I got the pulsatin' rhythmical remedy ([info]busychild424) wrote,
2004-06-13 01:54:00
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tornado pictures

I finally got tornado pictures. This is the one and only cool thing that Kansas has that a place like, oh, say, Oregon doesn't have.

This is what a wall cloud looks like as it's just starting to drop. Isn't this a pretty picture all by itself? I'm looking East at this point.


Here's a good wall cloud picture.


After a while, the thing moved to my South and then dropped a funnel cloud - hence the different looking shot here. It moved away before dropping this tornado. This is what a funnel cloud looks like.




Tornado on the ground.


So, that was awesome.

What, you're not satisfied?

Your expectations of me are higher than that?

Okay, you're right. That was the SECOND and much more lame tornado that this storm dropped. Here's the first one.

When I first got into Mulvane, this huge freaking storm cell was rotating counterclockwise. The ENTIRE THING was rotating. It was scary, thrilling, exciting, I was shaky and my adrenaline was pumping.




I called Tandra and said "Baby, everything is good, I'm okay, and I'm about to see a tornado."

Sure enough, not five minutes later, this happened. This is what a real, well-defined funnel cloud actually looks like. The white specks are hail.


The hail was noisy, but there wasn't much rain and the wind was pretty still. You can see from the angle of the hail falling how little wind there was.




Once it touched down (right about two miles away from where I was), I forgot to be scared and shaky and I suddenly got very calm. It was cool. Dig all the hail on the ground. It got up to about golf ball size or a little bigger, but most of the hail I encountered was quarter size or smaller.


It continued to grow and gather strength:


Then it popped back up a little bit and started moving away. There was still damaging rotation on the ground at this point even though you can't see it. What you can see right at the tip of the funnel cloud is one of those big-ass golf ball size hailstones. They were big enough that I could visually pick them up well before they hit the ground and I could watch them bounce off the ground or explode on the asphalt. Also, note the rainbow.




It started moving, so I did too.


I gave chase (don't you love the rainbow in the shot? It was utterly spectacular to see in person.):


More hail. Lots more hail. At this point a ridiculously strong wind was sweeping across the field from what I thought was left to right, but looking at the hail it must have been right to left. It was rocking my car from side to side. Had to be 60-70 mph winds.


Also very heavy rain at this point.


Then, suddenly, the wind calmed, the rain and hail stopped, and the sun came out from behind the clouds near the horizon behind my head, lighting the tornado up bright white as it changed shape:






Starting to weaken and dissipate.


This one's not in chronological order. I saved it for last because it's my favorite.
Tags: photography, weather

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[info]jenniker

June 13 2004, 00:24:38 UTC 7 years ago

Incredibly cool. I can't wait to show them to Grandpa. I don't really know what, if anything, he saw. He's an incredibly stubborn man, so I don't know if he was gawking or in the basement.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 01:40:53 UTC 7 years ago

:-)

[info]pastorofmuppets

June 13 2004, 00:40:59 UTC 7 years ago

If I find out you got blown around a barn with Helen Hunt, I'm gonna smack you.

Seriously, though, fantastic pictures, bro.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 01:38:18 UTC 7 years ago

You can have all the Helen Hunt you want, she doesn't do it for me. :-) And besides, don't you know that movie was totally exaggerated? ;-)

Thanks. It was a hell of a cool time getting them.

[info]kneelengthskirt

June 13 2004, 00:54:19 UTC 7 years ago

zen focus master *bows*


rad shots josh.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 01:36:30 UTC 7 years ago

Thanks. It was awesome.

[info]tripping_fruit

June 13 2004, 02:02:14 UTC 7 years ago

God damn, dude, those are awesome. I stood around at my house in very far southwest Wichita looking at what I believed were funnels forming...but I was just too far away too tell, too much shit in the way to take a photo. These are amazing, especially for someone who watched the clouds spiraling into the funnels from a distance. I've never seen an actual tornado touch down before (well, that makes sense I've lived in Kansas for all of 6 months or so), but these are awesome.

I'm just glad all my family in Mulvane and Derby didn't get hurt or blow away ^^

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:40:40 UTC 7 years ago

Thanks. :-) It was a freaking rush.

[info]misterx

June 13 2004, 05:56:26 UTC 7 years ago

How freaking awesome is that. Tornados, with rainbow no less. You totally suck. I'm really jealous.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:37:58 UTC 7 years ago

The fact that the rainbow was there was just gravy, man. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to not only see that, but to also at least have the presence of mind to know what a great shot that would make and snag a couple. :-)

Thank you.

[info]vivacious1nj

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]vivacious1nj

7 years ago

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[info]sicarii

June 13 2004, 06:49:49 UTC 7 years ago

How close were you to them? Did you see any major damage from them?

