Man, that gunshot thungerclap at about 35:27 is so EPIC. The way it marks that vortex touching down! Such a beast. Excellent footage and vantage of an incredible phenomenon. Never to forget those who lost their lives and the loved ones left behind.
It was very loud! In fact, you can hear a small clicking sound at the same time you see the lightning flash, which I think comes from the video camera's mic being affected by the electromagnetic 'pulse' of the flash - it was close!
@@paulknightley I was just going to mention that. I believe it's the sound of the static discharge from upward streamers, which can only be heard when in very close proximity to them (probably
There's usually multiple upward streamers reaching from the grounf and only one that connects to the parent bolt, which explains why the thunder was abit more delayed than you'd expect for a stremer that close lol.
The timing of that was crazy, there weren't too many lightning strikes before it touched down and it just happened to strike the moment the funnel began to drop, crazy
I would second the EMI/EMP explanation. The single flash and sonic-boom style of thunder coupled with with tornado genesis points to positive lightning, and given the massively increased energy potential of positive lightning and the exact synchronicity of the clicking sound, EMI/EMP seems likely. I once had one hit so close it set off my smoke detectors, but it didn't strike the building. Crazy!
This is awesome. I particularyl liked that you let us watch it develop listening only to the natural sound. Made me feel like I was almost there. Excellent job!
Thanks, Rich - yes, I quite like to leave the camera rolling to get some of the ambience - storm chasing is more than just a few seconds of shouting about tornadoes! :)
Here hear! I've been through two tornadoes, and one of the things about this one was the massive amount of lightning and thunder I've heard in others' videos as the storm intensified. At one point, it almost sounded like fireworks! @@paulknightley By the way, the audio is absolutely amazing! I'm so glad you pay attention to the audio quality, because I believe it's as important as the visual quality.
It’s so wild to see the vehicles I’ve seen in other chaser videos of this storm. I love that you’re back a bit further and getting so much detail at the same time!
This is by far some of the best stormchasing video I have watched. No overreaction, yelling. Just letting the video tell the story, with comments when needed. Great job.
@@paulknightley Great video, one of the best! Do you get nervous when traffic starts piling up around you? I started to feel very anxious as more cars started crowding in.
Yeah man thanks for sharing this video with us. I would never forget that day. I remember watching this on TV that day. May all of those people continue to RIP 🙏.
You actually got better video than the chasers inside the rotation...there has been a tendency in recent years to drive waaaaay to close to these tornadoes, with tragic results.
Thanks - my opinion is that footage is much more interesting when back a way from the storm - however, the 'need' of some to get clicks, etc, appears to make them lose sense of reality
This is some of the best footage of the El Reno monster I've seen...concise, sparse, intelligent narrative... no screaming, and you put yourselves in the right spot ahead of the hundreds of boneheads chasing that storm. Well done PN! Keep calm and storm chase!
There’s something so sinister and brooding, yet calm and surreal, as the system builds prior to the tornado. I’ve always found the Great Plains region to be beautiful in its vastness, but the storms that move over add another element entirely and simply leave you awestruck.
Paul, this is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. The sirens are very haunting, as well. I chased a tornado close to Marietta, OK, in 2009. It began to “rope” down from the wall cloud, then either dissipated or became rain-wrapped. I decided not to pursue it, since I could not see it. Couple of thoughts that have probably been addressed. At 53:00, you say you think it is taking a left turn. I wonder if this is when the TWISTEX Crew perished? Also, I had always believed that the birds stop chirping when a strong/violent storm is approaching. Mother Nature can be fascinating…
Many thanks for your kind words :) And, yes, unfortunately the part you reference about the left turn is right around the time of that particular tragedy, sadly.
seriously excellent work in documenting this historical tornado! Loved the raw take on this storm. YT has became too "instant action," I really enjoyed seeing the build up of this storm.
We kept saying, keep watching the skies, knowing something was brewing that day. Never knew how bad it would be. That place is cursed by bad storms. Very scary place to live.
