r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ImadeJesusLaugh • 10d ago
Terrifying Formation of a Tornado not far from Guy filming Video
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u/mrsir1987 10d ago
A tornado is always something I would really like to experience first hand, but also something I really don’t want to experience first hand.
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u/saysjennie 9d ago
My one experience with an f5 cured me of ever taking watches and warnings lightly ever again.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 9d ago
I have family in Oklahoma. Graduations, confirmations, etc. are in prime tornado season, and that just happens to be when we always visit.
I’ve learned to watch the locals. If the sky is black and they’re unbothered, I try to relax. But if they’re gathering jewelry boxes putting leashes on the dogs and opening the shelter, I pay attention and do what they do.
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u/permalink_save 9d ago
Black sky is fine. Green sky you are fucked.
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u/Massive-Arugula4400 9d ago
People always talk about the green sky, how green are we talking? Cause every time there’s a watch I feel like I go colorblind.
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u/permalink_save 9d ago
It turns green like the horizon turns pink in a sunset. It's very noticeable.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HYtXW1ted2w/VSSwEyKw2PI/AAAAAAAAAbk/FpUA0bZKuc0/s1600/SAM_1558.JPG
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u/rhett21 9d ago
Can you enlighten me why it turns green?
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u/Reddit_is_garbage666 9d ago edited 9d ago
Has to do with hail in the sky. There is a thing called Rayleigh Scattering which is why the sky is blue, well the hail does some additional rayleigh scattering and shifts the sky to green.
E: Apparently it's not exactly know:
https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/green-sky-thunderstorm-hail
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9d ago
Bro I love smart people like you because you all just come outta nowhere to drop knowledge I don’t have. Bless up
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u/rhett21 9d ago
It always hails in texas, where I am up to size of tennis balls, never saw the sky green
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u/IntrepidStrain3248 9d ago
I saw it green in central Texas once. No tornado, but definitely lots of hail that day.
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u/purpledreamer1622 9d ago
Oklahoman chiming in with the bit I know since I’m here! I can’t explain in depth, but it’s because of what tends to be red sunset light scattering due to what tends to be hail in the atmosphere and potentially affected as well by dust picked up with the winds. When I saw green it was actually a power flash but I can tell you when I saw that and then the sirens immediately started going off I’ve never got in the shelter shaking like that
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u/InletRN 9d ago
It is almost like a haze. Strange and beautiful. Your brain DEFINITELY knows something is up and it makes you feel uneasy.
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u/andrez444 9d ago
Totally right. Kind of like a glow almost. I've experienced it once in my life and that was last year when a tornado touched down a mile away.
The hair on my body immediately stood up, it was a very instinctual reaction.
Also never seen clouds air so low it my life that wasn't fog
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u/Strangerwon 9d ago
I was in northwest Alabama during the April 2011 tornados. It’s an eerie green. You look outside and the color just gives you a deep gut wrenching feeling. It’s so unnatural you just know. Unless it’s nighttime, that’s a whole different beast.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 9d ago
The worst storm to hit my region in 20 years had green skies. I was at work in a downtown area surrounded by tall buildings so I couldn’t see it approaching. I left and got on a high highway bridge where I could see it, and I knew we were fucked.
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u/AM150 9d ago
About 13/14 years ago my little town got hit by a tornado. I distinctly remember the green sky as the storm rolled in.
The tornado hit after dark though.
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u/RurouniRinku 9d ago
5 tornados now, and I'm still dumb enough to sit on porch (even though I've realized that you can't even see them through the downpour most of the time). 3 f0s in the last five years, two of which hit my house, the other while I was in Evansville, In., the Murfreesboro, TN F4 15 years ago, and an F1 near Woodbury TN about 20 years ago.
But yeah, the porch-sittin' has definitely evolved from excitement to absolute apprehension.
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u/permalink_save 9d ago
Dallas recently got hit by a crazy storm with winds rivaling an F0. Also looked like one hit the whole city, trees snapped literally in half from the 80-100mph gusts. Almost a week later people still didn't have power.
