A severe thunderstorm northeast of Guymon, Oklahoma on May 15, 2003. The strong inflow created by this supercell monster is obvious in the adjacent wheat field. At the 43 second mark, note the distant light on the horizon goes out due to a power outage. Thirty minutes later this storm produced a tornado in Liberal, Kansas.
The storm was taped from County Road 19, a paved east-west road between Adams and Optima, and a north-south dirt road labeled Mile 45 and also N1000Rd. I was parked on the dirt road just north of the intersection and the camera was aimed west and northwest.
Severe thunderstorms involve rapidly lifting air which is sucked in mostly at or just above ground level. On this storm I was on the southeast side which is generally where the strongest inflow will be due to the prevailing winds on the high plains. On this day the winds were southeasterly long before the storms formed, hence the wind from that direction was amplified by the storm's influence. I was standing on the lee side of my car, hanging onto the tripod to prevent it from being blown away, and my legs were being stung by blowing sand from the dirt road on which I was parked.
Category: Entertainment Uploaded: November 23rd, 2006 @ 6:38 am Author:randy946
