Today was one of the most epic chase days of my entire life. Waiting for initiation, we all took turns guessing where the tornadoes would occur today and I looked at the map and picked McCook, NE. Mainly because it reminded me of McCool Junction from 5 years ago. It turns out, my guess was accurate!
This was today's set up.
The map of all the chasers today was essentially a mirror image of the dew point map.
We ended up seeing 5 tornadoes today! Here is Greg's GoPro footage of two them.
Here is footage that Erin shot with her iPhone. This was number 3.
Here are the photos I took of all of them. Number 2 was very short lived and number 5 was hard to see because it was getting dark and it was wrapping in rain, but it was definitely there. I enhanced the contrast a bit.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
Today was a struggle between shooting video and taking stills. I had a GoPro on my head that ran out of battery right as the first tornado touched down. Today I learned that the newer GoPros have a way shorter battery life than the older generations. I recorded an hour of nonsense beforehand, in anticipation for a tornado.
As we flew down these windy dirt roads, it felt like a scene from Twister as I literally hung out the window with cameras in my hand. I had never been so close to a photogenic tornado before. Seeing this chocolate brown dust beautifully rotating in so much detail as it churned the ground felt like the world had stopped and I was seeing everything in slow motion. The feeling that went through me can only be described as the word I invented later that day -a "torgasm".
Even to this day, there are bits and pieces of Nebraska in my cameras.
We ended the day at Tep's Bar and Grill in Lexington, where we ran into George Kourounis, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland, Chris Kridler and Dayna and Brad Rousseau. We all had a successful chase day and it was time to enjoy a steak dinner.
We ended the night in Gothenburg, NE.
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