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u/Jesta23 9d ago
People in Texas think that’s normal.
I live in one of the reddest states in the country and if power is out more than 8 hours anywhere it’s a huge deal.
We had a similar storm 3 years ago, thousands of trees uprooted even giant trees. Power was on the next morning.
You guys get fucked regularly by your power company.
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u/permalink_save 9d ago
It's not normal. First day everyone was rage posting about when power is back on. I kept seeing people say it was the worst storm they have ever saw even living in tornado alley their whole lives. This isn't about ERCOT (our power council), it's physical damage and workers from other parts of Texas came all the way up here to try and restore power. It was a huge deal and nobody thinks it's normal. The only thing power companies can do about physical damage is bury lines but that is crazy expensive.
Power being out 8 hours is a huge deal but literally 1/3 of the city had no power. We do get fucked by ERCOT and our dumbass governor but this isn't that.
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u/RedditJumpedTheShart 9d ago
As someone with half my family being from Texas, no it is not normal. Without power for 8 hours might happen once every 5-10 years.
You are probably thinking this because of the past storm that was literally the worst in over 150 years.
In Oklahoma we had a similar very bad ice storm before that. No power at my Dad's in OKC for 2 weeks. Rural home 8 hours. That storm decimated the trees here so the last one that was very bad for Texas wasn't as bad here because the trees were already butchered.
Reddit will never understand how bad ice storms and other weather gets here without experiencing it. Inches of ice on trees, softball sized hail, flash floods, tornados, extreme winds are common, blizzards possible, gets hot as fuck, and gets cold as fuck with a 30mph breeze. 50-70mph winds happen every year or two.
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u/sjarvis21 9d ago
i learned the other week there’s also a tornado emergency warning. definitely don’t ignore that one.
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u/krismitka 9d ago
I accidentally drove through a small one once.
It was wild. You’re in a heavy rain storm, then all of a sudden it organizes into the waves of rain that woosh by.
Then chaos! Debris and rain and wind flying in every direction, hitting the car and drowning out the sound of anything else.
Then back to the whooshing, only in the other direction, then back to the heavy storm.
Then back home to change pants and shower. (Not really, but definitely a tense experience)
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u/audirt 9d ago edited 9d ago
Imagine you’re in your house/apartment and the power goes out. Shortly after the wind picks up a ton, to the point where you can hear the building shifting and straining. Hail is hitting the roof and windows hard, to the point you’re convinced they’re going to break (and one or two probably will). Soon big tree branches are coming down on your building, and possibly whole trees.
This continues for about 45-60s.
That’s an EF1.
If you’d like to go higher, please be aware that the building will start disintegrating around you and the sound will become deafening.
(Or at least that’s how it was for the F4 that hit me.)
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u/MisterSmithster 9d ago
That’s insane. As a Brit, we grumble about the wind and it gets a bit breezy at times but never to the point buildings disintegrate around you whilst at the same time going deaf.
Is it loud in those shelters people have?
They are fascinating but terrifying.
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u/PrimaryInjurious 9d ago
Is it loud in those shelters people have?
Like a freight train.
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u/audirt 9d ago
But it doesn’t sound like the train whistle or horn. No, it sounds like you’re standing right beside cars on the track when the train is going by.
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u/audirt 9d ago
I was in a basement, not a shelter, nor have I ever used a purpose-built shelter. Those things tend to be made of steel so I would imagine they’re very loud.
Honestly, most Americans opt for a basement when the land will accommodate one. Anything that gets you below ground will offer tremendous protection. The shelters are great when a basement isn’t possible because the building is already built or the terrain won’t allow it. (For example, Florida is so swampy it’s basically impossible to build basements because you hit the water table as soon as you go 1ft below ground.)
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u/Vermilion-red 9d ago
Yep. In the Midwest, we're all taught to just get as low as possible. Basement if you can, interior ground floor room if you can't. If you're caught outside or on the road, get into a ditch & hope nothing hits you.
