Discovery Channel: Storm Chasers

Another video from inside a tornado!

And now for the grand finale of the TornadoVideos.net chase season...  Below is video from inside the Aurora, NE tornado as it intensified on top of us.  Note the mini suction vortices rotating around the vehicle inside the parent tornado, with the strongest one slamming into the left side of the vehicle and blowing out the driver's side window.  The bubble cam captured this vortex the best as it rotated around the front of the vehicle and approached from the left...  A 138.8 mph wind gust was recorded just as this mini-tornado slammed the vehicle, and our ears popped as the pressure dropped inside the circulation.  We were scanning the vertical winds with the Close-Range Vertical Radar (CLOVER) for nearly 30 seconds as this tornado passed directly overhead, and captured incredible measurements of the updrafts inside a strengthening tornado.  This moment was captured by our dashboard cams perfectly, so be sure to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery this Fall for INSANE footage of the window imploding inside the tornado.

TornadoVideos.net - June 15 and 17 Tornado Videos!

Here are the videos from the June 15 Macksville, KS tornado and the June 17 tornadoes north of Gibbon, NE and west of Aurora, NE, as shot from the TornadoVideos.net SRV.  The June 15 tornado was definitely one of the strongest of the year, ripping trees out of the ground as it crossed the road in front of us, and then turned southwest and headed straight toward our location!  I tried to back up away from this tornado as it was too strong for intercept, but encountered a minor obstacle...  The Radiance Technologies/TornadoVideos.net RC Plane successfully deployed a parachute probe into this tornado from the southeast, and it was lifted from 400 feet where it was dropped to an altitude of above 3500 feet before being carred for ~6 miles!
The first video below from June 17 is of the first two tornadoes produced by this supercell just north of Gibbon, NE. We attempted to intercept the first tornado but it roped out just as it reached our north-south road, and the second tornado was just as short-lived. Still though, the RC Plane was able to deploy 5 parachute probes into the inflow region of the second tornado (aerial video coming soon) as we in the SRV Dominator were attempting to collect vertical wind data near/in the tornadoes with the mobile radar.

TornadoVideos.net - Radiance field project - Day 1

Here is video from the first day of the TornadoVideos.net - Radiance Technologies tornado field project, invovling the radar (CLOVER) on top of the SRV Dominator, and the 12-foot wingspan RC plane designed to drop 8 parachute probes in the inflow region of tornadoes, where they will be sucked into the vortex while collecting measurements of temperature, dewpoint, and barometric pressure.  This footage is from a supercell storm on June 9 that produced a nice wall cloud and two small funnels.  We recorded vertical wind data underneath a rotating wall cloud with the SRV, and deployed the plane to the south and east of a rotating wall cloud as the storm crossed an outflow boundary.  Radiance will be returning to the field with us for the next few storm chases, so stay tuned for updates!

155.2 mph wind measured by Dominator inside Wyoming tornado!

Check out this plot showing the wind speed and direction measurement from inside the Goshen Co, WY tornado on June 5, 2009, as measured by the SRV roof-top anemometer.  The first maximum in the wind speed shown in the plot is from when we were driving south to intercept the tornado, and the minimum just before the rise to above 150 mph is when we stopped and dropped to the ground with the hydraulics in the tornado's path.  The highest 3 second average was 150.2 mph, with 155.2 mph being the maximum 1 second wind gust.  Winds of this intensity are associated with strong EF3 tornado strength, which I think is about the maximum we could handle with this vehicle.  I cannot explain to you in words the power of this tornado we felt when the vehicle was shaking back and forth and nearly lifted off the ground.  The wind gusts came in intense waves, I'm guessing as the mini-vortices rotated around the parent circulation.  My right ear immediately popped in the center of the tornado as the tumble weeds and other debris were wedged in between the original Tahoe and the bullet-proof shell.  Several Vortex 2 radars were scanning the tornado at the time of our intercept, and we plan on sharing the raw data with the Vortex 2 scientists.  You can check out the video in my last post below or at TornadoVideos.net, and be sure to watch the live tracker on the Storm Chasers homepage as we attempt to drive into more tornadoes! 

A look at the June 5th, 2009 La Grange, Wy tornado from close range!!!

