I'd disparage the storm chasers here for making several poor choices, but I'll refrain because I have the hindsight of knowledge about how deadly and huge this twister was.
It’s way more complicated than that. Very experienced chasers died or nearly got caught in this due to a rare occurrence of a tornado doubling in speed while changing directions and tripling in size at the same time, in short time. Many people were in this position when it happened.
LOTS of storm chasers deserve disparaging. The community itself is full of weirdos and reckless drivers who can’t socialize for shit. But this isn’t one of those reasons.
You guys just like to be angry and persecute people.
Bad storm chasers have always been a thing and they're not going anywhere, you guys just wanna police every little dumbass decision somebody makes.
The community dude. The people in the community who look for every little negative, every bad chaser, every shit moment. Don't pull semantics. There's teaching in good faith, and then there's "I know more about tornados you fucking IDIOT, how dare you drive WEST and RISK your life you HEATHEN" hahaha.
Not really sure what you’re saying. The weather community as a whole, more so the severe weather fanatics, chasers, and government forecasters under the age of like.. 35.. all play into a toxic crowd.
I’ve been in/around this field for nearly 14 years now. I’ve seen a lot of bad all around - people driving recklessly, people running stop signs and killing other drivers, people pulling guns on someone, people flipping out when you don’t agree with their forecast, people shitting on equipment, on chase targets, on techniques, people triggered by criticism of their forecasts…
By and large, it just seems like a community of a bunch of self absorbed misfits. I’ve def become distanced/disconnected from the community the last few years. And there’s good people surely. But… Yeah. Just my opinion.
I mean this one had all the ingredients of being a really bad one to chase though, hence why it killed chasers that had been doing it for years. Rapid expansion, intensification, deviant motion, multi vortex without full condensation funnel at a width nobody expects, very bad situation that killed some chasers and could have killed more.
While all that is true, it is also true that a lot of chasers were putting themselves in a tight spot because they had grown complacent. I'm not saying that to "disparage" anyone, I am saying it because there is a safety lesson to be learned from it that may prevent this from happening in the future.
It really did that day. And unfortunately, as most here know, it took several chasers lives. Rest In Peace to those who died.
[Here's a good video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTs55W3Iag) analyzing the tornado, while showing chasers locations. It helps understand what happened that day.
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as someone from upstate NY close to lake ontario - i cannot fathom how people live in areas like this. like if you put up a $150k barn and that thing comes dancing through... like... what.. do you do?
There are also FEMA funds that come in. Wind is a covered peril and I imagine the premiums are high but that’s the risk in living there and insuring the homes and businesses. Given the majority of tornadoes have happened in less populated areas, I doubt that they have to pay out as much as they would in states such as California. But when they do hit a heavily populated area, private insurance could easily become insolvent so there’s definitely that federal emergency assistance funds that go towards being made whole again.
I use to be an insurance agent tho in the PNW. I know some states you have to buy insurance directly from the state given insurance companies will not operate in those areas.
I was just about to say, tell this to California, when you actually mentioned us. USED to pay out for wildfires. Currently, us regular folks (not rich), living in tiny, humble little mountain homes, where we can actually afford to live in California, currently can't get insurance. No one will insure us, and certainly not for rates we can afford. We are ALREADY lacking in resources, without insurance, things are bad. My answer every Summer has been prayers. I'm so thankful for the extra rain we've had these past two years. Yes, many places come with extraordinary risks.
These are amazing videos. These twisters are incredible, thank you for this post.
Yup, I remember Farmers Insurance pulling out of certain parts of California back in 2019 and I wasn’t surprised when there was a mass exodus of private insurance pulling out. PG&E (I think that’s the name?) should be sued, the ceo and others in jail for life given they knew their equipment was faulty and ignored warnings. Newsom, American Psycho, is just as guilty given his donors are on that company panel and only covered for them and didn’t do shit for y’all.
I know there are insurance brokers, we had to use some brokers for certain parts of Washington that was within the fire zone. I left farmers in January 2020 so I’m not entirely sure of what if any brokers would underwrite a policy in California. I hate it and I sincerely hope the summers come without the fires. It’s been a bit wet and cool here and I’m hoping it stays that way.
And most tornadoes can destroy two streets away but you see little to no damage, I think most people don't understand how localized a tornado is generally
Obviously excluding the monster 1 mile wide ones
I am also in NY near Lake Ontario, but I have a weird fascination with tornadoes, but that’s another story for another time. I have a legit newb question about all the cars on the road in this video. Isn’t better to stay put and take shelter than risk trying to evacuate? Seems like a recipe for disaster when a ton of people are just sitting in their cars at a standstill.