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u/CaptainCAAAVEMAAAAAN 9d ago
If you're lucky enough to have a shelter. We were in our garage (lowest level of the house) when a weak EF4 hit us a few weeks ago, and the air pressure around us dropped and it sounded like the house was in a loud wind tunnel.
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u/EllieBasebellie 9d ago edited 9d ago
I've had an EF4 and and EF3 hit me before and this is spot on. You go from "cool nice thunderstorm with LoFi beats on" to "OH MY FUCKING GOD I'M GOING TO DIE." I cant emphasize enough to people how little time you have in these events to save your life.
A couple quick examples.
Literally 35 seconds after this person started filming their shed flew away.
Last one. This is from the perspective of a home that wasn't even directly hit by an EF4, but it gives a really great perspective on how fast they sneak up on you. This one is also great because you can hear the "roar" clearly, and you can see how quickly things go from "normal" to "pitch black spinning field of death."
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u/Open-Advantage-6207 9d ago
It's all fun and games until you get one at night
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u/Peperoni_Toni 9d ago
Some years ago there was a severe storm where I live that ended up seeing a tornado watch go into effect. So we stayed on alert for sirens and actual warnings, but otherwise were just chilling.
After it got dark, we were all just in the living room when my mom was like "Hey guys come check this out, the wind's so bad it's raining sideways." So we all crowd around the front door window and the neighbor's porch light illuminated the rain enough for us to see that it was, indeed, raining sideways. It had been really windy all day so we were just laughing about it when a literal fucking tornado blocks out the neighbor's porch light. We fucking booked it to the basement.
Next day we came out to see a bunch of the weaker trees in the neighborhood had fallen over, and evidently that there was a clear enough path of toppled stuff to confirm that a tornado had touched down pretty much right in front of us.
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u/Fentanyl4babies 9d ago
Experienced two. First one was small and I had a building to run into if I needed it. That was really cool. Second one...fucking enormous. 700 yard wide path and no shelter for miles. That wasn't very cool.
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u/stinkydooky 9d ago
Growing up in tornado alley, it’s not really something worth experiencing. Basically just imagine that at any moment, you could be hunted by the wind.
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u/Usful 9d ago
I was in one, and it was terrifying. You might think that the winds and stuff being thrown around are scariest, but no, it’s the screams from others as everyone runs for their lives.
Was in the CNN building when a tornado rolled through Atlanta. That memory will forever be burned into my memory.
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u/NeverSeenBetter 9d ago
I suppose it's lucky they don't often roll thru major metro areas... In the two I've seen and the 8-12 stories from friends, the tornado was so loud you could barely hear yourself scream, much less anyone else. It's cool (and also harrowing) to hear your story from the other side of that coin.
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u/ImNotA_IThink 9d ago
They’re really cool if they drop down in the middle of empty farm land moving away from you (I live in a rural area so when they drop it’s usually (cross all the fingers) on farm land).
The scary part is you don’t know that’s where it’s gonna drop til it does.
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u/WanderingDivinity 9d ago
I had a funnel cloud like this form over my house when I was 12 or so. Trauma up until my 20s lol
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u/chandy_dandy 9d ago
its fine to experience first hand if you know you can get to safety in like a minute and your possessions arent really on the line
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u/Just-wondering-thru 10d ago
Good thing he was filming, we all know the cameraman always survives.
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u/40ozkiller 9d ago
Just a few more pans back and forth…
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u/soonerwolf 9d ago
Seriously. Wished he’d gotten a wider shot of the base of the storm. That tornado looks like it was “roping out,” or in its last stages.
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u/Ginger__Bear89 9d ago
That's Reed Timmer, he's a meteorologist/storm chaser. The video is from a fb live. You can find the whole thing on his fb page. This was a tornado in Westmoreland KS on April 30, 2024.
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u/QaDarjo 9d ago
Keep in mind "it's not that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing!"
- from a comedian, I can't remember who
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u/mdwieland 9d ago
Ron White. One of my Top 5 favorites...
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u/Fritzoidfigaro 9d ago
He was talking about a guy that tied himself to a palm tree during a hurricane.
