What's the most beautiful tornado you've seen/witnessed?

[Damon Scott Hynes]

Originally posted by Jeff Lawson
The second photo is the Enid, OK tornado from June 1966 (can't remember the exact date). When I was a kid, I remember checking out a book on tornadoes from the school library which had that photo on the cover. It was the beginning of the end, so to speak.

"1001 Questions Answered About The Weather", IIRC.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

Make that four. I love that book, and was overjoyed to find (and win) it on eBay last year. I, too, tought those survivor stories were fascinating — the one that made an impression on me was one of the Vernon tornado survivors who said she heard the tornado warning on TV, went to her front door to see if she could see the tornado, and was confronted by a pitch black wall of cloud. Then the door snapped off its hinges.

I think I read that one as well. I didn't really like many of the library tornado books, though. Most of them were too elementary.

My favorite book growing up was Gary England's "Those Terrible Twisters and the Weather of Oklahoma". I read that book cover to cover until it literally ripped apart. Absolutely fantastic photos, and a little bit of storm theory too.

As far as the subject of this thread is concerned, the prettiest tornado that I have personally witnessed would be (as for everyone else) the Mulvane tornado.

As far as tornadoes I've seen in pictures/video, I would have to say the Sunray, Texas tornado of 1971 tops that list. It basically had the same lighting as the Mulvane tornado and the size and shape of the Union City tornado of 1973. Absolutely gorgeous. A close second would be the Red Rock tornado of 4/26/91 as viewed by Howie Bluestein/Gary Shore. That was an incredible combination of beauty/raw power.

Gabe

 

[George Tincher]

I also liked the Perrin AFB, TX footage from the 50's. Those reels were horrible, but they just looked so ominous. This particular footage gave a greenish-black appearance to the tornado and storm. While likely not an accurate reproduction of the true colors, it sure looked cool!

 

[Stuart Robinson]

For me it has to be Harper county on May 29th 2004. Not only was this a “perfectâ€￾ tornado also the sun lighting the bottom half of the tornado was simply breathtaking. More over this was an interesting chase for me. I had just returned back to the UK after chasing for almost 4 weeks and on my first day back at work I took a look at the forecasts and immediately booked a return flight back to the USA. To cut a long story short grabbed the flight, hired the car bagged the tornado and headed back home ~ all done and dusted within 5 days departing to returning back home in the UK.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/stu/harper.jpg

Some thing different and not my picture ~ a water spout spotted of the North East Coast of England ~ much reduced in size from the original.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

http://www.tornadochaser.co]
m/photo/andoverter.gif[/img[i]Looking SW from Andover, KS — April 26, 1991 — video by Earle Evans[/i]
I had to mention this video in particular, because in it the tornado is displaying the most incredible motion and rotation I've seen in any tornado video. In a similar league is the N Minneapolis, MN, tornado of 7/18/1986.[/quote]

[b]AMEN - THE MOST IMPRESSIVE TORNADO (AND VIDEO) OF ALL-TIME. TOTALLY ALL-WORLD, ALL-UNIVERSE[/b][/quote]

I checked out this movie from the local library that had that segment uncut on video, which was awesome...but they set it to this freaky music...that made it even more erie.[/quote]



There was a video made back in the mid 90's. I think it was called Tornadoes the Entity that featured a long segment on that tornado with erie background music. There were no naration at all on the video, just music lol.[/quote]


That is exactly the video I was thinking of. It was especially eerie when they got to the old school black and white videos.

 

[mark humpage]

I'll jump on the Harper May 29 2004 bandwagon & I was with Stu (above).
Awesome trip

[Broken External Image]:http://www.mhweather.co.uk/mhwphp/images/Thunderstorms/photos/tornado debris.jpg

[Broken External Image]:http://www.mhweather.co.uk/mhwphp/images/Thunderstorms/photos/tornado close up.jpg

http://www.mhweather.co.uk/mhwphp/chases/c...e2004_may29.php

Mark

 

[Michael P. Morris]

Not only was there no narration on Tornadoes the Entity, the box claimed it was narrated by Niel Armstrong.

 

[Andrew Revering]

Wow, my tornado catches can't compare to most of the ones you guys posted, but here are the two most photogenic that I've seen.

 

[Karen Politte]

Oh, ya know......the usual. :wink:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.stormskies.com/0624Cover.jpg

(I was taking this thread as the most beautiful tornado I've PERSONALLY seen - not just that I've seen anywhere i.e. on TV/video.

 

[Scott Udell]

Originally posted by APritchard
<snip>

I dont know when or where this photo was taken...maybe someone can help me out on it, but I've always thought of it to be one of the best tornado photos I've seen.

<snip>

It just so happens that photo is on the cover of "The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm" by Thomas P. Grazulis (which, coincidentally, I'm reading right now!). The back dust jacket credits it to Fred P. Smith. A Google search (I love Google!) lead me to http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/imagePo...rch=&matchtype=

The caption for it reads:

"Double trouble. A storm over Florida, showing a waterspout and a large bolt of lightning. At far right is a TV mast (red lights); its height of 150 metres gives a sense of scale to the image. Severe thunderstorms are often the cause of tornadoes and inland waterspouts. This event was photographed near Lake Okeechobee in Florida, USA."

Me, I've never seen a tornado personally , but considering the places I frequent (Kansas City metro area), it might be a bummer to run into one as things are a bit congested here.