Jake, it was a ground level mesocyclone with several tornadoes and countless sub-vortices. Had it been circulating at a few thousand feet it would have been a spectacular, unprecedented storm . There are one or two videos of chasers who entered the wall cloud, and you can see a few of the individual funnels as they go by.
This is one of my most favorite video from El Reno...the position of the camera, the route that you take, the magnificent bluish-green monster, the no-screamers/curser/whiners condition, the real sounds of the wind and the car engine, etc. I love everything about it!!!
Could been a chaser now these chasers have strobe lights so ppl can see them I don't even think cops were getting this close . They said was so much traffic of chasers all over
@@patricklaurojr7427 It was probably a cop. I don't think strobe lights have come into play until maybe 2020. This was almost 9 years ago now, people other than cops and ems didn't start using those lights like I said until recently, like in the past two years.
Jesus .... the bright blue-green hue of the sky in the center of that tornado is simultaneously the most beautifully haunting yet terrifying thing I've seen!!
This is the best video I've seen of the sudden expansion of this tornado (as soon as you turned south on 81) - the two-story house you passed next to the large blue barrel water tower was hit and damaged severely. Easy to see how chasers were fooled into thinking the vortices were actually the extent of the tornado, and the outer edges were just rain wrapping. You were lucky just getting out of it's way.
Caden Campbell in the old days folks would die by the hundreds thinking they were looking at a fog bank or just an odd low cloud formation not knowing the calamity.
It wasn't just one big tornado. There were multiple smaller vortices spinning around the main body. Some of them were spinning in excess of 200 mph. It was one of those that took out the two chaser teams. Starting at around the 3:40 mark, you can actually see two of them spinning separately on the right side of the camera view. (and they are both quite large own their own)
Every film i have watched on the El Reno tornado of May 31 2013 it seems to get worse. Different views from different storm chasers show how this tornado grew into a monster and your film is no different. You had a lucky escape for sure and did the right thing putting the hammer down. Thanks for posting.
It felt like you were driving 100mph forever and the wall/tornado was never ending. That must’ve been so terrifying. Great driving under such scary circumstances. I thought about those cars lined up on the side roads right under the storm and wondered if they made it out OK. I don’t know how they could have.
@@maryzylema9699 El Reno only had 8 casualties, so they probably made it. It was the grace of god or pure luck that that monster didn't hit a town or a major city. It could've been so much worse.
Someone said it was actually a mesocyclone that just extended down to earth, inside of it were the actual tornados in the form of multiple smaller vortexes. It looks like that. Technically that huge thing wasnt a tornado, even though it had EF 3 wind speeds.
The main circulation is monstrously massive. And here's the real peculiarity: the top of the tornado reveals a huge hole in the sky. Look closely and it looks like the edge of the eye of a hurricane. This is the only tornado ever filmed that did something like this. Well, basically the hole in the sky was the tornado. The hole dropped the wall cloud with multiple vortices, dancing and mixing erratically. And the hole itself also dropped rain. This can be noticed in the videos that filmed the tornado from afar.
@@jamelgallagher6602 Yeah, but from what i read it were the subvortexes which had those speeds, of which there were alledgedly up to 8 at a time. The mesocyclone didnt had EF5 speeds, you see that with your eyes i guess, its also proven by the fact that there is tons of vids of people from inside the mesocyclone which fortunately were missed by the subvortexes, differenty to T. Samaras. It was one of kind, thats certain.
@@chaos_doom1321 Insane. But from what i know, normal tornados also do that one a smaller scale? Just like a hurricane. From a laymans perspective a mesocyclone that touches down is a hurricane in nutshell, sort of, isnt it?
Did it really grow right there and get absolutely close to him or was that just fog or something like that lol.. like if he didn't move when it got close to him was he about to get picked up right there in like 10 seconds or someshit?
@@lolhahah21 yes he would have gotten picked up, he said the wind was already so intense, he was technically already in the tornado at that point, he’s very lucky
maya nibbe No kidding! by the time the tornado hit that road Brendon was on, it had a forward speed of almost 60 MPH. Let alone, being more than 2.5 miles wide and having sub-vortices with winds of nearly 300 MPH.
Watch the video of Mike Gribble escaping the El Reno Tornado. There's a part where they're basically running for their lives from the tornado and blow a stop sign in front of a cop coming from their right. The cop stops in the intersection and realizes they had the right idea. You see him come flying up behind them trying to escape with them. All caught on their rear camera. Incredible video actually.
There are a lot of really good videos of this tornado and I especially like this one simply because there are no hysterical distractions. The wind, hail and especially the sound of the engine being pushed to the limit really add to the sense of urgency to escape. Kind of amazing that people would pull over to stop and shoot while others are blowing by them at flank speed. If I saw a chaser fleeing down the road I'd be right behind 'em.
