Rolling Fork Tornado

[Jeff Wright]

Well, an unloaded pick-up is a metal sail on wheels.

A drone’s light would likely not be visible in the murk….and that darkness would keep it grounded anyway

I’m thinking parked vehicle with car-alarm going off and flashing.

There have been murder investigations where headlights are seen shining out of a lake…so lights can survive intact even in hostile conditions.

Had it been occupied, the lights would have been a bit more continuous if bodily picked up off the road…then too…the road speed may have helped get it airborne.

Parked vehicle is still my guess.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Can anyone answer a question for me? Are these rumors true or not that a chaser whom I will not name at the moment, is claiming that he has video of the wedge with a van full of people with their headlights on, going around the outer edge? I have seen it, but doubt it. If this were true, it would be international news, and would have been mentioned in every outlet there is. It could be anything with a light on it. I am guessing it is a mistake or hoax. If real, has law enforcement confirmed this?

I believe it was determined that the lights were too steady / stationary to be an automobile. Likely a drone?

 

[Bobby Little]

Chasing these nightime wedges in the dark, especially southern fast movers is not for me.
As Warren Faidley stated..."Sadley, just a matter of time".
I chased that Thalia/Lockett wedge last year, hoping to capture it a second time coming out of a roadway mess , waiting in the dark (no radar)on 183 for it to appear thinking what the hell am i doing here searching between lighting flashes. Lucky for me it turned 90 to the north. Unlucky for the town and that van.
No not for me!

 

[Diane Bianchi]

I'm impressed that a number of chasers, including Reed Timmer transported some of the injured to regional hospitals. Ryan Hall raised over 100k for relief efforts. This is all good. I did hear of some chasers walking though the rubble live, not paying much attention to victims or helping. Still a lot of chasers trying to zero-meter nighttime, fast-moving wedges and bragging about it. I'm shocked no chasers were killed. Sadly, it's only a matter of time. Everyone seems to forget about satellite tornadoes and rapid, deviant vortex motion with these violent set-ups.

I just don't understand the zero-metering craze. As others have said, there will be tragic consequences.

 

[James K]

@James K - I use RadarScope for radar and wX for just about everything else, so I can't confirm a bug there. I did notice one of the radars (KGWX?) seemed to be missing a few scans in SRV where new scans appeared to be spaced by 10 mins or so, over the course of 40ish mins. I was at a "required social gathering, lol" so I didn't have the ability to monitor the unfolding situation as closely as I would've liked.

Yep.. sometimes you have those things you gotta go to. .lol.
I started out using KDGX then switched to KGWX as the storm progressed northeast.
I didn't pay attention to length of time between scans .lol. but I did notice that it seemed a bit slow/laggy at times when I'd refresh or change modes.
(at the time I chalked that up to the fact I was in my bedroom where WiFi signal isn't the greatest...and the fact I had 4 YouTube livestreams running off the wired part of the network)

Chasing these nightime wedges in the dark, especially southern fast movers is not for me.
As Warren Faidley stated..."Sadley, just a matter of time".

Night chasing (in general) is something I won't do .. there's the danger factor of not seeing the tor itself, but also the RFD, debris in the road, etc (plus I really don't care for driving at night in rain)
But also there's the simple fact of even if you're parked somewhere... you're not going to see (or be able to video) much anyway when it comes to the tornado.
..That said, I love a good lightning show, especially at night!

A drone’s light would likely not be visible in the murk….and that darkness would keep it grounded anyway
I’m thinking parked vehicle with car-alarm going off and flashing.

Yep the lights on drones are tiny little things. .lol.