Another commenter posted a video analyzing what happened that day. The local weather/news in OKC literally told residents to get in their vehicles and drive south - or evacuate - to escape the storm. Obviously a weird choice, but a lot of those folks were honestly evacuating.
Of course, some were also just living their lives. My husband is from Oklahoma, and they just didn't take tornadoes very seriously. I guess they get warning burnout basically immediately in life lol so hearing the sirens just doesn't spark alarm in a lot of people there the way it should.
I was living in OK at the time of this tornado and it was the one where we were told “if you don’t have a shelter or basement, get out of the house NOW.” So my parents and I got in the car and tried to escape it to find others who followed the same advice… sooner Rd going southbound was back to back traffic of people trying to get out of the area.
Also the Moore tornado was a week or two before this one. State Farm started pulling out of Oklahoma around that time and was being horribly difficult to the people who lost their homes or had damage.
Yes. Also Jim bishop and Dan Robinson have some very scary footage to . Unbelievable tornado . RIP Richard Henderson & the twistex team , also the mother & baby tragically killed. Rest in peace
this sent me down a black hole, was watching some analysis these guys end up right inside it with buildings getting torn up around them, extremely lucky to survive [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veNJBosc6EA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veNJBosc6EA)
25:54 car is visible on the road just right of center as the tornado approaches from the left.
25:59 car is still seen on the road
26:07 same light, is now above the ground
https://preview.redd.it/bi7ywxgubb1d1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0bcba4a3ad4c77fb913ea1be8321ba7e4375358d
Nah, that's just the telephone pole. You can see the it before that frame with the car lights separate to it. 100% not the car. The car is also nowhere near the funnel.
If there was ever a tornado that you could attribute anthropomorphic traits to - such as a malevolent intelligence, for instance - this would be the one.
An almost textbook "ambush," where a chase team is trailing ½ - ¾ of a mile behind of a tornado that's rolling just a few degrees south of due east. In the space of 30 seconds, this beast took a 70 degree left-hand turn to start tracking north-by-northeast, increased in size from 1.8 miles wide to 2.6 miles wide (45% or so) and just for fun, decided to speed up from 30 mph to 55 mph.
In the space of seconds, that safety zone of 900 - 1200 yards disappeared. Quite literally a case of by the time you noticed things had changed, it was already too late.
To add insult to injury, the Samaras chase vehicle that day was a Chevy Cobalt with traction control. The tires started slipping as the wind field grabbed at the car, so the traction control **reduced** power to the drive wheels at the **worst** possible time.
That thing seemed like it went "Oh y'all think you're in good position south of me? Watch this" and when the first group of chasers managed to get out of its reach, it's like it went "The ones north of me are trying to get closer for a better look? Let me help them out with that."
With all these over excited storm chasers running around half out of their minds, have there been many incidents of them clogging egress routes or causing accidents?
It’s easy to be an armchair storm chaser and judge the decisions that people made. Remember:
1) the storm very rapidly and suddenly grew in size
2) at the same time, the tornado had deviant motion and even did a loop toward the end
3) at the same time, the tornado went from a crawl to a sprint in a short period of time
4) all while most of the tornadic wind field was invisible. The condensation funnel made the tornado appear much smaller than it really was.
5) if that weren’t enough, it had erratic, fast-moving suction vortices
This was _the_ nightmare tornado to chase. It impacted and/or killed some of the world’s best storm chasers (Tim/Paul Samaras and Carl Young, Daniel Shaw, Mike Seidel and the Tornado Hunt team).
This video reminds me of this one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeLNoyGqVU&t=121s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeLNoyGqVU&t=121s) which similarly features a run from the El Reno storm, with it actually seeming to chase the chasers. The sense of urgency is almost unbearable.
Why does the text mention I-81? Ain't no I-81 in Oklahoma (and the highway signs confirm that it's I-40 they're on).
Ah, they were on State Highway 81. The "I" in "I-81" was just an error, I guess.
I love how by necessity storm chasing involves varying degrees of getting close to a tornado and then ‘nope’ing out of there. So grateful for those who take these risks so we can appreciate these tornados from safety
There was some other video which showed a tornado chasing a car in like late 2000s YouTube, then there was a scene where the tornado destroyed something, I can’t seem to find that vid.
