This is a time-lapse video I created a few days ago of the June 17th, 2009 Grand Island - Aurora, Nebraska supercell and tornado.
This video will also be on our upcoming DVD in the upcoming weeks; it’s slowly but surely coming together. I highly recommend watching the HD version of this video by either clicking on the HD icon, or clicking on the “youtube” watermark and then doing the same.
Many thanks to River Jones Music Label for granting us permission to use this incredible song! Check out their myspace page for more incredible music!!!
It looks like an active weather pattern could impact somewhere across the Southern and Central Plains this week, with Thursday possibly being the most active for severe weather; we’ll definitely be out chasing, as this could be one of the last chances for 2009.
It’s been awhile since we’ve posted, so I thought I’d throw up a few images of Darin filming tornado #1 near Crawford and Roll, OK. An ultra wide angle was used, this being at 10 mm with a 1.6 crop sensor…making this about 5 times closer than it actually appears. We had been sitting in this location for a good 10 minutes, with golf ball sized hail falling when it dramatically formed right in front of us. The strong inflow winds bursting into this supercell, nearly knocked us both down on a couple of occasions. We didn’t venture very far from the vehicle, anticipating a right hand turn with the possibility of it gaining strength while taking aim at us at nearly 45 mph (estimated storm motion). It passed within 100 yards of us directly to our north, where it caused a brief power flash before roping out. It would go on to produce a second elephant trunk tornado before spawning it’s largest of the family, a multi-vortex cone tornado, which was rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, just 10 minutes later. What an incredible day with front row seats to one of the most photogenic tornadoes in the last few years!
Below is the video of this day we recently uploaded in HD (Click play, then the HD icon on the bottom right of the player) :
A DVD is coming soon, with a trailer…so check back sometime in the next few weeks!
What an incredible week we’ve had intercepting 3 tornadoes, one from close range. Not having to chase for anybody but ourselves any more really gives us more flexibility!
June 15th Pictures and Video
Mike Parker was chasing with us on the 15th and you should check out his INCREDIBLE photos here.
June 17th Pictures and Video
Also, I have a picture of the tornado with Reed Timmer here. We pulled up on Reed and Chris Chittick just seconds after this tornado hit them which blew out their bullet-proof windows and subsequently cut Reed’s face. Reed, Chris and Joel are filming their second season for The Discovery Channel hit show, “Storm Chasers” and are good friends of ours. Be sure to watch the show this fall, I can safely say that this year will blow away last year’s!!!
It’s been a great year for us as the tornado season is quickly winding down. We’ll be updating more photos and video since we are getting a lot more free time as Summer approaches. So check back soon!