My thinking is along the line of:
I've got some 4-foot fluorescent lights that I added what's called an 'emergency ballast' ... basically a battery-backup unit inside the fixture that'll light it at partial brightness for atleast 90minutes when the power goes out. (they're more something you'd find in commercial buildings than homes)
Something like that is large enough & bright enough it could be seen a good distance in the dark! Not to mention lightweight enough to easily be picked up and lifted high off the ground (wouldn't even need to be deep in the tor).
Obviously fluorescent being glass bulbs would *never* survive being launched into the air...but its also "dead technology", so lets say you take the same thing but modern technology: LED (which atleast where I'm at most businesses have converted to), made of plastic thats more robust(not to mention brighter)... A building gets hit & one of the 'emergency lights' gets picked up by the tornado, then you've got a decent-sized & reasonably bright light in the sky, "blinking" because its spinning...and on the outer edge of the main circulation where its most visible.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Chasing these nightime wedges in the dark, especially southern fast movers is not for me.
As Warren Faidley stated..."Sadley, just a matter of time".
I chased that Thalia/Lockett wedge last year, hoping to capture it a second time coming out of a roadway mess , waiting in the dark (no radar)on 183 for it to appear thinking what the hell am i doing here searching between lighting flashes. Lucky for me it turned 90 to the north. Unlucky for the town and that van.
No not for me!

There is a risk/reward calculation in many chasing scenarios / maneuvers, but views of a tornado as nothing more than a silhouette for fractions of a second during lightning flashes just does not seem to be at all worth slicing an RFD into the bear’s cage like that. Or maybe I am just a chicken$—- …

 

[Jeff Wright]

Certainly never come in from the North. In Alabama, there are three good SE-NW approaches in 269, 78/I-22 where you could preposition easily.

While watching TWC I saw a spur road that seemed to point directly at the storm ironically enough.

School footage

Watch As Tornado Hits Amory, Mississippi High School - Videos from The Weather Channel

The high school in Amory, Mississippi was hit by a tornado Friday evening. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com

weather.com

That camera must have been taped to a tile.

 

[Jamie H]

I was really disappointed to see at least one chaser continuing to live broadcast while 'rescuing' (not sure carrying a camera with a light on it counts as rescue work). I'm sure people who are emerging from a direct tornado hit really want to have a camera in their faces.

Those lights btw are also visible on Max Olson's video. On the Discord people speculated it might have been something from a transformer? I can't see that it would be car lights at this point.

 

[Jonathan Scrogham]

The Chaser Chat Podcast released a special episode interviewing a chaser who was overtaken by a subvortex and was lofted by the Rolling Fork tornado. I want to make it clear that it was not a zero-metering attempt, rather a result of a navigational error, as specified in the episode. Link to the podcast here.

 

[Bobby Little]

after listening to the podcast chaser Marcus Reynolds states he was lofted 100-150 feet in his car into a baseball field.

 

[Gary Latimer]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights (like the security type lights that turn on with motion that are not hardwired but rather, solar battery powered)? It will have to be something that has the ability to remain powered without a hardwired source… so that leaves only a few options. A vehicle is one option as well. But also possibly a solar wind turbine (not sure if the structure / motor section could have its lights remain illuminated or not but I did see at least one turbine impacted)

 

[Jamie H]

Link to Max Olson's video. If it doesn't start at 1:36, scroll to it and just after you can see one of the lights come up from the ground and start to rotate the tornado.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Regardless of what that light is, it’s pretty wild to watch it disappear and (quickly) reappear from the opposite side as it’s spun around the tornado…

 

[Bobby Little]

definitely a U.F.O.

 

[James K]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights

I was thinking 'battery-powered light' as mentioned in a previous post... Don't know why I didn't think of this!
Yes... a solar powered floodlight or streetlight! That could very easily explain it! And I would say is probably the "best guess" as to whatever it is.
(both of of these are easily obtainable even for a homeowner - all you have to do is go to Walmart (have thought about getting one of the streetlight version myself))

 

[James K]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights

I was thinking 'battery-powered light' as mentioned in a previous post... Don't know why I didn't think of this!
Yes... a solar powered floodlight or streetlight! That could very easily explain it! And I would say is probably the "best guess" as to whatever it is.
(both of of these are easily obtainable even for a homeowner - all you have to do is go to Walmart (have thought about getting one of the streetlight version myself))

 

[Michael Towers]

There is a risk/reward calculation in many chasing scenarios / maneuvers, but views of a tornado as nothing more than a silhouette for fractions of a second during lightning flashes just does not seem to be at all worth slicing an RFD into the bear’s cage like that. Or maybe I am just a chicken$—- …

I’ll chase after dark if a Classic or LP Supercell is isolated and the topography, road network and storm motion make it feasible to pursue, otherwise since I’m not into lightning the risk is not worth the reward. I tend to err on the side of caution and personally there’s no way in hell I’d chase this type of event at night (or even in daylight given the location) but to each their own. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the graphics but this nocturnal endeavor with a Dixie HP didn’t work out so well:

I'm shocked no chasers were killed. Sadly, it's only a matter of time. Everyone seems to forget about satellite tornadoes and rapid, deviant vortex motion with these violent set-ups.

