I can't wait to see your vid on the January tornadoes we had yesterday! I saw your reports, and because of this video, I was out chasing too, probably very close to you!
I was not expecting Styro, but I'm amused as hell that I see you here haha Stay safe chasing lad, hopefully one day we'll see some best of StyroStorms!
Honestly, these storm spotting presentations you do should be mandatory viewing for at least the advanced spotter classes. The visuals and explanations are so easy to understand, especially the overlays you do on photos, videos and radar images. It creates a concrete connection between the theory of what should be happening, what the radar is showing, and how all of that manifests on the ground. I've attended my fair share of spotter classes and done plenty of my own research on the different topics myself, but between this video and your other presentations I have learned so much more than I did from any of those other sources. So thank you.
I completely agree with this. I'm just getting into all of this and would love some suggested courses/videos to help understand much of the information presented in this video. Is there anything you, or Skip, could recommend that would be highly beneficial to someone just starting out?
Incredible video! I learned so much watching this and there were so many great parts to this video. I loved seeing the forecast sounding overlaid on the picture of the supercell at 16:10. Plus the footage at 29:00 is amazing! The tornado formed right over you! I was out spotting on Dec 1 but was too far north and did not see any tornadoes. I certainly ate a lot of hail though. This is the first time I've watched a 30+min video on YT in its entirety. :D You've definitely earned another subscriber. Can't wait to watch more of your vids!
Thanks for the comments, and likewise nice videos. Some newb questions: Do you think some of your DIY lasers could paint a cloud in the 0.5 to 2 mile range? Too much of a divergence issue, or the cloud scatters the beam too much? Legal issues with operating outdoors? Just asking for a friend. But seriously, that kind of capability could be really useful in some of our research work.
@@skiptalbot It would be easy to put a spot on a cloud but hard to illuminate a large portion of it with a laser unless you had an enormous output power. Plus shining lasers into the sky would require special permits from likely at least the FAA and probably FDA. That being said I've considered other options for pulsed illumination at night. One would be big pyrotechnic mortars with photoflash shells, which would be relatively easy to do but probably would require a lot of hoops to jump through to do legally since they would be fired on the field. Another option would to be to build a very large flashlamp array with parabolic reflectors. It would have to be carried on a truck or other big vehicle in order to hold the capacitors, and it wouldn't be cheap, but it could very well be a controlled method to illuminate clouds. It'd be like a camera flash but thousands of times bigger, and may not require special permits to operate. I wish I could find it now but I have read some old papers on using these types of arrays to light up the ground from several thousand feet up in an airplane for photography. One of these days I'm gonna do some calculations to see how feasible this could be for nighttime storm illumination. :D
Thanks! Night illumination would be great for spotters. I should have been less cryptic with the application, but I was thinking more along the lines of range finding and 3D tracking/scanning of tornadoes. I've been working on vehicle mounted, servo controlled pan tilts that use PVC for a camera enclosure. I see you're doing similar stuff using PVC for laser lens housings. I could see running another PVC pan tilt with a laser in it in parallel with the camera enclosure. With the same rig on another vehicle, you could have live 3D tracking from the field. That would allow us to get all kinds of valuable measurements, size and speed information, maybe even wind speed, which is the holy grail for tornado research. I think we have enough connections in the research and academic communities to have a shot at actually getting government approval, but it's just a PVC pipe dream unless we had a guy who knew how to build laser rigs. ;)
Alright, when are you two going to do a collab? I'll be waiting. Skip could be the experienced chaser, and styro could try and produce an updraft with the enormous heating from one of his new lasers
i totally enjoy Skip's videos/synopses. i like how he acknowledges other spotters and mentors. This kid has done his homework. I highly recommend his el reno analysis. Skip deserves an honorary doctorate on the subject for his research and ability to convey complicated information to amateur enthusiasts and his footage and unique understanding of tornadoes and where they will form.
I doubt you’ll see this Skip, but I want to thank you for your time and effort creating such presentations. As a very new addition to the severe weather enthusiasts, finding information that’s possible for me to follow and understand has proven difficult. However I’ve watched and studied your posts and finally feel I’ve found my teacher! I’d give anything to meet you one day and really have a chance to learn what it takes to be a successful and helpful spotter!
Thanks for the comments, means a lot. These presentations can be helpful, but being successful requires doing it over and over and over again, be it forecasting, chasing, or spotting. There's so much pattern recognition you have to pick up on, and it usually takes a dozen or two times seeing it and experiencing it before it sinks in. Unfortunately most spotters will never get that kind of experience. A supercell capable of producing a tornado will cruise by town maybe once or twice, if that, during their entire career as a spotter. My hope is that showing these processes over and over by video, will help fill the experience gap or shorten the learning time so that spotters don't have to spend years in the field toiling with trial and error like I did.
Skip Talbot's Storm Chasing Chronicles : oh my you made my day! Thank you for such a genuine factual reply! I admire those qualities and agree 100%. I definitely understand the years it must take to fully grasp the necessary components to storm spotting and forecasting. I most certainly have a long way to go,and would want my involvement to be knowledgeable and helpful instead of a *thrill seeking* aspect. Thank you again for your hard work and dedication to the research!!
This should be required viewing for spotter classes. Excellent work. The fluid dynamics involved are just incredible. I don’t think I could begin to fathom the physics involved, it’s just so complicated.
As a seasoned weather geek and novice storm chaser (I lived in the PNW all my life until three years ago when I moved to Minnesota) I want to say I really appreciate your videos including this one. Thank you!
42 minutes just flew by. Thanks for the presentation, even though I live in the Czech Republic :). Always nice hearing you. Be safe and good luck out there!
Thanks for your videos Skip. Over time I've taken classes on meteorology, become a SkyWarn Spotter, and also successfully predicted and intercepted tornadoes. Your video on Storm Spotting and prediction is really what made my forecasts and chases come together. I'm not at the level of contribution to the greater good that you are at, but you have sure bettered my personal life by helping me be successful at what I love. Thanks again and best of luck on the future.
I never comment on videos, but I had to make an exception. Skip you did a fantastic job as always. Clear, educational, and wonderfully edited. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this presentation!
This is an excellent presentation skip up there with my favorite pecos hank who does outstanding work in this field I’ve been a active storm spotter since 1967 over 50 years and have seen a few tornados most notably since I live here in northwest Illinois some nasty ones most recent the incredible Rochelle-fairdale monster of April 9,2015 this rated Ef-4 tornado was violent and had winds exceeding 200 mph making it a f-5 and then back in 1990 while living in Schaumburg Illinois we had one of the most violent tornados in American history the Plainfield monster multi-vortex hp rain wrapped killer with winds exceeding 300 mph cape values that day were up in the 8000 kg value! I drove there the next day and the damage I saw was nothing short of apocalyptic complete devastation for 16.5 miles similar to Joplin only in a far more rural area there were vehicles thrown a mile to unrecognizable hunks of metal and a huge dumpster wrapped around a debarked tree imbedded in the tree some of the evidence of extreme winds even dr. Fujita mentioned it as being the worst tornado he had surveyed up to that time period just 2 events of worthy mention so keep up the good work I watch all your videos here
Thanks! I grew up in Bolingbrook. Plainfield, right next door, is what lit the spark to my obsession with tornadoes. I talk about it a bit in my Field Tactics video. th-cam.com/video/WL7jc4-03Uc/w-d-xo.html
That footage from Harrison/Pagel was incredible. So much detail of the tornado is visible because of the lighting conditions, and I felt a knot in my stomach watching because of how close it was to them.
