The Best Tornado Photos

Ranked #594 in Hobbies, Games & Toys, #5,401 overall

Pick Your Favorite Tornado Photo & Video

This lens is a "Photo Phight" and Youtube video throwdown featuring tornado pictures and video chosen after poring over hundreds of images on Flickr. Take a look and choose your favorites!

Image courtesy of FlorGuedes on Flickr.

Watch Live Streams of Tornado Chasers

Click on the link below to be taken to a radar map that shows where storm chasers are and, when possible, you can watch live streams from cameras as they go down the road. If you happen to be watching at the right time you can see tornadoes as they happen. VERY addicting.

ChaserTV

Best Tornado Photos of 2010

31/5/10 Baca / Campo tornado

1

31/5/10 Baca /... 6 points
Nostalgic again..

2

Nostalgic again... 4 points

3

1 point
Storm Clouds with Tornado

4

Storm Clouds wi... 1 point
Photo

5

Photo 1 point
Tornado on the ground

6

Tornado on the... 1 point
North Dakota Tornado[Explored]

7

North Dakota To... 1 point
Campo, Colorado tornado of 31 May 2010

8

Campo, Colorado... 1 point
Albert Lea, MN - 6/17/10

9

Albert Lea, MN... 0 points
Wedding Cake and Waterfall

10

Wedding Cake an... 0 points
Couple more from Campo

11

Couple more fro... 0 points
Couple more from Campo

12

Couple more fro... 0 points
Bacca County 31/05/10

13

Bacca County 31... 0 points
Campo Tornado

14

Campo Tornado 0 points

15

0 points
6

16

6 0 points

Spectacular Tornado Seen in Iowa 2008 

Photo Phight!

Vote for your fave!

Tornado vs. Rainbow

1

Tornado vs. Rai... 7 points
Tornado

2

Tornado 5 points
20070622_Tornado 046 Recently determined to have been an F5.

3

20070622_Tornad... 4 points
Tornado and Lightning

4

Tornado and Lig... 4 points
Big Storms Brewing (Tornado / Funnel Cloud)

5

Big Storms Brew... 4 points
Tornado In The Oasis (0)

6

Tornado In The... 3 points
tornado

7

tornado 2 points
Think YOU'RE having a bad day?

8

Think YOU'RE ha... 2 points
20070622_Tornado 049 Recently determined to have been an F5.

9

20070622_Tornad... 1 point
box72.com - PHOTO 6 by Matt Dennis, Sedgwick Kansas Tornado 4-9-1990, used by ABC, Station KAKE 10 out of Wichita

10

box72.com - PHO... 1 point
Texas Tornado

11

Texas Tornado 1 point
Edmonton Tornado - 20th Anniversary of

12

Edmonton Tornad... 1 point
Austin Tornado 031600

13

Austin Tornado... 1 point
hang gliding and tornados YEAAHH

14

hang gliding an... 0 points
Yet Another Tornado Picture

15

Yet Another Tor... 0 points
tornado in my nieces backyard

16

tornado in my n... 0 points
The Jarrell tornado developed as a thin, one-vortex storm

17

The Jarrell tor... 0 points

Tornado Video Throwdown

Vote for your favorite!

Vote for one of these or find an even better one on YouTube and add it.

McConnell / Andover, Kansas F5 Tornado

McConnell / Andover,... 5 points

Tornado

Tornado 4 points

Amazing Kansas Tornado Footage - Unedited

Amazing Kansas Torna... 3 points

tornado forming (up close)

tornado forming (up... 2 points

A Violent Tornado Ripping Trees

A Violent Tornado Ri... 2 points

Insane Tornado Video - Manchester Tornado! TornadoVideos.net

Insane Tornado Video... 1 point

Run Over By A Tornado (Cow Shaken Up but OK)

Run Over By A Tornad... 1 point

June 11, 2004 - Tornado Iowa

June 11, 2004 - Torn... 1 point

Raw Video: Stormchasers Caught in Iowa Twister

Raw Video: Stormchas... 1 point

Storm Chasing From Canada 2008 Day 1

Storm Chasing From C... 0 points

The Thunder Rolls -- Storm Chasing 2008

The Thunder Rolls --... 0 points

Inside the Tornado

Inside the Tornado 0 points

Tornado in Willmar, July 11th, 2008

Tornado in Willmar,... 0 points

Joey's First 2009 Tornado

Joey's First 2009 To... 0 points

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?

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Yes to storm chasing - the educational opportunities and data gathering are worth it.

COUNTRYLUTHIER says:

Ask yourself, is what I'm doing going to benefit more than me then go for it. Get some training before setting off to see tornadic activity up close and personal.

GhostMan says:

Incredible photos!

waldenthree.net says:

Tornado photos and tornado preparations are most important to save lives. That's why I just did a lens on "tornado and hurricane preparation". Love your lens. I voted "Like". Will visit again. Thanks.

trusty_travel_tips says:

Worthwhile for sure - there's nothing more thrilling than seeing close-up to nature's fury!

mellex says:

I wouldn't do it personally, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone storm chasing either. It's up to the individual.

No, people shouldn't be risking their lives and/or glorifying something that causes so much destruction.

jj99 says:

If you want to be a storm chaser go ahead, but i'm not going to your funeral

Play22 says:

Don't be a storm chaser. it is soooooooooooooo hazardous.

Play22 says:

i say storm chasers risk there lives just to earn money. i wouldn't be surprised if one didn't survive "chasing storms"

Naudia says:

Yes I think people who chase tornados are sore losers or idiots!!!!!!

pbrite says:

Chasing should be left to the professionals who want to educate beyond going for the thrill. Otherwise, your chase video will become a memorial one.

 
view all 47 comments

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

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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?

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Yes, this is how it happened.

dogface says:

Maybe a good photo(grapher) and some slight adjustments in Photoshop. Nature is really powerful.

Tipi says:

I just can't tell, no need to photoshop anything these days with all the tornados.

seradis says:

I think it looks like a waterspout.

JeremiahStanghini says:

Never seen a tornado picture like that in the tropics...
But like CeleryStalker said, sometimes the best looking photos are real.

With Love and Gratitude,

Jeremiah

CeleryStalker says:

It does look photoshopped, but some of the best photos I've seen do too. Probably the real deal.

No, it's a mashup of two photos.

mellex says:

I'm skeptical.

photography4All says:

Ive never seen a tornado, but I thought they were more coned as twisty than that. I can't tell buy looking at the lighting on the pic if it is Photoshoped with 2 pics or not. I hope it is real, but suspect it isn't

heehaw says:

dont look real to me

pheonix76 says:

Unreal! I thought tornadoes usually formed inland? Unless a waterspout, of course.

Philippians468 says:

it feels unreal to me!

 
view all 18 comments

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

The Fujita Scale is a scale for rating 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)

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?

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Intuitive

If I'd been better at math I might have been a meteorologist instead of an artist and massage therapist.

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