Pick Your Favorite Tornado Photo & Video
Image courtesy of FlorGuedes on Flickr.

Spectacular Tornado Seen in Iowa 2008
Photo Phight!
Vote for your favorite. I will be adding new photos as I find them.
Current Tornado Warnings
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- 4bit4
- @lifeofjames sounds kind of like a tornado warning.
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- kari_8ah
- Weather report flashed a tornado warning for my county. Hmmm
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- SherylBX2
- Were in a tornado warning here in Lancaster, OH. And it cracks me up. heyve not seen tornados until theyve lived in Oklahoma for 20 years
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- alksandra
- Tornado Warning! rain stomping down
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- RochelleElaine
- Ok did I really just hear a tornado warning on the radio?! Da hell! This aiint Kansas!
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- NataliaSwinburn
- RT @beatlebeth http://short.to/yc36 tornado warning in the uk .... arghhhhhhhh ... hol on to your hats!!!
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- beatlebeth
- http://www.torro.org.uk/site/forecast.php tornado warning in the uk .... arghhhhhhhh ... hol on to your hats!!!
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- adamblanchard
- Where is all the wind ? Tornado warning ?
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- DaisyAnneGree
- Tornado warning issued for UK http://www.torro.org.uk/site/forecast.php
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- PatriciaSPate
- @autumn0910etc yes we r warmer Idon't know what they meant by winterweather. Last yr on Christmas eve wehad a tornado warning crazy weather
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- ARRJAYKAY
- Liverpool tornado warning 0.o RT @liverpoolweath: TORRO tornado watch : http://bit.ly/5Dwg2Q #liverpool #liverpoolweather
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- anthodges
- RT @lollowe: Here's hoping not - Gloucestershire Tornado warning http://tinyurl.com/y8sjsmz "it may strike anywhere in Gloucestershire"
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- lollowe
- Here's hoping not - Gloucestershire Tornado warning http://tinyurl.com/y8sjsmz
Tornado Video Throwdown
Vote for your favorite!
Vote for one of these or find an even better one on YouTube and add it.
Storm Chasing - Good or Bad?
Storm chasing has become both a tourist trade and a sport in the last decade. Most of the time the tornadoes occur out in the middle of nowhere, especially in the high plains of the US. Sometimes, however, major damage happens such as what happened at Greensburg, Kansas in 2007 and Parkersburg, Iowa in 2008. Is it okay to turn a potential disaster into entertainment?
Is storm chasing a worthwhile activity, or should people respect the potential dangers and stay home?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes to storm chasing - the educational opportunities and data gathering are worth it.
ElizabethJeanAllen says:
Data needs to be collected and as long as its the professional that know what they are doing are going, I don't see a problem with it. Its when the amateurs get out there...
Posted June 10, 2009
TylaMac says:
I don't think we would have learned as much as we have about tornadoes without the help of tornado chasers. Scientific instruments are great but there's no substitute for eyewitnesses. Storm chasers may be seen as adrenaline junkies but I believe they perform a priceless public service.
Posted January 27, 2009
Ira says:
The scientific information gathered far outweighs the danger. Professionals know what they are doing, amateurs are just lucky. By the way...when was the last time you heard of a chaser getting injured or killed by a twister.
Posted January 19, 2009
KesiaLynn says:
I think the answer should be C) Both. It is educational and we really need to understand the workings of Mother Nature a bit better in order to protect ourselves. However, it's still very dangerous to go chasing funnel clouds around. :)
Posted November 28, 2008
WhiteOak50 says:
I think storm chasers deserve a big hand. It is because of some of the store chasers, peoples lives have been saved. I have always wanted to do that. Storms fascinates me, tornatoes I am not crazy for because I have been too close for comfort but on the same hand, they are something else!
Posted November 11, 2008
No, people shouldn't be risking their lives and/or glorifying something that causes so much destruction.
The Day I Stopped Being Afraid
Tornadoes can happen anywhere in the world but I live in Tornado Alley in the upper Midwest of the United States. I instinctively know that if the air feels a certain way and the sky looks a certain color that a tornado is possible.When I was a kid I was terrified of tornadoes. I couldn't even watch the Wizard of Oz tornado. At the same time I was fascinated by them and read whatever I could find to try and understand what they were and how they formed.
