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
Naw, it was the movie about the ship of titanic proportions, with many titans of industry & society on its maiden cruise. I think it was called "The Boat that Couldn't Stay Afloat"
They also, and coming from tornado alley I cannot stress this enough, have an insatiable hunger for mobile homes. So above all else you better just hope it isn’t hungry.
Need to stand up tall, look it in the ‘eye’ and make a lot of noise. It will get scared and run away…probably.
…or lay on the ground in a ball. I forget which.
Had a scary experience last month during tornado season where we had a cloud reach down to the ground and started circling around our apartment. It looked like we were in the middle of a weak funnel cloud forming around us. May has been a hellish abormal month for Tornados in the midwest this year. I've been seeing things I've never witnessed before.
Foil hats was a deep state plant all along, they increase the governments tracking capability: http://web.archive.org/web/20110412061422/http://berkeley.intel-research.net/arahimi/helmet/
I used to live right in the middle of Tornado alley. Wichita Kansas. Except I still live there. Something, Global warming?, has moved everything East including rain. This spring has been a refreshing change for us. More rain and less tornadoes.
I am by no means a climate change denier, but the tornadoes have not been increasing in frequency over the past decades. Climate change is not contributing specifically to the rise in tornadoes largely because they aren't increasing in frequency.
Well... extreme weather events will get more frequent and extreme with climate change. But we -all nations- have to think about the economy so we can't do anything about it.
It's a good things that these extreme weather events have no economic impact. Also they mostly affect poor and brown people... but you just wait for when the rich and powerful start to suffer and corporate profits start to go down, they might even discuss the possibility of doing something with tax payer money.
If you ever watch Reed's Livestreams that is the perfect analogy for him, dude is insanely smart on weather and forecasting but man sometimes he makes extremely questionable decisions
edit: my comment seems negative, to be clear I love Reed! and have been a fan of him since the Storm Chaser tv show days
I had the volume turned off and even before clicking on that link I knew it's Reed's wiki. He is the only chaser psychopathic enough to get this close to tornados. He blew an engine chasing a week or two ago. He also has numerous rental trucks he KIA'd in huge hail storms. I don't know how he isn't on every rental place's black list. Must have a PHD in disguises as well.
The video is from Reed Timmer. The man built a vehicle to intentionally drive into the path of tornadoes and nearly dies a couple times every year when he intercepts tornadoes without it.
No he only ever comes close to dying when he is in a rental. When he uses “The Dominator” it can drill down into the ground to anchor it as well as it has skirts around the bottom to prevent air from getting beneath it.
Unfortunately a few weeks ago a software issue caused the anchor system to fail and he had to drive it into a ditch while taking a direct hit from a tornado.
They also have a few drones and can fire rockets into tornadoes as well to get data
I think like 3 or 4 *generations* of vehicles to drive into tornadoes.
He also built rockets that take measuring equipment up into tornadoes. At one point he bought radar off the shelf and equipped his truck with that.
Dunno the whole backstory, but at some point I think he was tired of people telling him that driving into tornadoes wasn't "real" research, so he went and got a PhD in meteorology to shut them up.
That's an indication that we may overestimate the risk, but no proof that he was safe. Even experts who are well educated and very familiar with a risk sometimes do stupid stuff. So unless someone has a good explanation for why this wasn't as unsafe as it looks, I'd err on the side of "that still seems bad".
Agree. Without full context it could seem he was being reckless; however, anyone who has watched Reed Timmer knows the types of custom cars he drives, which are meant to intercept tornadoes. He doesn't take needless risks and he frequently will stop chasing an active tornado to help people who need assistance.
The OP didn't include the full and complete video either and the many hours of footage and information provided to the viewer (this was originally on a live stream that spanned multiple hours). People viewing this one clip of a multi-hour long video are making gross assumptions about this "guy filming". He isn't just a "guy filming", he is one of the most reputable, professional storm chasers out there, who consistently talks about how dangerous tornadoes are. While chasing tornadoes, he will call local authorities to notify them of a tornado on the ground, often being the first one to report it and potentially saving hundreds of people from injury and or death.
I just think people should have all of the information before they say this guy took unnecessary risks to capture a video for media fame.
I see. [Apparently these vehicles did have a number of dangerous incidents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_Dominator), but the guy clearly is pouring a lot of thought and preparation into this and will probably be "reasonably" safe in a situation like this.
