Things that will make you sh!t your pants

This was about an hour and a half southeast of me.

These things are nothing to be trifled with.

 

If you get that close as a storm chaser, haven't you done it wrong?
Also, it's amazing that the tornado passes right over those turbines and doesn't nuke them, and also that they're barely moving once it passes. I don't suppose they're designed to blow like a house fan when it's windy, but seeing the calm in the wake of that storm is weird.

 

I chased them for a number of years.
Last one I chased, I grabbed my next door neighbor, who had always wanted to go on one. Got word that there was one spinning about 5 miles north of where we lived. So off we go in my truck. Raining, windy, hail........just a mess........then all of a sudden, it's dead quiet. No wind. No rain. Nothing.
Got the fuck out of there, and headed back to the house where we proceeded to get shit-hammered drunk.
That was 17 years ago.

 

I was in Kansas City for a work summit a few weeks ago and got talking to a local who lives in Manhattan, Kansas. He was all nonchalant about twisters, said something about only being scared when the sky turns a green hue. Well. Fuck. That.

I lived in Nashville and we'd occasionally have tornado warnings, but never experienced any touchdowns. I couldn't imagine living in like Kansas or Oklahoma, places where they happen on the regular. Those things scare the shit outta me.

 

The green sky is the tell-tale sign that there's a big-ass storm coming. May or may not include tornadoes/hail.

 

Today is a scary day in Oklahoma. Anniversary of the Moore F5 and the TorCon is at 9.

 

Taco Bell.

 

That tornado was probably an EF-1 at most and still looked plenty deadly. Think of something like an EF-5.

 

5s are often a half mile wide and look like a fat hulking mass of debris. They are less picturesque.

 

How does the sky turn green? That's crazy.

 

Okarche is under the gun today. God better leave Eischen's alone.

 

Greensburg was 1.7 miles wide.
Let that stew in your brain for a minute.

1.7 miles wide.