"Terrible Tuesday" documentary made available onli

[Simon Andersen]

A while back someone asked where he could get a hold on storm documentaries such as "Terrible Tuesday", "Day of the twisters" and so on. One day while browsing NWS's april 10, 1979 Red River Outbreak page I found this documentary ready for download:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/storms/1979041...ibletuesday.wmv

By the way, Grazulis claims that footage of the Wichita Falls event was to grainy to be of no use, though in this video we see footage from a moving car that appears to be of this tornado. Other film shown is obviously of other tornadoes, such as the Ash Valley KS storm. Can anybody help me on this, I'm going nuts thinking about it

Simon

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Is this on one of the TVC videos? It looks familiar...

 

[Simon Andersen]

It's not included in the TVC series, perhaps in Secrets of the Tornado?

Simon

 

[Dan Cook]

nice.

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Makes you realize how much technology has changed. Living in Comanche, Oklahoma at the time I remember that storm quite well.

 

[Thomas Loades]

Yeah, this was on the Secrets of the Tornado supplement tape, for those who've nary the bandwidth. There's a lot of footage that really is of the Wichita Falls tornado in this, including some that appears to be videotape (I'm guessing shot by TV crews, since I don't think the camcorder was invented yet). Maybe when Tom Grazulis was making TVC1, he couldn't find any of the master films/tapes to use, since he seems to do that when possible.

 

[KMcCallister]

Thank you for posting this. I grew up in the shadow of this event in Wichita County Texas and haven't seen this video in many years.

Thanks!

 

[Simon Andersen]

Great photographs of the tornado on your website Kenneth! It's amazing how Jane's photos look exactly like the one's by Wolfgang Lange, do you know if they're the same? I mean the first photo by both show the same multiple vortex! :shock:

 

[Thomas Loades]

I have the feeling Terrible Tuesday is on this DVD Tim V. made ffor Weathergraphics, but I can't remember for sure.

 

[KMcCallister]

Great photographs of the tornado on your website Kenneth! It's amazing how Jane's photos look exactly like the one's by Wolfgang Lange, do you know if they're the same? I mean the first photo by both show the same multiple vortex! :shock:

Actually, to me, some of them look even more like Winston Wells pictures. I'm guessing these people took pictures the same way that many "real" chasers do nowdays. They drive a little, see somebody in a good spot, and stop and take pictures there too. But, I don't personally know any of those people, so I can't ask them for the exact locations that the pictures were taken from. I would really like to know actually.

 

[Blake Naftel]

The infamous Wichita Falls, Texas (10-April-1979) tornado 16mm film footage was originally shot by a KAUZ-TV Channel 6 photojournalist driving southbound on 287. KAUZ produced a special (abeit very basic) in 1980 called "Coming Back"; where much of the material used in NOAA's 1984 "Terrible Tuesday" came from. Additional motion picture and video angles used in TT; including a color super 8mm movie shot north of Lake Wichita; videotape outside of the KAUZ studios; and from a video crew stopped on southwest parkway; are the only known material from this event (outside of stills). Aside from NOAA's TT and KAUZ's CB; I am unaware of any additional material (or specials) produced which focus on this event.

..Blake..

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Yes, Terrible Tuesday is on the Retro Tornado DVD available at http://www.weathergraphics.com/catalog.htm .

The master is direct from NOAA, so it's fairly good quality.

Good to hear some of these old videos are available for download... would be nice to see some of the old NSSL field footage offered in this manner.

 

[Thomas Loades]

The infamous Wichita Falls, Texas (10-April-1979) tornado 16mm film footage was originally shot by a KAUZ-TV Channel 6 photojournalist driving southbound on 287. KAUZ produced a special (abeit very basic) in 1980 called "Coming Back"; where much of the material used in NOAA's 1984 "Terrible Tuesday" came from. Additional motion picture and video angles used in TT; including a color super 8mm movie shot north of Lake Wichita; videotape outside of the KAUZ studios; and from a video crew stopped on southwest parkway; are the only known material from this event (outside of stills). Aside from NOAA's TT and KAUZ's CB; I am unaware of any additional material (or specials) produced which focus on this event.

..Blake..

I did notice at least one sequence used here, though — it has water in the foreground — that is also in the NOVA Tornado! special where it was said to be the May 22, 1981 Binger, OK tornado. I don't know who's wrong.

Where did you find out where all those other sequences were shot? Being additionally a historical-WX-weenie, I've always been kind of curious about the sequences of this tornado, especially since as far as I knew before, none existed.

 

[Thomas Loades]

And while I remember it, Joel Manes' account of this tornado on the Tornado Project website mentions people filming the tornado with Super-8 cameras after he and part of the 110-mph-gridlock on the Kell Boulevard pulled off the road near the National Guard Armory (as they watched it being demolished).

 

[Blake Naftel]

The sequence in the 1985 NOVA special is the same previously mentioned 16mm film shot by KAUZ-TV; used in both the 1984 NOAA and 1980 KAUZ-TV specials. Additional film exsists of the SPS tornado; both in home movie and broadcast film form; however "the best" angles are presented in "TT".

<< Where did you find out where all those other sequences were shot? >>

I was literally obsessed with the Wichita Falls, TX tornado of 4/10/1979 from an early age; and obtained as much material that I could get my hands on in the late 1980's/early 1990's. Most of the previous information I provided came from people working at KAUZ-TV at the time; and from additional sources (NSSFC (now SPC), NWS, etc).

As for the interspliced film of the 22-May-1981 Binger, Oklahoma wedge and the Wichita Falls, TX tornado of 10-April-1979; this occured in both cases (NOAA's "TT" and NOVA's "Tornado!").

..Blake..