As a relatively newer chaser, thank you for the all the tips including forecasting! You do great work and you videos are always informative, entertaining, and well produced.
I was on the taylorville tornado. I live in Decatur and waited all day for the cells to come to me and i am so glad i did not go west. As soon as i seen the taylorville cell blow up i somehow knew that was the one. I got there 8 min before it hit taylorville and could not believe what i was seeing, wedge tornado and power flashes like crazy. As it was happening i remember thinking, man this inflow is cold and i should have took my coat.
I live in taylorville and was watching the skywarn network and online chats all day. I left work to go home. I was hoping to get out of town to watch but by the time I was getting ready to go, I saw the wedge moving towards me and had to usher my family into the basement Shortly before it hit my house. Thank God for our Ema at the time which sounded the sirens twice to warn us of the severity. Had they not been watching, there would have been a parade marching right through the path at the exact time of the tornado. Definitely thankful for my fellow spotters. Multiple friends reached out after the storm to ask if I saw it. I said "saw it? I was in it!" Then reported to nws "attention. Taylorville, IL, 62568, massive damage. Repeat massive damage. Possible casualties. Catastrophic damage here." Scariest night of my life.
All your presentations are excellent, I have learned so much about storms--etc from watching your video's. You are an excellent teacher with just the right amount of science to make understanding of this complex subject much easier. Please keep them coming as I look forward to each of your video's.
I gotta say, this is the best “guide” I’ve seen when it comes to tornadoes. I watched all your informational videos on storms and tornadoes (the spotter guide on storm structures, very useful to me in what I do, and your forecast-spotting guide) and this is a nice add to my list. I watched the December 1st event unfold on radar and it’s the second biggest event I’ve witnessed on radar (second only to the Lee Co. Alabama EF4), and seeing how this event became what it became concerning conditions was really interesting. Also, I really liked the explanation on how mesocyclonic tornadoes form, it might not be right but only time and research will say that, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was true, it makes sense to me. Living in Italy, I don’t know if we’ll see something like this, we do get mini-supercells but I’m not aware of a “cold core” type of setup up until now, so it’s something I’ll look for more often when it comes to early and late season events, who knows. So, thanks for sharing with us this video and thanks for teaching me (and I’m sure many more people) something new, maybe useful for when I’m out documenting thunderstorms. Stay safe and have a great 2019, Skip!
I’ve always found bottom-up Tornadogenesis to be way more intuitive than a funnel descending. Primarily because I couldn’t really think of a reason for the tornado to descend to the ground, nor could I really think of a mechanism that would cause it. While not all tornadoes pull debris upwards into the sky, many do. A descending tornado would be pushing things out of the way, like a microburst. And I’ve seen explanations like “there’s really high pressure in the middle coming from the mesocyclone." But that didn’t make a lot of sense, either. But if that were the case, the tornado would be blown apart. And even if the tornado could survive, there would be no debris cloud at the bottom, because everything that got too close would be pushed out too quickly to be drawn back in. Regardless, there would still be no reason for the tornado to come down. The tornado would always remain in the cloud. And even that’s not going to happen, because there would be no decent inflow. Bottom-up, on the other hand, works perfectly. The inflow fuels the updrafts, the RFD strikes the inflow at an oblique angle, creating a warm, ground-based, cyclonic, sub-vortex generator. A long line of warm vortices continue to cluster. The vortices begin consolidate into a bigger vortex, the RFD overtakes the FFD, shutting the inflow door, and introducing cold, moist, cyclonic vortices. Those cold cyclonic vortices go up and cool the air. Air is colder as you go up, so it follows that condensation would start at the top. As the main vortex slowly cools, the condensation occurs earlier and earlier in the uptake process, giving the appearance of condensation traveling downwards. It’s also worth noting that the way I see it, the RFD doesn’t always have to overtake the FFD. As long as there are some cold, moist vortices traveling with an open inflow jet, condensation can still occur at the main vortex. This would make the case for tornadoes that seem to last forever. I dunno, I might be wrong, but that’s always been the way I see it, because it makes more sense. Hot air goes up, so it only makes sense to look at the bottom. You can also see this effect with small dust devils in sandy areas. I’ve seen huge dust devils come from smaller ones. That’s why the top-down theory didn’t make sense. The air wrapped around a rising core of hot air. Interestingly enough, I never actually knew people were considering bottom-up in the meteorology community. I thought the consensus was top-down and so I just assumed that I wasn’t getting it. I’m glad others see it, too. Edit: The bottom-up process I described can actually explain all weird tornado phenomena. Like the multi-vortex formation of El Reno, for example. It also explains invisible tornadoes, multi-vortex tornadoes, jumping tornadoes, fickle tornadoes, funnel clouds that fail to touch down, etc. And as exact as my explanation is, I still highly doubt I’m the first to think of it. I didn’t even think of it until sometime between 2008 and 2012, so I was a bit late to the party.
Excellent video and info! My father and I happened to be following the EF2 up by Moraine View. We started following the warnings down from Wapella up to Le Roy and saw some of the damage in town. Caught up to it around Moraine, but there wasn't quite enough lightning to fully spot it. Had a spooky moment where we came to the outskirts of Arrowsmith and the wind and rain all quit for about ten seconds or so, then the sirens started in town right as the wind gusts and rain picked back up again. Had another close encounter with lightning that hit a telephone pole parallel to us as we drove.
Saw this live at DuPage, was really cool stuff, and what a great sleeper day too! The clear structure present on the Bluff City supercell made these processes easy to see and illustrate Hoping for a good 2019 for all of us.
16:05 That is an amazing infograhic. When we all look at so many charts and numbers all the time it's easy to detach the data with the real life correlations. This simple graphic brings it all wonderfully back home to reality haha. Fantastic data visualization.
Thanks for the presentation, Skip! I always learn something new when watching your material. You do a fantastic job with not only capturing the storms themselves, but also with explaining how they form. I remember that day very well. My family was traveling to Peoria that night, and I spent the entire day at my computer watching radar and listening to the radio, haha xD. God bless!
Skip, I have been stating the following in comments to storm chasers for years, but the concept never seems carry over to the atmospheric scientists. As you state the macro factors of storm formation are well understood. This is the first time I have heard anyone correctly state that tornados form bottom up, kudos to you! It is the sheering of laminar inflow bands that produces the initial rolling vortex at ground levels that eventually gets sucked up transferring horizontal rotation to the vertical rising column of air. This laminar sheering is caused by the molecular stickiness of what aircraft pilots call ground effect, only in this case the ground level inflow is being slowed at the proper rate to produce a rolling wave, much like what surfers ride at the ocean. Then as I mentioned, this energy gets transferred aloft. So, what does this hypothesis allow us to predict? Tornados cannot form where wind obstacles at ground level exist!! This is because such obstacles impart chaotic flux into the fluid dynamics of the rolling wave destroying the vortex. Tornado formation requires a roughly flat plot of ground just prior to the point of updraft, the size of this area is a variable in ratio to other factors and beyond my capacity to forecast, sorry. However, if the thesis is correct, then the strategic placement of wind walls in tornado alley may one day save lives. Disclaimer: Once the rotation goes vertical there's no stopping it!! Well done, Skip.
