Photos of College Park, MD Tornado

[Sam Sagnella]

I just came across an incredible series of photos from the 2001 College Park tornado as it was passing through the university.

The following 19 photoes were taken during a period of 6 minutes (roughly from 5:20 to 5:26 PM) by Dr. Ming-Ying Wei from her balcony at a location of about 2 miles to the northeast of the tornado (i.e., near the US 193-201 intersection) as the storm just moved into College Park. You should see typical "wall clouds" in all the photoes that are often associated with tornadoes. The second photo shows well a lightning strike with UMD's football stadium in the foreground. [/b]

http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~dalin/tornado9-24.html

 

[Dan Robinson]

I remember seeing one or two of these before but I've never seen the whole sequence. Good shots. The last 5 images show the clear slot pretty well.

The 'lightning strike' in the second image looks like a power flash to me.

 

[Jennifer Combs]

I remember seeing one or two of these before but I've never seen the whole sequence. Good shots. The last 5 images show the clear slot pretty well.

The 'lightning strike' in the second image looks like a power flash to me.
[/b]

I agree, that looks like a transformer or power line blowing. Great photos indeed.

 

[Shane Adams]

There's another one in photo #10, most likely from extreme inflow winds close to the tornado.