I wouldn’t take the above approach in daylight with a Classic on the wide open plains and I doubt many experienced/cautious/responsible chasers would but with so many people out there it only takes a tiny percentage making an ignorant decision or taking a reckless risk to prove you right...and it seems like there's not a short supply of them out there these days.

 

[JamesCaruso]

So what happened after that?!? The video stops right at “impact”…

 

[Jamie H]

All I know is they were impacted and the car was damaged. Easy to judge after the fact of course, but he was driving South towards a tornado when he had a North escape route (with paved options to go East to Hwy 61). He missed the left turn which would also have got him to Hwy 61, despite having GPS on, because he was focused on where the tornado might be and not watching the road (straddles the centre line at one point).

From there he loses situational awareness and starts to panic, leading to poor decision making. I'm not sure enough chasers are willing to stop, consider the options, and perhaps miss the tornado to remain safe. Some are very good at getting very close, as safe as they can be (and even then the risks are very high), but that also leads to people who are not as skilled also getting into danger. Two chasers were impacted by this tornado and both were lucky enough to walk away, but I am not sure I can fathom why someone would drive from North to South, towards an unseen tornado, at night, in an unfamiliar area, especially when there were safe routes away from the storm.

 

[Drew Terril]

To add to Jamie's point, situational awareness is where people tend to get hung up. And more times than not, when that is lost, panic comes into play. So I can see pretty easily where one thing led to another, and for some people it's very difficult to hit the abort button and attempt to break contact, to use the old Army phrasing. I've had no issue backing off when I'm unsure on whether I'm in a safe position, but I've also tempted fate enough over my life that I have no desire to do so further.

Maintaining situational awareness is something that can be trained for, but it's not easy to resist the sensation of panic when it starts to set in. And to be completely fair, even most trained people momentarily freeze when taking fire for the first time, or ending up in some other dangerous situation. And I don't think that this is a bad analogy to use.

Something I've also seen discussion wise over the past few days is people asking what to get for first aid, SAR, etc. The first thing I would recommend is to get training. At the very least, get CPR certified and take some kind of basic first aid course. Ideally, a more advanced course (like a wilderness medicine course) would be great. And I'd stay away from premade kits. Most of them are crap, and you'll end up replacing half the stuff in them if you have the knowledge base to know what's needed and what's not. Another thing that gets overlooked is triage. That needs to be trained for as well, especially if there's not EMS on the scene yet. The more information that you can give them when they do show up, the easier time they'll have evaluating the situation. If you have the means to communicate with them when they're on the way, even better. Oftentimes, this can be accomplished via ham radio as many EMAs have a licensed ham at the EOC during events. We had a system in the military for communication with incoming medevacs to let them know what to expect. I would imagine there's a similar one on the civilian side.

Beyond that, if you don't have the aptitude or training to help medically, something as simple as being able to clear a path for EMS and Fire to get their vehicles in is invaluable. If you have a chainsaw and a winch, you can as much good as anyone with medical training, because if they can't get those vehicles in, it makes transport much more difficult. On rare occasions, an LZ for a LifeFlight may need to be cleared, although they rarely fly in inclement weather (just like military pilots rarely fly into a hot LZ).

 

[James K]

Since I know he survived with only minor injuries, I'd like to see the rest of the original video (unless it truly just cuts off at that point?).
I also noticed dangerous behavior like stopsign being blown..

---
I hate to say it, but...
I tend to think if I came across a town that'd been hit... (I've never been in such a situation so cant say forsure on this)
I wouldn't want to help, really the only thing I'd want to do is get the heck away from there.
Damaged buildings & trees I could handle, but there are other things you might see, that no. And there is no way to "un-see" something.