I've been watching and re watching this footage for years. Some of the absolute best tornado footage on RU-vid. I can imagine the fear you must have felt running away from this. It's crazy how one second it seems like everything is all good and the next the tornado is right on you. The size of this and the visible intensity must have made it felt like being chased down by a chaos God or something. Glad you made it and we're able to bring us this footage.
@@Quisspo Naw, the 302 was from a sub vortex. The main tornado wasn't that powerful actually, there's tons of footage from folks IN the tornado and didn't even know it (see Dan Robinson's video). Also there wasn't much ground scouring like the truly powerful tornadoes leave. It was the sub vortices that were deadly in this one.
@WickedTornado I also give credit to this particular event for my increased interest in mesocyclones and supercells in general. Each time I see new footage of this it still blows my mind.
The frightening thing is that the funnel cloud being focused on in this video WASN'T the tornado. It was forming in the rain shelf. I was looking at the video in disbelief that the rain was being turned back into clouds by the tornado surrounding it.
At last check, ten people were killed in this storm. The Twistex Team, Tim Samaras, Carl Young, and Tim's son, a woman and her infant child, also in a vehicle, and another less known storm chaser, that was also caught in a vehicle. Not sure, who the others were, but Skip Talbot, has an awesome breakdown of where everyone was, during this tornado, along with what happened. Enjoyed this video. It's a nail bitter! Glad you made it through!
@@christinaholland8191not to necro this a year later, but that might have been the semi following Daniel Shaw. If so then yes he was fine, the semi tipped over and probably saved Shaw's life. And if I remember right the trucker then hitched a ride with him to a gas station lol
I try to watch every single El Reno video out there. There’s so many different perspectives and angles and often times it’s too hard to see because of it being rain wrapped. It’s amazing what a difference the chaser’s positions makes in seeing the tornado. Some videos only really show a rainy gray sky while this on the other hand shows so much color and contrast. I can’t imagine seeing some giant blue tornado coming straight at me. I think this is definitely one of the most dramatic videos out there as it really shows how much the change in direction and change in speed could really catch chasers off guard. At a few times you see cars fleeing from the other direction and other cars still parked along the road and I gotta wonder if they all made it out in time or if they even had enough time to react. This guy sure is lucky. It really felt like the tornado was racing him. He floored it for so long and it was still gaining on him
Pause at 4:11 or 4:12 of this video. See the group of cars? Now go to Skip Talbot's video from 6:10 - 6:15. On that map, you can see that is Reno Rd. You can see a group of about 4 dots going east, trying their best to get away from the tornado. The green dot that crosses their path going south down Highway 81, is Brendon. The red dot behind Brendon is Mike Bettes. And as you can see, Brendon is impacted by the outer edges of the tornado ( mainly RFD ). Bettes didn't make it.
+finisher3x Wow thanks for taking the time and putting all the pieces together. I always wondered how on earth people outran it and who they were. Racing south on 81, the wind was jerking my car to the right, into the tornado I was having to crank hard lefts to counteract the the winds.
Many chasers were on route to highway 81. They wanted concrete roads over the dirt roads which were wet and muddy by then. Good footage too, with a full view to study this tornado.
@@sweetspirit3887 no they mean Bettes didn't make it through the tornado like Brendon did, Bettes and his people were hit by it and blown off the road, with Bettes' car flipping several times. they were all fine aside from a few minor scrapes but obviously it could have been a hell of a lot worse and there's some speculation that one of the other people who died in the tornado (other than Tim/Paul/Carl) was seen in the Bettes footage in a red truck.
There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. My actions had a little of both but thats what it takes to get the shot. My camera was mounted on the hood.
Those are the vortices. This tornado had 2 satellite tornados and an anti-cyclonic tornado right next to it. Then you have the cone of the tornado. Too much things are going on with this one tornado. And this tornado almost hit OKC.
This is one of the most graphic images/video of the super tornado its amazing to its density from a distance and condolences to those affected and passed on.
+Item69 The first person to knock out Reed Timmer's teeth..........I'm going to send 'em a hundred bucks. That brat trapped inside a young man's body WILL get some people killed sooner or later. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened YET.
starting at 3:36 you can see a massive sub-vortice or possible satellite tornado emerge from the rain wrapped main tornadic circulation. Whats scary about this is apparently theyre was 3 -5+ of these monsters at peak width that had 300mph winds. Adding to the danger of being rain wrapped. One can only imagine the true horror if it had been a LP supercell what it would have looked like. 5+ funnels dancing wildly super speed around a parent funnel with a wall cloud over 2 miles wide reaching towards the ground.
There is a video of the Oklahoma outbreak on the 3rd of 1999 that has a pair of twin monsters just looking like something from a nightmare. Some really old tornado footage is beyond eerie.