Very informative, i have visualized the bottom up theory in my head for a while now, having you lay it out like that just helped all the pieces fall together. Thank you for your effort :)
Skip.... You blow me away (no pun intended) about how much you know about tornadoes, both in the warm and cold months. I'm also intrigued by your "ground up" theory of tornado formation. I used to live in Denver, and I saw some impressive supercells, one time right over downtown. The updraft portion of the storm seemed to be spatially too far from the downdraft portion. There was absolutely no wind at all. In fact, the usual sounds of the city were muffled, sort of like the way fresh snow muffles sound waves. I attributed this to rapidly rising air into the cloud base, which took sound waves with it. I also once saw what I called a weak tornado years later, and maybe you can clarify what I saw for me. This was during the warm months and there was an extremely dark, but small and not particularly vertically built, cloud to my east. It seemed to connect to other dark clouds to its east, but I couldn't tell if there was a lot of vertical build. Anyway, I suddenly noticed that toys and playground objects which had been on the ground between two rows of apartments were lifting well into the air and flying around in a circular pattern. It was obvious to me that there localized higher velocity counterclockwise winds there which were moving slowly east. Then I noticed a very thin funnel coming from the bottom of the dark cloud, but it was only visible about a third of the way down to the ground. Yet the wind was down to the ground because of the flying toys. What would you say I saw? On a side note, I think the El Reno tornado is a good example of your "ground up" theory. I think a lot of the storm chasers were caught off-guard because they couldn't see a condensation funnel the width of the actual tornado. But it became obvious that the tornadic winds began invisibly under the intense rotation of the lowered wall cloud. What is your take on that?
What you're describing definitely sounds like a landspout. These are non-supercell tornadoes that can originate from convection that looks like little more than fair weather cumulus. There's a feature near Denver created by the geography called the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone which plays a key role in the high amount of landspouts the area sees. They're generally smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes, and most of them appear as little more than dust whirls (or playground equipment whirls), so most probably aren't even noticed. Some of them can put on a really dramatic show though with big tubes of funnel cloud and dust, and some can do some significant damage.
Interesting! Norman weather station and the Salt Lake City weather people believe that the EF2 that hit Salt Lake City in 1999 actually started from ground and went up! It was a fast forming tornado! I was in SLC at that time. Because my family and I lived in Colorado for years, Mom and I both stated "IF we were in Colorado, I swear they sky looked tornadic" Minutes later a friend called and said 1 hit down town!
Thank you for another informative presentation Skip! I recommend all storm spotters/chasers to watch these, i have made sure that the few of us at "NEA Ozarks Regional Skywarn" crew stay on top with your information, perhaps we'll meet some day in a chase! Be safe this season and ill do my best to do the same.
Thanks so much for uploading this! I really wanted to attend the DuPage Seminar last month, but was unable due to a prior commitment, so I really appreciate you sharing your presentation on TH-cam. Best wishes for the 2019 season!
December 1st really caught me off guard. Wish I could have chased (I live in Springfield, so I watched the event). I wish I could have chased, but I don't have a license. Your videos are really helping me prepare for my future. This video is no exception.
This was so informative! I grew up just north of Detroit, never heard of a winter tornado. Probably way too cold there. Not while we had snow on the ground anyway. We were more use to snow up to our butts!
Hello Skip, first off I have to say Im a huge fan of you and your profession I use the word profession because that's what you are Skip you are a professional at what you do and not medioker like you had stated in your chase film on the recent Aprial 26th & 27th outbreak. I took the time to watch and especially listen to what you had to say on that chase and I was sadened as I wirelessly rode shotgun along with you and what id like is for you to listen to some one like myself because if you stop chasing Skip there will be a huge hole amonst the small enjoyable professional circle that I pay attion to on my screen/pc and that just wont do. You had stated that you hadn't seen a violent tornado in years well there hasn't been an F-5 in over 10 yrs + so that means neither has anyone else and Ifeel the same when you said that there's been bust after bust but Skip that goes for every one of us tornado lovers and honestly the past decade hasnt produced hardly any super flamboyant , picturess tornados in general Imean Skip I live in So.Cal Ive never seen a tornado in real life and one of the major reasons is there are none in the vasinity of 800 miles or more just to get to where tornado ally begins. So Skip you don't stop doing what you do best because ( what else is there). singed a devoted fan 333scottij@gmail.com
I always watch the radar closely as squall lines approach down here in the SE. Storms drop brief tornadoes frequently that go unreported. I was watching the velocity images of one storm that was quickly growing and noticed the couplet before it even was severe warned. Within minutes it was over us and there was rotation and disturbance on the ground and messing up our vinyl skirting. It suddenly went tornado warned a mile past us but had begun rotating and forming a couple miles before us. Watch the radar and learn the types, keep up with the NWS severe predictions daily. Warnings still don't cover safety completely because yes, they do form quick and the radars often miss the early stages of a rapidly intensifying storm. Seems to be especially frequent when wind shear is a larger factor with these squall lines. Somewhat normal storms hit by winds will rotate and drop briefly out of nowhere
I just had a thought about the ground up idea, and how for instance how whirlwinds will gather in corners of buildings, aside from that, you have updrafts, but at the same time you have both downdrafts, the ends of them are focusing at the ground in this idea, spinning that off at the ground, and as that grows, it grows with height, until it connects with the updraft. 🤷🏼♂️just a thought, also the cold air sinking interacting with the warm air being sucked in and turning upwards. It really is fascinating
at 35:00 just before you swap image to the left of the rain wrapped tornado there is this bright spot and it looks like you are getting sat vortexes at some specific distance trailing the main tornado and getting sucked into it like marching ropes almost.
Like all the other videos I've watched of your's, a great presentation! You seem to be able to but things into terms anyone can understand! And it was cool to find out were are sort of neighbors. I live in Southwest Missouri, and also participate in 2 Skywarn Groups. Greene COunty Skywarn, and Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn. I act as a net control for both groups. Not sure if you already have this on your page, but could you maybe do a video about what kind of equipment you use to film weather, and then to edit your videos?? Keep on bringing us more of your amazing weather videos!!
Thanks Skip for sharing your knowledge so freely.. Many storm chasers are in it for the likes and the view counts.. Ita very apparent that your in it for the betterment of the science of storm chasing..thanks
29:00 Aha! I was rewatching your Dec 1 chase video and I had noticed that the wind shifted 180 degrees at this point in that video, and I had wondered whether a developing tornado had actually overtaken you. Since you didn't say anything I just assumed I has misidentified what was going on and thought nothing of it, instead assuming you were on some sort of boundary, but now that you've mentioned it here and given your hypotheses on ground-up tornadogenesis it sounds like you were indeed in the very early stages of the tornadic vortex, am I understanding that correctly? Overall this is yet another fantastic video, Skip.As someone who has only recently taken an interest in tornados and other forms of severe weather I've found your videos to be, bar none, the most informative and accessible resources when it comes to forecasting severe weather outbreaks, storm spotting, and understanding some of the nuances of these storms and systems as well as learning about the things that we simply don't have a solid understanding of, like tornadogenesis itself. I find that the more I see from your educational videos, the more I appreciate and am impressed by chase videos from yourself and the myriad of other chasers on TH-cam. Thank you for your amazing contributions to this community and this field of research, and as always I look forward to your next video!