You are a brave soul.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:37:06 UTC 7 years ago

Let me answer that like this: While I was chasing the storm down K-15, I crossed the damage path it made (driving over a downed power line in the process) while the tornado was still on the ground. So yes, I was close. I was still chasing it, so I didn't pay much attention to the damage, but I did have to get into the oncoming lane to avoid limbs in the road. Later on the radio I heard that there was a house right there whose roof had been blown off, but again, I was chasing the tornado at the time and didn't see it myself.

[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]barefoot_dyke

June 13 2004, 06:59:02 UTC 7 years ago

hi there ... i came here via [info]misterx's journal and i just wanted to say those are some awesome pictures you got there!! i have such a love-hate relationship with tornados, they scare me to death but they also fascinate me too. i have never seen one but i hope to some day ... from a distance away though, like you did. hahahaha

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:34:44 UTC 7 years ago

Thank you. :-) I don't have a love-hate relationship - I guess I'm too stupid to be too scared of them.

I'd seen one tornado before in my life, from a very far distance, and it was nothing as spectacular as this one - it was more like the one at the top of this post. I'm thrilled I finally captured one. I've lived here in tornado alley for 25 years - it's about time. :-)

[info]misterx

June 13 2004, 07:01:55 UTC 7 years ago

(hands title of "bastard" back to you)

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:31:25 UTC 7 years ago

*gracefully accepts*

[info]cyan_blue

June 13 2004, 10:44:44 UTC 7 years ago

Incredibly beautiful!

How much certainty do you have, when photographing these, that they're not going to suddenly turn and barrel down in your direction?

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:27:46 UTC 7 years ago

Uhhh... certainty is a relative term.

The dangerous part of this storm, the part that was producing the hook echo and the tornado, had been moving East-Northeast for a good half hour before I got there. I had time to hear about it on the radio, leave the house, come back, go put gas in the car, and then get down to Mulvane, and it was moving in pretty much a straight line the entire time. Also, once the funnel cloud dropped and developed into a tornado, it continued to move in that same direction, in more or less a straight line. So one can be reasonably confident that it will continue to move in that direction, which is exactly what it did.

On the other hand, it is a tornado, so one must take care not to get tooclose.

I think a bigger danger is that the storm would drop another tornado behind me or something while I was watching the first one. I made sure to stay alert and aware and keep my eyes out for anything like that, but that never happened.

[info]barefoot_dyke

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]aliza250

June 13 2004, 10:57:07 UTC 7 years ago

Way cool.

[info]busychild424

June 14 2004, 06:58:28 UTC 7 years ago

Thank you!

[info]salilus

June 13 2004, 11:38:30 UTC 7 years ago

Damn, these are amazing; just incredible. My other half and I are just agog over these pictures... Brava.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 11:41:21 UTC 7 years ago

You can say bravo, it's okay. ;-)

And thank you!! I'm pretty proud of them.

[info]salilus

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]salilus

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]coraleycoral

June 13 2004, 13:34:34 UTC 7 years ago

Ok, fine. I'll let you have your moment.

Your pictures are incredible, as they always are. And i'll admit the rush that would come from being there is nothing i've ever experienced. (I mean that in regards to content, not magnitude.)

Josh is cool. Josh takes great shots. Josh experiences neet things. Blah, blah, blah,.......

But still,.... I swear if I strapped a video camera to my car and took my usual morning drive, then sent it to you, you'd be packing you bags and making flight arangements within a 2 hours.

But enough of the Move Josh to Oregon Campaign. You did good. Your shots are good, your comentary is good, the rainbow is good, the whole post is all around good. I'm an extremely critical person and I'd say that right now you should be feeling the same warm fuzzies I felt when I posted my Evo story and started getting a dozen comments a day for a week straight.

Very impressive!

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:36:05 UTC 7 years ago

I am feeling that proud warm fuzzy. Means something for you to say all this, too! Thanks.

[info]deedeebythebay

June 13 2004, 14:24:12 UTC 7 years ago

Re: Wow!

Having lived through enough of these, it is cool to see them through someone else's lense. They are beautiful while still terrifying!

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:35:11 UTC 7 years ago

Re: Wow!

Thanks!

[info]whytraven

June 13 2004, 15:02:39 UTC 7 years ago

This is awesome. I have never seen a tornado...I'm truly impressed.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:34:54 UTC 7 years ago

Thank you :-)

[info]smilingcheshire

June 13 2004, 17:31:03 UTC 7 years ago

Here from over at Tandra's journal!

I have to say how AMAZING these are! You captured them so well...nature is so intense.....wow.