Even if I knew CPR (don't & sorry but no interest in learning). The thought of touching or even getting close to another person...especially if there's blood, or some awful injury is a major EEK. That's something where I'd keep away & leave it to the professionals.

I do have a chainsaw, but its electric, so wouldn't be any good (it also not something I just carry around in the trunk anyway .lol. )

I also wouldn't want to hang around & photo/video (as much as I'd like to have them) certainly any I did take would *not* be going on YouTube.

 

[Drew Terril]

And James, that's perfectly fine. As I mentioned, some people don't have the aptitude for that kind of stuff. And to that point, there's a lot of training on how to act in the moment. There's not a lot of training in how to deal with the aftermath. Similar dynamics among public safety as there is with military veterans like myself. They don't teach us how to deal with the aftermath of the things we've seen, heard, smelled. So, for some people, that would not be a wise option, regardless of how well meaning they might be. And ideally, people should take a hard look in the mirror before they are ever in a situation like that and decide if they can handle that or if they're going to be as shellshocked as the victims they're trying to help.

 

[JamesCaruso]

To add to Jamie's point, situational awareness is where people tend to get hung up. And more times than not, when that is lost, panic comes into play. So I can see pretty easily where one thing led to another, and for some people it's very difficult to hit the abort button and attempt to break contact, to use the old Army phrasing. I've had no issue backing off when I'm unsure on whether I'm in a safe position, but I've also tempted fate enough over my life that I have no desire to do so further.

Maintaining situational awareness is something that can be trained for, but it's not easy to resist the sensation of panic when it starts to set in. And to be completely fair, even most trained people momentarily freeze when taking fire for the first time, or ending up in some other dangerous situation. And I don't think that this is a bad analogy to use.

To layer on to the importance of situational awareness for staving off panic…. When people hear that I chase, they often ask about “the scariest moment” or something along those lines… My response is always that the times I felt the most nervous were when I lost situational awareness - actual risks may or may not have been present… while on the other hand, there were situations that were actually risky, but I did not feel nervous because I was taking a calculated risk.

 

[JamesCaruso]

@James K I admire you for admitting that and @Drew Terril I appreciate your response.

We all like to think (and tell other people) that we would leap into action like a superhero, but some of us (myself included) might be better off admitting we would be in over our heads. I do feel there is an obligation to help a human being in distress when it is happening right in front of you, but it’s different to embark on a search and rescue mission to go looking for it, to think you will know how to triage a situation and decide who most needs help at that moment, to think you know how to move someone without hurting them further, and to do it all without becoming a victim yourself (live power lines, potential for gas explosions, sharp debris, etc.) There’s a reason some people are doctors, surgeons or EMTs, and others are not… Some of us just can’t take the sight of blood etc. Personally, I feel anxiety every time I go into a hospital just to visit somebody… So there are two potential issues - not knowing what to do or how to do it safely (should a non-swimmer jump into a river to try to save someone that is drowning?) and not having the stomach for it.

Still, I’d like to think I would take action in the moment if I had to. Sometimes we find a strength in us that we didn’t know was there; courage by definition is acting in spite of fear, not getting rid of fear (which, I get it, may not help us much after the fact…) I may very well be wrong, but if I tell myself even now that I can’t or won’t do it, I will most certainly not be able to if the time ever comes…

Regardless, I don’t spend too much time thinking about this… Even as a chaser, the probability that I will ever be in this situation is extremely low. I probably have more of a chance in having to help someone that is being violently assaulted than I do having to help tornado victims. Also, as a chase vacationer, I’m not in a position to have winches, chainsaws, first aid kits or search and rescue supplies with me…

One final anecdote - I have a recurring dream that a plane crash has happened near me, and the nightmare that results is around the internal struggle of whether to go into the crash site to help… It is only for the first time that I am realizing the possible connection - is it a subconscious question of what I would do in a tornado aftermath that leads to this recurring dream?

 

[Warren Faidley]

RE the lights in the vortex, I seriously doubt an airborne vehicle spinning, moving, twirling, etc., would keep the lights pointed towards the viewer for as long as they did. It's likely something that has a 360 degree light source.