Your First Tornado

[Matt Gingery]

Now if we are talking the first tornado that we witnessed, or the first tornado that we photographed. My first tornado was May 29, 1983 in Springfield, Missouri at the age of 8. I witnessed several other tornadoes from the late 80's into the late 90's. Then technology grabbed hold of me and I filmed my first tornado May 4, 2003 in Battlefield, Missouri. Since then I have filmed other notable tornadoes. Those represent firsts for me. 1983-2003.

 

[Stephen Levine]

Saturday November 14th 2009 [/B]about 2 miles from my house when an EF2 Hit SE Essex at 9am in the morning, track length was 1 Mile from SW To NE

Paul Sherman

Did you actually see the twister? What was it like to witness?

 

[Josh Murfield]

My first tornado was April 6th, 2006 in Hanover, Kansas. This was the first season my wife and I got serious about storm chasing (as in, real chasing instead of just driving out to the edge of town to watch something rolling in). We lived in Lincoln, NE and had hooked up with a pair of experienced chasers who were willing to let us caravan with them for the day. We pulled through the town of Washington as the tornado siren was going off- we got kicked out of the mini-mart we were in for bathroom breaks because they had to evacuate to a location across the street for shelter! We headed east on HWY 36 and came to the top of a hill where we had a perfectly backlit view of the tornado which we were able to watch for a good ten minutes before it dissipated. I remember every second of that chase as if it were yesterday.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Did you actually see the twister? What was it like to witness?

Stephen

Strangely it was a lot like the US Tornadoes which is a rarity for the Uk, usually all our Tor's are wrapped up in the middle of rain and you only hear the bang of bins and masonry flying off roofs but this one was clearly along the rain free area to the SW Of a Low Topped Supercell, good SE Winds but with temps of 14c and Dewpoints of 10c

I witnessed it about 2 Miles in front of me to my west and when it lifted it snaked across the sky as it roped out and left about a 1 Mile long Funnel Cloud.

I also conducted the damage survey for Torro (Uk Tornado Research Org) and found the damage path from start to finish and interviewed Residents that had lost their roofs and cars etc

Most of our Tornadoes occur in November in the Uk (The record being 105 Touchdowns in 1 day in Nov 1981)

Paul S

 

[Thomas Spence]

I saw mine on April 23 just outside of Buffalo, OK. It was one of my first real storm chases. I was chasing solo with no internet or anything, I was listening to reports coming over the radio and somehow found my way to the perfect place to see the brief touchdown. Will always remember that chase

 

[Wes Carter]

Well, my first was in April of 1974 during the Super Outbreak. But I was too young to remember it. The first tornado I saw was on my first chase on April 7, 2006 on highway 70 in Cannon County, TN. I had always wanted to chase, and bought a Radio Shack scanner because they were really hyping the event (and the hype verified).

I headed out without a clue, just following the warnings on the radio like a true yahoo. They were talking about a supercell that had tracked all the way from Arkansas and was moving from Columbia towards Murfreesboro that had a history of dropping tornadoes. I positioned myself just East of Murfreesboro on 70. I got pelted with hail, lost my windshield, then saw the wall cloud. As I watched it approach, it appeared to almost be touching the ground. The rotation was very apparent. I realized I was in a bad place, between large hail and a rotating wall cloud with nowhere to go to get away from it, so I drove east trying to stay between the two. As I got to Woodbury, the wall cloud looked like it had moved just a bit north of 70 so I stopped to watch it. It was a thing of beauty, rotating scud would form and dissipate then finally coalesced into a funnel almost instantly. It went on to northern Warren County and killed two people. I photographed the wall cloud, but my adrenaline was high and my sighting brief so I never photographed the actual tornado. The wall cloud is my avatar pic.

I went home and was uploading my wall cloud pics upstairs and my wife came up and told me to get downstairs, a tornado was coming. I grabbed my scanner and turned it on and the sherrif's department was talking about watching a tornado heading right towards our house. We looked out the back window and saw a rotating cloud of debris just to the north of us. We were close enough to get some insulation in one of our trees from one of the homes that was damaged. It killed a woman about 1 1/2 miles to our west. The next day a film crew from The Weather Channel was arrested for trespassing on the property where the woman was killed.

 

[Chris Driedger]

May 9, 2001

Near Chortitz, Manitoba

I was 17. I remember a very large updraft directly overhead, and the clouds were black, and ripped up, like someone dragged a rake through muck. We(I was with a friend)spotted a long, finger shaped condensation funnel that never quite extended to the ground, but we were within a half mile when the tornado touched down and a visible dust swirl was spotted. As near as I could estimate, it was several hundred feet wide, only hit grass and dirt, and lasted just a couple of minutes.

 

[Brandon Lawson]

May 4, 2003, Girard/Franklin Tornado (before it even got going)

Had spent the day sitting on Hwy 43 north of Joplin, Missouri. The day was extremely hazy and overcast, and the cap took a little longer to break than was expected. I was with a friend (Corey Taylor) from the TV station I had been working at (KSNF-TV 16) and his wife. We then headed west into Kansas. Probably the most explosive thunderstorms I've ever witnessed.

