INSANE video from inside the powerful Aurora, Nebraska tornado on June 17, 2009. The tornado intensified right on top of the TornadoVideos.net SRV Dominator, and the window was blown out as an intense mini suction vortex passed over the vehicle. A 138.8 mph wind gust was measured by the roof anemometer as the window blew out. Check out Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel this Fall for the video of the glass slamming into our faces.
ExtremeTornadoTours.com guides 4 tour guest to several strong tornadoes, with 2 being simultaneously on the ground north of Dodge City Kansas on April 18, 2009!
Storm chasers David Drummond of DrylineMedia.com and Ben Holcomb outran this large tornado in the Texas Panhandle on April 29th. The tornado crossed the road 200 yards behind them! Follow along with David, Ben and the rest of the TVN crew on TornadoVideos.net for live storm chasing video!
Stream Thunder documented multiple tornadoes on June 17, including an INCREDIBLE close-range experience with the Aurora, NE tornado!
DRAMATIC footage from Dick McGowan and Darin Brunin, of the Aurora, Nebraska tornado on June 17, including footage of the TVN SRV "Dominator" in action!
Video from a brief tornado that occurred inside Great Bend, Kansas on June 20, 2009.
Footage of the June 15, 2009 Elbert County, CO tornado from Verne Carlson! Verne streamed these tornadoes LIVE right here at TornadoVideos.net!
Randy Denzer chasing through central Texas on June 11th, 2009.
A setup very similar to the tornado event last week is in store for the western Dakotas again this afternoon and evenings, as a potent trough ejects from the Northern Rockies. There are a few MCSs across the central Dakotas early this afternoon, but they should move east and die allowing for strong heating in their wake. Ahead of this trough, the LLJ is forecast to increase above 30 knots by 21z and increase steadily through evening as the boundary layer decouples. Supercells will develop in extreme eastern MT and move east into this incredibly unstable and sheared environment by late afternoon into evening. I typically trust the RUC wind fields most with these Northern Plains setups, but the thermodynamics have been out of control on the RUC all season long, so we can probably divide the 0-1 km EHIs by a factor of at least 2. I'm still grinding out the dissertation or I'd already be in position west of Dickenson! It is a little weird watching these events unfold from home... I'm not used to this!!! Click on "more" for the 16z RUC 850 mb flow and EHIs at 00z this evening.
Check out this amazing video of a very strong tornado from yesterday in Northwest Ontario just after a modern fishing resort was destroyed. At least a few fatalities have been reported by this tornado as very well-built structures were completely destroyed. These tornadic supercells fired just ahead of a powerful trough that ejected from the Northern Rockies the day before producing several tornadoes across the Dakotas. We should have been there!!!!!
Matt Chatelain, Curtis McDonald and Daniel Betten of Stream Thunder were able to document a rare July tornado last night in south-central South Dakota, near the town of Mission! After abandoning storms that were struggling with the cap farther north around Sturgis, they repositioned south and east, driving through the scenic South Dakota Badlands, their thought being that their chase day was essentially over... but then the Mission supercell exploded, offering them views of amazing storm structure and then a beautiful skinny tornado around midnight just south of town. They came away pretty satisfied with their decision to head north!
After viewing last night's model runs, I was becoming very pessimistic about the tornado chances today..However, the morning RUC looks very interesting over the extreme western Dakotas and extreme eastern Montana. I feel the RUC does a very good job at predicting wind fields, and the low-level shear after 22z looks very favorable for tornadic supercells, especially along the ND/MT Border. The RUC is showing 40+ knots at 850 mb after 00z along the ND Border, with storms firing by 21z in extreme eastern Montana. Stream Thunder with Curtis McDonald, Matt Chatelain, Betten, and Matt Van Every are on their way up there right now, so be sure to check out the Live Streaming page this afternoon. I'd give anything to be up there right now!!!
Sorry I have not been updating the blog recently.. We were driven into the ground during this storm season and I dropped the ball on my consistent blog updates, but the plan from here on out is to resume the near daily updates as weather permits. If the weather is quiet, then I'll present case studies of past big tornado events. Today though, the focus will be on the first REAL trough of the season ejecting across the Northern Plains over the next few days.
Based on the last few GFS and NAM model runs, it looks like extreme eastern Montana and western North Dakota/Northwest South Dakota will be prime for tornadic supercells tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon and evening as a massive trough impinges on the Northern Plains and 40+ knot low level jet develops during evening across the warm sector. Last night's NAM depicted the dominating tornado event of the year up there, but this morning's NAM and GFS are not quite as favorable - at least before 00z. Still though, I would not be surprised to see several tornado reports if there will be any spotters/chasers up in that area, as the LLJ really cranks up just after 00z...which can be seen in the 00z vs 03z 0-1 km EHI's from the the 12z NAM below:
Thunderstorms are possible across a large part of the U.S. today, with large pockets of convection currently spreading east over the middle Mississippi River Valley into the lower Ohio Valley area, as well as in northern Oklahoma into western Missouri and Arkansas. While a widespread severe weather event is not expected, those planning outdoor activities for the 4th of July weekend will want to remain up to date on the latest weather information in their area, as the threat for damaging winds, hail and even tornadoes does exist in some parts of the counry.
Many of our LIVE video streamers will be showcasing parades and, later tonight, fireworks displays from around the country, so be sure to check those out! Have a happy, safe holiday weekend!
Severe thunderstorms are possible today over parts of Kansas and Nebraska, including the same area that experienced the "tornadofest" on June 17th! Although a fairly strong cap will be in place, supercells are expected to develop late this afternoon over northern Kansas and southern Nebraska, given moderate instability and favorable shear profiles for that timeframe. ...