I had to pause the video to comment. I've never seen a storm more beautiful yet so terrifying. I've seen a lot of videos about El Reno but this is my first time watching yours and I am stunned by your footage. Watching the rotation around 33:39 and on was mesmerizing. The entire storm looked like it was coming down to the ground. Insane storm structure! Beautiful camera work. Continuing on with the video now.. lol
@@jonadkins768 Yes, damage rating was EF3…stronger winds were detected by mobile Doppler radar but that is not used in the EF rating, as that is based on damage
Thank you for specifying it was the damage rating. I still feel like it should have been an EF5 for so many reasons. Especially to take down such an experienced team such as Twistex… RIP 😢
It's scary to see that people underestimate the radius of the tornado. The wind field of the tornado is actually bigger than the funnel cloud. So you get sucked into the tornado even if you are still quite away from the funnel cloud, but in the wind field of the tornado. In this special case it was a monster wedge tornado with satellite tornados swirling around the huge center of the main tornado. If hit by such a satellite tornado, death is unavoidable.
4:02 you started fast motion and that's when we get to see how the lower level southeasterly inflow jet works, feeding the supercell. Great camera work and editing.
Have seen numerous videos of this monstrosity...the fact it didn't hit a city directly is fortunate... thousands may have been lost...(according to NWS.) Truly, a storm of gargantuan power...God bless victims & families...
Were you near the in-flow? (Please note that I can only hear these videos, as I'm totally blind.) I hear the winds picking up as time goes by, and the distant thunder is ominous.
Thanks for your comment, and I hope the sound gave an impression of what was going in..yes, we were in the inflow…the wind you can hear is a mix of the ambient flow plus the inflow
Man! That was terrific! I know how scared you both were while @@paulknightley driving away from that beast! I'm so glad you captured everything from that escape using the exterior camera, because you can hear which side of the car was being hit by the rain and wind at times. You couldn't get that from the interior mic. I've been totally blind since birth, so the audio is just as important to me as the visual, because it's almost like having binocular vision when the audio is binaural like that. I know a guy who had his sight until he was in his mid 30s, and that's how he described that great audio quality. It really put things into perspective.
@@heatherstub I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for your kind words! The mic did remain in the car, as it’s attached to the camera, but tends to give a better sound…I’ve found it picks the bass up from deep roars of thunder better than the cam’s mic…it wasn’t an expensive one either! I would urge more chasers to get a mic to get away from the horrible wind noise, but a lot film with phones these days, which is fine for the visuals, but leaves a lot to be desired for the aural!
By the way, if you want to hear something cool, try my video of hail roar from a supercell…there is a bit of wind noise at the end but the roar at the start is hail roar. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aes1M_xns8E.html&feature=sharea
The iPhone 11-14 Pro all do a great job with every bit of the audio. I listen to videos from a frequent flier channel here on RU-vid. He's been using them, and the videos are fabulous! Please let me know if you'd like to know the name of the channel. Thanks.@@paulknightley
The 2013 El Reno Oklahoma tornado was the largest tornado ever recorded in history, reached a peak width of 2.65 miles (4.26 km) which is the widest tornado ever. and a Mobile RaxPol radar measured Windspeeds of 295+ mph, which maybe the highest winds ever measured on Earth. Also during that time, due to the tornado’s rapid intensification and growth, 4 storm chasers have passed away from this tornado. It later died west of El Reno at 6:43 pm. It killed 8 people in total and injured 26 others over its 16.2 mile path. Despite the tornado have recorded wind of almost 300 mph, but it was only rated an EF-3. But why did it decrease to an EF3? Because it spawned in the plains of El Reno.
What I always find sobering about El Reno is the fact that if you moved its path a relatively short distance and you would have had catastrophe. Oklahoma City and Tulsa to the East. Wichita, El Dorado and Hutchinson to the North. Dallas abd Fort Worth to the South. Sort of like on the evening of the Moore OKC disaster in 1999, a possible F *06 tore up a stretch of countryside between Oklahoma City and Wichita along I 35.
I guess all natural disasters, as we classify them, are based on them happening where there are people...what I find hard to fathom is how places like OKC and DFW are growing year on year, increasing the footprint of human habitation which can be impacted by tornadoes. So, it it's inevitable to me that a major, 2 mile-wide EF5 will, some day, move through the central portion of a very large conurbation, perhaps impacting stationary traffic and causing a big loss of life. Sobering, as you say.
