grew dark. I looked out the attic window and saw a very pronounced mesocyclone overhead. As I watched, a tornado formed right overhead, and in seconds the grass was flattened and the Siberian elm trees were bent over almost to the ground, and branches started flying past the window. I grabbed my sister and we flew down the stairs and hauled tail to the basement, where my parents were already huddling under a mattress. Me and my sister dove under it, and as we lay there, all of our ears popped, and I heard things hitting against the side of the house, and the roar of the tornado was like a cross between a squealing pig, a deafening waterfall and a jet engine. It lasted only about ten seconds, but it was a very long ten seconds indeed. When the wind died down, we emerged from under the mattress and headed upstairs to check out the damage. It was mercifully minor. About a dozen of our elm trees were severly damaged, there were tree tops and tree branches everywhere, part of the roof of one of our outbuildings had been torn off, a stray 2x4 was lodged firmly in the side of my dad's machine shed, and every window screen on the north side of our house had been ripped off, one of them wrapped neatly around a honeylocust tree that stands a few yards north of our house. Our neighbors a quarter mile to the southwest fared much worse. It collapsed their garage, picked up the westernmost of their granaries in their six granary row and bounced it across the tops of the other five granaries before dropping it in a field two tenths of a mile to the east of where it had once been, destroyed several abandoned outbuildings and blew a large elm tree into the roof of their house. This tornado was unique because while it was only on the ground for about a mile, it tracked from northeast to southwest, which is an extremely unusual occurrence. The Denver WFO sent out a damage survey team and they ranked it a mid-range F2. Once again, we had lucked out.

Mark Farnik

01-27-2008, 02:07 PM

My final and most harrowing encounter with a tornado is my accidental nighttime rendezvous in northwestern KS during the March 28, 2007 High Plains 'March Madness' Outbreak. I have a post somewhere on here giving a blow by blow account of my encounter, but I'm feeling too lazy to find it attm. If somebody else wants to dig it up and put a link to the thread, be my guest.:D
The basic premise is that I drove into a rain wrapped tornado about 10:30 p.m. at night about four miles north/northwest of Bird City, KS and was forced to seek shelter in an abandoned farmhouse just off Highway 161 as the tornado passed overhead. Very fortunately me and my chase vehicle (a 1997 Ford F-150 I borrowed from my dad) were not significantly harmed, though I fully realize the outcome could have been very different if it had been a stronger tornado. I can say with certainty that I will never chase without continous data again and also that I'm not much of a fan of after dark chasing in the wake of that experience...:rolleyes:

Craig Maire II

01-27-2008, 02:10 PM

I've never been "in" or hit by a tornado (thank god!) but did nearly get hit by some nice gustnados on 05/2802! :D

Justin E. Reed

01-27-2008, 02:39 PM

I was 17 years old and had the day off work, so I was at home, working the pasture beside our home, and a storm mushroomed up, it was July 12, 2005. this storm developed on the collision of 2 outflow boundaries and it just exploded. Apparently a small spin up developed, it traveled about 2 miles. I was at my house, it started in a field 1/2 mile away, and moved into our subdivision. Of course, me being stupid went outside seeing the funnel, in some incredible CG lightning. and it passed thru our yard, snapped some trees limbs, then it hit the house. It was a great big rush of air and the house made a few sounds, especially the trusses in the attic, it was like 0 visibility for a few seconds as dust was kicked up. Immediately following it, it poured down with some very small hail. After it was over, I looked for damage, quite a few shingles were gone, the screens on all the south and west windows were gone, the garage door buckled outwards, metal facia on the roof was peeled back, plenty of limbs down, and my truck was covered with mud after the rain caked it on. It was very interesting, scared the heck out of me, I didnt report it, I'd say a strong F0 on the old scale. I'm still trying to figure out what caused it, it shredded 3 large bales of hay in our field as well, very interesting tornado, gustnado, or whatever it was. The wind did blow from all directions as it passed as well.

Brian Stertz

01-27-2008, 02:51 PM

David Poch

01-27-2008, 03:37 PM

May 8th 2003 in Moore. I will never forget that day. I was at work and had the dogs outside so I rushed home as fast as I could to get them inside before it hit. Something I will never forget. The house I was renting had all of the windows busted out and pieces of 2x4's and everything else stuck in the roof. After it passed and I went outside I noticed the house behind me and the two across the street where totally gone. Another thing that was interesting was the ceiling in one of the bedrooms was actually caved in upwards from the suction. Defiantly makes you think.

