Tornadoes!!
Visitor Number 
since July 1, 2005
Anyone who has seen the movie "Twister" probably has entertained ideas at some point of chasing a tornado. The movie attracted alot of attention to a pursuit that many have been doing for many years before the movie ever was even thought of by the writers and producers. And you can ask any "storm-chaser" and they will tell you that the movie is purely fiction.
My oldest son, Seth, has been interested in the weather since he was very young. I supppose he got some of his interest from me, since I too have always been interested in it. I remember setting up a small table outside of our home when I was about 10 years old and trying to draw some of the summer thunderstorm clouds as they would develop nearby.
Tornadoes are best viewed in the Heartland of America. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota and even eastern Colorado. The land is flat and you can see for miles. Not only do you get a good view of the supercells that spawn tornadoes, but you can keep yourself out of harm's way much easier. We've had tornadoes in King George County, Virginia, of the smaller variety. Problem is, it is very difficult to see them coming because of the hilly wooded terrain. Very easy to get yourself into a dangerous situation.
Tornadoes are rated on the Fujita Scale according to the damage they create. F0 is the mildest of the tornadoes and F5 is the strongest. You can be killed in any of them. But obviously the stronger the twister, the more danger you could be in. F5's can level a brick building and remove paving from the highway. But they are all fascinating. I have had 2 tornadoes pass close to our home, which we never saw, but felt effects from. Broken tree limbs, small limbs impaled into the ground, stones raining down from the sky. Minor tornadoes that fortunately didn't hit our home. I have also seen 2 tornadoes while in Fredericksburg, summer of 2004 with the remnants of one of the hurricanes. Actually got a couple of photos of it with my handy-dandy little pocket camera. When we came out of Wal-Mart, everyone was standing and pointing at the one and some were even trying to take photos with their cell phones.
I have also seen a couple funnel clouds at a distance. When we first moved to Virginia, we had stopped at a Burger King while the boys were at school and we saw the funnel cloud go right over Route 301, just to the south. It never touched the ground, but later we learned that the funnel cloud had passed right over the school and they had brought all the children into the main building from the trailers and had them sitting in the hallways for safety.
The second funnel cloud was seen at more of a distance, while we lived near Colonial Beach Virginia, in our rental home, summer of 1995, as a supercell thunderstorm passed to the north of our location.
La Plata, Maryland got an F4 a couple years ago that did some significant damage. La Plata is about 20 miles north of us. We could see the supercell thunderstorm passing to the north of us, but we didn't get the storm at all
We had a small tornado go through King George that my husband wanted to chase with Seth, who was home visiting. They jumped into the pickup when we got the alert and parked at the high school parking lot since that is one of the highest spots around. As conditions got bad, Seth tried to explain to his father that they were most likely sitting right in the path and would be better moving to a different side of the storm, if they wanted to get a good look at it. Seth is a Storm Chaser who goes every year and knows about positioning for optimum view and safety. But by that time it was too late, rain was coming down too hard to see anything. The truck began to rock and my husband was also concerned about other vehicles in the parking lot getting blown into the truck. They held on, hoping that the truck wouldn't roll. Later they realized that the twister passed almost directly over them, not quite touching the ground, but they couldn't see it anyway.
When the storm was over and they could see again, they were amazed at what they saw. All the small trees in the parking lot and around the school were laying on the ground. Amazingly, none had hit the truck. Along the highway there were snapped off trees, uprooted trees and tree limbs and branches coating the road for a mile or so, then nothing else. Our house was 10 miles away and we didn't get the storm at all. Though it was beyond dark and visibility was at zero, the whole event, at least the audio, was captured by Seth on his video camera. Seth can tell this story so much better than I can, because, well, he was there!
Mostly, our tornadoes here in Virginia are on the F0 to F2 scale. Sometimes we'll get a more powerful one from your garden variety "pop-corn" summer storms, but that is more unusual. The majority of our tornadoes are from the tropical storms, hurricanes and remnants of these storms. Coincidentally, we are under a tornado watch until 4:30 am tomorrow morning (August 30th, 2005) from the remnants of Hurricane Katrina.
Nebraska Tornado, May 2004
Photo by Seth Price © 2004
And here are photos of 2 tornadoes in one afternoon in Fredericksburg, Virginia from the remnants of a hurricane September 18, 2004. I took these with just a small one-time camera that I carry in my purse, so it's difficult to see, but I have noted the location on the cloud where the twisters were.
This was the first one as we were coming out of Wal-Mart.
This was the second one that came up before we got out of town.
I'll have to go back through my papers to give you the exact amount, but we had several tornadoes that day in the area. I'll add more about it later. What an exciting day!!
For more information on tornadoes and storm chasing, please visit Seth's website at:
Tornado Photos by Seth Price 2004
Background photo contrast & color edited by Kay Price
Copyright © 2003 Marla Kay Urie Price