TVN and ETT have been chasing in the central Plains this week, hosting winners of a European Sweepstakes hailing from The Netherlands! These images by ETT guide Olivier "Klipsi" Staiger are from Wednesday night, when they chased a monster supercell in south-central South Dakota that apparently put down a long-track tornado. The storm began as an LP supercell, growing larger and larger as they followed it southeast. After sunset, the group eventually encountered fresh tornado damage in the form of fallen trees and powerlinesblocking the road!
As mentioned in earlier blog entries, the TVN/Radiance Technologies team successfully launched the RC plane into the tornadic southern Nebraska atmosphere on June 17th. The video below shows the initial launch with a tornado in the background, and the RC plane deploying parachute probes into the inflow region of the storm. Note the aerial shots of the parachute probe getting deployed out the rear, and sucked toward the tornado before wrapping around the backside! Each of these probes measures temperature, pressure, and dewpoint inside the tornado; one of the probes can even record HD video! The probes were recovered that night from a corn field. Each of the probes has GPS tracking ability and we plot their path and location in 3-D on Google Earth in the Radiance vehicle. At the time of the video below, we were in the process of driving into theses same tornadoes (shown far away from the plane vehicle perspective) with the SRV Dominator, with the radar pointed in the vertical to measure the updraft winds while the roof-mounted anemometer measured winds in the horizontal. Be sure to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery this fall for the rest of the story!! (Click on the "READ MORE" button, below, for the video!)
Here are the videos from the June 15 Macksville, KS tornado and the June 17 tornadoes north of Gibbon, NE and west of Aurora, NE, as shot from the TornadoVideos.net SRV. The June 15 tornado was definitely one of the strongest of the year, ripping trees out of the ground as it crossed the road in front of us, and then turned southwest and headed straight toward our location! I tried to back up away from this tornado as it was too strong for intercept, but encountered a minor obstacle... The Radiance Technologies/TornadoVideos.net RC Plane successfully deployed a parachute probe into this tornado from the southeast, and it was lifted from 400 feet where it was dropped to an altitude of above 3500 feet before being carred for ~6 miles!
The first video below from June 17 is of the first two tornadoes produced by this supercell just north of Gibbon, NE. We attempted to intercept the first tornado but it roped out just as it reached our north-south road, and the second tornado was just as short-lived. Still though, the RC Plane was able to deploy 5 parachute probes into the inflow region of the second tornado (aerial video coming soon) as we in the SRV Dominator were attempting to collect vertical wind data near/in the tornadoes with the mobile radar.
And now for the grand finale... Below is video from inside the Aurora, NE tornado as it intensified on top of us. Note the mini suction vortices rotating around the vehicle inside the parent tornado, with the strongest one slamming into the left side of the vehicle and blowing out the driver's side window. The bubble cam captured this vortex the best as it rotated around the front of the vehicle and approached from the left... A 138.8 mph wind gust was recorded just as this mini-tornado slammed the vehicle, and our ears popped as the pressure dropped inside the circulation. We were scanning the vertical winds with the Close-Range Vertical Radar (CLOVER) for nearly 30 seconds as this tornado passed directly overhead, and captured incredible measurements of the updrafts inside a strengthening tornado. This moment was captured by our dashboard cams perfectly, so be sure to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery this Fall for INSANE footage of the window imploding inside the tornado.
As mentioned in the previous entry, Dick McGowan and Darin Brunin of TornadoLive chased with TVN on June 17. They captured some of the most dramatic footage of the day, including the moment when the tornado slammed into the TVN SRV, causing the driver's side window to explode! Check out their video below!
Click "Read More" for details on today's severe weather threat.
Dick McGowan and Darin Brunin chased with TVN yesterday and got these dramatic shots of the crew in action. [Photos not for use without license.] As mentioned in the last update, the SRV lost the driver's side window, which resulted in some minor injuries to those onboard; hence the blood streaming down Reed's face! The SRV has Lexan windows but must be manually rolled up, and unfortunately there was little time to do so during this particular intercept yesterday -- one of FOUR on the day!
Also, below is new footage of the tornado southwest of Aurora, NE from meteorologist/storm chaser Jeff Snyder, who is one of the TVN live streamers! AMAZING footage from Jeff as well! Click the "READ MORE" tab to watch!
Storm chasers who targeted south-central Nebraska were treated to the best chase day of the year to date, as multiple highly-visible, highly-photogenic tornadoes occurred in the area.
TVN had an INSANE day! The RC Super Hauler successfully deployed 5 probes into two different tornadoes, while the SRV made FOUR (4) intercepts... including one that resulted in a blown out window and bloody faces for everyone onboard! (MORE DETAILS TO COME!)
Stream Thunder captured dramatic footage of multiple tornadoes near Grand Island and Aurora - cluck READ MORE to see their INCREDIBLE video!; other chasers' footage is still to come, so check back for updates!!!
At least one large tornado has reportedly caused considerable damage just outside the town of Aurora, Nebraska. Details are still coming in, but at roughly 9:00 PM, the tornado apparently intensified very rapidly and has caused damage to the west side of Aurora along HWY 34. Several chasers were along that stretch of road at the time, and their accounts and footage will be available soon. There are also reports of damage coming from the Iowa-Minnesota border region.
EXTREME instability and ample shear are already in place across portions of the central Plains, setting the stage for today's severe weather episode across the moderate risk area. Supercells have fired early over southern Nebraska and are tracking east toward Iowa and Missouri, and as a result a tornado watch has been issued for that area. Any storms that do form in the areas of greatest instability will be capable of dangerously-large hail in addition to tornadoes and damaging winds! Chasers are already tracking storms in the area, so remember to follow along on the Live Video tab!
Click "READ MORE" for video from June 15th in southwest Kansas!