The August 28th 1990 Plainfield tornado missed us by about a mile. That is another day I will never forget. Seeing a huge van sitting through the top level of a 2 story house was just unbelievable. The worst part was going to a neighborhood to help some family Friends and seeing nothing but concrete slabs and openings for basements was very heartbreaking.

Adam Lucio

01-27-2008, 03:40 PM

Interesting stories everyone.

Ive never been "in" a tornado but Here are my top 2 encounters:

I posted this in another thread awhile back...I was maybe 11-12 years old camping with my family outside of the Detroit raceway for the Nascar race.

I was awoken when suddenly the tent lifted off the ground, it was me and my dads bodies that kept it from flying away, when all settled the camp-ground was a total mess...flooded, stuff everywhere, someones camper was hit by lightning and on fire. The campground didnt take a direct hit but a tornado was confirmed 3 blocks away...im guessing we got blasted by a strong RFD maybe. Since I was 12 I knew nothing, and I cant remember the exact date of this event otherwise I would try and look it up.

The other near-close encounter was while chasing with Chad Cowan and Matt Fisher on the 10-18-07 outbreak...we were literally about a minute behind the Nappanee, IN EF-3 tornado. Heres a GR3 snapshot, as you can see our spotter network report coincides very well with the circulation.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/9781/nappaneebv2editoh0.jpg

I apologize for the cheesy draw-ons. I have allot of friends who arent chasers who often ask me how I know what to look for and how exactly I chase so I used it as part of an "educational" blog I wrote and I cant seem to find the image without the draw-ons.

mike scantlin

01-27-2008, 04:08 PM

I've never been "in" or hit by a tornado (thank god!) but did nearly get hit by some nice gustnados on 05/2802! :D

Thread name: Who has been "in" a tornado?

Kem Poyner

01-27-2008, 09:28 PM

Jeremy Wilson, Funny that your tornado encounter had Paul Stofer involved. He was there the night I was over run by the Lela tornado. He saw the tornado coming and breaked too hard on the slippery I-40. Flipped his beautiful storm tracker truck and skidded on him roof down the highway. Glad he and his friend were not too hurt. I will never forget that night. Kem

Paul Townsend

01-27-2008, 10:10 PM

When I was not quite 3 years old, my family's house was hit by the April 21, 1974 F4 tornado that did serious damage on the west side of Oshkosh, WI. Our house only had F0 damage as the swingset flew away, windows were broken, leaving lots of mud inside, and the garage walls were deformed (the weak point was the garage door so as the air rushed in the walls of the garage bowed outward. My oldest brother happened to look out the window toward the southwest and over a prison farm which adjoined our property. He asked, "What's all that stuff flying around out there?" Needless to say I was picked up and rushed to the basement. I can't remember anything before about the age of 6, except I remember the sounds of the house being battered as the tornado passed nearby. Not being a weather weenie, my Dad had said to the family that there was nothing to worry about because it was "all off to the east." This was said not long before my brother spotted the tornado. Fortunately the tornado was in its roping stage when it neared our residence.

Here is a link to some film of the tornado when it was young, well southwest of Oshkosh, in the less populated countryside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDawKGfA8Q&feature=related

Bob Hartig

01-28-2008, 12:09 AM

Scariest moment of my life on Sept. 22, 2001....story link below.

This not only was a life threatening moment for Jeff Piotrowski and I, but the large F3 tornado also left an established and prosperous Olson farm in ruins and never to be rebuilt. The farmstead and his corn crop was devastated. There is an empty basement and lone utility pole at the former farmstead site....thats about all that is left except for empty slabs.

http://vortex-times.com/92201chase
I read that account back when you first shared it. Now, reading it again, all I can say is, Wow! What a terrifying encounter. I'm glad you lived to chase another day. For that matter, I'm glad you've continued to chase.

I've never been in a tornado, or anywhere nearly that close to one. But a friend of mine survived the double-funnel which leveled the Midway Trailer Court near Dunlap during the 1965 Palm Sunday Outbreak, and I remember something she wrote to me a couple years ago. Can't quote her exactly, but she talked about how the place where you're standing can be in relative quiet, while ten feet away a wind is blowing that you'd never be able to escape once you were in it.