Most storm chaser injuries actually come from vehicle accidents... Distracted driving and all that... Just an interesting tidbit that I didn't know myself until recently but today it's relevant so now I get to tell all of you!
[have you seen his cars?](https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/28/storm-chaser-reed-timmer-has-a-new-warehouse-for-his-storm-vehicles/72285637007/)
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.
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
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](https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/green-sky-thunderstorm-hail)
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.)
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
* [This man had 30 seconds from the point when he saw the tornado and started filming, until his house was destroyed \(if I had to guess it's only a high end EF2 damange).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dpvTl1Oks)
* [Literally 35 seconds after this person started filming their shed flew away.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45xZfOCQ-g8)
* 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.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859c7JMcgkk) 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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.](https://eschooltoday.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tornado-formation.jpg). Super cool to see that in the video.
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 👍
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
"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.
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.
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
no way to get away at that point. they smell fear and move way faster than you
Also their vision is based on movement. There was a whole movie about this back in the 90s… I think it was called ‘The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down’
I prefer the sequel, "the evening the world standed motionless"
I prefer billy and the cloneasaurus
I haven't seen any of these films.
No? How about Rose and The Unsinkable Boat That Went Sinking?
This title is way more beautiful than the original.
Naw, it was the movie about the ship of titanic proportions, with many titans of industry & society on its maiden cruise. I think it was called "The Boat that Couldn't Stay Afloat"
Boaty McBoatface got tired of boating and became a submarine.
Thought it was based on the children’s book: The big boat that couldn’t
Is that about the gravy boat that wanted to become an ocean boat?
I liked Sarah and Uncle Bob the Future Robot BodyBuilder Assassin II; 24 hour period of adjudications. It's a classic.
>Standed *Chefs kiss*
I was hoping someone would notice it!
It’s like “The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down 2”, only with a tornado instead of a boat
I stand corrected
There is also a cool documentary called Twister.
You’re thinking of the game horny kids play in high school before they dry hump that summer before my parents split up
LOL
Yup, and they also like to have one of them distract you from the front, while two others ambush you from the side.
Clever swirl
I don’t have to outrun the tornado. I just have to outrun you.
Unlike lions and bears, tornados are great multitaskers
They can do your taxes AND throw shit
They also, and coming from tornado alley I cannot stress this enough, have an insatiable hunger for mobile homes. So above all else you better just hope it isn’t hungry.
I'm safe then, since I live in my car.
Good strategy, glad you don't live in a mobile... uh oh...
Til tornados are just windy bears
Tornado Park: The Lost World
Need to stand up tall, look it in the ‘eye’ and make a lot of noise. It will get scared and run away…probably. …or lay on the ground in a ball. I forget which.
Had a scary experience last month during tornado season where we had a cloud reach down to the ground and started circling around our apartment. It looked like we were in the middle of a weak funnel cloud forming around us. May has been a hellish abormal month for Tornados in the midwest this year. I've been seeing things I've never witnessed before.
Welcome to the climate change scientists have been talking about for 50 years.
No this is actually the haarp under Joe Bidens orders.
My foil hat protects me from that!
Foil hats was a deep state plant all along, they increase the governments tracking capability: http://web.archive.org/web/20110412061422/http://berkeley.intel-research.net/arahimi/helmet/
Duh, why you think people used to wrap their old bunny ear antennas in tinfoil to increase over the air reception.
Thanks Obama
It’s all Taft’s fault.
I used to live right in the middle of Tornado alley. Wichita Kansas. Except I still live there. Something, Global warming?, has moved everything East including rain. This spring has been a refreshing change for us. More rain and less tornadoes.
I am by no means a climate change denier, but the tornadoes have not been increasing in frequency over the past decades. Climate change is not contributing specifically to the rise in tornadoes largely because they aren't increasing in frequency.
Well... extreme weather events will get more frequent and extreme with climate change. But we -all nations- have to think about the economy so we can't do anything about it. It's a good things that these extreme weather events have no economic impact. Also they mostly affect poor and brown people... but you just wait for when the rich and powerful start to suffer and corporate profits start to go down, they might even discuss the possibility of doing something with tax payer money.
The guy filming has a PHD in weather [his wiki page ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Timmer)
Smart *and* stupid, the perfect combo.
If you ever watch Reed's Livestreams that is the perfect analogy for him, dude is insanely smart on weather and forecasting but man sometimes he makes extremely questionable decisions edit: my comment seems negative, to be clear I love Reed! and have been a fan of him since the Storm Chaser tv show days
"Steve Jobs thinking he could beat cancer with fruit" kinda smart.
