Nevada Tornado Takes a Stroll Down the Street (Video)

This was a pretty cool video that appeared on YouTube this week. An EF-0 tornado almost appears out of no where and moves down the side of the street as this person films from his car. The tornado hit Hawthorne, Nevada on June 5th 2015. Hawthorne is in northern Nevada and only has a population of just over 3,200 people!
Obviously, filming severe weather from your car is not the greatest place to be but luckily this storm wasn't strong enough to impact him. However, it was still strong enough to throw small trees in the air and rip apart the sign. The most interesting part of the video is in the beginning few secs but the rest of the video shows some of the damage from around town. 

One of the Best Tornado Videos of the Year! Double the Trouble - Sister Tornadoes in Nebraska 6/16/2014

Looking back at some of the videos I saved to my "Watch Later" list on YouTube, I discovered this amazing video from June 16, 2014. It's double the trouble with this violent dual tornadoes spinning up in the plains. It happened from from Stockton to Pilger, Nebraska . The storm chasers at WeatherStorm.net, a severe weather blog, caught this incredible storm on video. These two tornadoes are a part of the same Tornado Family, which means they are separate tornadoes forming form the same supercell, taking a parallel path. 

The same system was caught on camera by other chasers, including the chasers at stormchasingvideo.com. It's an amazing site to see one tornado but to see two right next to each other is incredible! 

Moore Tornado - One Year Anniversary May 20th

It was one year ago today that the town of Moore Oklahoma was devastated by a massive EF5 tornado. The tornado injured up to 377 people, killing 24, including seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Winds exceeded 210 mph and the tornado reached an incredible width of 1.3 miles wide. The storm destroyed 1,150 homes and caused $2 billion in damages. The people of Moore are still recovering a year later.

A true monster of a storm. The tornado grew fast from it's small funnel to it's mile wide mass of swirling debris and clouds. The video below shows how quickly this storm grew!

The next video is a time lapse view of the tornado from a news helicopter. Watch as the black behemoth rides across the flat lands of Oklahoma connecting the dark sky to the green land. 

Fire Tornadoes in California! 5/15/2014

It's not every day you see a swirling mass of fire spinning violently up from the ground but today was the day in California! As the unusual wildfire storms just north of San Diego, this spectacular and extremely dangerous situation was caught on tape!  This video was taken in San Marco, CA. Although fire season is usually later in the year, the extensive and extreme drought the state has been suffering though has resulted in an extremely early fire season. As seen below in the US Drought Monitor, the whole state is in extreme to exceptional drought conditions. 

With extreme drought like this, fire season is going to be long and damaging! 

Now what is a fire tornado? Also known as a fire whirl, fire devils and firenadoes. These small vortexes form within wildfires when extreme heat combine with strong winds to produce eddies that carry flames into the air like a small tornado. Most fire tornadoes are one to three feet wide, reaching up to 100 feet tall. However, there have been occurrences when the whirlwinds have gotten up to a 1,000 feet wide! Since the fire whirl is formed from the extreme heat of a small area, temperatures become a factor in these micro storms. Inside the core of the fire tornado, temperatures can reach an incredible 2,000 degrees F! 

Tornado Takes a Beach Day Part 2 - Myrtle Beach July 6, 2001

Like the water spout that came ashore in Carolina Beach on August 18, 2011. This water spout rides directly along the shore, ruining every one's beach day! It's as if the tornado is going for a jog down the beach. Watch as it grows, gathering sand and water into it's funnel. Since the video is from 2001, it is kind of grainy but still impressive! 
The tornado moves up the coast and past the high rise condo that the observer is recording the film. Although this video is older, it still zooms in enough to see the swirling vortex at an unusually close vantage point!  
Although impressive, its good to see no one on the beach. This storm is fairly strong and could have seriously hurt or even killed anyone on the beach! 

Italy Tornado Get's Awfully Close! (video)

Check out this amazing video out of Italy! A weak tornado formed on April 30, 2014 and was caught on camera from a workplace. Watch as the tornado swirls just outside the large glass windows of the building, snapping trees and glass. The workers rush to find cover near the center of the building but that's pretty much all they did right! However, you can't really blame them, tornadoes are not as common in Italy as in, say Oklahoma!

Although tornadoes are no strangers to the country of Italy, the frequency is not as great as it is in Tornado alley in the United States. On average all of Europe sees about 300 tornadoes every year. Compare that to the 1,274 tornadoes annually in the United States!

Thankfully the people in the office building are ok and they have some great footage but let's hope they learn to drop the camera next time and seek shelter!

Baltimore Urban Landslide! (Video)

When you think landslide, you probably think a sludge of mud sliding down the side of some remote mountain but you probably don't think one could happen right in the heart of a city!

This week the east coast of the U.S. experienced  a complete deluge of spring rain as a slow moving storm system moved from west to east. Many ares from the Mid-Atlantic to Southern New England saw 3-5 inches of rain in a 30 hour period. In fact Central Park in NYC saw an amazing 5.12" of rain! That's more than a whole months worth of rain!

