'95 Pampa Tornado

I hadn't seen this video;  it's of the second, more powerful tornado that came very close to the prison.

Storm Chasing with the Taylors!

With Reed and Chris in Mississippi having the Dominator outfitted with scientific instrumentation, Joel headed out with his storm chasing dad Jimmy to document the moderate and high risk set-ups. On May 18 they observed several tornadoes in the Texas Panhandle, near Dumas and Stinnett. The next day was a high risk, and they caught a rain-wrapped wedge near Loyal, Oklahoma!

Dominator Air Cannon Test

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Looks like they'll work fine, if they're extremely close to a tornado. One parachute looked to me as though it was high enough to be caught up in wind, not so sure about a couple of 'em.

It seems to me as though they need some sort of spring loaded gadget to open the parachute, one that wouldn't trip with the G-force of going up, but rather trip on the way down. Perhaps something like an half -sized umbrella mechanism that could lock in place, seems like that would make an excellent sail. The trigger could be something like a ball bearing in a long narrow race, much like an umbrella handle; when the ball bearing, forced to the top of the race during the force of the ejection, fell down - from gravity - it would trigger the spring that would cause the mini-umbrella/parasail to fully open.

Not sure on the physics of my ball bearing gizmo, but it also seems to me that since you're shifting mass in the projectile to the top of the parachute device, you'd also gain some momentum, perhaps even some altitude in the parachute shot. It wouldn't have to be a great deal of mass, just an oz. or so would help and not hurt.

Probably been better to have diagrammed it. Just got inspired after watching the vid.

Goodnight Tornado

Had this up with a CNN video the other day but thought it might be conflicting w/ the other vids. The problem wasn't that, but one of my own. My YT issues have been fixed.

(well, except for posting too many videos on "one page".)



I've got the posting column set at 500, think it is, and I use vids that are 480 wide w/ the YT code. These tornadovideos.net offerings are usually 560 wide and on up, so I altered this one, hope it renders OK to everyone.

BTW, this Goodnight is not the same as the city downstate; it's a ghost town and parts of the classic movie Hud were filmed there and is also not far from the Groom Cross.

Oklahoma Tornadoes

TornadoVideos.net storm chasers captured three tornadoes in west-central Oklahoma on March 8, 2010, including the damaging Hammon tornado! Follow along with these and other chasers Live at www.TornadoVideos.net



This isn't too far away and I've roughnecked/drilled in that area.

Tornado Safety

Via Bits & Pieces

New Storm Chasers Season 3 Preview

Tornado Trivia

From today's Start Sampling poll:



I'm in the minority segment of the poll takers with my "Yes" answer. The number would be smaller if the question had been "Have you ever been IN a tornado?" and I would've been in that group, too. In fact, the question could have been plural, i.e. "Have you ever been in tornadoes?" and my answer would still have been "Yes". Each of my "in the tornado" experiences was terrifying, but also had humorous aspects that might make for an interesting story. (and I *might* write something about them sometime in the future)

The site also has daily trivia:



Again, my answer is with those in the minority. I'm fairly certain tornadoes don't normally travel at 90 or even 60 mph.

They move fast enough to make you swallow your gum, though.

Storm Chasers

Promo for the third season of Storm Chasers, first episode will be Sunday, October 18 at 8:00 pm CST on Discovery.

One of my favorite shows.

Freight Train vs Tornado