- Wow, what a day! The target area for
today was huge, with the Storm Prediction Center coving a large
porting on the central U.S. in a 5% tornado risk. In fact, that
5% covered more than 450,000 square miles and our mission was
to narrow that down to a single spot producing a tornado.
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- And we were able to do exactly that!
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- North of Salina, Kansas, near the town
of Bennington, an isolated supercell storm went up, right in
our target area. We were quick to get on it and were treated
to a nearly stationary storm that went on to produce a huge tornado,
that we observed from quite close from its first funnel to when
it became a giant wedge, to eventually becoming rain-wrapped.
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- This tornado was a real monster. Luckily,
it looks like it missed the town, and that's a good thing because
it was likely very violent and would have done considerable damage.
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- The tornado was on the ground for a
long time, so we were able to reposition ourselves close enough
to be able to hear the roar of the tornado as it was grinding
away in the countryside. It was dark, menacing and I briefly
entertained the idea of getting even closer, but with the rain
wrapping around it, I figured that was not the best idea since
we already had a fantastic view of this thing.
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- Once the storm went completely HP (high
precipitation) we just let it go and drove down to Salina for
a well deserved steak dinner.
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- It just so happened that I was scheduled
to do a live Twitter interview with Canadian Geographic Magazine
at the exact same as the tornado was on the ground. It was a
bit frantic and crazy, but worked out perfectly. We couldn't
have timed it any better if we had tried.
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