Carey Walton

01-28-2008, 12:38 AM

April 21, 2001 Hoisington, KS

I don't chase storms at night and it's a very long story how I came to be sitting on the north side of Hoisington, but between getting blocked by baseball hail near Great Bend, broken windshield wipers, torrential rain and small hail, low fuel, and a chihuahua full of Pepsi, it happened.

http://thunderstorm-photography.com/files/d1_20010421_210458.jpg

I was very fortunate with just some glass and other stuff tearing up my left arm and it only took $11,000 to repair the truck. Most of the heavy damage was on the drivers side.

cdcollura

01-28-2008, 10:34 AM

Good day...

I was once on the "inside" as well ... But in a strong F1, crossing I-95, at 6:10 AM, in Hollywood, FL on March 9, 1998.

The tornado went over me, popped the hell out of my ears, and overturned a semi-trailer in front of me ... This was in the old days, I was 28, never been to the plains yet, and "dumb" to chase it at night.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/stplog/p030998b.jpg

Above: Tornado hits, truck flips! Note the debris (white streak) in lower right. View is to the south, tornado core passed to ENE (right to left).

Wanna see a video of it? Click the link below...

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFcwyxeJ8U

Take care,

Jason Foster

01-28-2008, 11:13 AM

YouTube doesn't do it justice. I've seen this one many times on Extreme video shows, and love it every time. Some of the shows show almost the entire length, with you calling in, and the NOAA radio tone going out almost 60 seconds later. It really does show how fast the Skywarn and NWS can work when it has too.

Chris do you also remember the little spin up that we encountered in 2002 when we were caravaning with Scott B. and Eric N. and Eric got all that green netting from the roadside wrapped in his van's undercarriage. I think Jeff was driving that day?

Doug_Kiesling

01-28-2008, 11:51 AM

Ok, I did on May 4th, 2003. And yes, falling debris fn hurts.

I was so focused on holding the video camera and tripod down to the ground that I forgot to take a lot of still photographs. Here is the one I took from that day as it was heading right towards me.

http://www.lightningboy.net/content/img920b

Scott Weberpal

01-29-2008, 12:33 AM

Many have seen this already, but here's my experience from inside a tornado.

http://www.tornadofx.com/video/081805.wmv

Basically I was stationary at the time waiting for the forward precip core to pass and give me a view of a hopefully spectacular storm (I was chasing in poor terrain, and had found a relatively flat area). While waiting patiently, a tornado warning was issued and the track noted on weather radio put me directly in it's path. I had a decision to make, wait it out in the precip and hope the warning doesn't verify, or dive south to get out of the precip. I dove south hoping to clear the action area before our paths crossed, but to no avail. I remember my ears popping and a mass of debris rocketing past my car. I'm not sure if it's just me, but look closely as the condensation near the ground, it appears as if you can see the cyclonic curvature of the wind...

...the damage was rated F2, and I would estimate at my location I received 85-100 mph winds. Eerily, as I crept a few hundred feet forward after the tornado passed, a lone teddy bear was sitting in the middle of the road.

http://www.tornadofx.com/temp/081805_close02.jpg

http://www.tornadofx.com/temp/081805_close03.jpg

http://www.tornadofx.com/temp/081805_close04.jpg

Shane Adams

01-29-2008, 07:41 AM

I'm not sure if it's just me, but look closely as the condensation near the ground, it appears as if you can see the cyclonic curvature of the wind...

I see it too. Crazy stuff.

Jim Leonard

01-29-2008, 08:01 AM

On June 9th 2005 I drove through a dissapating tornado on I-70 in Ellis county Kansas. It appeard weak enough to try this what could have been a crazy ride. There were a few vorticies remaining as the larger circulation crossed the road from the SSW. There were at least four semi's overturned off the westbound lane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB3cX5WrKf4

cdcollura

01-29-2008, 08:25 AM

Good day...

Chris do you also remember the little spin up that we encountered in 2002 when we were caravaning with Scott B. and Eric N. and Eric got all that green netting from the roadside wrapped in his van's undercarriage. I think Jeff was driving that day?

Yes - I remember that very well - May 21, 2002 to be exact, and it was near the Wyoming / Nebraska border ... That was an INTENSE gustnado with 70-80 MPH winds.

Gene Moore

01-29-2008, 10:36 AM

In 37 years of chasing I've been inside four tornadoes and on the outer edge of two, one of which was full of flying rocks. Of the four there is a common thread that runs through all of them which may be beneficial to pass on.