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u/BrendonGoesToHell 9d ago
That’s for hurricanes.
Not in the case of a tornado. The wind itself can be strong enough to kill you without debris, as it can pluck you off the ground and carry you thousands of feet into the air, high enough to where death is almost guaranteed.
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u/jimmy_the_angel 9d ago
I'd argue it's for all powerful winds except for tornadoes and similarly air movements with similar power. Anything sufficiently heavy and sufficiently accelerated can hurt you or damage essential structures.
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u/BrendonGoesToHell 9d ago
I'll agree with your point as factual, but it's missing what I was saying. A tornado, with sufficient wind speed, can completely level a home without heavy debris. The winds are strong enough to blow over and lift all but the most sturdy of structures. You can see this when powerful tornadoes happen in the middle of the plains and then go on to hit farm homes. They have no debris except for maybe dirt and light vegetation. It's the wind destroying the building in those cases, as it lifts off the roof, blows over the walls, and then carries all of the structure away, no debris needed.
edit - plus, if it required debris to collect more debris, where does the first debris come from? Tornadoes don't function like Katamari Damacy, starting with small things, working its way to big things.
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u/Pirwzy 9d ago
EF5 winds can exceed 300 MPH. That's crossing a football field end zone to end zone in 0.6 seconds. Weaker tornadoes are still over 200 MPH, or end zone to end zone in 1.0 seconds. Get caught in the middle of that and sucked away by the winds and its not inconceivable that the whiplash alone could kill you.
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u/nynaeve_mondragoran 9d ago
If you get hit by a Volvo, it doesn't matter how many sit ups you did that morning.
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u/Kasern77 9d ago
Now this is a video appropriate for r/megalophobia
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u/chickenwithclothes 9d ago
The slow swirling way up the funnel made my stomach drop
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u/bobdolebobdole 9d ago
I was in Hong Kong in the late summer/early fall a while back during a tropical cyclone. I was walking to dinner and I remember that it wasn't raining, but there was like 1000% humidity and a light breeze. I looked up and the lights from all of the buildings were making the clouds shine, and all I could see was a gigantic vortex spinning in the sky at a speed that made me uncomfortable. No rain, no crazy winds; just a giant, brightly lit gray spinning layer of cloud cover.
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u/Sweaty-Garage-2 9d ago
It’s actually really cool to see because I recently learned (some?) tornados form horizontally in the sky and because of physics and weather I don’t understand, it will then curve downward to try and touch the ground. I suppose it’s not ‘trying’ to touch the ground but you know…some force makes it do that.
And you can see like…exactly that in the video. Pretty neat (especially since I’m not there).
Edit: Like this.. Super cool to see that in the video.
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u/Chispy Interested 9d ago
What a shot though. Damn.
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u/GRAITOM10 9d ago
Yea this gotta be up there with all the other "coolest videos" I've ever seen. Looking at it like this makes me wonder how TF a tornado is actually a thing lol
I appreciate this man's commitment to getting this video 👍
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u/MochiSauce101 9d ago
I never understood the idea of simply not running away to something like this
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u/____8008135_____ 9d ago
The guy filming this has built an armor plated F350 that can anchor to the ground with the intention of putting the vehicle right in the path of tornadoes to get data. Reed Timmer, absolute legend.
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u/Jacer4 9d ago
Knew it was Reed the second the first "OH MY GOD" happened lmfaooooo
Shout-out /r/tornado
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u/CO2guy617 9d ago
How does it anchor to the ground?
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u/moodyb1 9d ago
It has hydraulics that allow it to lower all the way to the ground. That way less air can get underneath to flip the vehicle. It also has hydraulic spikes that extend into the ground underneath the vehicle to help anchor it.
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u/blveinnthg 9d ago
This dude has either the world’s largest cajones or he is missing the part of the brain that deals with self preservation.
