Henryville IN/New Pekin IN storm footage

[Steve LaBelle]

Hi all, novice storm chaser/Skywarn spotter who logged about 900 plus miles coming out of Michigan on this day to capture this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1VlcO8JRtY

--Steve

 

[cstrunk]

Nice footage, just do something about that auto-focus.

 

[Steve LaBelle]

LOL....yeah it was about as shaky as I felt seeing my first tornado much less a EF4 tornado. To do list: Better HD cam and consider using the tripod that I had in car but couldn't think about using considering the circumstances!

 

[Jake Orosi]

Great catch - tell me more about your chase. Was it just driving to this spot, filming, and then driving home; or did you try a couple other storms first or afterwards?

 

[Jason Boggs]

Nice job! Yeah,a tripod and MANUAL focus next time!!! Again, good job!

 

[Steve LaBelle]

Left Michigan at 5:45am on Friday realizing the high risk situation in Kentucky. My goal was to lay up in Louisville, KY by noon. Ran into a few cells in southern Ohio continueing into Kentucky but by this time the active cells had dried up. I knew they would fire later in Kentucky but one of the cells I disregarded started to really form heading into Cincy. I doubled back to Cincy where it basically fizzled into a nice lightning display. In the meanwhile, I had my eye on this particular cell and front pushing into Indiana with the PDS already declared on the watch, committed to going to SE Indiana. Noting the NE track of the storm near Evansville I tucked in at the SR-60 off of I-65 and tried to view the south side of the storm from the safest vantage point. I didn't realize at the time that I basically had about 10 minutes to travel SR-60 to even get into place. Saw the hook on my Pykl 3 radar but wasn't believing what my novice eyes were seeing. Just about a minute before the footage starts, I see a lowering of the clouds way off in the distance and just happened upon the clearing just outside of Borden, IN to stop and film. No words to describe what I was seeing. Cherry officially popped. Wow.

 

[aaron.burkham]

That was great dude, thanks for sharing.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

Awesome first catch! Congratulations.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Steve, big congrats on capturing that monster on video!

Your account would have been better placed in the thread for this event that is in the Target Areas section. I was going to move it there and drop you a note, but since it has picked up traction with comments that are appropriate for Advanced but not for Target Area, I'm going to leave it here.

For the future, bear in mind that firsthand videos and/or photos are normally better suited for a chase report in the Target Areas section. The more information you provide, the better. I realize it may feel a bit intimidating to post in the "heavyweight" section, but don't be shy if you've got video or images, as long as they're your own. Your lengthier third post, by the way, would have been quite up to snuff content-wise.

Good to meet another chaser from the Mitten! Have fun and stay safe this season.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

For being your first tornado, great catch man!

 

[Jake Orosi]

Good to see your first attempt wasn't a bust! Hundreds of miles is quite a commitment and it turned out very well! If I were a betting man, I'd bet you are now hopelessly hooked and in the bucket.

 

[Sam Sagnella]

Congratulations on your first tornado; great catch at that!

I missed a tornado on my first chase by less than a mile (3/21/05), when it touched down briefly behind a hill that we had already committed to driving around (we could have stopped farther back and still seen it....ouch). It took me a little over a year past that date to see my first one (4/26/06 - two for the price of one).

I wish you the best of luck in pursuing future chases -- you clearly have a knack for it. Jake's gotta be right on the money .

 

[Steve LaBelle]

Thanks for the sentiments Bob. I actually did try to post this in the Target area initially but I didn't have "permission" to post there apparently. I attempted to get permission last year but it didn't happen. I will certainly follow protocol in the future (if I can!) Pleasure to meet a fellow Mitten man as well. Perhaps we'll cross paths one day.

 

[Steve LaBelle]

Good to see your first attempt wasn't a bust! Hundreds of miles is quite a commitment and it turned out very well! If I were a betting man, I'd bet you are now hopelessly hooked and in the bucket.

It's funny Jake, my wife says to me now: "Well, I'm not sure you are going to top that one, so can you call it quits now?" Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...."No.". LOL

I think what really gets you hooked is the idea that you put in the research, time and effort to get educated to chase appropriately and then you realize when you are seeing radar hooks, inflow, RFD live in person that it all payed off in one day. I can't let my experiences go to waste now can I ? I think the wife is stuck with a lunatic husband.

 

[timjankowski]

The part that irks me about this thread is my pre-chase forecast was to target your same target area... But ended up second guessing myself and going too far north. A learning experience for sure!

Despite a lesser quality camera, this was an awesome catch and you did a very good job staying composed and steady.

You were also in quite an optimal position. Congratulations!

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