Nearly got to see a tornado; got wall cloud video...

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I was over at my brother's house last Saturday (May 10), and yet another round of severe storms came through. One of them, which would later produce a tornado, passed just north of where we were. Naturally, when I heard the sirens go off, that was my cue to go out and see exactly where it was at, and what I could get a good look at.

As I said, the main core of the storm passed just north of us, but the rotating area came very near and the wall cloud (organizing phase of a tornado) was visible. I took a short video, but not much because we were too busy watching our @$$es to pull out too much in the way of photography. You'll see the wall cloud (lowered, rotating cloud base) fairly clearly, and the banging you hear is hail stones hitting the tops of the metal buildings on either side of the street.

[url=http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f111/stickboy26/chameleon%20vids/?action=view¤t=0510081927-00.flv][/url]

I took this as we were starting to retreat back to the house. As the wall cloud passed by, the tail of the thunderstorm (which wraps behind the circulation in the "hook echo" pattern) came through, and we started getting pelted with hail stones. They ranged in size from about quarter-size to nearly plum-size. And they REALLY hurt when they hit you in the head!!

A tornado would later develop from this, and badly damaged the town of Stuttgart in the process, but it did so after it passed east of us, so I didn't get to see it.

Oh well maybe next time right?

We got pretty close to one up North once...it didn't touch down, but it was still pretty scary.

That is quite interesting.

I remember being at my grandmother's house near Branson, Missouri, when I was a kid and a tornado warning was on... never got to see one though.

I do think it'd be neat to witness one.

I couldn't get your video to work for me but thanks anyway!

Glad you were safe.
Hope there was only property damage from it.

Damn that's close.

We had a tornado not too long ago pass us and when the photographer to a pic, it froze for the camera.......I'm not joking. So whoever took it would've been . Look it up on kmbc.com....I never saw a tornado do that before.

Cool pic. I luv tornados.

We got hit with a tornado in 1987 in Edmonton - the deadliest tornado in Canada. We got some damage but not as bad as our neighbours.

Lol, I think i'm the only person who has never seen a tornado in RL!

I haven't seen a tornado yet either, but I have seen wall clouds and shelf clouds. I was at work the day a tornado passed within a few hundred yards of my house so I missed it. Got kind of mixed feelings about that. I live in a trailer park now so I am bound to see one sooner or later I suppose. This spring has been awfully quiet up here in Michigan. We haven't had anything really severe to speak of. So storm watching has been somewhat of a bust. Last October my neighbors and I saw what looked like a funnel cloud trying to form; I called the Weather Service and about 20 minutes later they issued a warning for a county to the northwest which was the direction it was going.

You were just a little one during Black Friday, it was so strange for the week leading up to that tornado, tons of rain and flooding, then it was scorching hot temperatures the humidity was the highest anyone have ever seen in that area, I knew there was a bad storm brewing out by Rockey Mountain House, that morning, and we were joking around during coffee break that it felt like tornado weather, I called my mom when we were watching the clouds roll in with this weird green color, my mom was in Leduc and was near where the tornado may have hit F5, she was watching it in the front window when I called, she had opened the windows to prevent the house from exploding if it was hit, I just told her to get into the basement, then the phone went dead, which scared me, but she was fine. I had left my truck windows open and ran out to close them and was almost hit by lighting, that hit a light pole in the parking lot, about 50 yard from me, I could feel the electricity. after I got off work I went down to Clareview to take some winch cables, that the radio station said was needed but was turned away when I got there, I did walk around and saw houses completely gone, but the living room furniture looked like it was untouched, it was something I never want to see happen there again, people in Edmonton are still nervous watching weird clouds blow in, I am still a little paranoid, by strong winds
, but I do plan on a little storm chasing this summer

it is common for digital cameras to lock up when exposed to very close distance thunder or tornados since they produce a lot of electromagnetic energy... i once was in a huge storm with my camera a few years ago, the entire camera shut down and then displayed "SYSTEM ERROR CALL FOR SERVICE" had to send it in... apparently they said an EMP blast killed the CCD in it.

An F4 tornado caused a lot of damage in Wichita Falls, Texas, where I had lived for the past 9 months. The tornado occurred on April 11, 1979, 8 months before I was born.

This was on the news. It wasn't the camera that froze it was the tornado....LOOK IT UP STRAPS. I'm not sure what it's all about but before you say that look it up.....it's crazy looking.

Arkansas has taken a beating this year. That day was the final of four tornado outbreaks in the state -- February 5, April 3-4, May 2, and May 10. The April 3 tornado passed within a quarter mile of my house and damaged some houses and a few businesses in my end of town. It was rated F2 but most of the damage was F1. We heard it go by but it was night so we couldn't see anything.

The coolest thing was this trampoline that got wrapped around a telephone pole. This was about a mile south of my house...


I think tornado season is pretty much over for us. The northern states get them in the summer, but the south gets them in the winter and spring.

I love pre-tornado weather. The temperature is perfect and everything is so still and serene.. (Yes, I am the idiot that stands out in the road while the tornado sirens are blaring)
I live in Texas, yet have never actually seen a fully formed one..

Yeah, same here.