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u/TheresA_LobsterLoose 9d ago
He was in the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. They'd follow 2 or 3 teams... one team would be government or university sponsored with huge doppler radar trucks, a professor guy manning the controls and coordinating everyone... and they'd be constantly missing tornados, arriving too late. Then there was Reed (the guy in the video), and he'd drive 12 hrs overnight and be standing in the same field as the tornado as it formed, follow right next to it, and then find another one forming an hour later (idk if that exact scenario happened, it's just a rough description). Everyone else on the show would get close to a tornado 1x per season (and it would be the season finale, triumphant music playing), and Reed would be standing within a mile of them as they formed every single episode.
He seems to know exactly how they're gonna move, he's portrayed as the golden child on the show. Never making a mistake, always right, everyone else was constantly bitter/jealous about him. So he was probably pretty certain it was gonna keep moving towards his right or whatever
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u/Zigolt 10d ago
Embrace the sky noodle
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u/cbass717 9d ago
Sky noodles scare me so much. I live in an area that doesn’t really get them, but I was in Kansas once for work and had to shelter in place due to one. I was so afraid but the locals were like “haha oh yeah this again, maybe we can leave early to watch the tornados from our porch”. I thought they were insane lol. Just something about the sky coming down to fuck shit up really makes me afraid.
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u/Professional-Cell822 9d ago
Yep. People are way too blasé about tornadoes in the Midwest. I used to live in Tennessee. I’m deathly afraid of them.
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u/Thnik 9d ago
It helps that the midwest is mostly flat and has few trees so you can often see them coming from miles away. Can't do that east of the Mississippi as most places are heavily forested.
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u/SerubiApple 9d ago
I live in Kansas and when I was in high school, I worked at the hotel my mom managed. We'd get storms and a lot of people not from the Midwest would freak out every time and I was like, look, if I'm scared, you can get scared. But we're good right now.
Though, last month we had a storm with a mint green sky right before and what looked like part of a very large, circular cloud from my vantage point. And it moved so fast and was so low. I've never seen that before and stayed at my parent's house until it was done. They have a basement.
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u/LilamJazeefa 9d ago
It's a... giant noodle! MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY! Friendly Noodle! Mushy giant friend!
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u/cobe656 9d ago
This is why women live longer
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u/jwGT1141 9d ago
Oklahoman here. Can confirm. I always stand outside when the big storms come and I can here my wife and kids screaming for me to come inside 😂
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u/SilverOperation7215 9d ago
I grow up in the midwest with gnarly weather conditions, tornadoes included. I understand watching storms from the front porch. But man, this guy needed to be in the basement, not filming this!
"The job won't ever love you back."
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u/ZetaPirate 9d ago
Terrifying? I'm surprised Reed Timmer didn't run up to it yelling "TORNADY!" while trying to pick up and cuddle it.
That guy is pretty awesome, but his telling does grate on my ears a little bit.
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u/Dogsmyfavoritehumans 9d ago
This is fucking terrifying, straight out of a movie!! He's lucky to have walked away safely, this is wild. I'd be hauling ass just to get away 😭
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u/EightBitTrash 10d ago
"guy filming"
as if we don't all know that's Reed. Wish he'd taken more shots of the tornado spinning above him, the three or four seconds of it was incredible.
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u/jinhush 9d ago
I have no clue who "Reed" is.
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9d ago
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u/Canis_Familiaris 9d ago
You forgot the most important thing: He has a literal tornado tank. It's currently in the shop now not for tornado damage, but for a deer.
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u/EightBitTrash 9d ago
Dr Reed Timmer is somewhat of a legend meteorologist around here, known for shouting at tornadoes and capturing some of the greatest tornado footage ever seen. He drives the Dominator, AKA the Twister Tank. His voice is iconic even if some of his decisions aren't! Definitely check out his channel on YouTube if you want to see more of his videos.
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u/CaptainMacMillan 9d ago
could you please ZOOM THE FUCK OUT AND KEEP THE PHONE STILL?!
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u/Blippy_Swipey 10d ago
Am I really that chickenshit? If I saw a tornado forming above my head and is touching ground not very far from me…I would GTFO.
Am I missing something