One of those sub-vortice actually sat on top of a chaser crew for (estimated by those who reviewed the storm) about 22 seconds. The chaser that was hit by the sub-vortice did not survive, it was a crew of 3.
It almost feels like the wall cloud itself touches the ground with this monster. Heck the multiple vorticies in it alone looked like full fledged tornados. We may never see something like this again. Glad it was primarily In open farm land, but it really did deserve an ef5 rating
Allan, you and your partner's video is one of my favorites, since you captured it from a different angle than most. Watching that demon cross the road in front of you is just chilling, and your shots of it moving away are unique. Glad you survived.
Barely saw anything in all that dust and rain.  No wonder some people get caught up in these things.  There's almost no warning unless you look for signs like the base of the storm cloud descending rapidly as a mesocy- clone and dust and rain rotating below it.
I know it has been a few years and I have seen quite a few videos of this tornado. This one is one of my favorites! I have always been told all my life that 98% of the time to head SE and you are usually safe. I know this one was rare and actually dipped SE for 16.2 miles. If you don't mind me asking; At what point did you decide, going S was a bad idea? I have heard many chasers say this is the tornado that chased the chasers and after seeing this one, it is clear to me why now. So glad you made it out alive RIP for the ones that didn't.
@@lightningfreek I would've done the same thing, I think all the chasers thought the same thing that day. I watched it on a live feed and I was communicating with another chaser and he said he was running for his life as well and wasn't sure where to go. And I will reiterate; So glad you made it out alive.
What is amazing is how few people were killed. Imagine if one of those fleeing cars had hit another one, and stalled everyone behind them. There was no more room for error.
My question is how did you know to keep such a large distance from this tornado? Most chasers would be driving closer to get better video. I say while applauding you for being able to understand the tornado well enough to keep such a large distance.
Well there were never before seen parameters that day so I knew it would be volatile. Luckily that was just my style. I am a photographer, look up Storm Addiction on FB . I tend to like seeing the whole picture vs just the tornado.
great companion video to TWC crew vid, you pass the van that is seen down in the ditch as Bettes and crew get rolled. And later we see the law enforcement vehicle which is seen driving ahead of Dan Robinson on his mad dash. that line of chasers at 2:52 really puts into perspective how close this monster came to killing far more people.
I was just realizing all that as I watched the video, The fact that he passed the van shows how nasty close this demon of a storm was and how big of a mad dash some were making to get the hell out of the way.
+Sharizzle Fob yes.and because the native americans,stole the land and massacred the ancient caucasians and north africans,( snake people,mound builders,andara people,solutrians,olmecs,mandans,Florida bog people,9000 years ago) and because they massacred them,these tornados,with avenging deamons will pull them into its whirling winds.
Holy shit you guys got lucky, great video quality, probably the best I’ve seen, and at 3:50 you can see the multi vortex’ dancing round each other before they merge into a bigger tornado.
Unbelievable close shave that, seeing the three cars at 4:10 i instantly had a thought that they didnt make it, the comments below after verified this, sure hope they made it, lucky to have made it being so close and with possible sub v's, lightning strikes and satellite tornados, grest job guys. RIP team twistex xxx
If you watch Skip Talbot's El Reno Analysis video, you can see exactly where Brandon was in relation to the tornado. He says he was in front of Mike Bettes, who got hit by the tornado. On Skip's video, there's a "green dot" right in front of Bettes that basically takes off and leaves him. Brandon was able to skirt pass the vortices going around the parent tornado, while Bettes hit it head on. You're talking maybe 1/4 - 1/2 mile difference between Brandon and Bettes, which at interstate speeds is about 15 - 20 seconds. Brandon is shown on his own video and on Skip's video passing other cars and chasers who may have gotten blown off the road by the tornado.
Luckily it wasn't at peak strength when they got hit, or they'd probably all be dead. That videos bugs me because they drove right into the vortexes trying to outrun them
"Man! That wall cloud is impressive! Gonna pull over here to see if it produces a... Oh, LORD!! That's not a wall cloud! That thing; That whole thing; IS the tornado, AND IT'S COMING RIGHT AT US!!!"
I've watched my share of tornado videos and many of El Reno but this is the best yet. The angle and the light. Amazing looking into the centre of that beast. Amazing.
@@lightningfreek Got to get out there. Show your POV's for the same system's they showcase. I'm sure they would be ok with it so long as you don't hinder them or interfere with their angles. This video has no copyrighted music and no background commentary that would make someone panic when they see it from 10 miles away. Pecos Hank is one of the big channels. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e2wbn3ivHwc.html
Just when I thought I had seen almost every video of the El Reno Tornado, I am proven wrong. Brendon....great footage!!! I can almost hear you say "F this....I'm out" as you fly past the van at about 4:48. So I'm wondering, how close were you? 1/4 mile? Cause...wow that was close! At 4:55, in the distance...middle of the screen, you can see another one. And at 5:20, you can see what looks like 2 more off in the distance. That was a monster of of a storm.