Even though the rain was very impressive and many areas experienced flooding, what took the top spot on most news channels was the urban landslide in Baltimore, Maryland! In the Charles Village neighborhood of Baltimore, on 26th street a retaining wall gave out under the pressure of the heavy rain. This caused the wall, sidewalk, street and cars to fall 75 feet to the train tracks below!

This incredible urban landslide was even caught on camera! The video below is incredible yet scary at the same time!

Blue Skies Above: Hurricane Sandy Cause Storm Surge in Ft Lauderdale! (Video)

Believe it or not, but this video is actually a result of Hurricane Sandy! Yes, the storm was so massive, and such a monster, that it sent storm surge all the way down the east coast to Ft. Lauderdale Beach in Florida.  On the morning of October 28, 2012, Hurricane Sandy was about to take her left hand turn into the coast of New Jersey, but it sent swells out in all direction, impacting people and beaches far and wide!  

These swells, combined with an astronomical high tide, sent the ocean crashing over the dunes and right into the stress of Ft Lauderdale Beach. Pretty impressive considering the storm was close to 1,000 miles to the northeast! Sunrise Blvd was inundated with water, shocking many considering the skies were crystal blue and the weather was beautiful.

It truly is remarkable to see the strength and power of these storms!

Tuscaloosa Tornado April 27, 2011

Today marks the third anniversary of a devastating disaster, a tornado outbreak for the record books. From April 25-28, 2011 a massive tornado outbreak befell the southern states, causing massive damages in order of $11 billion and changed thousands of lives forever. Sadly the entire outbreak resulted in 358 confirmed deaths.

The outbreak was one of many extreme weather events in 2011.

On the third day of the tornado outbreak, a massive F-4 tornado raced from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, Alabama. It caused 1,500 injuries and 65 fatalities in it's 80 mile long path. The storms peak winds reached 190 mph, leveling whole neighborhoods.

The storm beard down on the metro area of Tuscaloosa.  The scene of a tornado approaching a highly populated area is one that many have not witnessed in years, if not decades. In our technological age, this storm was caught on camera in hundreds of different perspectives, from television web cameras to mobile phone recordings.

The video above is taken by an individual as the tornado moves right through the parking lot in front of him! It's pretty INTENSE and not something I recommend any body do!

Below is video of a local television station covering the storm right as it forms from a dark funnel into a massive black tornado tearing up the urban landscape!

Finally, here's the ariel views taken a day after the Tuscaloosa tornado on April 28, 2011. As you can see the damage was extensive and many areas were leveled!

Water Spout Takes a Beach Day! (Video)

The above 'tornado' video is pretty AWESOME! I only say this because it shows the amazing beauty of nature while not causing any injuries or too much damage.

This storm starts off as a waterspout, since the vortex is over water and technically turns into a tornado when it crosses onto the beach. Watch as the weak funnel turns color as it begins to pick up sand on the beach. The vortex is weak like most waterspouts are but powerful enough to pick up a couple of beach umbrellas and throw them around like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz!

The storm occurred in Carolina Beach, North Carolina on August 18, 2011. The waterspout first formed .75 miles off shore and moved inland about .5 a mile before dissipating.

The storm made for one heck of a Beach Day!

Storm Surge Hits ChiTown!

It's not often that you see storm surge in a Major city, although if sea levels continue to rise it may become all too familiar. Older infrastructure built in low-lying areas out of connivence are now being threatened by ever rising water levels and increased erosion. However, the video above is not a ocean front shore but a lake front! Lake Michigan to be exact and the highway running along side the rising surf is the infamous Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

You may think that just because Chicago is on a lake, they can't experience storm surge, but you would be wrong. Lake Michigan is so large that strong winds and storms can easily pile the water up on one side of the lake.

This video from September 30, 2011 shows that even in a major city on a lake, the power of water can be dangerous! Lake Michigan never makes it to Lake Shore Drive but it engulfs the park area next to the highway used for walking, running and biking. Like most storm surges, the unsuspecting waves catch a few pedestrians and cyclist off guard. Some even almost get washed away.

Forest Swallowed by Sinkhole in Just Seconds! (Video)

In this amazing video from August 2013, entire trees are swallowed up by a large sinkhole beneath a lake in Louisiana. It's stunning to see what appears to be 50 foot trees just sink gracefully into the muddy waters, never to be seen again. However graceful and amazing, this sinkhole would have been disastrous if it had occurred in a populated area!

Sinkholes are caused for a number of reasons. They occur when subsurface layers are dissolved (natural limestone erosion) or removed (example: mining). When the subsurface layer is removed, an area of open space appears, which then causes the surface above to sink into the giant hole.

This particular sinkhole is amazing due to it's size, it's position under a water source and it being caught on film! In the petroleum rich area of Louisiana, one reason for this particular sinkhole could be the collapse of a salt dome. Salt domes are often found near petroleum deposits.