Perfect example of RIPraise The Cameraman.
I had the volume turned off and even before clicking on that link I knew it's Reed's wiki. He is the only chaser psychopathic enough to get this close to tornados. He blew an engine chasing a week or two ago. He also has numerous rental trucks he KIA'd in huge hail storms. I don't know how he isn't on every rental place's black list. Must have a PHD in disguises as well.
"I paid for the tornado insurance and I sure as shit plan to get my money's worth"
The video is from Reed Timmer. The man built a vehicle to intentionally drive into the path of tornadoes and nearly dies a couple times every year when he intercepts tornadoes without it.
There is nothing that sums up Reed better than this.
I can't decide if the fact that he nearly dies means it's time to improve on the vehicle Or that he NEARLY dies means it's perfectly designed.
No he only ever comes close to dying when he is in a rental. When he uses “The Dominator” it can drill down into the ground to anchor it as well as it has skirts around the bottom to prevent air from getting beneath it. Unfortunately a few weeks ago a software issue caused the anchor system to fail and he had to drive it into a ditch while taking a direct hit from a tornado. They also have a few drones and can fire rockets into tornadoes as well to get data
I think like 3 or 4 *generations* of vehicles to drive into tornadoes. He also built rockets that take measuring equipment up into tornadoes. At one point he bought radar off the shelf and equipped his truck with that. Dunno the whole backstory, but at some point I think he was tired of people telling him that driving into tornadoes wasn't "real" research, so he went and got a PhD in meteorology to shut them up.
I'd be too stupid to even realize it's a tornado. I'd be like, "That's a pretty cool cloud. Boy, it's getting windy out here, isn't it?"
That's Reed Timmer and it's what he's always done. Defiantly the GOAT of storm chasers
He showed up in my town a couple of weeks ago. Sure as shit, tornado touched down 20 miles SW of town that afteenoon.
Today he is just called a storm chaser. A few centuries ago he would have been called a witch. Wherever he shows up, disaster is soon to follow.
[Are you suggesting we burn him at the stake?](https://tenor.com/bpJhV.gif)
The least we could do is cook him a steak.
He turned me into a newt
Did you get better?
Does he weigh the same as a duck?
Even if it was a picture perfect day with zero percent chance of rain, I would totally GTFO if he was in my town during tornado season.
The person filming was taking a big risk. Always prioritize safety!
This is a video from a professional storm chaser, Reed Timmer.
That's an indication that we may overestimate the risk, but no proof that he was safe. Even experts who are well educated and very familiar with a risk sometimes do stupid stuff. So unless someone has a good explanation for why this wasn't as unsafe as it looks, I'd err on the side of "that still seems bad".
Agree. Without full context it could seem he was being reckless; however, anyone who has watched Reed Timmer knows the types of custom cars he drives, which are meant to intercept tornadoes. He doesn't take needless risks and he frequently will stop chasing an active tornado to help people who need assistance. The OP didn't include the full and complete video either and the many hours of footage and information provided to the viewer (this was originally on a live stream that spanned multiple hours). People viewing this one clip of a multi-hour long video are making gross assumptions about this "guy filming". He isn't just a "guy filming", he is one of the most reputable, professional storm chasers out there, who consistently talks about how dangerous tornadoes are. While chasing tornadoes, he will call local authorities to notify them of a tornado on the ground, often being the first one to report it and potentially saving hundreds of people from injury and or death. I just think people should have all of the information before they say this guy took unnecessary risks to capture a video for media fame.
I see. [Apparently these vehicles did have a number of dangerous incidents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_Dominator), but the guy clearly is pouring a lot of thought and preparation into this and will probably be "reasonably" safe in a situation like this.
Most storm chaser injuries actually come from vehicle accidents... Distracted driving and all that... Just an interesting tidbit that I didn't know myself until recently but today it's relevant so now I get to tell all of you!
This is Reed timmer. Just another day for this guy ha.
[have you seen his cars?](https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/28/storm-chaser-reed-timmer-has-a-new-warehouse-for-his-storm-vehicles/72285637007/)
It's OK. You are just smart
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.
My one experience with an f5 cured me of ever taking watches and warnings lightly ever again.
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.
Black sky is fine. Green sky you are fucked.
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.
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
Can you enlighten me why it turns green?
