Wow tornado's are beautiful

AWESOME!!! So AWESOME!!! Those are SO COOL!!!

 

Awesome........

 

Being in California, I don't see them very often. Though I will admit to having been pinned in by one just a few weeks ago. That NWS will not admit was an actual tornado. Storm spotters were taken unaware because NWS-Hanford had told us that the incoming system was not severe enough to require activation. And by the time it roared in, there was no way to get out.

I got within 1/4 mile of one in Nov of 08. I went chasing a storm squall with rotation reported near Porterville. Melva had the camera and was doing a very good job of watching the cloud distribution and rotation... We got about halfway to where we needed to go when all of sudden Melva let lose with some words that rather surprised me... LOL! And then she says "LOOK AT THAT!"

I turned to look, and coming across this field that we are next to is a beautiful example of a "rope" tornado... and unlike most California tornado, which move slowly, this one was flat flying across that field!

I'll admit it, I flat flew getting that Roadmaster out it's path! We took that car down some roads that that car was NOT built for! AND worse than that, while I was driving, I was trying to get NWS on the phone! I ended up calling 911 identifying myself, and confirming touchdown on a tornado that hadn't even been spotted on radar yet!

Later, someone else located the debris field, and I was able to go out and view that. It did some pretty good damage for a California tornado.

We never got confirmation that the other one touched down, and we never even got to see where it was supposed to have been..

While we were trying to find it, that one came up behind us, and scared us about silly.... we were only 100 or so yards away when we spotted it.