I indeed seen the two vortices, between the break of the line of juniper cedars at 3:52 and floored it. I will never forget fighting the winds like 45 degree jerks on my steering wheel to the left when it , the nader, was pulling me to the right...
Do you know who was in the white van at 4:48 and if they survived? I apologize ahead of time if this was already discussed. I'm going to watch Skip Talbots video too.
@@Linda-zo8ds Mike Bettes with The Weather Channel. If I'm not mistaken, this is the tornado that flung him 30ft into the air. There's videos of the camera inside his car when it happened.
Hands down the highest quality video I've seen out of the 100's of videos I've watched of the El Reno monster!! Good stuff!! I look forward to seeing what's ahead on your channel!!
That went from responsible, keeping a safe distance to...oh shit that thing is chasing me! This should be a warning video for all potential tornado chasers. Slow speed to 0.25 and freeze frame at 1:51 during the flash. There it is!
At about the 3:40 mark you finally see something just isn't right. I've never seen anything like this, that is just so incredible. Instead of gusting out it wrapped up into a mega monster with a carosel vorticy train. The tornado itself was interacting with the ffd of the supercell & producing deadly satellite vorticies just off some kind of friction taking place while the main circulation was occluding into the rain/hail core.
To me it seems the 2,6 mile wide thing was the mesocyclone that just touched down and within it it had tornados. But i guess it something changed the way these things normally work, due to it touching down, ad maybe you are right, some kind of strange friction going on therefore.
WOW. A new appreciation for how deceptive this tornado was! At 3:20 you looked totally safe, but by 4:00 you were running for your life with the thing ready to drop one right on you!!
It still amazes me a decade later how rapidly this monster grew in size! In fact it sort of reminded of those cheesy tornado movies you'd sometimes see on that Syfy channel haha. Still though I'm glad to see you came out of this storm alive! : )
Lol I love that part when you gunned it past that white mini van towards the end of the video! I would of done the same thing! Great video to watch but I bet it was pretty scary to experience. Hopefully you're okay though.
You guys weren’t chasers that day, you were runners trying to get out of dodge! Man what a freak of nature! Maybe they need to come up with an ef6 designation for a twister like this
The Fujita scale is the main joke. This thing was deadly and what it did to the 3 Chasers and the 5 other people make me terrified. This tornado had so many stuff going on in it. Yea, people say Oklahomans are use to twisters but this thing was insane and it was like it was trying to cause as much tragedy as possible. 1) Winds 295 (2nd highest, making 1999 Bridge Creek OK 1st) 2) Size (2.6, widest tornado ever) 3) It produced vortices, 2 satellites tornados as an anti-cyclonic tornado was right beside it. And not to mention the cone itself. That proceeding day, it produced many smaller tornadoes. 4) That abrupt turn it made. No one expected that sudden turn it made. Which was what killed Sam Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young, vortices was what hit them. It’s almost impossible to outrun a tornado that wide that’s going about 50mph. This tornado almost hit OKC too. It would of wiped out OKC off the map. The Devon building would just be knocked over like the game Jenga. May those who died rest.
3:40-4:15 This tornado had the particularity to be diferent by their múltiples vortexes in so many directions,so scary be witness in a thing like this!,glad you're ok Brendon!.
I would love to know your thoughts now looking back on this day and realizing what you escaped, and almost died to? What do you think about escaping the El Reno tornado? When did you realize you were in danger and did you ever have the thought that this isn't a typical little tornado? Meaning EF2/EF3. I know this was rated an EF3 in the end, but I think the EF scale should be based on wind speed, and width, not damage it does.
This video illustrates better than any other just how dynamic and dangerous tornadoes can be. At around the 3:20 mark, there's just this large tornado off to the right a few miles away, no biggie, plenty of time to get out of it's path. By the 4:10 mark, it's HOLY SHIT, that sucker's in the field right next to me, maybe a few hundred yards away! People get lured by some notion of object solidity that doesn't really apply to atmospheric phenomena like thunderstorms and tornadoes, which are literally like billions of ephemeral ghosts popping into and out of existence thousands of times per second, depending on how the local physical conditions get whipped and sawed by the large scale upper atmosphere conditions. That's why tornadoes, like the one above, can appear to be about a mile closer in mere seconds.
Jesus, look at that wall cloud and clear cut. That's a nasty, nasty nasty storm. Props to you for punching through, that was a brave decision, though I'm sure at the time you had no idea just how massive the rotation was. It's scary how rapidly it got bigger.