Yep, the leafnado was definitely a developing tornado. That was indeed the vortex before it had attained "tornado intensity". I could have been more explicit about that, but yeah, the main take-away: The tornado's vortex was already underway on the ground before there was rotation aloft in the storm's base. Such a vortex would normally be dismissed as a gustnado, which is not a tornado. But this was actually a supercellular tornado process. The intensity of the vertical updraft and the RFD surge is what really grabbed my attention when it happened and made me think it was a weak tornado. I wasn't sure at the time though, and even after the base above it started rotating, I didn't feel right about reporting a "leafnado" as a tornado. I actually reported it as a brief point funnel cloud, even though it wound up getting surveyed as a tornado. You'd never know that was happening unless you just happened to be standing in the damn thing like I was. That vortex was practically invisible apart from the leaves and until it intensified later with some ground condensation. I wish there was a way to identify these developing tornadoes that doesn't involve doing something potentially dangerous like directly sampling them.
Brilliant, heaps to take in, cant believe by the end i was understanding it, best thing i can say out of your video is, as beautiful as the pictures and footages are, i am super pleased we dont have them here in Australia, we do get some serious weather events, yes, but you can keep them, especially F5’s… thanks for the video great research..
Wish I could post pics on here, we had a tornado/bowl funnel cross my town, it spun up on the ground here and there as it crossed over town but looked basically the same the whole time. I remember pics being sent live to the local news and the meteorologist was having trouble saying for sure if it was a funnel, wall cloud or tornado by looking at the pics and videos. The same system cycled a couple times and eventually put out an ef4 or 5, large wedge tornado and caused a lot of damage in Rochelle Illinois. This was 2014 I believe. April 9th.
Great video. So, these tornadoes are happening under the radar, and we're relying on human spotters to warn people. Is there any technology that could be employed to detect instability closer to the ground?
Best part: the white truck that reverses away from the tornado. New meteorological term: Weather Nope, or more specifically Weather Nope Rope. Nope, not driving that way. Nope, not sleeping tonight. Nope rope nope. Priceless
This information is incredible!! Thank you for taking the time to put it all together. I do have a question about tornado genesis though. Are we thinking all tornadoes start from the ground or just some of them? Also I would think the condensation funnel is good indication of wind speed since I’m assuming the increased wind speed drops the pressure allowing water to condense (according to Bernoulli). So if the tornado had higher wind speed at ground level, wouldn’t we expect the the condensation to be visible there first? Unless maybe the air condenses easier at higher altitudes because there’s already higher wind speed and colder temperatures?
I suspect most tornadoes are either starting at the surface, "bottom-up", and if not that, the whole column is intensifying from the surface into the storm's base at about the same time. Some tornadoes are definitely "bottom-up" and it makes me think that's the default mode. The pressure drop does indeed cause the condensation of cloud in a funnel, you're right. But the change in pressure with height is also playing a major role in this. Even if the entire column is ramping up to tornado intensity at the same time, we'd still see the funnel start at the top and appear to "descend". As the pressure in the whole column drops, the height at which condensation forms lowers. But we actually do see condensation at the surface first sometimes too.
Skip Talbot's Storm Chasing Chronicles very interesting! Thanks for the information. Kinda forgot how about the pressure drop since they looks so short on video ;)
You would think Southern California is safe, but we do have a tornado alley area here in Central Valley. Although here in Irvine we had an EF 1 in 1989. We were on the other side of the city luckily. It damaged the roof of a Lucky supermarket. In 2008 we had waterfunnels they were afraid would come inland. One or two did, so we were taking precautions in the bathtub. We lucked out though cause they died onland.
I am a fan of Leigh Orf's explanation that its not a top down or bottom up process - its a little of both and when both processes align a tornado materializes. The whole idea of Tornadoes "lifting" or skipping on the ground is likely completely wrong and just a product of changes in the visible condensation funnel and mesovorticies cause the sporadically seeming damage pasterns.
EEEYYYYY A MENTION OF MY CITY'S TORNADO (Lee County/Columbus). That thing was Fucked Up. Whenever I visit, I can still see damage in Talbotton on the way there.
Thanks for this informative video. I watch Pecos for pretty videos (although he gets too close at times) and yours for more of a background on how they form. I have a question though: I've heard that Tornadoes never go southwest, west or northwest - is that true?
Super super not true. Most move east or northeast because that's how the large scale weather patterns and parent storms driving them usually move, but tornadoes can and do move in any direction. They even do full loops sometimes. Even in this video, if you catch the track of the Lewistown EF1, you can see it turns northwest at the end of its life. It's not uncommon for big tornadoes to turn left as they dissipate. Sometimes they make a little circle when they do. I think what happens is the tornado actually becomes disconnected from the parent storm's updraft, and it careens left under its own momentum before it dies. The Jarrell, TX F5, one of the most powerful tornadoes on record, had a southwest track due to the unusual way the parent storm was propagating.
I can't wait to see your vid on the January tornadoes we had yesterday! I saw your reports, and because of this video, I was out chasing too, probably very close to you!
I was not expecting Styro, but I'm amused as hell that I see you here haha
Stay safe chasing lad, hopefully one day we'll see some best of StyroStorms!
Honestly, these storm spotting presentations you do should be mandatory viewing for at least the advanced spotter classes. The visuals and explanations are so easy to understand, especially the overlays you do on photos, videos and radar images. It creates a concrete connection between the theory of what should be happening, what the radar is showing, and how all of that manifests on the ground. I've attended my fair share of spotter classes and done plenty of my own research on the different topics myself, but between this video and your other presentations I have learned so much more than I did from any of those other sources. So thank you.
I completely agree with this.
I'm just getting into all of this and would love some suggested courses/videos to help understand much of the information presented in this video.
Is there anything you, or Skip, could recommend that would be highly beneficial to someone just starting out?
This is so informative, thanks! You and Pecos are my go to.
Omg I love pecos hank too!
Incredible video! I learned so much watching this and there were so many great parts to this video. I loved seeing the forecast sounding overlaid on the picture of the supercell at 16:10. Plus the footage at 29:00 is amazing! The tornado formed right over you! I was out spotting on Dec 1 but was too far north and did not see any tornadoes. I certainly ate a lot of hail though.
This is the first time I've watched a 30+min video on YT in its entirety. :D You've definitely earned another subscriber. Can't wait to watch more of your vids!
Thanks for the comments, and likewise nice videos. Some newb questions: Do you think some of your DIY lasers could paint a cloud in the 0.5 to 2 mile range? Too much of a divergence issue, or the cloud scatters the beam too much? Legal issues with operating outdoors? Just asking for a friend. But seriously, that kind of capability could be really useful in some of our research work.
