Use Of Streaming Video?

[Mark Sudduth]

Yes- the TD worked great in Katrina. That is perhaps the best POV video of storm surge ever taken and it was done without human interaction. Mike put a lot of time and effort in to that and it paid off. He was able to shoot excellent hand-held while his floating device recorded from inside the surge itself. Amazing.

As for doing it live in a tornado. It will come. Give it time. It probably won't be Theiss though. He is in South America looking for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

 

[Johnathan Brouwer]

What a perfect name: The Theiss Device...sounds like something from Back to the Future...

I think the footage of the surge was the best ever of the effects of what nature can do to us. I was amazed at the power of the water simply pulling apart that porch and then the devices demise as it succumbed to the depths of the surge.

Whoever gets the nado shot, I think it will be great up to the point that the lens in pummeled with grass, cow poop and mud!

 

[Mark Sudduth]

Jonathan:

You bring up an excellent point. I am not sure what we will see with any such success with a camera inside a tornado. There are so many different types, shapes and sizes of tornadoes too. We have seen inside of tornadoes to some extent with the bank cameras in Iowa, I think it was. That outside shot showing the house being torn apart may be the best ever evidence of what it looks like inside of a strong tornado. I am a little concerned that you are right in that all we will see is darkness as all manner of junk gets blown past, and on to, the lens.

On the other hand, I have noticed on hi-res radar pics that some tornadoes appear to have an eye similar to a hurricane. People sometimes refer to being in the eye of a tornado after it goes over them. Seeing as how not one frame of video or a single photo has ever been taken inside the "eye" of a tornado, this might be a great accomplishment if someone can pull it off. But first, you would have to be on the right tornado that indeed has an eye and hope that your cam makes it that far. Stream all of that live and you should be a shoe-in for some kind of major award from science and technology. It might be easier though to stream back live video from the Moon. We'll see. Next Spring offers another chance for those who wish to give it a shot.