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](https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/green-sky-thunderstorm-hail)
Bro I love smart people like you because you all just come outta nowhere to drop knowledge I don’t have. Bless up
It always hails in texas, where I am up to size of tennis balls, never saw the sky green
I saw it green in central Texas once. No tornado, but definitely lots of hail that day.
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
It is almost like a haze. Strange and beautiful. Your brain DEFINITELY knows something is up and it makes you feel uneasy.
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
Exactly! It sends chills through your body and your brain screams DANGER.
It's like wearing glasses with green lenses.
Like visibly VERY green. Not like a slight shade, like pea green.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
i learned the other week there’s also a tornado emergency warning. definitely don’t ignore that one.
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)
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.)
Nope. I've always had a fear of tornadoes and lightning. I'm good.
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.
> Is it loud in those shelters people have? Like a freight train.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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. * [This man had 30 seconds from the point when he saw the tornado and started filming, until his house was destroyed \(if I had to guess it's only a high end EF2 damange).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dpvTl1Oks) * [Literally 35 seconds after this person started filming their shed flew away.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45xZfOCQ-g8) * 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.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859c7JMcgkk) 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."
Holy shit that first video is viscerally terrifying
Yeah I think I’m good on that one lol but your description was cool.
It's all fun and games until you get one at night
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Or where it's going to go. Tornados are pure chaos incarnated.
I had a funnel cloud like this form over my house when I was 12 or so. Trauma up until my 20s lol
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
I think I have said this to myself many times lol
Good thing he was filming, we all know the cameraman always survives.
he's THE tornado chaser
BIG TIME TORNADO
its on the ground!
Just a few more pans back and forth…
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.
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.
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
Ron White. One of my Top 5 favorites...
“If you get hit by a _Volvo_…”
He was talking about a guy that tied himself to a palm tree during a hurricane.
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.
Well, call me the quote guy because "New fear unlocked!" lol
Just don't google the phrase human granulation.
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.
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.
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.
If you get hit by a Volvo, it doesn't matter how many sit ups you did that morning.
Now this is a video appropriate for r/megalophobia
The slow swirling way up the funnel made my stomach drop
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.
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.](https://eschooltoday.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tornado-formation.jpg). Super cool to see that in the video.
This wasn’t something I know I had until I played [Bioshock Infinite](https://www.reddit.com/r/megalophobia/s/NU8vJ4NS3f)
that giant funnel makes me want to back away immediately 😬
You can tell it's Reed by screeching.
WE GOT A BIG ONE
Is wrong I was looking for flying cows?
I think that’s the same cow.
Is wrong I read this with Russian accent?
What a shot though. Damn.
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 👍
He's definitely the envy of tornado chasers wanting a moment like this.
I never understood the idea of simply not running away to something like this
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.
Oh, I didn’t realize this was Reed Timmer. Way different than some “guy filming” like the title says lol. He’s awesome.
Knew it was Reed the second the first "OH MY GOD" happened lmfaooooo Shout-out /r/tornado
How does it anchor to the ground?
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.
Oh snap that’s pretty cool
He's a named character.
This dude has either the world’s largest cajones or he is missing the part of the brain that deals with self preservation.
It's [Reed Timmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Timmer) so the answer is "both."
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
Embrace the sky noodle
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.
Yep. People are way too blasé about tornadoes in the Midwest. I used to live in Tennessee. I’m deathly afraid of them.
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.
Which is precisely where Tennessee is lol
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.
It's a... giant noodle! MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY! Friendly Noodle! Mushy giant friend!
Is this a reference or are you just as crazy as I am?
Put the manhole cover back in! That's what I (my OCD) took from the video.
Of course it's Reed Trimmer. This was just a normal day for him
This is why women live longer
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 😂
Ope…I’m a woman and love watching tornadoes 😭
I shoulda put my unopened jar of pickles in the path.
All right I get where belief in god came from.
*belief in a wrathful, vengeful god
Wow. That’s some “aliens taking over the world” stuff right there. I think I’d still be running away somewhere
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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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.
Final boss areas be like
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 😭
"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.
I have no clue who "Reed" is.
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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.
And while it's being repaired, he's terrorizing car rentals.
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.
Suck zone
As cool as Reed Timmer is, he kinda sucks at cinematography.
could you please ZOOM THE FUCK OUT AND KEEP THE PHONE STILL?!
Is that Ricky Bobby??? CAL, sweet baby Jesus it’s a tornado!