@@skiptalbot It would be easy to put a spot on a cloud but hard to illuminate a large portion of it with a laser unless you had an enormous output power. Plus shining lasers into the sky would require special permits from likely at least the FAA and probably FDA. That being said I've considered other options for pulsed illumination at night. One would be big pyrotechnic mortars with photoflash shells, which would be relatively easy to do but probably would require a lot of hoops to jump through to do legally since they would be fired on the field. Another option would to be to build a very large flashlamp array with parabolic reflectors. It would have to be carried on a truck or other big vehicle in order to hold the capacitors, and it wouldn't be cheap, but it could very well be a controlled method to illuminate clouds. It'd be like a camera flash but thousands of times bigger, and may not require special permits to operate. I wish I could find it now but I have read some old papers on using these types of arrays to light up the ground from several thousand feet up in an airplane for photography. One of these days I'm gonna do some calculations to see how feasible this could be for nighttime storm illumination. :D
Thanks! Night illumination would be great for spotters. I should have been less cryptic with the application, but I was thinking more along the lines of range finding and 3D tracking/scanning of tornadoes. I've been working on vehicle mounted, servo controlled pan tilts that use PVC for a camera enclosure. I see you're doing similar stuff using PVC for laser lens housings. I could see running another PVC pan tilt with a laser in it in parallel with the camera enclosure. With the same rig on another vehicle, you could have live 3D tracking from the field. That would allow us to get all kinds of valuable measurements, size and speed information, maybe even wind speed, which is the holy grail for tornado research. I think we have enough connections in the research and academic communities to have a shot at actually getting government approval, but it's just a PVC pipe dream unless we had a guy who knew how to build laser rigs. ;)
Alright, when are you two going to do a collab? I'll be waiting. Skip could be the experienced chaser, and styro could try and produce an updraft with the enormous heating from one of his new lasers
@@skiptalbot damn I really wanna see this happen now. The both of you even SOUND similar lol
i totally enjoy Skip's videos/synopses. i like how he acknowledges other spotters and mentors. This kid has done his homework. I highly recommend his el reno analysis.
Skip deserves an honorary doctorate on the subject for his research and ability to convey complicated information to amateur enthusiasts and his footage and unique understanding of tornadoes and where they will form.
This video ended up inspiring me to take my passion that extra step farther, I became a SkyWarn storm spotter for NWS here in Tampa in November.
I doubt you’ll see this Skip, but I want to thank you for your time and effort creating such presentations. As a very new addition to the severe weather enthusiasts, finding information that’s possible for me to follow and understand has proven difficult. However I’ve watched and studied your posts and finally feel I’ve found my teacher! I’d give anything to meet you one day and really have a chance to learn what it takes to be a successful and helpful spotter!
Thanks for the comments, means a lot. These presentations can be helpful, but being successful requires doing it over and over and over again, be it forecasting, chasing, or spotting. There's so much pattern recognition you have to pick up on, and it usually takes a dozen or two times seeing it and experiencing it before it sinks in. Unfortunately most spotters will never get that kind of experience. A supercell capable of producing a tornado will cruise by town maybe once or twice, if that, during their entire career as a spotter. My hope is that showing these processes over and over by video, will help fill the experience gap or shorten the learning time so that spotters don't have to spend years in the field toiling with trial and error like I did.
Skip Talbot's Storm Chasing Chronicles : oh my you made my day! Thank you for such a genuine factual reply! I admire those qualities and agree 100%. I definitely understand the years it must take to fully grasp the necessary components to storm spotting and forecasting. I most certainly have a long way to go,and would want my involvement to be knowledgeable and helpful instead of a *thrill seeking* aspect. Thank you again for your hard work and dedication to the research!!
This should be required viewing for spotter classes. Excellent work.
The fluid dynamics involved are just incredible. I don’t think I could begin to fathom the physics involved, it’s just so complicated.
As a seasoned weather geek and novice storm chaser (I lived in the PNW all my life until three years ago when I moved to Minnesota) I want to say I really appreciate your videos including this one. Thank you!
42 minutes just flew by. Thanks for the presentation, even though I live in the Czech Republic :). Always nice hearing you. Be safe and good luck out there!
přesně tak :)
Groeten uit Nederland
Thanks for your videos Skip. Over time I've taken classes on meteorology, become a SkyWarn Spotter, and also successfully predicted and intercepted tornadoes. Your video on Storm Spotting and prediction is really what made my forecasts and chases come together. I'm not at the level of contribution to the greater good that you are at, but you have sure bettered my personal life by helping me be successful at what I love. Thanks again and best of luck on the future.
Wow as a geologist I learned a lot more above ground and what to look for if I’m ever in a tornado area. Excellent presentation thanks
Happy to see Pecos Hank working on the team!!! Good luck and be safe.
These cold core tornadoes look like the types of smaller ones we occasionally get here in the UK sometimes. This is very interesting stuff.
I never comment on videos, but I had to make an exception. Skip you did a fantastic job as always. Clear, educational, and wonderfully edited. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this presentation!
This is an excellent presentation skip up there with my favorite pecos hank who does outstanding work in this field I’ve been a active storm spotter since 1967 over 50 years and have seen a few tornados most notably since I live here in northwest Illinois some nasty ones most recent the incredible Rochelle-fairdale monster of April 9,2015 this rated Ef-4 tornado was violent and had winds exceeding 200 mph making it a f-5 and then back in 1990 while living in Schaumburg Illinois we had one of the most violent tornados in American history the Plainfield monster multi-vortex hp rain wrapped killer with winds exceeding 300 mph cape values that day were up in the 8000 kg value! I drove there the next day and the damage I saw was nothing short of apocalyptic complete devastation for 16.5 miles similar to Joplin only in a far more rural area there were vehicles thrown a mile to unrecognizable hunks of metal and a huge dumpster wrapped around a debarked tree imbedded in the tree some of the evidence of extreme winds even dr. Fujita mentioned it as being the worst tornado he had surveyed up to that time period just 2 events of worthy mention so keep up the good work I watch all your videos here
Thanks! I grew up in Bolingbrook. Plainfield, right next door, is what lit the spark to my obsession with tornadoes. I talk about it a bit in my Field Tactics video. th-cam.com/video/WL7jc4-03Uc/w-d-xo.html
That footage from Harrison/Pagel was incredible. So much detail of the tornado is visible because of the lighting conditions, and I felt a knot in my stomach watching because of how close it was to them.
This was a great presentation at the seminar skip. It was nice to meet you in person, as well! Chase on 😁
As a relatively newer chaser, thank you for the all the tips including forecasting! You do great work and you videos are always informative, entertaining, and well produced.
Skip you are an asset to the public and storm chaser community - please keep up the good work and see you out there
-Mike D
I was on the taylorville tornado. I live in Decatur and waited all day for the cells to come to me and i am so glad i did not go west. As soon as i seen the taylorville cell blow up i somehow knew that was the one. I got there 8 min before it hit taylorville and could not believe what i was seeing, wedge tornado and power flashes like crazy. As it was happening i remember thinking, man this inflow is cold and i should have took my coat.
I live in taylorville and was watching the skywarn network and online chats all day. I left work to go home. I was hoping to get out of town to watch but by the time I was getting ready to go, I saw the wedge moving towards me and had to usher my family into the basement Shortly before it hit my house. Thank God for our Ema at the time which sounded the sirens twice to warn us of the severity. Had they not been watching, there would have been a parade marching right through the path at the exact time of the tornado. Definitely thankful for my fellow spotters. Multiple friends reached out after the storm to ask if I saw it. I said "saw it? I was in it!" Then reported to nws "attention. Taylorville, IL, 62568, massive damage. Repeat massive damage. Possible casualties. Catastrophic damage here." Scariest night of my life.