@@FunnyVideoCollector where can I see the 2.6 mile wide tornado 🌪️ at? Because I just don't really see any videos of it being that vehicle it looks normal size to me.
it did not have a visible condensation funnel that was 2.6 miles which is what you normally 'see' a tornado visibly. the tornadic windfield was actually much greater (by a factor of miles) than the visible condensation funnel it had. here's a good video by mr skipper that visualizes it for you ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jVTs55W3Iag.html@@cs77smith67
Very much…and it seems that the lessons were not fully learned, given some of the incidents this year with chasers being directly affected by tornadoes
The audio quality becomes more compressed once you drive further away from El Reno near the 25 minute mark, but I'm still listening. So are you using two different cameras? I can hear the difference at around 28:21 again. When you mention the mesocyclone, those winds were really blowing, and when the audio changes after that, (the better sound), it seems the camera you use then has better mics. It's that audio quality that makes a good video a great video! Keep up the great work!
I interchangeably had my exterior mic connected or just the video camera’s mic…I usually try to have the external mic when outside to try to keep the wind noise at bay
Aha, I get it. I wish the interior mic sounded as good as the exterior mics, because when the audio is so compressed, it aims the sound directly at the inner ear and the vestibular nerve. That wide open sound is much better on peoples' hearing, because it's spread out more as if we're there with you. Again, keep up the great work! @@paulknightley
@@heatherstub The on-board mic actually does surround sound but I don’t know whether this made it through the export…the exterior mic is stereo…I didn’t compress the sound…I don’t tend to watch with headphones so don’t get the full effect!
Looks like a relaxing time there watching that storm form. I'd just back the truck up, pop the taigate and sink a cold one. Thats what we do in Australia anyways.
Man oh man. I realized that day, 20 yrs of chasing was enough. I was through. If it can catch Tim, his son and cameraman and Mike Bettis and the weather Channel. I was finished . And then just like today u had a entire convoy of inexperienced, wannabe chasers and those people had no safe escape route.I am to old to have a total idiot cost me my life
It was busy around that storm, although I don’t believe the traffic played a part for those poor folks…but we saw a lot of cars…of course we were one of the cars
Our Human brains are overwhelmingly insufficient to have us comprehend why these are permitted by God. All I can say is----- I throw my arms up in the air in despairing bafflement.
It's always fascinating to see how naive people behave when it comes to forces of nature. The people are standing there and look at it, while the monster is approaching them with decent speed. And instead of fleeing, they continue standing there until they realize their already dire situation.
Easy for you to judge, you were not there that day. This was a tornado like no other, no one there knew what that tornado would do and how it would turn the way it did. It caught very experienced scientists off guard. To call them naive is disrespectful to everyone who was there that day.
Navigating, keeping situational awareness, and not getting caught by the tornado tended to take priority over keeping a perfectly framed shot…but thanks for the tip! ;)
It's scary too see that they are driving to slow the whole time while the monster tornado makes pace and comes closer and closer. It's scary to see how they don't realize that they drive too slow for a very long time, even though the increasing intensity of the rain is clearly signaling that the tornado behind them is moving faster than them. It's scary to know that their life depended on their car working. If the car would have stopped working for some reason, they would have been killed. It's also scary to see that at 52:00 they stopped to record the tornado on video, thinking they were out of danger, even though they barely escaped before and even though there was no hint that the moving speed of the tornado has slowed down. They didn't realize that it was a very bad choice to stop again at 52:00. They didn't realize that they were only barely escaping death. If I would have been in that situation, I would have driven as fast as I could away from that monster.
Hi…not sure whether you mean how we were driving, or others…our pace was limited by cars in front of us, and also the fact we were on a gravel road. Going too fast would have risked losing control and then we would have had no way to escape.
@@paulknightley If there is cars in front of you, then HONK and make clear to them that they have to drive faster or simply drive by on the left side of them. I doubt that the road was too bad for driving faster. Overall, the outlook to get eaten by a monster tornado should have made worth the "risk". When you were in the situation, the tornado could have accelerated in moving speed. I don't understand why you waited so long fleeing in the first place.