- First, all were LP supercells which in retrospect is rather amazing since there was (or what I thought was) good visibility.
- Second, and this is the clincher, all the instances occurred at twilight. During this time there is a low sun angle, or the sun has set (but there was still light) and a funnel aloft is difficult to see when it's nearby.
- Third, all but one were condensation funnels without full condensation to ground until it was too late.

Of this set: one F4, one F2 and two F0/1 tornadoes. Reading the results here I see obscuring rain in many of situations, or they were at night. Perhaps I tend to be more careful at these times....or perhaps (hard to admit) I'm being more careless when I don't feel the threat of night or a rain wrap event.

scott r currens

01-29-2008, 11:08 AM

- First, all were LP supercells which in retrospect is rather amazing since there was (or what I thought was) good visibility.
- Second, and this is the clincher, all the instances occurred at twilight. During this time there is a low sun angle, or the sun has set (but there was still light) and a funnel aloft is difficult to see when it's nearby.
- Third, all but one were condensation funnels without full condensation to ground until it was too late.

Of this set: one F4, one F2 and two F0/1 tornadoes. Reading the results here I see obscuring rain in many of situations, or they were at night. Perhaps I tend to be more careful at these times....or perhaps (hard to admit) I'm being more careless when I don't feel the threat of night or a rain wrap event.

An F4 from an LP. What day was that Gene?

Gene Moore

01-29-2008, 05:02 PM

An F4 from an LP. What day was that Gene?
October 5th 1970. This was only my second tornado so I was way over my head as to what was going on. What I saw as I came south was a long narrow anvil with a black block under it on the back. As I drove under the storm base from the north I could see to the south and didn't see rain or turn on the wipers. I pretty much bisected the base. Actually I thought maybe the storm had crapped out, it wasn't even raining. I did think the wide dark area SW was rain or likely hail so I was trying to beat it south. Then the field to the west disappeared in a moving fog and it dawned on me what it was. I was beyond simply clueless, I mean how could something that wasn't raining produce a tornado like that? I drove down into a deep bar ditch and everything went black except the glowing green light that seemed to last forever. Back then I thought is was some electrical event associated with the tornado, but now I realize it was arching power lines being dispersed in the "cloud." In my defense the landmark paper on supercell structure (Fargo ND) was almost unheard of outside of meteorology circles and I wasn't at OU yet.

Drawing a line from Shawnee through Paden, OK connected to where we saw this wide block all seemed to make sense, but I can't prove it was the same F4 tornado. Officially the track is listed at 25 miles in length, but there had to be others, or this was long track. The last officially reported tornado in NCDC Storm Events was 1:15 minutes earlier to our southwest. We got in this thing about 5:45 PM. Official sunset was 6 PM, but with deep convection west it does get dark earlier.

So, really I can't call that an F4, just had to think about it, haven't gone over those old accounts in a long time. It was what ever it was in that field....sweeping away outbuildings, power poles (they were gone) and a billboards. My wife (that I met at OU years later) was in Shawnee and the fatalities were about 100 yards from where she took shelter. She said the streets were dry when she came out of the post office.....proves nothing I guess, but interesting.

Tim Samaras

01-29-2008, 07:37 PM

OMG....1970???
(kidding)

I was 12 years old that year, and just got a 3" reflector Tasco telescope for my birthday....

Still want to see that monster Dob you have..

Can't say if I've been in one or not--came real close a few times. We had numerous 'circulations'...or rapid wind direction changes pass overhead at night. Dean Cosgrove and I almost got eaten by a gustnado...but 'spose that doesn't count.

I remember a certain late night in May near Crystal Springs, KS in 2004 that Carl Young and I got...close...on a night time tornado coming right at us. Its a rare event that lightning FRONT LIGHTS a tornado...and waiting (impatiently) for the next flash to get a fix on the location.

We were going to drop a probe, but couldn't open the van doors due to the 'incredible' wind outside...so we jumped ship. Tornado passed our location < 1 minute later after we left. Think it was around 9-10 PM or so.