All your presentations are excellent, I have learned so much about storms--etc from watching your video's. You are an excellent teacher with just the right amount of science to make understanding of this complex subject much easier. Please keep them coming as I look forward to each of your video's.
I gotta say, this is the best “guide” I’ve seen when it comes to tornadoes. I watched all your informational videos on storms and tornadoes (the spotter guide on storm structures, very useful to me in what I do, and your forecast-spotting guide) and this is a nice add to my list. I watched the December 1st event unfold on radar and it’s the second biggest event I’ve witnessed on radar (second only to the Lee Co. Alabama EF4), and seeing how this event became what it became concerning conditions was really interesting. Also, I really liked the explanation on how mesocyclonic tornadoes form, it might not be right but only time and research will say that, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was true, it makes sense to me. Living in Italy, I don’t know if we’ll see something like this, we do get mini-supercells but I’m not aware of a “cold core” type of setup up until now, so it’s something I’ll look for more often when it comes to early and late season events, who knows. So, thanks for sharing with us this video and thanks for teaching me (and I’m sure many more people) something new, maybe useful for when I’m out documenting thunderstorms. Stay safe and have a great 2019, Skip!
I’ve always found bottom-up Tornadogenesis to be way more intuitive than a funnel descending. Primarily because I couldn’t really think of a reason for the tornado to descend to the ground, nor could I really think of a mechanism that would cause it. While not all tornadoes pull debris upwards into the sky, many do. A descending tornado would be pushing things out of the way, like a microburst. And I’ve seen explanations like “there’s really high pressure in the middle coming from the mesocyclone." But that didn’t make a lot of sense, either. But if that were the case, the tornado would be blown apart. And even if the tornado could survive, there would be no debris cloud at the bottom, because everything that got too close would be pushed out too quickly to be drawn back in.
Regardless, there would still be no reason for the tornado to come down. The tornado would always remain in the cloud. And even that’s not going to happen, because there would be no decent inflow.
Bottom-up, on the other hand, works perfectly. The inflow fuels the updrafts, the RFD strikes the inflow at an oblique angle, creating a warm, ground-based, cyclonic, sub-vortex generator. A long line of warm vortices continue to cluster. The vortices begin consolidate into a bigger vortex, the RFD overtakes the FFD, shutting the inflow door, and introducing cold, moist, cyclonic vortices. Those cold cyclonic vortices go up and cool the air. Air is colder as you go up, so it follows that condensation would start at the top. As the main vortex slowly cools, the condensation occurs earlier and earlier in the uptake process, giving the appearance of condensation traveling downwards.
It’s also worth noting that the way I see it, the RFD doesn’t always have to overtake the FFD. As long as there are some cold, moist vortices traveling with an open inflow jet, condensation can still occur at the main vortex. This would make the case for tornadoes that seem to last forever.
I dunno, I might be wrong, but that’s always been the way I see it, because it makes more sense. Hot air goes up, so it only makes sense to look at the bottom. You can also see this effect with small dust devils in sandy areas. I’ve seen huge dust devils come from smaller ones. That’s why the top-down theory didn’t make sense. The air wrapped around a rising core of hot air. Interestingly enough, I never actually knew people were considering bottom-up in the meteorology community. I thought the consensus was top-down and so I just assumed that I wasn’t getting it. I’m glad others see it, too.
Edit: The bottom-up process I described can actually explain all weird tornado phenomena. Like the multi-vortex formation of El Reno, for example. It also explains invisible tornadoes, multi-vortex tornadoes, jumping tornadoes, fickle tornadoes, funnel clouds that fail to touch down, etc. And as exact as my explanation is, I still highly doubt I’m the first to think of it. I didn’t even think of it until sometime between 2008 and 2012, so I was a bit late to the party.
Excellent video and info! My father and I happened to be following the EF2 up by Moraine View. We started following the warnings down from Wapella up to Le Roy and saw some of the damage in town. Caught up to it around Moraine, but there wasn't quite enough lightning to fully spot it. Had a spooky moment where we came to the outskirts of Arrowsmith and the wind and rain all quit for about ten seconds or so, then the sirens started in town right as the wind gusts and rain picked back up again. Had another close encounter with lightning that hit a telephone pole parallel to us as we drove.
Saw this live at DuPage, was really cool stuff, and what a great sleeper day too! The clear structure present on the Bluff City supercell made these processes easy to see and illustrate
Hoping for a good 2019 for all of us.
dupage il?
Well done Skip. 42 minutes and you barely stopped to breath. So much info. Outstanding.
16:05 That is an amazing infograhic. When we all look at so many charts and numbers all the time it's easy to detach the data with the real life correlations. This simple graphic brings it all wonderfully back home to reality haha. Fantastic data visualization.
Wow, just had my mind blown and educated by Skip. Brilliant presentation sir, good luck out there this year and be safe...
Thanks for the presentation, Skip! I always learn something new when watching your material. You do a fantastic job with not only capturing the storms themselves, but also with explaining how they form.
I remember that day very well. My family was traveling to Peoria that night, and I spent the entire day at my computer watching radar and listening to the radio, haha xD. God bless!
Skip, I have been stating the following in comments to storm chasers for years, but the concept never seems carry over to the atmospheric scientists. As you state the macro factors of storm formation are well understood. This is the first time I have heard anyone correctly state that tornados form bottom up, kudos to you! It is the sheering of laminar inflow bands that produces the initial rolling vortex at ground levels that eventually gets sucked up transferring horizontal rotation to the vertical rising column of air. This laminar sheering is caused by the molecular stickiness of what aircraft pilots call ground effect, only in this case the ground level inflow is being slowed at the proper rate to produce a rolling wave, much like what surfers ride at the ocean. Then as I mentioned, this energy gets transferred aloft.
So, what does this hypothesis allow us to predict? Tornados cannot form where wind obstacles at ground level exist!! This is because such obstacles impart chaotic flux into the fluid dynamics of the rolling wave destroying the vortex. Tornado formation requires a roughly flat plot of ground just prior to the point of updraft, the size of this area is a variable in ratio to other factors and beyond my capacity to forecast, sorry. However, if the thesis is correct, then the strategic placement of wind walls in tornado alley may one day save lives. Disclaimer: Once the rotation goes vertical there's no stopping it!!
Well done, Skip.
I enjoy this comment and absolutely see the validity to the theory!
Very informative, i have visualized the bottom up theory in my head for a while now, having you lay it out like that just helped all the pieces fall together. Thank you for your effort :)
Skip.... You blow me away (no pun intended) about how much you know about tornadoes, both in the warm and cold months. I'm also intrigued by your "ground up" theory of tornado formation. I used to live in Denver, and I saw some impressive supercells, one time right over downtown. The updraft portion of the storm seemed to be spatially too far from the downdraft portion. There was absolutely no wind at all. In fact, the usual sounds of the city were muffled, sort of like the way fresh snow muffles sound waves. I attributed this to rapidly rising air into the cloud base, which took sound waves with it. I also once saw what I called a weak tornado years later, and maybe you can clarify what I saw for me. This was during the warm months and there was an extremely dark, but small and not particularly vertically built, cloud to my east. It seemed to connect to other dark clouds to its east, but I couldn't tell if there was a lot of vertical build. Anyway, I suddenly noticed that toys and playground objects which had been on the ground between two rows of apartments were lifting well into the air and flying around in a circular pattern. It was obvious to me that there localized higher velocity counterclockwise winds there which were moving slowly east. Then I noticed a very thin funnel coming from the bottom of the dark cloud, but it was only visible about a third of the way down to the ground. Yet the wind was down to the ground because of the flying toys. What would you say I saw? On a side note, I think the El Reno tornado is a good example of your "ground up" theory. I think a lot of the storm chasers were caught off-guard because they couldn't see a condensation funnel the width of the actual tornado. But it became obvious that the tornadic winds began invisibly under the intense rotation of the lowered wall cloud. What is your take on that?
