Tornadoes

	<=== What's it like to look up at a tornado passing within 200 yards of you? This shot when I was with Tim Samaras' crew southwest of Hill City, Kansas on June 9, 2005 says it all, even if it is a bit grainy at 400 ISO. What a sight!		<=== This is the same tornado on June 9, 2005 after it had morphed into several shapes as it headed east. Here I'm looking east-northeast through the radar "hook" of heavy rain and hail wrapping around the back side of the tornado.
	<=== Two tornadoes were on the ground in open country northwest of Chester, Nebraska on May 24, 2004. Believe it or not, at one point 3 tornadoes were going all at once, including a landspout.		<=== This tiny tornadic supercell (radar top only 26,000 above ground) jump- started my storm chasing "career" on March 11, 1990 in Stafford County, Kansas, near my hometown of Pratt. It was associated with a 500 mb cold-core low, which got me interested in tornadoes and small supercells that can occur with such systems.
	<=== This isn't my photo, but I feel like I had a hand in it. I was nowcasting for my brother-in-law Kyle Gerstner (an excellent nature photographer) on May 15, 2003 while recuperating from kidney stone surgery, and was able to help guide Kyle to this photogenic tornado near Stratford, Texas. Courtesy of Kyle Gerstner. Check out Kyle's site at: www.kylegerstnerphotography.com.		<=== The Andover, Kansas tornado on April 26, 1991 is well known as a deadly and tragic tornado event. Here is the tornado in its early stages, moving through Haysville, looking southwest.
	<=== The Andover tornado morphed into a large wedge (rated F5) by the time it reached the town for which it is named. Here I was viewing the tornado to my north from the Kansas Turnpike after it had moved though Andover, killing 13 people.		<=== The Andover tornado had dissipated by the time I reached El Dorado, Kansas. But as part of a supercell tornado family, a new tornado soon formed over El Dorado Lake, where I took this photo looking northeast.
	<=== The new El Dorado tornado moved northeast up the Turnpike, grazing this overpass north of the lake, where the infamous "overpass" video was shot by a KSN news crew. I arrived on the scene only a couple minutes later as the tornado moved away in the background.		<=== This was my first Iowa tornado, looking west on August 26, 2004 with a supercell northeast of Hamburg, near the Missouri border.
	<=== I love observing supercell structure, particularly while a tornado is going on. Looking north-northwest at this tornado near Stuart, Nebraska on June 9, 2003, one could definitely see the "clear slot" of the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) and a short flanking line of clouds between me and the tornado.		<=== Here's the same "white" tornado on June 9, 2003, as I zoomed in and took a photo. Tornadoes sometimes appear white when sunlight filters in from the RFD, illuminating the tornado against a darker background.
	<=== This tornado stirred up some dust beneath a large ominous wall cloud in Kent County, Texas on June 12, 2005, looking west. I was with Tim Samaras' National Geographic crew at the time.		<=== The day before (June 11, 2005), we observed this brief tornado southeast of Amarillo, Texas. We were looking at an impressive wall cloud to our north, when I happened to glance westward in time to see this funnel come out of a seemingly weak occluded updraft. Sometimes you have to remember to look around :-).
	<===On May 15, 1991, I storm chased a sharp wind shift/trough feature in southwest Kansas after I got off work in Pratt. Storms developed north-south directly on this boundary, and several landspout tornadoes occurred as a result of stretching along the boundary. This one was visible in the distance beneath an updraft to my north-northwest near Copeland, Kansas.		<=== The very next day (May 16, 1991), I had business in Wichita. On my way back to Pratt, I checked out an isolated developing storm (no brilliant forecasting here) southwest of Wichita . It became a supercell and produced this very photogenic tornado in open country southwest of Clearwater, Kansas. Here the tornado was about a half mile to my south, and in the shrinking stage near the latter part of its life cycle.
	<=== This is the same tornado (May 16, 1991) early in its life cycle during the organizing stage, looking southwest about 3/4 of a mile away.		<=== Another tornado occured later from the same supercell, this time on the southeast side of Wichita near McConnell Air Force Base. It only lasted a minute or two with my view looking south from the Kansas Turnpike, but did damage to several structures.
	<=== Many storm chasers were on a tornadic storm in northwest Kansas on June 3, 1999 near Almena. The supercell produced this long-lived tornado (more than 30 minutes on the ground) that did damage to a few farmsteads.		<=== Looking northwest with the same June 3, 1999 storm, the large tornado near Almena at times became wrapped in rain, and was occasionally difficult to see.
	<=== Yet another photo from the June 3, 1999 Almena supercell, this is the rope stage just before the tornado dissipated well northeast of Almena. The tornado at this point was quite visible in sunlight at the back of the storm, looking north.		<=== This short-lived tornado happened on September 18, 1996 in the Oklahoma panhandle near the town of Baker. Looking northwest, a broad rear-flank downdraft (RFD), as seen by the "clear" slot at center and left, was evident prior to and during the tornado, at dusk.
	<=== These certainly aren't tornadoes! Instead, they are two small dust devils or weak "firewhirls" (at left) under blue skies in June 2000 over southwest Oklahoma. They originated from the wheat stubble fire at right (heated rising air with vertical stretching), and lasted several minutes as they moved away from the fire. I happened to catch these while driving to Kansas from Texas.		<=== A supercell produced several tornadoes in sequence over Turner County of southeast South Dakota on June 24, 2003. This tornado was the third one observed, northeast of Centerville, looking north.
	<=== This dusty tornado in open country over Thayer County, Nebraska on May 24, 2004, moved slowly southeastward, not far from the Kansas border. My view was to the west-northwest.		<=== One of the most beautiful sunlit tornadoes I've seen occured near Mulvane, Kansas on June 12, 2004. Though narrow, this intense tornado during its rope stage completely demolished a home (F3 intensity) while I watched looking northeast. Thankfully, the occupants had taken cover, and no one was hurt.