Tornado Thread

[Frank]

It was a year ago today, that the biggest Tornado in history touched down in El Reno, Oklahoma, killing four storm chasers. Remarkably, it was the first time any chaser was ever killed directly by a twister. Three of those chasers were from the TWISTEX team headed by the most renowned and respected chaser on the road, Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Carl Young. The 2.6 mile wide monster tore an unpredictable path that threw many chasers off guard. The Weather Channel's team headed by Mike Bettes were caught, but managed to survive. It went for just over 16 miles and lasted 40 minutes.

Here's a satellite image of the footprint it left on the landscape:

View attachment 112375

Many videos were taken of this beast.

To the north of the funnel cloud we have the Australian Daniel Shaw, who got stopped just shy of where the Tornado would cross the highway before dissipating. From 29:25 to 45:30 you will see his footage of the tornado from beginning to about the midpoint. Once he gets onto Interstate 40, it takes only a few minutes driving east before he has to stop and an 18 wheeler coming up behind him is overturned by the outer winds of the storm at 53:25.

 

[Frank]

Heading south just east of it on Route 81 was Brendon Lindsey who was gunning south to escape the approaching killer and managed to catch an amazing continuous shot of it.



Behind him was The Weather Channel's crew headed by Mike Bettes. They weren't so lucky and though they were caught up, they managed to survive the experience.



Dan Robinson fled to the east and just barely emerged from the outer rain bands. He was right in front of the TWISTEX crew but lost visual on them as he was driving out the "bear cage".

 

[Frank]

Skip Talbot was one of the chasers there that day and managed to put together what I think is the single best educational tool for not only what happened that day, but also as an overall guide to the many structures within a tornado. Amazing work and I'm sure it will save lives.





I used to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery a few years back, Samaras and his team were one of the regulars. RIP to all who died that day due to the twisters.

 

[KitFisto]

Some of that footage is just nuts.....wow.

 

[EVILFACE]

Yup, I remember that. Crazy ass storm.

I was 15 miles away in Yukon...

 

[Frank]

Another interesting link has been found in mid level wind speeds and unpredictability in the track of a tornado. Generally, there's a window in which the mid levels need to be in order to produce tornados. If they're too fast or too slow they won't form. But within that window on the low end it may help to determine if it will deviate from the traditional northeastern trrack.

https://www.kansas.com/2014/03/03/3321809/researcher-finds-possible-clue.html

Some of that footage is just nuts.....wow.

Here's another by one of the other regulars from the Storm Chaser show, Sean Casey. Only four days before El Reno, his crew intercepted a wedge tornado in Smith Center, Kansas. While the upper canopy hatch was blown open, the dash cam picked up the most intense footage I've ever seen. He said in an interview that before the hatch blew he was able to get about a minute or two of IMAX footage. That's the inside of an EF4. El Reno was technically an EF3.



He's been keeping a really low profile since Tim, Paul and Carl died though. After seeing this, I'd probably feel safer in his TIV2 more than I would in most basements. I know it's incredibly dangerous, but he's got the only thing out there that could take a direct hit. Looks like something out of a Mad Max movie, I'm lovin it.

Yup, I remember that. Crazy ass storm.

I was 15 miles away in Yukon...

Try only about 5 miles away from its eastern most point! Skip was saying that the weatherman was telling people to evacuate if they didn't have a basement, did you end up on the road? You must see alot of extreme weather up there. Oklahoma was really hit hard last year considering Moore was hit just 11 days before that.

 

[wyattroa]

Thats a lot of risk..Just imagine if the hydraulics/bags decided to fail at that point and not lower the car. They would have been toast. To think the Samaras were some of the safest chasers out there who did not take big risk and usually backed off. These guys are just asking to be killed.

 

[Frank]

Thats a lot of risk..Just imagine if the hydraulics/bags decided to fail at that point and not lower the car. They would have been toast. To think the Samaras were some of the safest chasers out there who did not take big risk and usually backed off. These guys are just asking to be killed.

No bags to speak of, but maybe you're talking about the flaps. The entire vehicle is covered by 2-inch composite aluminum/kevlar plate, a reinforced steel frame, 2inch bulletproof glass, and weighs 7 tons. If they staked out in the middle of a yard filled with railcars, I might get concerned.

 

[Frank]

Another good retrospective on the El Reno, done in part by Skip Talbot.