What you're describing definitely sounds like a landspout. These are non-supercell tornadoes that can originate from convection that looks like little more than fair weather cumulus. There's a feature near Denver created by the geography called the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone which plays a key role in the high amount of landspouts the area sees. They're generally smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes, and most of them appear as little more than dust whirls (or playground equipment whirls), so most probably aren't even noticed. Some of them can put on a really dramatic show though with big tubes of funnel cloud and dust, and some can do some significant damage.
I really do appreciate these longer videos. I've learned a lot from you and I'm sure others have as well. Keep it up.
Thanks for posting this detailed and informative video, not one dull moment. Best of luck to you this chase season!
I really have to learn all this weather jargon. It makes me think people actually understand the atmosphere. In any case I enjoy your content.
Excellent video! I look forward to more information on Orf’s research. Thank you for contributing on solving this mystery. Stay safe out there!
Fantastic video. I love the videos that explain more of the scientific fundamentals behind storms.
Best educational tornado content on TH-cam.
Interesting! Norman weather station and the Salt Lake City weather people believe that the EF2 that hit Salt Lake City in 1999 actually started from ground and went up! It was a fast forming tornado! I was in SLC at that time. Because my family and I lived in Colorado for years, Mom and I both stated "IF we were in Colorado, I swear they sky looked tornadic" Minutes later a friend called and said 1 hit down town!
Great meeting you at DuPage! Excellent presentation Skip!
Thanks for helping this SkyWarn spotter in Wyoming gain more understanding
Thank you for another informative presentation Skip! I recommend all storm spotters/chasers to watch these, i have made sure that the few of us at "NEA Ozarks Regional Skywarn" crew stay on top with your information, perhaps we'll meet some day in a chase! Be safe this season and ill do my best to do the same.
I appreciate and enjoy your work, Skip. Thank you.
Thanks so much for uploading this! I really wanted to attend the DuPage Seminar last month, but was unable due to a prior commitment, so I really appreciate you sharing your presentation on TH-cam. Best wishes for the 2019 season!
Thanks Skip! You are a wealth of valuable information, great presentation!
29:14 this kinda stuff sets my brain on fire, fascinating.
Thanks to you and your colleagues for all of the hard work!
December 1st really caught me off guard. Wish I could have chased (I live in Springfield, so I watched the event). I wish I could have chased, but I don't have a license. Your videos are really helping me prepare for my future. This video is no exception.
Oh how I wish I could participate in this type of research myself. This is the kind of thing that can help save countless lives.
This was so informative! I grew up just north of Detroit, never heard of a winter tornado. Probably way too cold there. Not while we had snow on the ground anyway. We were more use to snow up to our butts!
Awesome vid and presentation Skip!! Can't wait for this season's footage!
Hello Skip, first off I have to say Im a huge fan of you and your profession I use the word profession because that's what you are Skip you are a professional at what you do and not medioker like you had stated in your chase film on the recent Aprial 26th & 27th outbreak. I took the time to watch and especially listen to what you had to say on that chase and I was sadened as I wirelessly rode shotgun along with you and what id like is for you to listen to some one like myself because if you stop chasing Skip there will be a huge hole amonst the small enjoyable professional circle that I pay attion to on my screen/pc and that just wont do. You had stated that you hadn't seen a violent tornado in years well there hasn't been an F-5 in over 10 yrs + so that means neither has anyone else and Ifeel the same when you said that there's been bust after bust but Skip that goes for every one of us tornado lovers and honestly the past decade hasnt produced hardly any super flamboyant , picturess tornados in general Imean Skip I live in So.Cal Ive never seen a tornado in real life and one of the major reasons is there are none in the vasinity of 800 miles or more just to get to where tornado ally begins. So Skip you don't stop doing what you do best because ( what else is there). singed a devoted fan 333scottij@gmail.com
I'm late to the party, but I remember that Remington tornado. I'm from about 5 miles away from where it was. Cool to see it on here.
Giving the video a thumbs up before 2 seconds elapsed.
Thank you so much for covering this outbreak.
Being in Bloomington Normal was stressful that day and night.
Great video-thorough, clear, and educational.
I always watch the radar closely as squall lines approach down here in the SE. Storms drop brief tornadoes frequently that go unreported. I was watching the velocity images of one storm that was quickly growing and noticed the couplet before it even was severe warned. Within minutes it was over us and there was rotation and disturbance on the ground and messing up our vinyl skirting. It suddenly went tornado warned a mile past us but had begun rotating and forming a couple miles before us. Watch the radar and learn the types, keep up with the NWS severe predictions daily. Warnings still don't cover safety completely because yes, they do form quick and the radars often miss the early stages of a rapidly intensifying storm. Seems to be especially frequent when wind shear is a larger factor with these squall lines. Somewhat normal storms hit by winds will rotate and drop briefly out of nowhere
This is a black belt weather video. Great job Skip
I just had a thought about the ground up idea, and how for instance how whirlwinds will gather in corners of buildings, aside from that, you have updrafts, but at the same time you have both downdrafts, the ends of them are focusing at the ground in this idea, spinning that off at the ground, and as that grows, it grows with height, until it connects with the updraft. 🤷🏼♂️just a thought, also the cold air sinking interacting with the warm air being sucked in and turning upwards. It really is fascinating
at 35:00 just before you swap image to the left of the rain wrapped tornado there is this bright spot and it looks like you are getting sat vortexes at some specific distance trailing the main tornado and getting sucked into it like marching ropes almost.
Like all the other videos I've watched of your's, a great presentation! You seem to be able to but things into terms anyone can understand! And it was cool to find out were are sort of neighbors. I live in Southwest Missouri, and also participate in 2 Skywarn Groups. Greene COunty Skywarn, and Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn. I act as a net control for both groups.
Not sure if you already have this on your page, but could you maybe do a video about what kind of equipment you use to film weather, and then to edit your videos??
Keep on bringing us more of your amazing weather videos!!
Great spring refresher Skip... Thanks.
Thanks for this information. I used all this knowledge to spot a cold core funnel in yuba city yesterday.
Excellent production.
Another great in-depth presentation, appreciate it!!
Great video. Would love to see some good tornadoes this year in person and in your videos.
Thanks Skip for sharing your knowledge so freely.. Many storm chasers are in it for the likes and the view counts.. Ita very apparent that your in it for the betterment of the science of storm chasing..thanks
Your videos are excellent and so informative.
Great analysis as usual! Good luck to you guys this season!