The TIV team had a very good chase last Friday in Wyoming! I will let the video speak for itself. We are working hard to catch a few more tornadoes as we come down to the wire. I have a good feeling about tomorrow and it not just due to it being my birthday. June 12th has been a good date for tornadoes in past years.  I caught tornadoes on June 12th in 2004 and 2008. Let's do it again! Stay tuned for more updates.

Brandon

Storm Chasing Hobbies with TIV Production Manager Brian Gany

Team TIV had some excitement this past week and more to come!

Byron

TornadoVideos.net inside the Goshen Co, WY tornado!

Check out this video from yesterday in Goshen Co, WY, as we drove the SRV Dominator into the tornado when it was a photogenic rope/elephant trunk.  The winds were MUCH stronger with this tornado than our last intercept in Kirksville, MO on May 13, and the vehicle shook violently as the tornado moved overhead.  Debris and tumbleweeds from the tornado were jammed in between the bullet-proof shell and the Tahoe underneath, and we could barely see out the windows after the tornado moved through.  Note the video from the rooftop bubble camera showing our magnet amber light getting ripped from the roof of the vehicle in the tornadic winds.  Now we're heading to Iowa for another potential tornado event!  We'll share the wind data from the roof anemometer when we retrieve it.  Chris is thinking 147 mph... my guess is a little lower but somewhere in the 120 to 140 mph range. 

and so it begins...

Hey everyone, Byron and Team TIV here. It's been a while, I apologize. We've been pretty busy despite that horrible ridged out month of May.

Today begins some great excitement and we are jacked up on energy drinks and headed to our first target of the day. As Brandon, one of our meteorologists put it this morning on the radio, "who here is NOT ready to see a tornado today?" We've had this itch for a whole month and it's time to start scratching.

We are not an official part of V2, but are still working with Josh Wurman and his CSWR crew when on the same targets. Today will be one of those days. Be sure to watch the excitement on the LiveTracker streams off of www.discovery.com/stormchasers and thestormreport.com.

This is going to be a wild week!

Byron

Repair day for the SRV!

Here is video of Kevin and Terry (Designer of the vehicle and mechanical support) fine-tuning the Dominator for the upcoming active pattern.  Fixes included the front hydraulic pins, which were bent from catching air on the canyon roads in New Mexico, and one of the front headlights that was cracked while inside the Kirksville, MO tornado. 
Based on recent long-range trends, the next few weeks are likely going to be insane, with several massive tornado outbreaks. Thankfully the vehicle is tuned up and ready for action! The upper-level jet stream pattern below is what we have to look forward to on Saturday, which could result in tornadoes across Northwest KS and Southwest NE. Be sure to check out the Storm Chasers live streaming video page to see what we see in real-time while on the chase!

Click here for the live tracker page!

TornadoVideos.net pictures from the field

The last few weeks have been dead for tornadoes, so I thought now was a good time to post some pictures from the first month of production.  Below from left is our field general Marion, camera operator Robert Seaman who captures the shots with the SRV driving into tornadoes, and Chris Whiteneck, the producer and shooter who rides in the vehicle with us..  Chris' flip-up sun glasses are a necessity in the rapidly changing light conditions of storm chasing.. 
     

And here are pictures of the trip to Radiance Technologies in Oxford, MS to attach the radar (CLOVER) to the roof our vehicle and perform some test aerial probe deployments with the TornadoVideos.net RV Plane..  From upper left is EXTREME storm chaser Chris Chittick, safety engineer Bobo Selman with your executive producer, the SRV at Radiance Technologies for the radar mount, Radiance enginner Hank who rode with us in the Kirksville tornado to operate the radar, and the final four pictures are of the TornadoVideos.net RC plane test flights.  

   

   

We're dying to get back on the chase, and it looks like the next few weeks could be absolutely insane, which is perfect timing since we'll be launching our full tornado field project beginning this Sunday.  The plan is to fly the 12-foot wingspan RC plane around the tornado and deploy parachute probes (pictured above) in the inflow region to get sucked into the circulation.  We'll also be capturing high resolution radar data from the SRV from extreme close range to the tornado, and deploying our 300 pound HD camera probe from last year in the path of the strongest tornadoes.  The goal is directly measure the horizontal and vertical winds inside the mini suction vortices that often rotate around the parent tornado. 

If you have any questions about the field project or anything in general for the TornadoVideos.net team please let them rip!  Check back for updates..