"dpb" wrote in message
...
dpb wrote:
Robert Green wrote:
"dpb" wrote in message
...
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But, my latest relatively local (100 mi) example of the incredible is
the Greensburg (KS) EF5 that obliterated 90+% of the town. It left a
JD
9600-series combine over ten miles from its starting point in the
dealer's lot on the west edge of town.

Ouch! That's quite a trip. ...

Oh, BTW...don't think that the combine "flew" -- it mostly rolled it
like a not-so-round bowling ball. Still I guesstimated based on weight
and surface area center-of-gravity it took well over 200 mph winds to
tip it and get it going initially. It wasn't possible because of the
debris field left in town from all the destroyed houses, trees, etc., to
see a damage track it left except for a good gouge in the asphalt in the
dealer drive from whence it left, but out of town through the fields it
was pretty clear damage track that traced its progress...

I've heard many descriptions of close encounters. Two that stuck in my mind
were "It looked like God was hungry and was sucking everything in sight up
through a straw" and "When the funnel tip passed over things, they would
whoosh straight up like they were on an invisible elevator."

All things considered, a tornado is basically a natural vacuum cleaner.
Light items probably go straight up like rockets and cars and combines
probably bounce around inside the funnel stratified by weight until their
equilibrium is disturbed (a collision with more debris enter the base) and
the item falls out.

I've seen footage taken by a news chopper looking straight down into the
funnels of several small tornados. Very dark and lots of lightning in the
larger funnels. I had always assumed that the funnels didn't have a top,
even though that kind of makes no sense, only because very few people had
ever seen a tornado from above.

When you see tornado tracks from the air, the curleycue marks left on the
ground where the funnel tip scours the earth look like God was doodling on
scrap paper. I'm not sure of the total "lift capacity" of an F5 twister,
but I know that an F2 class storm lifted a car with two people in it over 9
stories and then dropped it, killed the passengers inside. There will
probably be some good metrics on tornado lift since more and more "test
devices" are getting sucked up and carried along, revealing more about the
insides of tornadoes than we ever knew befo

http://blogs.discovery.com/storm_cha...h-machine.html

I did manage to find the video of a look inside the funnel:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_212538.html

I also found a lot more sites with good daylight photos.

http://cache.boston.com/universal/si...6_17/iowa1.jpg

The above photo shows how close people are getting to the funnel with
cameras in very good light. I don't think this funnel had begun sucking up
debris yet.

Here's another broad daylight encounter:

http://images.pictureshunt.com/pics/t/tornado-12431.jpg

and another

http://s.ngeo.com/wpf/media-live/pho...27_600x450.jpg

The problem with tornado photos is that to see detail in the debris cloud
you have to frame the shot so that you can't see the funnel anymore. Most
people keep the focus on the funnel and not on the debris. Also, if you are
close enough to the debris cloud to get good pictures, you're close enough
to get hammered to death by a whirling cow, truck or water tank. Who
hasn't seen a clip that shows white-knuckled twister chasers screaming "IT'S
FOLLOWING US!!!!?" when a twister they have been chasing turns the tables
and starts chasing THEM.

--
Bobby G.