It went from hazy and overcast to a massive tower and anvil, and clear skies all around within the span of maybe 5-10 minutes. We got underneath the updraft base around Parsons, Kansas just as it was spitting out a couple of funnels. We weren't thinking about how fast the storms would be moving and got left behind on dirt roads. Could see what would quickly become a destructive tornado touch down miles ahead of us on the dirt road we were on (it hadn't even condensed to the ground yet), and that was the last thing we saw before running into the damage path from Girard to Franklin, Kansas.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5717861 I hope he doesn't mind me posting this. It's a really short piece that he and his wife put together of our day. We could have easily made it back to witness the 2nd storm, but we stopped to help some people out in Franklin.

Of course I was living on the west side of Joplin at the time and could just as easily have stayed home to watch the 2nd major tornado to cross into southwest Missouri that day, instead(if I had known), as it moved toward Carl Junction. Who knew?

Scott Currens has really good footage of the tornado from the 2nd storm as it side-swiped Baxter Springs. My uncle was living in Briarbrook (northwest side of Joplin, just southeast of Carl Junction). I wish I could get his video that he has of it from his backyard. That 2nd tornado was already impressive, and then it turned into perhaps the fattest cone tornado I've ever seen. The closest thing I can describe to is a gargantuan-sized, overly-bloated dreidel. Coincidentally, he and his family had just moved from Carl Junction to Briarbrook and the tornado caused some minor damage to a couple of the houses on the street where he had just been living.

 

[Patrick Kerrin]

Ahh - back in the day (a Monday actually!):

http://canadiantexan.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/from-the-vault-–-11-may-1992-–-my-first-tornado/

Go Canada Go!

Patrick
London Ontario

 

[Jeff Duda]

April 13, 2006 Iowa City.

That is actually the first tornado I saw, too. I was a student at the University of Iowa at the time, living in the dorms on the north side of campus. I watched it pass through downtown from the top of a parking garage near the chemistry building. I was terrified, but completely mesmerized, and didn't move, even when it looked like it was coming at me for a few seconds.

 

[jamesmseitz]

June 20, 1987 Littleton, CO - this funnel formed over my apartment and I ran out to the parking lot and got this shot of it.

This was my first Tornado as well...... I was 12 years old. I was hooked from there. By the way I have down Loaded this to my pictures. Thank you Verne I was looking for something to remember that day. I was at Broadway and 285 That day. That was amazing day. Thank you for posting this..........

My first Tornado Chasing was July 7th 1993 In Burlington Colorado. It was amazingly powerful..... luckly no one was Killed

 

[Lanny Dean]

My "first" tornado

April 26, 1991 near Red Rock OK. This was the first tornado I ever filmed, this was also my very first real storm chase!
Saw my first tornado when I was a kid near Dalhart TX while on family vacation but this one has a little more meaning!

 

[David Dildine]

May 28, 2001 - Trinidad, CO. The wall cloud is what I'll remember most about this storm. A really succinct display of tornadogenesis for which we didn't even have to reposition; the lifecycle of the tornado played out fully all in one view. I was a senior in high school at the time and took the second-to-last week off before graduation for my first serious chase. Man was it worth it. I made it back to prom in VA with a lot to talk about. I used to do the weather on the morning announcements and I did a really cool bit on my experience as a part of my last high school weather report.

 

[Stephen Barabas]

My first and only seen tornado occurred on Memorial day in 1995. May 29, 1995 to be exact. The same day and about an hour before the Great Barrington F4 tornado. I recall the day starting off rainy and cool, then becoming sunny and humid, hot. I remember the severe weather statements scrolling on the Weather Channel, the ones that took up the entire screen back in the day.

That evening I remember the tornado warning, and being out on my deck for the barbecue, seeing the storm move over. The motion and shape of the clouds is completely burnt into my memory. So my father decided to drive into town (no more than 1/2 mile from my house) We did that, and we were able to see the funnel pendent hanging from the cloud. The storm was really hauling too.

I was only 8 at the time and I was scared out of my wits. But looking back on it all and having a stronger interest I wish i had a video camera at the time. Haha. The tornado was an F1. You can read about it a bit on Wikipedia for Southbury, Connecticut; where I live.

Here's the radar loop for for supercell. Classic shape to it and a nice hook, especially for New England.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/May_29_1995_Connecticut_supercell_velocity.gif

Another rather infamous storm event in New England occurred on May 31 2002. Watched the supercells go up in Litchfield CT, and then the frontal squall came through. Produced a tornado along I84. I never saw it though. But I did get a picture of this.

New England isn't too bad for storms . . .

 

[Steve Smithson]

Saw my first tornado on Cloud 9 tours in Medford OK on memorial day Sunday 1998. That was a pretty intense 2 hours as I recall, the tornado touched down in a field about 3/4 of a mile away! It was followed by 2 1/4 inch hail then a triple lightning strike on power poles right in front of us which was captured on film.

Hoping of more of the same this coming Spring as I return to the plains after a 2 years absence.

Steve Smithson.