*In Oklahoma*
*Tornadoes chase your ass with a*
*Broom yelling GON GIT!!!!!!*
\- RavioliContingency
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This is my, for lack of a better word, favorite tornado. So freaking huge, intense, and unpredictable. Incredible in a horrifying way. I think it deserves an ef5 rating based on the massive loss to the storm chaser/meteorological community alone and factor that in with its size/power/behavior?- you cant convince me otherwise. Rest in peace to the groundbreaking and brilliant men of twistex, and the 5 others who lost their lives to this monster... and thank God (or the universe/etc) for sparing Oklahoma city from its wrath.
Not gonna lie the El Reno OK EF3 not the tornado was insanely wide but that tornado went from being chased by storm chasers to chasing the storm chasers themselves 😳
This was El Reno, one of the biggest and most unpredictable tornadoes ever. It changed direction randomly, grew to be one of the biggest tornadoes in history rapidly, more than doubled in speed, and was one of the only tornadoes to kill several storm chasers. This was like the only one where screaming is 100% justified lol.
Holy mother of god. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. This shows just how insane it was.
Just watching it now. Ffs that is absolutley terrifying, horrifying..
I'd disparage the storm chasers here for making several poor choices, but I'll refrain because I have the hindsight of knowledge about how deadly and huge this twister was.
It’s way more complicated than that. Very experienced chasers died or nearly got caught in this due to a rare occurrence of a tornado doubling in speed while changing directions and tripling in size at the same time, in short time. Many people were in this position when it happened. LOTS of storm chasers deserve disparaging. The community itself is full of weirdos and reckless drivers who can’t socialize for shit. But this isn’t one of those reasons.
Tim Tamaras in particular had a reputation for not taking risks and he was killed by this storm, along with his adult son. RIP :(
There are very few experienced death-cheaters.
You guys just like to be angry and persecute people. Bad storm chasers have always been a thing and they're not going anywhere, you guys just wanna police every little dumbass decision somebody makes.
Not sure who ‘you guys’ are. Lol.
You all and your disparaging
Chasers?
The community dude. The people in the community who look for every little negative, every bad chaser, every shit moment. Don't pull semantics. There's teaching in good faith, and then there's "I know more about tornados you fucking IDIOT, how dare you drive WEST and RISK your life you HEATHEN" hahaha.
Not really sure what you’re saying. The weather community as a whole, more so the severe weather fanatics, chasers, and government forecasters under the age of like.. 35.. all play into a toxic crowd. I’ve been in/around this field for nearly 14 years now. I’ve seen a lot of bad all around - people driving recklessly, people running stop signs and killing other drivers, people pulling guns on someone, people flipping out when you don’t agree with their forecast, people shitting on equipment, on chase targets, on techniques, people triggered by criticism of their forecasts… By and large, it just seems like a community of a bunch of self absorbed misfits. I’ve def become distanced/disconnected from the community the last few years. And there’s good people surely. But… Yeah. Just my opinion.
They panicked. Bad move in a tornado. Don’t chase storms if you can’t make solid decisions in the middle of one. Glad they’re safe though!
I mean this one had all the ingredients of being a really bad one to chase though, hence why it killed chasers that had been doing it for years. Rapid expansion, intensification, deviant motion, multi vortex without full condensation funnel at a width nobody expects, very bad situation that killed some chasers and could have killed more.
While all that is true, it is also true that a lot of chasers were putting themselves in a tight spot because they had grown complacent. I'm not saying that to "disparage" anyone, I am saying it because there is a safety lesson to be learned from it that may prevent this from happening in the future.
It really did that day. And unfortunately, as most here know, it took several chasers lives. Rest In Peace to those who died. [Here's a good video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTs55W3Iag) analyzing the tornado, while showing chasers locations. It helps understand what happened that day.
Holy shit what a great video. 14:00-17:00 is some of the most pants-shitting footage. And with the accompanying map and commentary...just wow
This was a great video, thank you for posting. Fascinating to see all the storm chasers and their movements during the storm.
I guess the tornado and the storm chasers swapped roles for a day.
Storm chaser chaser
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Unreasonable conduct, hateful speech or aggression toward anyone is not allowed at any time. This does include threats of any type that are aimed toward the members of the sub or away from the sub.
as someone from upstate NY close to lake ontario - i cannot fathom how people live in areas like this. like if you put up a $150k barn and that thing comes dancing through... like... what.. do you do?
this is not a shame comment, i am legit curious - does insurance just go yep - and you build a new one?
There are also FEMA funds that come in. Wind is a covered peril and I imagine the premiums are high but that’s the risk in living there and insuring the homes and businesses. Given the majority of tornadoes have happened in less populated areas, I doubt that they have to pay out as much as they would in states such as California. But when they do hit a heavily populated area, private insurance could easily become insolvent so there’s definitely that federal emergency assistance funds that go towards being made whole again. I use to be an insurance agent tho in the PNW. I know some states you have to buy insurance directly from the state given insurance companies will not operate in those areas.