This fear stayed with me until my early twenties. After graduating from college I moved to the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. One day I was at the grocery store after work. When I went into the store it was sunny. By the time I got to the check out line it was black as night. I was tired from work and just wanted to get home to my apartment so I went out in the rain and darkness to my car. At that point the tornado sirens started going off. I looked at the black clouds, then back at the store with it's glass windows and decided there really wasn't any safe place to go. Not like back home in Iowa where just about everybody has a basement to escape to. I got in my car and started driving back to the apartment which, again, didn't really feel safe to me. At that moment I let go of the fear. I decided fate was beyond my control and there wasn't any point in trying to protect myself from it. A feeling of peace came over me and by the time I got home 10 minutes later, most of the storm had passed without incident.
Ever since then I have wanted to go storm chasing. When the Weather Channel first came into existence I would watch it for hours. I remember saying when I was working as a transcriptionist and using a word processor that I wished I could get radar on my monitor. My coworkers laughed at my imagination. Four years later we all had PCs and that dream was a reality. One night at work, in between typing medical reports, I watched the 1999 F5 tornado first become an angry red dot on the radar and slowly move east along I-44, taking aim on Oklahoma City. I knew that was a bad one from the get go.
Now I'm sure many people recognize a probable tornadic storm on the radar without thinking twice about it. And now I can get radar images on my phone! which still amazes me.
Image courtesy of Amir.J on Flickr.
Cold Air Funnels
Mostly harmless tornadoes

Many years ago I was riding home from my job at the time in the commuter van and, although it was a chilly day and the sky was filled with benign fluffy (cumulus) clouds, I watched one funnel after another descend out of the sky. They were very thin and at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. That night on the local news the meteorologist mentioned that a lot of cold air funnels had been sighted that afternoon. That was the first time I'd ever heard of them. I suspect it hasn't been until fairly recently that they were considered worth mentioning on the news.
The atmospheric conditions that make up a cold air funnel are quite different than the supercell (or mesocyclone) thunderstorm that typically generates enough energy to produce a tornado. The way I understand it, damaging tornadoes generally come from storm systems that are able to reach up into the higher levels of the troposphere, especially if they have enough energy to break into the stratosphere. Cold air funnels come from the mixing of cool air close to the earth's surface (the lower troposphere) with air flowing in the opposite direction above it. This creates the spin.
I found this photo on scott.benjamin's account on Flickr. It was taken in New Zealand and the way he describes how it happened, I would say it was a cold air funnel. They rarely do much damage and are rated F0 on the Fujita scale.
Books about Tornadoes and Chasing Them
Tornado Chasing Blogs
Which one do you like best?
I love how there are so many storm chasing blogs available. Although in the winter months they are pretty quiet, the rest of the year you can have a "you are there" experience by subscribing to them. Check them out and vote for the one(s) you like best.
If you have a favorite storm chasing blog that isn't here, feel free to add it to the list.
Tony Laubach's Storm Chase Blog
More verbal than photographic. Looks to be more o more...0 points
Discovery Channel: Storm Chasers
Member's of Discovery Channel's Storm Chaser team more...0 points
Michael Carlson - Storm Chaser Blog
Great photos and up to date.0 points
Is This Real or Photoshopped?
I think it is actually the real deal, but it looks like a photo manipulation to me too.
Image courtesy of Nature Explorer on Flickr.
Real or not?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes, this is how it happened.
No, it's a mashup of two photos.
TylaMac says:
That funnel looks too large to be over a tropical island. I think someone very talented fused two photos together to create this. It should win an award.
Posted January 27, 2009
Which Camera Would You Use to Capture a Tornado?
I have a Konica Minolta Dimage digital camera as well as a Pentax SLR 35 mm camera with a nice Sigma lens like listed below. I like the digital format but I miss the manual focus of the Pentax and the Sigma lens.
What camera(s) do you use? Add them to the list and give them a vote!