@@paulknightley It's rational decision making, thinking in alternatives. If you think the road would be too bad and that you can't drive faster because of that and because other cars are driving slow in front of you, then the only alternative left for you is to continue driving too slow and get eaten by a monster tornado? A: Driving too slow, get eaten by monster tornado B: Drive faster, even though the road might be bad and even though you would have to drive by the other cars on their left side. A: Surviving chance 5 % B: Surviving chance 50 % What alternative do you chose? In my opinion, according to the video, it did not seem to me that you were aware of the risk getting eaten by the tornado and that the tornado moved faster than your car. At one point you even said "We are fine". Then you even stopped at the end for videorecording purposes, not knowing which path the tornado would take. You were so lucky that the tornado made a turn north.
@@BlackStarASMR We drove to the conditions, kept ahead of the tornado, and made the correct decisions as to which way we should head. At US81 we had the chance to drop south on a fast dual carriageway road, but realised that would have taken us into the tornado. The roads were not those where you could overtake the vehicles in front…we were moving at around 50mph or so…fast enough on a gravel road. Thanks for your comments, though….but please be respectful of what it was like in the moment, rather than what it’s like watching a video and commenting
@@johnnylawxxx I didn't really make any reference to the wind - and the dewpoint was shown in degrees F on the Kestrel - even though the meteorological standard is degrees C.
At 29:29 Growing up in OKC (19 yrs.) this is, absolutely the biggest structure I’ve seen in a T- storm ⛈ ever. We got VERY lucky this tornado did not take any more lives than it did. RIP to the 8 victims that were lost in the storm.
Thanks for your comment, Jason…yes, it was lucky this didn’t develop a few miles north, as it would have run right over El Reno…or a few 10s of miles east and affect the metro…it was just 11 days after the devastating Moore et al tornado of May 20th, of course
@@fredharvey2720 people from the south ask me how i deal with 4 feet of snow every year in Canada. You get used to it. Similarly , i would do horribly in the south or southwest , but id problably love new england. Pretty much , people just adapt to their environment. The only natural disasters i have to deal with are Ice Storms , so the one time this year we had a tornado warning and the skies were green and the clouds were swirling , i had a panic attack. Someone from Oklahoma problably wouldve just been annoyed and waited inside.
@@user-otzlixr Thanks…with your no videos, the advice is much appreciated. I do usually use a mic, seeing as you want to engage on this…but for the opening parts I just used the video cam’s mic…later you’ll have heard that it switches to a mic with wind protection, if you got that far…
Definitely one of the more interesting Videos re: Tornado's. Understanding & taking us Viewers thru the proclivity of the gathering Storm in the Skies was something I've never seen before. It was also a refreshing change not to hear a lot of chatter, screaming & yelling usually with people pointing out & repeating the same thing!. EXCELLENT DRIVING - you didn't realize how strong the Winds were buffeting the Car until you could see a Tree or Greenery and her ability to keep the Car on track was impressive. Also noticed her astute focus on the Road not turning to look at any of the Views going on all around them. Due to retrospect, it was hard not to recall that what we were watching was the beginning of Mass Destruction and incredible Loss. Thank you for your efforts in both taking such Risk and sharing your Experience.
Found out the other day that I briefly knew Paul Samaras back in middle school. Played on a hockey team together in the Denver area (circa 2001 approx). Over the years i always remembered that last name but never made the connection between that and the el Reno storm. Never in my life would've thought that would end up being the same person 🤦. Was literally in shock. 😢
I think at about 46:40 you see a few cars turn right to what it sounds like was the South direction and I have to wonder if those were the people who lost their lives right there. With that tornado being right on their heels I’m dying to know why anyone would turn right there, pretty much turning right into it
I’m not sure about how they faired…I know that we had to make a split second decision and we chose to keep east…you can hear me saying that I don’t know why anyone would want to go south at that point
People now watch to see the news weatherman to see if he rolls up his sleeves and loosens his tie. If so, a long rough night is in store for everyone and many deaths to come.
@@paulknightley yeah i know 😅 like a lot of the others said, the calmness is really nice.. Its like watching a nature documentary without a lot of talking.. In other videos its absolute chaos.. they need to yell all the time like they are in an action movie..
Way too many people trying to chase these storms with little to no experience that’s how you get people killed getting in the way if you haven’t seen a traffic jam with tornado in front of you 😂
That's become more of an issue these days, to be honest - you can find a number of videos from relatively inexperienced chasers from this last season who got impacted by tornadoes, simply by making poor choices