Laters :)

And oh - I'm in awe of the one with the rainbow.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:32:26 UTC 7 years ago

Yeah, the fact that the rainbow happened to show up in the same place was pretty amazing. Thanks!

[info]jeshika

June 13 2004, 18:10:37 UTC 7 years ago

Random person here saying: WHOA, those are awesome!!!! :O

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:31:51 UTC 7 years ago

Thanks, random person!

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[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:30:15 UTC 7 years ago

Thanks :-)

[info]eatsdirt

June 13 2004, 19:33:36 UTC 7 years ago

amazing pictures. i probably will never experience a tornado since i live in NY and will only have video footage from the news and pictures like these to know what it's like.

[info]busychild424

June 13 2004, 20:29:53 UTC 7 years ago

It was my first experience up close. It was pretty amazing.

[info]tama_grey

June 14 2004, 08:33:19 UTC 7 years ago

Re: oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Oh my sweet tasty Jesus! You are da man. I quiver at your awesomeness. [lowly worm-esque bows/scrapes]

May I please gank the shots to put on my computer at home?

I'm about to orgasm just looking at them, so I'll sign off now... najintia at yahoo dot com (your newest fan)

[info]busychild424

June 14 2004, 08:47:17 UTC 7 years ago

Re: oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thankya :-)

[info]daltong

June 14 2004, 10:07:16 UTC 7 years ago

Holy moly. Tornadoes scare me so much, even though I've only been near them twice. They star in my nightmares pretty often.

Seeing these pictures--and they seem so close!--amazes me. I am awed that you could deal with getting so close to it. It actually makes me a little less scared.

Thanks for posting these. (I got to them through [info]merde's journal.)

[info]busychild424

June 14 2004, 11:17:39 UTC 7 years ago

You're welcome.

This tornado, at its strongest, was rated an F2 or F3. The most powerful, the ones that get to be a mile wide and stuff, are F5s. This was nowhere close to that powerful. It was much prettier than those huge ones too. :-)

[info]besmoted

June 14 2004, 10:45:57 UTC 7 years ago

These are some of the most beautiful photographs I've ever seen. Thanks for the opportunity to view them. My girlfriend I drooling jealously over my shoulder. Just amazing.

[info]busychild424

June 14 2004, 11:16:25 UTC 7 years ago

Thank you :-)

[info]branwen83

June 14 2004, 23:30:26 UTC 7 years ago

I came across your photos via bigbrother2084 and they are the coolest I've ever seen. I have lived in Wichita for a total of 8 years and I have never seen a tornado.
Would you mind if I printed those off to send to my Grandad? He'd love to see them, but he lives in the dark ages still, no internet.

[info]busychild424

June 15 2004, 07:45:42 UTC 7 years ago

Go right ahead! :-) Just don't use them in any publication or make any money on them! :-)

[info]branwen83

7 years ago

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[info]izarnia

June 16 2004, 13:37:32 UTC 7 years ago

My supervisor at work is totally nuts about tornadoes. I'm going to give him your site so he can see your photos. They're great, you truly bring the beauty to the storm!

[info]busychild424

June 16 2004, 13:43:42 UTC 7 years ago

Thanks :-)

[info]izarnia

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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[info]art_thirst

June 16 2004, 16:28:12 UTC 7 years ago

I was living in Biscayne Bay (Miami, FL) back in the 80s when a water spout formed a couple miles from me. It looked really kewl but, it's only a tornado that forms over water and very dangerous. The closest I've been to a tornado was when I was about 4 yrs. old and one ripped up Xenia, OH (1950s).

[info]busychild424

June 17 2004, 06:42:09 UTC 7 years ago

They're powerful and scary, aren't they? They commend respect. :-)

[info]pet_piggy

June 18 2004, 09:56:29 UTC 7 years ago

awesome!

Hi! I stumbled upon your journal by accident, and I must say those pictures are breathtaking!!! I LOVE the pictures with the rainbow... very surreal seeing something so dangerous and something so beautiful at the same time!

I've been in 2 storm cells that produced tornados, unfortunately the second time I was with a friend in her car and the car was completely RUINED by hail stones!!! That tornado hit about 8 miles from where we were at, and I must admit I was a bit shaken up!

I figured I'd share these pictures with you, since you might be interested... These were taken a few weeks back here in Western Pennsylvania... everyone was sitting around anxious to see what this would turn into, but nothing came out of it.





Thank you for sharing those amazing photos!!!

-Heidi

[info]busychild424

June 18 2004, 11:23:39 UTC 7 years ago

Unfortunately I can't see those photos. Thanks for the kind words and the story though!

[info]pet_piggy

7 years ago

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[info]busychild424

7 years ago

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