Buffalo/Selman, OK Tornado!!
Once again, the NW corner of Oklahoma pays off for me. I wish the SW portion of the state would be as lucky. I've yet to see a tornado there. In any event, I hauled butt from Amarillo to intercept this storm near Canadian, TX as it exploded like a nuclear blast.
I was in excellent position on this beast for most of the storm's life. It figures that when it finally did pop a tornado, it did in a crappy, muddy road network with crappy terrain. So, my positioning wasn't to my liking, but still good enough to make me a happy little chaser. No need for special glasses, NASA-enhanced image processing, or a CSI unit to call this one a tornado. LOL!! My VX-2100 video came out awesome though as I captured the tornado all the way through an impressive rope stage.
Prior to the big event, I was just about under the violently rotating cloud base and wall cloud for along time. It was always just on the verge of producing a tornado. It produced several funnel clouds with a couple of real nice ones prior to the tornado. By the time I could safely pull over and deploy the gear, they would dissipate.
Eventually, persistance paid off though. I did alot of streaming and I *think* a got in a couple of minutes of streaming of the tornado before persistant, annoying problems with my streaming setup killed the feed. If any of ya'll saw it. let me know. :-) It wasn't normal cellular connection problems, but something to do with the software. Today is the first time I've had this kind of problem. I'm not sure what it is, but suspect either a flaky USB port or a glitchy firewire connection to the camera. That's the first order of business in the morning.
Tomorrow, heading to Buffalo, OK and decide from there where to target. Gotta get some sleep.
Oh...and I paid $3.96 for gas in Canadian. TX. Ouch.
okay...PICTURES!!!
I was in excellent position on this beast for most of the storm's life. It figures that when it finally did pop a tornado, it did in a crappy, muddy road network with crappy terrain. So, my positioning wasn't to my liking, but still good enough to make me a happy little chaser. No need for special glasses, NASA-enhanced image processing, or a CSI unit to call this one a tornado. LOL!! My VX-2100 video came out awesome though as I captured the tornado all the way through an impressive rope stage.
Prior to the big event, I was just about under the violently rotating cloud base and wall cloud for along time. It was always just on the verge of producing a tornado. It produced several funnel clouds with a couple of real nice ones prior to the tornado. By the time I could safely pull over and deploy the gear, they would dissipate.
Eventually, persistance paid off though. I did alot of streaming and I *think* a got in a couple of minutes of streaming of the tornado before persistant, annoying problems with my streaming setup killed the feed. If any of ya'll saw it. let me know. :-) It wasn't normal cellular connection problems, but something to do with the software. Today is the first time I've had this kind of problem. I'm not sure what it is, but suspect either a flaky USB port or a glitchy firewire connection to the camera. That's the first order of business in the morning.
Tomorrow, heading to Buffalo, OK and decide from there where to target. Gotta get some sleep.
Oh...and I paid $3.96 for gas in Canadian. TX. Ouch.
okay...PICTURES!!!
posted by Steve Miller TX at 5/24/2008 01:15:00 AM
9 Comments:
Congrats on this Steve! We got a few up in KS, but nowhere even close to being this pretty. I think you had the show.
-Brian Barnes
Very nice Steve!
The tor is great, but I love that first pic!
That rope out reminded me of my first tornado north of OKC...'98 I believe? Nice catch, dude.
Oh, a pretty one, too! Nice grab! Nice.
I've passed an award on to you, btw.
Steve-your pics are fantastic. The 2 homes destroyed in this tornado were close relatives. We've spent the last few days salvaging and clearing debris. No one was at home except the dogs. One was rescued that night and the other hobbled back home 36 hours after the tornado strike. Thanks again.
Thanks everybody for the comments! :-) It was one of those "hurry up and get out the door from work" chases that usually don't pan out well for me. I feel fortunate.
Thanks Dew for the award! Is that for the pics or my performances of the Sacred Forbidden Dance Of Chaser Merriment? ;-)
JZ: I am so sorry to hear about your relatives' houses being destroyed. Thank the heavens that nobody was seriously hurt...including the dogs. I had no idea that any structures were damaged from that tornado until a couple of days later. Feel free to pass along these pictures that I took should they want them.
My brother-in-law mentioned that he wanted pictures of THE tornado that destroyed his home to hang in his new home. I made it my mission to find pictures of it - that's how I found your blog. Thank you so much for sharing your "finds".
JZ: If he wants a picture in that regard, please email me privately and I'll work out something with him to do so at my cost. :-)
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