Dust Devils
They look like tornadoes, but they're not

Dust devils do not need a big thunderstorm to form as a tornado does. They happen when air at the surface is hotter than the air above it. If the air above the surface is at a lower pressure, the hot air rapidly shoots skyward, pulling more hot air with it. If it starts to spin, the hot air it pulls in fuels it to grow taller.
Regular tornadoes are generally fueled by the instability caused by warm moist air meeting cold dry air. Dust devils spin up in dry conditions such as you find in the desert, the dryer the better.
Tornadoes start from the cloud base and come down. Dust devils start at the ground and go up.
They can spin up anywhere when the conditions are right. Like cold air funnels they rarely do damage.
Update: I was recently (September 2009) watching a TV program about the 2009 storm chase season by the team of scientists in the Vortex project. There was mention that they don't really know if tornadoes form from the cloud down or the ground up, so ideas about tornadoes are changing.
Image courtesy of bgwarsh on Flickr.
Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity
- F0: 40-72 mph winds
- F1: 73-112 mph winds
- F2: 113-157 mph winds
- F3: 158-206 mph winds
- F4: 207-260 mph winds
- F5: 216-318 mph winds
What Camcorder Do You Use?
I don't actually have a camcorder of my own but the Flip camcorder below looks like a handy thing to have.
Add your favorite moving picture device to the list.
Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60-Minutes (White)
records high-quality MPEG4/AVI video to built-in 2 more...0 points
Tornadoes - Best Seen in a Photo or Up Close and Personal?
Tornado Chasing Tour Companies
I haven't been on any of these but if somebody wants to offer me a trip to review...
If you've been on one vote for it and leave feedback in the guestbook below. Or if you've been on one that isn't here you can add it to the list.
Twister Sisters Storm Chasing, Tornado Chasing, Tornado Video, Storm Tours
Perhaps the only two women storm chasing team out more...1 point
TRADD STORM CHASING TOURS - CHASE TORNADOES SAFELY WITH US!
TRADD offers safe tornado storm chasing tours in t more...0 points
Cloud 9 Tours
Take a ride with experienced storm chasers for two more...0 points
Storm Chasing Expeditions by Tempest Tours
It's the adventure of a lifetime! Ride with vetera more...0 points
Storm Chasing Tours, Tornado Chasing Holiday, Stormchasing Vacation
"You may have seen us chasing tornadoes on Na more...0 points
http://www.silverliningtours.com/
From the Canadian Plains to the Arizona Desert.0 points
Windswept Storm Chasing Tours
Storm Chasing Tours in Tornado Alley, Private, Aff more...0 points
Follow Tornado Chaser Tweets
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- SincereH
- I wanna chase a tornado
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- nightchaser
- I favorited a YouTube video -- May 2005 Storm Chase Highlights (5/7 Kearney, NE Tornado & 5/10 Grand Is... http://bit.ly/naOym
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- fitnessista
- @MizFitOnline are you kidding me? You are superwoman AND have a cute little tornado to chase around :)
Check Your Weather
Donate to Fund Disaster Relief
Have you seen a tornado?
Tell us your story
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Reply
- jgelien jgelien Nov 21, 2009 @ 6:56 pm
- I have only seen dust devils but all my relatives in the Midwest have experienced tornadoes more than once. Amazing pictures. Great lens.
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- WordCustard WordCustard Nov 3, 2009 @ 4:55 am
- No, never seen anything bigger than a dust devil here in Scotland - but loved getting to see so many awesome images on your lens!
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- Heather426 Heather426 Oct 29, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
- Having lived in Tornado Alley, I have seen a few from a distance. And I have had a tornado experience...the thing I remember the most was the sound..the unbelievable roar as it passed straight overhead about 1000 feet up. I was in the basement...
but getting back to your lens, I love how you have told your story within and the photos you chose. ~blessed by a squid angel~
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- sukkran sukkran Oct 10, 2009 @ 2:00 am
- not yet, bcz no tornados in india. i have experienced cyclones, even tsunami. but this tornados are entirely different. wonderful informative lens. 5*
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- BevsPaper BevsPaper Oct 5, 2009 @ 5:53 am
- Tornadoes are mighty scary. You've done a nice job with this lens and the photos are awesome.
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