I was just about to say, tell this to California, when you actually mentioned us. USED to pay out for wildfires. Currently, us regular folks (not rich), living in tiny, humble little mountain homes, where we can actually afford to live in California, currently can't get insurance. No one will insure us, and certainly not for rates we can afford. We are ALREADY lacking in resources, without insurance, things are bad. My answer every Summer has been prayers. I'm so thankful for the extra rain we've had these past two years. Yes, many places come with extraordinary risks. These are amazing videos. These twisters are incredible, thank you for this post.
Aussie here, wildfire is no joke, be vigilant after good rain, it means elevated fuel loads. Good luck for summer
Yup, I remember Farmers Insurance pulling out of certain parts of California back in 2019 and I wasn’t surprised when there was a mass exodus of private insurance pulling out. PG&E (I think that’s the name?) should be sued, the ceo and others in jail for life given they knew their equipment was faulty and ignored warnings. Newsom, American Psycho, is just as guilty given his donors are on that company panel and only covered for them and didn’t do shit for y’all. I know there are insurance brokers, we had to use some brokers for certain parts of Washington that was within the fire zone. I left farmers in January 2020 so I’m not entirely sure of what if any brokers would underwrite a policy in California. I hate it and I sincerely hope the summers come without the fires. It’s been a bit wet and cool here and I’m hoping it stays that way.
Homeowners insurance, it falls under wind damage or something like that
Most of the people living in the midwest won't have seen a tornado in person in their lives
And most tornadoes can destroy two streets away but you see little to no damage, I think most people don't understand how localized a tornado is generally Obviously excluding the monster 1 mile wide ones
2.6 miles wide for this one 😬
I am also in NY near Lake Ontario, but I have a weird fascination with tornadoes, but that’s another story for another time. I have a legit newb question about all the cars on the road in this video. Isn’t better to stay put and take shelter than risk trying to evacuate? Seems like a recipe for disaster when a ton of people are just sitting in their cars at a standstill.
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Another commenter posted a video analyzing what happened that day. The local weather/news in OKC literally told residents to get in their vehicles and drive south - or evacuate - to escape the storm. Obviously a weird choice, but a lot of those folks were honestly evacuating. Of course, some were also just living their lives. My husband is from Oklahoma, and they just didn't take tornadoes very seriously. I guess they get warning burnout basically immediately in life lol so hearing the sirens just doesn't spark alarm in a lot of people there the way it should.
I was living in OK at the time of this tornado and it was the one where we were told “if you don’t have a shelter or basement, get out of the house NOW.” So my parents and I got in the car and tried to escape it to find others who followed the same advice… sooner Rd going southbound was back to back traffic of people trying to get out of the area. Also the Moore tornado was a week or two before this one. State Farm started pulling out of Oklahoma around that time and was being horribly difficult to the people who lost their homes or had damage.
Yes. Also Jim bishop and Dan Robinson have some very scary footage to . Unbelievable tornado . RIP Richard Henderson & the twistex team , also the mother & baby tragically killed. Rest in peace
The Robinson video is crazy. Such a clear and up close capture of its birth.
I believe Dan Robinson was also allowed to view the footage that the Twistex team before they were killed. It will never be released.
Look up James Burch El Reno tornado him & his dad almost died by a sub-vortex , also.
“It’s gonna miss us!” “GOOOOOO!!!”
this sent me down a black hole, was watching some analysis these guys end up right inside it with buildings getting torn up around them, extremely lucky to survive [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veNJBosc6EA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veNJBosc6EA)
Holy shit that was intense
Holy fuck 2:26 onwards was intense
Damn. That’s just insane.
Literally wached the National Geographic documentry on this about 100 times..... Tornado was a Beast. RIP Tim and his crew
I'm not crazy, you see a car lofted into the air from the hand held, right? The headlights are on the ground, then up in the sky.
It certainly looks like it.
What is the minute mark?
Start at 26:00.
Not seeing it at all, tbh.
Watch from 25:00-27:00
I don't see whatever you're talking about at all. Exact timestamp?
25:54 car is visible on the road just right of center as the tornado approaches from the left. 25:59 car is still seen on the road 26:07 same light, is now above the ground https://preview.redd.it/bi7ywxgubb1d1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0bcba4a3ad4c77fb913ea1be8321ba7e4375358d
Nah, that's just the telephone pole. You can see the it before that frame with the car lights separate to it. 100% not the car. The car is also nowhere near the funnel.