29:00 Aha! I was rewatching your Dec 1 chase video and I had noticed that the wind shifted 180 degrees at this point in that video, and I had wondered whether a developing tornado had actually overtaken you. Since you didn't say anything I just assumed I has misidentified what was going on and thought nothing of it, instead assuming you were on some sort of boundary, but now that you've mentioned it here and given your hypotheses on ground-up tornadogenesis it sounds like you were indeed in the very early stages of the tornadic vortex, am I understanding that correctly?
Overall this is yet another fantastic video, Skip.As someone who has only recently taken an interest in tornados and other forms of severe weather I've found your videos to be, bar none, the most informative and accessible resources when it comes to forecasting severe weather outbreaks, storm spotting, and understanding some of the nuances of these storms and systems as well as learning about the things that we simply don't have a solid understanding of, like tornadogenesis itself. I find that the more I see from your educational videos, the more I appreciate and am impressed by chase videos from yourself and the myriad of other chasers on TH-cam. Thank you for your amazing contributions to this community and this field of research, and as always I look forward to your next video!
Yep, the leafnado was definitely a developing tornado. That was indeed the vortex before it had attained "tornado intensity". I could have been more explicit about that, but yeah, the main take-away: The tornado's vortex was already underway on the ground before there was rotation aloft in the storm's base. Such a vortex would normally be dismissed as a gustnado, which is not a tornado. But this was actually a supercellular tornado process. The intensity of the vertical updraft and the RFD surge is what really grabbed my attention when it happened and made me think it was a weak tornado. I wasn't sure at the time though, and even after the base above it started rotating, I didn't feel right about reporting a "leafnado" as a tornado. I actually reported it as a brief point funnel cloud, even though it wound up getting surveyed as a tornado. You'd never know that was happening unless you just happened to be standing in the damn thing like I was. That vortex was practically invisible apart from the leaves and until it intensified later with some ground condensation. I wish there was a way to identify these developing tornadoes that doesn't involve doing something potentially dangerous like directly sampling them.
Brilliant, heaps to take in, cant believe by the end i was understanding it, best thing i can say out of your video is, as beautiful as the pictures and footages are, i am super pleased we dont have them here in Australia, we do get some serious weather events, yes, but you can keep them, especially F5’s… thanks for the video great research..
Wish I could post pics on here, we had a tornado/bowl funnel cross my town, it spun up on the ground here and there as it crossed over town but looked basically the same the whole time. I remember pics being sent live to the local news and the meteorologist was having trouble saying for sure if it was a funnel, wall cloud or tornado by looking at the pics and videos. The same system cycled a couple times and eventually put out an ef4 or 5, large wedge tornado and caused a lot of damage in Rochelle Illinois. This was 2014 I believe. April 9th.
Yeah, the Rochelle EF4 of April 9, 2015. Missed that one. High end 4 too, they were close to rating it a 5.
Sacramento CA (technically Folsom CA) had a tornado touch down December 24th 2015. Christmas Eve…. IN CALIFORNIA
Great video. Loved every minute and super informative. Thanks Skip.
I love all your presentations and this was no different
Love the videos, keep them coming! Before you know it, we will see a snownado
Another demonstration for the December could be the December 15 2021 but it wasn't in the video since the video was posted in 2018
Did not know you work with Anton! His bits in some of the el Reno commentary was fantastic
Awesome Video again Skip, and very informative! Your a chasing and spotting Rockstar!!!👍👏
Wow. Great video, and great links. Super informative. Thanks, Skip! 10/10
Great stuff Skip!
Great video. So, these tornadoes are happening under the radar, and we're relying on human spotters to warn people. Is there any technology that could be employed to detect instability closer to the ground?
At 35:30 🤣 He was like "nope, nope, nope, nope
Best part: the white truck that reverses away from the tornado.
New meteorological term:
Weather Nope, or more specifically Weather Nope Rope.
Nope, not driving that way. Nope, not sleeping tonight.
Nope rope nope.
Priceless
28:55 was crazy. Excellent video man.
Great video. Great insights.
29:50 when you said "What is that, a ghost" I lost it. I don't know why, it isn't even that funny, but I was still doubled over.
This information is incredible!! Thank you for taking the time to put it all together. I do have a question about tornado genesis though. Are we thinking all tornadoes start from the ground or just some of them? Also I would think the condensation funnel is good indication of wind speed since I’m assuming the increased wind speed drops the pressure allowing water to condense (according to Bernoulli). So if the tornado had higher wind speed at ground level, wouldn’t we expect the the condensation to be visible there first? Unless maybe the air condenses easier at higher altitudes because there’s already higher wind speed and colder temperatures?
I suspect most tornadoes are either starting at the surface, "bottom-up", and if not that, the whole column is intensifying from the surface into the storm's base at about the same time. Some tornadoes are definitely "bottom-up" and it makes me think that's the default mode.
The pressure drop does indeed cause the condensation of cloud in a funnel, you're right. But the change in pressure with height is also playing a major role in this. Even if the entire column is ramping up to tornado intensity at the same time, we'd still see the funnel start at the top and appear to "descend". As the pressure in the whole column drops, the height at which condensation forms lowers. But we actually do see condensation at the surface first sometimes too.
Skip Talbot's Storm Chasing Chronicles very interesting! Thanks for the information. Kinda forgot how about the pressure drop since they looks so short on video ;)
Fascinating video! Thanks so much Skip!
I like Reed Timmer as well. He gets so excited!
Outstanding work as always.
You would think Southern California is safe, but we do have a tornado alley area here in Central Valley. Although here in Irvine we had an EF 1 in 1989. We were on the other side of the city luckily. It damaged the roof of a Lucky supermarket. In 2008 we had waterfunnels they were afraid would come inland. One or two did, so we were taking precautions in the bathtub. We lucked out though cause they died onland.
“They go BONKERS!” Best thing I’ve ever heard Skip say
I’d love to see the current data for ground up tornado genesis.
The world need more amazing live saving people like you and your team risking your guys lives to save others lives
can i get the video of the buffalo wyoing 2018 mountain tornado?
been thru several tornados closest one was 400 feet from my moms place and it was just forming this was almost 2 years ago
I am a fan of Leigh Orf's explanation that its not a top down or bottom up process - its a little of both and when both processes align a tornado materializes. The whole idea of Tornadoes "lifting" or skipping on the ground is likely completely wrong and just a product of changes in the visible condensation funnel and mesovorticies cause the sporadically seeming damage pasterns.
EEEYYYYY A MENTION OF MY CITY'S TORNADO (Lee County/Columbus). That thing was Fucked Up. Whenever I visit, I can still see damage in Talbotton on the way there.
Thanks for this informative video. I watch Pecos for pretty videos (although he gets too close at times) and yours for more of a background on how they form. I have a question though:
I've heard that Tornadoes never go southwest, west or northwest - is that true?
Super super not true. Most move east or northeast because that's how the large scale weather patterns and parent storms driving them usually move, but tornadoes can and do move in any direction. They even do full loops sometimes. Even in this video, if you catch the track of the Lewistown EF1, you can see it turns northwest at the end of its life. It's not uncommon for big tornadoes to turn left as they dissipate. Sometimes they make a little circle when they do. I think what happens is the tornado actually becomes disconnected from the parent storm's updraft, and it careens left under its own momentum before it dies. The Jarrell, TX F5, one of the most powerful tornadoes on record, had a southwest track due to the unusual way the parent storm was propagating.