Tim

Alan Broerse

01-29-2008, 07:38 PM

5-5-2007....Sweetwater Okla. just got hammered by an F3....I stayed with that storm into Vici OKla.....as I pull into Vici at 10:30 pm the radar showed the intensity had decreased.....lightning was down to 3-4 stokes a minute....Storm dying????? It was still tornadic and in a recycle phase. I pulled north of town to Film it and was in between Vici and Sharon OK. I could not see a meso...no lightning!!! So I stop the chase truck, turn it off, roll the windows down so I could at least hear it....It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop...no crickets...nothing...I was doing a LIVE on air broadcast with my boss KWTV Chief Meteorologist Gary England . At that moment I heard a few whoosh noises...only to find that tennis ball hail was starting to fall...I report this to Gary only to have him see my GPS position on his radar screen...He screams for me to take my tornado precautions as a radar indicated tornado was less than a quarter mile from me...(actually 150 yards) At that point the winds went from 0 to 60 plus mph in 10 seconds from the east...the F3 stove pipe was almost on top of me...I drove southeast in blinding rain and horizontal hail as the inflow tried to pull me in. About a minute later I drove out of the inflow and turned around only to see A straight walled vortex on the ground where I had just parked....another NEWS 9 stormtracker and a state troopers vehicle was actually damaged by a satellite tornado 1/2 mile from my location....yes Im still employed by KWTV News 9 in OKC and Gary and I laugh about taking tornado precautions in a car with a powerful tornado ontop of you and gorilla hail falling....It just shows that even with 25 years law enforcement and storm chasing..no one is bullet proof..or fail safe...What went wrong????? The lesson portion.....I was in CELL HELL..and radar data was slow to down load, and the road out of VICI veered northwest, into the path of a recycling tornado...not north as I was on previously...and lightning failed to illuminate the two tornadoes . I was in a lowered terrain which in the dark you could not see well enough to be there.All these LITTLE things by themselves went unnoticed..but when they came together...became a dangerous situation. What came from this...I thanked the LORD as I always do when the incident was over and re-evaluated my NIGHT OPS....As I usually am alone in the field......Some things I changed...at night, get no closer than 2 miles from the tornado, Have 2 storm trackers on the storm at different locations...and get 2 opinions on storm status before getting into the game (mine and a station meteorologist) Remarkably I was unscratched, ultilizing my critical incident training and trusting the LORD got me thru...pay attention out there..and have a back up plan.....whewwwww

Bill Tabor

01-29-2008, 11:08 PM

I was in a small one as a child in Knox City, Tx. It blew my swingset in the neighbors yard and that was always the significant thing for me. But I remember viewing it in the distance though I didn't really know what I was looking at at the time. I also remember hiding in the closet and the loud noise. I was about 3 or 4. I have relatives in Clyde, Tx that were killed by a tornado. I believe that was back in the 50's.

Oh, the above was obviously non-chasing. I thought that's what this thread was about. As for chasing, I don't think I've ever been in one - at least none that I recall at the moment. I've been real close to being in one I don't know how many times. Sometimes it's hard to tell how close you are to being 'in' because it's dark. I nearly drove into one May 12, 2005 as I tried to beat it to a town, but I turned around. It filled up 3/4 of my windshields at the time to give an idea. Another time (offhand I forget the date), Gene and I were in the Tx Panhandle. It was the day (early 2000's) where the storms were moving 70+ mph and Gene got shocked. We raced away at 100mph (my speed governor wouldn't allow more) with the tornado just to our right rear. About 13 (or was it 30?) power poles were blown down behind us per storm logs we read later. We were nearly blown off the road at that speed and I was afraid of running over the poles - fortunately they didn't go down til we were cleared. I'd have to think for awhile for other close calls.

Guess having Gene as my partner is either a great blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. :D He's been in a number for torns and close calls on many, but he's also still around and maybe the stats and what he's learned are in his favor now.

PS: Oh yeah, reading the post above reminded of the Caldwell, Tx (F2 or F3) I nearly drove into in bad visibility. It crossed the road in front of me and the winds shot from 0 to very fast in seconds. I did a 180! Many other close calls but still don't think I was in one chasing. I suppose that's a good thing, right? :)

PSPS: Hmm...ok, there was also last Spring (with Gene and David D) as we were in the genesis area of a developing tornado. It came down probably 1 to 3 miles to our ENE within the next 10 to 15 minutes. It wasn't a tornado, or down yet, so doesn't count, but it was interesting so I thought I would mention.

PS: I'm also now remembering the night in Kansas with the MESO team and Geoff Mackley. We drove into a storm in tornadic conditions without current radar and encountered extreme turbulence so we pulled under an overpass in our vehicles. I downloaded a radar, and learned that there was a couplet directly over us. The winds were intense. We later left and semi's were turned over. Later, some of the MESO team went back and found a tornado damage path as I recall 140 yards or so from the overpass.

