Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,606
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    ArlyDude
    Newest Member
    ArlyDude
    Joined

INSANE video from the Henryville tornado!


Recommended Posts

Here it is from cnn eyewall. I haven't been able to find the full unedited version yet but he was close!

That is also the one that I saw. This gas station is now fully functional I believe and for the most part the only thing they had to fix was their sign and the power. Meanwhile, across the street, semis and equipment trucks were tossed like toys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 76
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I guess I should clarify my original guess about the winds. I think the winds were probably less than 70 mph during much of the video but it looked like there were some pretty strong gusts.

Yeah, that's what I was going with. We're in agreement that the highest gusts were from inflow/periphery winds. Although, if you go off of the NWS Louisville map, a new vortex developed essentially right over them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The tree to his right has a couple sizeable branches snapped off and that giant shed, which looks almost like a small house, has very noticeable damage done to it. That large tree, probably an oak, had some pretty violent motion in those gusts. As someone said above, part of it broke and it had already been knocked off balance a bit before it fell, it just did the gradual large, old growth tree slow tumble. 70-85 is likely a good estimation.

I think you're overestimating. Those kinds of effects are all things that happen in a solid gale.

I'll admit I generally estimate conservatively-- but I just don't think the winds were that high on the guy's lawn, in the foreground, during the time that the video is rolling. (Maybe stronger winds happened before he started shooting.)

Across the lawn and beyond was a very different story. Like I said, winds looked much higher across the way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you're overestimating. Those kinds of effects are all things that happen in a solid gale.

I'll admit I generally estimate conservatively-- but I just don't think the winds were that high on the guy's lawn, in the foreground, during the time that the video is rolling. (Maybe stronger winds happened before he started shooting.)

Across the lawn and beyond was a very different story. Like I said, winds looked much higher across the way.

Yeah, I was judging the massive oak tree, what it experienced. The house itself probably saw 60 at most. It is astounding at how much variation winds can be in as little as 50 yards considering a tornado of this magnitude.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I was judging the massive oak tree, what it experienced. The house itself probably saw 60 at most. It is astounding at how much variation winds can be in as little as 50 yards considering a tornado of this magnitude.

Agreed. There was some wicked gradient there. The winds even on the other side of the lawn are way stronger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to clarify:  I'm not taking away from the video, which is really awesome and as good as anything I've ever shot!

what is great is profs will be able to determine object wind speed. Hope they analyse this, some awesome stuff going on. I admit I watched it about 25 times so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just noticed something else of interest. At the very beginning of the video around the 3 second mark you can see a white lawn chair moving away from the cameraman out into the street (left side of vid). It then stops in the street and holds still for several seconds. The winds suddenly change direction and increase as the tornado goes by after that. The cameraman then pans a bit to the right losing sight of the chair, but by the 18 second mark what appears to be that chair goes hauling ass towards the tornado through the neighbors yard behind that big tree. It appears to be moving very fast and gains some altitude as well. Definitely wouldn't have wanted to get hit by that.

Note there's a second white lawn chair that appears very close to the cameraman inside the fenced in area around the 12 second mark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Props to him being able to stand up through that wind. It had to be gusting close to 80 the way it knocked down those trees and ripped off those shingles. Can't be easy filming conditions

See the discussion above. The winds where the person was standing were nowhere near 80 mph-- at least not while the camera was recording.

Trees can go down and shingles can come off of roofs in winds below hurricane force.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This spectacular video of the Tuscaloosa tornado is a good example of the cameraman actually being well within the envelope of hurricane-force winds. The Henryville video is awesome, but this dude here was much closer and I'd say the winds at this cameraman's location most certainly reached hurricane force for a few moments as the funnel passed very close and the wind shifted.

The really crazy part is ~1:00-1:30. Just awesome, awesome video:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: wind estimations in general... This is a topic of great interest to me, given that I chase a lot and have been in the cores of many hurricanes-- and also that I have a great interest in postanalysis and data integrity.

My general impression is that most folks-- even experienced chasers-- overestimate the winds they're experiencing (or see in videos) by a factor of 1.5 to 2.

I've said this before, but a even a low-end Cat-1 hurricane wind (65 kt 1-min average at 10-m height) is wild and feels quite violent-- and far fewer people have experienced that than we think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: wind estimations in general... This is a topic of great interest to me, given that I chase a lot and have been in the cores of many hurricanes-- and also that I have a great interest in postanalysis and data integrity.

My general impression is that most folks-- even experienced chasers-- overestimate the winds they're experiencing by a factor of 1.5 to 2.

I've said this before, but a true sustained wind of 65 kt is very, very strong-- and far fewer people have experienced that than we think.

I think that's generally true. Although I think once you start approaching extreme wind speeds (something like 100 mph), people tend to underestimate. Then again it is very difficult to differentiate between wind speeds at that end of the spectrum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it takes a lot of balls or being a tad insane to stay that close to a tornado, filming out a window as it is literally a few yards away from you.

This spectacular video of the Tuscaloosa tornado is a good example of the cameraman actually being well within the envelope of hurricane-force winds. The Henryville video is awesome, but this dude here was much closer and I'd say the winds at this cameraman's location most certainly reached hurricane force for a few moments as the funnel passed very close and the wind shifted.

The really crazy part is ~1:00-1:30. Just awesome, awesome video:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

See the discussion above. The winds where the person was standing were nowhere near 80 mph-- at least not while the camera was recording.

Trees can go down and shingles can come off of roofs in winds below hurricane force.

Yeah you make a good point. I was outside when a 66 mph gust front came through once(measured it on my anemometer) and was almost blown to the ground off of a porch. It is so hard to tell on a video though

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it takes a lot of balls or being a tad insane to stay that close to a tornado, filming out a window as it is literally a few yards away from you.

The video out of poland is one of the all time greats and the guy stood there as it hit his house. One of the best videos of a tornado ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amazing. I kept waiting for a projectile to go through the window! I agree with others that the YouTube tornado trend is getting frightening (but awesome at the same time?).

This spectacular video of the Tuscaloosa tornado is a good example of the cameraman actually being well within the envelope of hurricane-force winds. The Henryville video is awesome, but this dude here was much closer and I'd say the winds at this cameraman's location most certainly reached hurricane force for a few moments as the funnel passed very close and the wind shifted.

The really crazy part is ~1:00-1:30. Just awesome, awesome video:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At about :20, just to the right of the huge tree, something fairly sizeable, either a tree or a building debris, is shot nearly straight downward out of the funnel. The speed is insane and I can't imagine the amount of force to shoot something downward against the overall vertical motion at the speed it appears.

If a tornado has multiple vortices, it likely has a central downdraft rather than a central updraft.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those are some of the best videos I have seen. Those may end up being very helpful with research also. So many things going on in those videos that shed light on what happens in and around a tornado. Seems the winds were actually stronger after the tornado had passed by some distance and when the house in the back loses its roof you never see a funnel so how far were they from the actual tornado?

If they weren't struck by the actual funnel itself is their damage tornado damage or some other classification?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...