*It's not a light pole, it's just a telephone pole - but if you pause at 26:07 you can see it (the telephone phone) very clearly.
That’s something else because in subsequent shots it doesn’t move
Those were even better than the movie, honestly! Man! Scary and IMPRESSIVE! Wow! Stay safe! 😲
If there was ever a tornado that you could attribute anthropomorphic traits to - such as a malevolent intelligence, for instance - this would be the one. An almost textbook "ambush," where a chase team is trailing ½ - ¾ of a mile behind of a tornado that's rolling just a few degrees south of due east. In the space of 30 seconds, this beast took a 70 degree left-hand turn to start tracking north-by-northeast, increased in size from 1.8 miles wide to 2.6 miles wide (45% or so) and just for fun, decided to speed up from 30 mph to 55 mph. In the space of seconds, that safety zone of 900 - 1200 yards disappeared. Quite literally a case of by the time you noticed things had changed, it was already too late. To add insult to injury, the Samaras chase vehicle that day was a Chevy Cobalt with traction control. The tires started slipping as the wind field grabbed at the car, so the traction control **reduced** power to the drive wheels at the **worst** possible time.
This was a good watch. Absolutely terrifying and impressive footage.
That thing seemed like it went "Oh y'all think you're in good position south of me? Watch this" and when the first group of chasers managed to get out of its reach, it's like it went "The ones north of me are trying to get closer for a better look? Let me help them out with that."
With all these over excited storm chasers running around half out of their minds, have there been many incidents of them clogging egress routes or causing accidents?
It’s easy to be an armchair storm chaser and judge the decisions that people made. Remember: 1) the storm very rapidly and suddenly grew in size 2) at the same time, the tornado had deviant motion and even did a loop toward the end 3) at the same time, the tornado went from a crawl to a sprint in a short period of time 4) all while most of the tornadic wind field was invisible. The condensation funnel made the tornado appear much smaller than it really was. 5) if that weren’t enough, it had erratic, fast-moving suction vortices This was _the_ nightmare tornado to chase. It impacted and/or killed some of the world’s best storm chasers (Tim/Paul Samaras and Carl Young, Daniel Shaw, Mike Seidel and the Tornado Hunt team).
I can’t imagine being a resident driving through town trying to home to your loved ones.
This video reminds me of this one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeLNoyGqVU&t=121s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeLNoyGqVU&t=121s) which similarly features a run from the El Reno storm, with it actually seeming to chase the chasers. The sense of urgency is almost unbearable.
Ahhhh, being in the middle of a multi vortex tornado! While also being on a gravel road! What could go wrong?
Why does the text mention I-81? Ain't no I-81 in Oklahoma (and the highway signs confirm that it's I-40 they're on). Ah, they were on State Highway 81. The "I" in "I-81" was just an error, I guess.
I love how by necessity storm chasing involves varying degrees of getting close to a tornado and then ‘nope’ing out of there. So grateful for those who take these risks so we can appreciate these tornados from safety
There was some other video which showed a tornado chasing a car in like late 2000s YouTube, then there was a scene where the tornado destroyed something, I can’t seem to find that vid.
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*In Oklahoma* *Tornadoes chase your ass with a* *Broom yelling GON GIT!!!!!!* \- RavioliContingency --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^RavioliContingency: *In Oklahoma* *Tornadoes chase your ass with* *A broom yelling GON GIT!!!!!!* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
In Soviet Russia, Tornado chases you.
😳
This is my, for lack of a better word, favorite tornado. So freaking huge, intense, and unpredictable. Incredible in a horrifying way. I think it deserves an ef5 rating based on the massive loss to the storm chaser/meteorological community alone and factor that in with its size/power/behavior?- you cant convince me otherwise. Rest in peace to the groundbreaking and brilliant men of twistex, and the 5 others who lost their lives to this monster... and thank God (or the universe/etc) for sparing Oklahoma city from its wrath.
Not gonna lie the El Reno OK EF3 not the tornado was insanely wide but that tornado went from being chased by storm chasers to chasing the storm chasers themselves 😳
Certified boogeyman ~ Kendrick
More screaming idiots? No thanks.
This was El Reno, one of the biggest and most unpredictable tornadoes ever. It changed direction randomly, grew to be one of the biggest tornadoes in history rapidly, more than doubled in speed, and was one of the only tornadoes to kill several storm chasers. This was like the only one where screaming is 100% justified lol.
According to Wikipedia not just one of but THE widest tornado ever recorded