PS: The above then reminds me of the time Geoff Mackley and I were in OK in the hilly SE part of the state and after only catching funnels during the day storms turned more tornadic at night. Geoff really wanted a tornado and to film one nearby. For some reason, I accomodated him and headed due west as the light was fading from twilight to darkness and we went head on with a developing tornadic warned storm circulation approaching. At last minute I decided I was crazy and turned around. As we made our way back east and away the circulation caught up to us and we saw what we thought was a small vortex pass in front maybe 1/4 mile or less ahead. As it passed winds intensified and my Tahoe got whacked with something fairly big and loud that wasn't hail, but fortunately it hit the metal and not the glass.

PS: Then there was this day: http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Chases_By_Year/2003_Chases/April_15th/april_15th.html. It was a close call where I crossed the path of and somehow managed to avoid a previously reported tornado to my SW that later appears to still be down (or almost) after it passes NE of my previous position. (Not in a tornado - but another narrow miss).

Gene Moore

01-30-2008, 03:18 AM

OMG....1970???
(kidding)

I was 12 years old that year, and just got a 3" reflector Tasco telescope for my birthday.... Tim

At least you were born, but wait....

They'll be making fun of you in 2030....dude, you were alive in the 80's....did they have radar?

Donald Giuliano

01-30-2008, 10:24 AM

While thankfully not as intense as some other experiences, a couple friends and I drove through one of the Mulvane tornadoes in 2004 as it was touching down.

We were well east of the storm and preparing to set up shop and shoot video on a remote dirt road when we came across a bridge that had washed out. Cursing our luck, we slowly (the dirt road was rather slick) drove back west a couple miles, then north directly underneath the base. Looking up we could see a little swirl in the cloud base, but no visible funnel. We drove directly underneath this feature through leaves and twigs blowing around in a circular pattern, and I even recall remarking at the time, "Well, at least this thing has a surface circulation!" Less than a minute later we arrived at an intersection where we could turn east, at which time I looked back and yelled "Tornado!" as an obvious funnel was now kicking up dirt and debris.

This was the first tornado of the day and only lasted a few minutes. It was quickly succeeded by the more well-known "Mulvane" tornado.

Jay McCoy

01-30-2008, 04:33 PM

richhorodner

01-31-2008, 02:13 AM

Me. I once spent 1/2 hour in the back seat of one; and it was fun. Or was it only 2 1/2 minutes?

http://www.tocmp.com/brochures/Olds/1966/Toronado-1/images/'66%20Olds%20Toronado%203_jpg.jpg

Daniel Christianson

02-03-2008, 01:49 AM

Leshara NE, i was 5 yrs old at the time, back then Leshara never had any tornado sirens, i thought it was going to be just another great day, i remember riding my 3 wheeler plastic hotwheels bike down the sidewalk across the street from my grandma's house. I had a red balloon in my hand at the time that i got from my mom... all i remember after that was my balloon popping and the wind just picked me up in the air... scared and balling my eyes out i was spinning in the air ... my mom came running out and grabbed me pulled me into the ditch and i can remember us being in the ditch being pelted with rocks and debri, i had got a glimpse of a skinny black tornado with a dark blue sky , like a pencil just yards away from us, i closed my eyes and turns out i had a rock had hit me in the head and cut me, i was bleeding a bit, it was a day ill never forget i remeber seeing the trees knocked down at the sides of the road. From that day i was always scared of storms... thunder scared me, lightning the whole works and everytime there was a tornado warning for douglas county NE, i would scream to go to my grandma's house. As i got older my fear became my interest and thats how i got into stormchasing... just like i say love mother nature but fear mother nature at the same time.

George Kourounis

02-03-2008, 11:24 AM

May 9th, 2003. In Yukon, Oklahoma near I-40 as the tornado was getting ready to enter the OKC Metro. I was chasing with Ron Gravelle and all of a sudden, everything was flying and we had to make a dash for it, driving with the winds to decrease the debris impacts. I managed to drive behind a shopping plaza to get out of the debris. There were power flashes everywhere and it was amazing to see the side of the cone lit up by the flashes after it passed.

After we calmed down a bit, we continued on and almost got creamed a second time at the famous Britton road exit where Tim Marshall was. I saw the tornado pass right in front of us as it crossed the interstate.

Scary. I don't have much interest in doing that again, especially since it was at night.

Pictures are here. (http://www.stormchaser.ca/Tornadoes/2003_05_09_Britton_Rd/2003_05_09_Britton_Rd.html)

George Kourounis
www.stormchaser.ca (http://www.stormchaser.ca)