Your First Tornado

[Andrew Khan]

February 21, 1993. Blount County - Washington County tornado (Tennessee). If I remember correctly, it had near F3 speeds.


I was four years old, and I still remember it like it was yesterday...

 

[IAN GIAMMANCO]

May 29, 2004 Harper County KS

My first year as a MS student at TTU and first time on a field project, which happened to be the first day of field ops that year.

 

[jeremy wilson]

May 29, 2004 Harper County KS

My first year as a MS student at TTU and first time on a field project, which happened to be the first day of field ops that year.

My first several tornados were caught this day.

 

[Mike Bennett]

My first tornado was a direct hit. The date was sometime in 1982-83. I was in a roundtop barn about 2 miles south of Fairview,OK. I was in my early 20's. A storm blew up right over us. I wasn't into chasing yet. I was working and not really paying a lot of attention to the wx that day. The business was a tractor and hay equipment sales and repair company. The storm developed so fast and produced the small tornado very early after development.

It rained at this location very little as the core of the storm developed right above us and moved to our NE. We stepped outside on the south side of the building and witnessed some small metal outbuildings (emphasis small) get lifted into the air about 2 blocks to the southwest. It never occurred to us it might be a tornado, I was just thinking wind the whole way. We ran inside and closed the overhead door and while looking out the small windows on the overhead door we were blinded by dirt being blasted from the dirt lot where the tractors and hay balers were parked. Suddenly, the overhead door began to push in like it was breathing. Initially, we tried to push back to keep it from blowing in. We still did not know what we were dealing with. There was 4 of us standing at the door and someone yelled "run". We all ran and ducked behind some tractors that were being repaired. The door blew off the tracks and was suspended in mid-air like an airplane wing. The only thing that kept it from coming all the way through the shop was the steel cables on both sides. The wind came rushing through the shop and completely blew the north door off its hinges. It was an absolutely INCREDIBLE force. It died down after about 15 seconds or less. The tornado continued into town and did some minor rooftop and tree damage on the eastside of Fairview. I would probably rate the tornado as an FO or weak F1 when it hit us. It was several minutes later before we came to realize we were hit by a tornado.

A final interesting note: Roundtop buildings or barns are constructed of a wood frame and covered with sheets of tin. The tin is fastened to the frame with 1000's of nails. Each nail has a rubber seal on it to prevent leaks. After this storm passed, another one moved in behind it. When it began to rain, the barn leaked like you wouldn't believe. Upon further inspection we realized the barn swelled and pulled the nails away from the rubber seal. Basically, it almost exploded with us inside. The tornado passed and the tin relaxed back to the frame leaving the nails in the pulled state. WOW!!

 

[Derek Weston]

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.

quite jealous of that location. I was near the intersection of Burlington and Gilbert, near the rec center... just a block or so south of that.

My vantage point sucked, and I basically watched the whole downtown go black before it got close and I had to dive for cover. Quite dramatic.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

I chased for years and usually got to the right spot only to be jinxed by uncooperative roads, squall lines, or tornado failure. I finally saw my first one May 7, 1993 near Wellington TX, but it was garbage and mostly rain-wrapped. The first good one I saw was May 29, 1994 near Albany TX... and it was a northwest flow storm! Like the proud trooper I was I took my videotape to KTAB-TV in Abilene (always tempting to do since there was no way to share the rewards of a chase back in those days). They searched production and engineering but couldn't figure out how to play my Hi-8, and they couldn't find a cable to connect my RCA composite to their BNC. KTXS however received some footage and scooped KTAB that night.

Tim

 

[Wayne Sclesky]

My first tornado was in April of 1997 in Lafayette county. I was just east of Lexington, MO when it briefly touched down about 1/2 mile to my south. It was the perfect storm to chase...nothing but clear blue skies around the lone supercell.

 

[Justin Mashburn]

My first tornado was in May of 2009 in Kay county. I was west of Tonkawa, OK when the warning went out. I made a quick decision to get off I-35 onto highway 60 and that turned out to be the greatest decision I've ever made! It was a beautiful tornado that lasted about 20 minutes, but the memories will last forever.

 

[Megan Kotulak]

Kevin:

I have a very brief video of that tornado that is barely visible through the rain. I was really excited about seeing that untill I heard about the Andover tornado, and I was way out of positon to intercept. I was originally planning to go to Wichita that day, but the activity around the low drew me north.

hi rick, my name's megan. do u have any pics or vids from april 26, 1991? if u do, can u plz post them here on storm track 4 me 2 view. i would greatly appreciate it. thanx

 

[Matt Ashworth]

May 7th, 2014 just outside Akron, CO

I'd had encounters with tornadic systems before, but had never seen a tornado in person. That changed last May on a low-risk day out on the High Plains of Colorado when I saw a rope tornado and a few landspouts.

Video (I was driving):

 

[Adam R Davis]

I count this one, even though I didn't witness it while it was in contact with the ground (dang trees). There were still dirt particles wafting around and just below the funnel though. If you look carefully, you can see it stretch all the way out of the left side of the frame. This was June 21, 2010 about 3 miles northeast of Bedford, IN. It was a fluke supercell that managed to pop up in really high CAPE with limited shear. The storm pretty much sat in place and spun for an hour or so, then produced this rope before it collapsed.

Jump ahead to 8:45 for the actual funnel.

 

[Kevin Rider]

April 7, 2008 near Electra,Tx was my first tornado technically but I debate with myself on that because Jake Wallentine and I didn't really get a great glimpse at it due to it being rain wrapped until we looked at our video and pictures later on. To this day I would say it is the best storm structure I have seen. We also saw an anticyclonic tornado that day. It was a great day in general as it was my sisters birthday and we also listened to KU win the National Championship on the radio on the way home.

 

[Lanny Dean]

Red Rock, OK 4-26-1991 F-4 Looks like my original pic can't be seen so I thought I would post again. Actually a vid capture pic -Edit: sorry for posting the same pic twice.

 

[Bill Hark]

My first tornado was on May 25, 1997 near Harper, KS (image below) while participating on Cloud 9 Tours. It was the first of several during an outbreak with ended with the Perth 'Dillo-Cam wedge. My first tornado on my own was a brief spinup near Throckmorton, Tx on May 26, 2000.

 

[James Gustina]

My first tor was dinky EF2 on March 2, 2012 near Long Ridge, Kentucky. This was on the supercell trailing the Henryville storm.