Unique and photogenic tornadoes - Tell your stories (2024)

Ive been blessed enough to see a few unique and photogenic tornadoes each year like, Bradshaw, NE on 6/20/13, Russell, KS on 5/25/12, Fairview, OK on 5/24/11, and Rozel, KS on 5/18/13. But this one still have to be my favorite since I was one of the few who saw it...

8/11/11 Woodlake, NE

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Shane Adams said:

Actually, I think that's simply a reflection of the fact the majority of ST members these days are newer chasers, and hence their personal encounters reflect more recent events. Also, and you kind of touched on this Skip, a lot of today's chasers are format-spoiled. It really miffs me when a fantastic tornado pic or video is posted, and there's always someone who says "too bad there wasn't HD back then."

Amazing tornadoes don't need format to bail them out.

I'd post some of my best, but I can't really say any of them are "unique" so it seems off-topic.

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Yeah, I'll admit that even though I've been fascinated with severe storms since I was a child back in the 80s, I didn't really have the means to get out and chase until a few years ago. Did a lot of local spotting prior to that in my home state of Indiana. I'm kinda looking forward to the day that I can look back on my recent chases as one of those classics. Nostalgia can be fun. As for being format spoiled, that's kind of a sad thing. One of my favorites from the pre-digital era is the great 16mm film of the Cordell OK tornado rope out.

Adam R Davis said:

Yeah, I'll admit that even though I've been fascinated with severe storms since I was a child back in the 80s, I didn't really have the means to get out and chase until a few years ago. Did a lot of local spotting prior to that in my home state of Indiana. I'm kinda looking forward to the day that I can look back on my recent chases as one of those classics. Nostalgia can be fun. As for being format spoiled, that's kind of a sad thing. One of my favorites from the pre-digital era is the great 16mm film of the Cordell OK tornado rope out.

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We all start somewhere. Believe me, the years start going by faster than you want them to LOL.

As for format, I'm not anti-HD. I love HD, it's fantastic. I was just talking about the folks that put more emphasis on format than what they're shooting. Of course if I could afford it, I'd shoot everything in HD, but it costs so much to (1) purchase HD equipment and (2) the computer power/space to store it all (I don't delete anything). But I don't consider any of my tornado videos "less" because they're all on SD format. If what's in the viewfinder is amazing, it's amazing. In fact, the tornado video voted best all-time recently by the Storm Assist brass was shot on VHS back in the 1990s.

JeffGonzales said:

Ive been blessed enough to see a few unique and photogenic tornadoes each year like, Bradshaw, NE on 6/20/13, Russell, KS on 5/25/12, Fairview, OK on 5/24/11, and Rozel, KS on 5/18/13. But this one still have to be my favorite since I was one of the few who saw it...

8/11/11 Woodlake, NE

Watch video >

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I remember watching your stream and cursing your good fortune

Bst rope out Ive seen in person to date, we were on the cell to the south of the 5/20/2013 F5 Moore, OK +FC
Sounded like a wood instrument when we got out of the car.

Mine without a doubt has to be April 29, 2009 East of Plainview, TX. Absolutely nailed the forecast and was one of the first on the storm well west of Plainview. Got to enjoy hundreds of dust devils near Plainview to a point where it actually got boring. It got interesting though as the storm moved east towards a boundary with dews in the upper 60s and easterly low level flow. I kept waiting for the storm to cross the boundary and go nuts, but it never did, so I thought. I actually was breaking away from the storm and was going to try and fly east when I noticed a funnel above the road in front of me.

I decided to set up a few miles east of the storm and see what was going on, with very few other chasers in the area. Most were well to the east, or behind this storm because of the roads. Only reason I was ahead of it was because I had giving up on it and had bailed east. My video is definitely unique and by far the best thing I have captured on camera to date and the tornado was incredibly photogenic for us who were able to get close.

I am very fortunate this tornado didn't come right at me. You will noticed it trys to move to the right at first and is then launched to the left (south... Southeast actually) from outflow. It could have easily turned into my own "field incident", giving the road options here and where I was parked. It was enough to spook the other chaser near me into bailing east quickly. I just wish I would have stopped after driving east some and videoed the rope out. I did get some great photos of the rope out, considering there were 2 on the ground at the same time.

It is not everyday you get a big photogenic tornado with minimal precip around it, that passes close to you, you get to hear it, another tornado touches down next to it, and the only damage is a couple telephone polls. I tired to follow the storm SE, but when I came across the TIV and doghouse in a ditch, I just turned back to pavement and rode out the core. Hoping to top this day eventually, but as time goes on it that seems less likely.

Here is my chase account of the day - http://owlsp.com/april292009.html

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