El Reno 2013: The Widest Tornado in Recorded History

@weatheradventures YouTube · 10/05/2022 · 👍 1310

I'm glad you touched on the bad feeling almost every experienced chaser had from early in that day. From the moment we were in position in front of the storm (Airport & Reno) it just seemed evil. It was the 14th tornado in 14 days for us, including multiple EF4+ tornadoes, and it was so far beyond anything else. And when it became apparent that the initial white cones weren't individual tornadoes, but multiple vortices, we quickly made up our minds to drop south (early) as there was only one bridge across the river at Union City. And it still closed on us as we were driving ~40mph. One other thing to note - another factor in most chasers misjudging this tornado was the fact that not only did it rapidly accelerate, but the size of it rapidly multiplied, so the leading edge of the tornado was getting even closer than the parent storm indicated. The best example of this is Heidi & Dave's video (Weather Beat - sub to their channel) where the tornado is actually moving away from them, but because it's growing, the edge of it is getting closer to them. And lastly, the scale just threw all points of reference away - it was basically a cloud on the ground. The whole meso was rotating, but only after the fact did we find that the whole meso was essentially the tornado, extended all the way to the ground. Hell on earth, that day.

@Patriot2332 YouTube · 16/04/2023 · 👍 219

The loss of the Twistex team can not be measured, it was a devastating loss to science and storm chasing. Tim was well known for being the most safety minded storm chaser in the business and was always preaching safety to other chasers. This made his death even more unbelievable and devastating among other storm chasers and meteorologists. RIP Twistex team 😢

@catsinwonderland7473 YouTube · 04/01/2023 · 👍 307

How DAN managed to literally be INSIDE of the tornado and SURVIVED never fails to absolutely assault the fabrics of my brain. Dude got insanely lucky, good for him.

@Caddielily YouTube · 26/08/2022 · 👍 784

El Reno was one of those wake-up calls that really showed how dangerous and unpredictable tornadoes can be, to the point where it caught even veterans like Tim Samaras off guard.

@oledahammer8393 YouTube · 01/03/2023 · 👍 177

No father can handle losing their son, and would throw away their life to save their son. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for him to know his son was going to die with him and there was nothing he could about it. May all them now rest in peace together.

@mddmont YouTube · 11/05/2022 · 👍 480

I had NO idea about the GPS tracker tribute to Tim, Paul and Carl. This community is so strong and close knit, its so incredible to see.

@tori9557 YouTube · 01/06/2022 · 👍 442

Thank you so much for humanizing storm chasers. People really think they’re just these crazy people driving around taking pictures. They don’t know how much this means to these people and the fact people lost their lives doing this, it deserves respect. I hope their families are doing okay.

@danesorensen1775 YouTube · 18/08/2022 · 👍 193

That numb, exhausted feeling of, "Here we go again..." is exactly how we in Australia were feeling by the end of the Black Summer fires in 2020. There isn't much about tornadoes that I can call relatable, but I think I can empathise with that bit.

@alxr.4522 YouTube · 14/02/2023 · 👍 154

I survived the Joplin EF-5 of May, 2011. I watch A LOT of tornado videos and content. Your channel is the best and most informative I’ve found, thus far. The level of detail and respect that you give to the survivors, as well as those who have perished, is astounding. Thank you. Keep it up! 🙏🏼❤️

@twisterdavemd1 YouTube · 10/05/2022 · 👍 428

The morning after, when I saw the confirmation of Tim's passing from his brother, I wept heavily. Tim and I had correspondence after his Manchester, SD intercept. Tim and I also had small roles in the development of the 787 Dreamliner for Boeing, and though neither of us knew that at the time, it felt amazing to learn that we both contributed to such an amazing effort. Tim and Carl were not just exceptional storm chasers, but they were safe. Risk adverse to a fault, they called out high risk behavior as stupid and unwarranted. They always had escape options and had even documented several storms with erratic movements and growth, as if the entire mesocyclone suddenly dropped and became a multi-vortex structure. I stopped actively chasing when they died, and almost completely renounced spotting all together when two for-hire "chasers" blew through a stop sign and killed a meteorology student. (I also dropped the Weather Channel from my lineup when they asked others to pull that camera footage out of the police crime scene.) Drones and other unmanned tools are the only way to study tornadoes up close, and chaser convergence like we saw in the TX panhandle last week is what killed any interest in me chasing solo or paying money for a tour group.