Historic tornado videos missing from youtube/the internet?

[Central Ohio Wx]

So the video is online, but with an asterisk. Most of the attention was given to Greensburg in this edit, Trousdale’s segment is a lot of slow motion and freeze framing.

Interesting. I'll see if I can reach out to whoever uploaded it and see if they'll release the full footage (it's not currently loading for me); I have always been told that the photo by Shane Adams (and the other grainy one with the light near the center) was the only known Trousdale photo that publicly exists.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Bringing this over from the SigTor thread - Lemon & Umschied 2008 explicitly note that a single video exists of the Trousdale EF3 the year prior, showing both it and it's undocumented satellites which I didn't know existed till I read the paper.

"This abundant pre-existing vertical vorticity is also part of the reason for the satellite tornadoes that develop in the vicinity of the TT. In fact, as Donald Giuliano and David Demko tried to circumnavigate Greensburg to the east, they saw a large bowl shaped cloud region, the genesis of TT, along with a number of satellite tornadoes to the southeast and east of that tornado. Their video documentation will continue to be researched by the authors as it is believed this is the only video captured of the TT and its satellite tornadoes". (p. 16)

"TT" here is the "Trousdale Tornado". Does anybody have any information about this clip? I've never seen it and it is almost never brought up regarding tornado lost media, which makes me think it was never publicly released.

View attachment 48807
This photo, taken 20 minutes after Greensburg was hit (from p. 50 of this source) might be a screenshot of the video but I've never seen this photo used in a "this is the Trousdale tornado" context.

I actually found several photos of the tornado, which I discussed in this post here.

Post in thread 'Significant Tornado Events'

Sep 13, 2024

I recently uncovered an old weather forum that had a thread with a large number of chasers discussing the Greensburg tornado. Using the Wayback Machine, I was able to archive the posts and found a website one of the members posted and discovered some pretty neat stuff.

The member was a chaser who came up on the Greensburg supercell from the south on Highway-183 around 10:00 PM or so, arriving a little late to the party but just in time to capture what I believe is the only images of the supercell cycling before producing the monstrous Trousdale tornado. There was probably 200+ photos in...

• Western_KS_Wx

• 

You can make out the satellite tornadoes in those photos as well. The Trousdale tornado was in progress out of frame to the left of the satellite tornadoes.

The above photo is from Demko/Farrar, while the bottom is a screen grab from Dan Robinson’s Greensburg video.

Then there’s this photo from Demko/Farrar of the Trousdale tornado with an undocumented satellite.

 

[WeathermanLeprechaun]

Interesting. I'll see if I can reach out to whoever uploaded it and see if they'll release the full footage (it's not currently loading for me); I have always been told that the photo by Shane Adams (and the other grainy one with the light near the center) was the only known Trousdale photo that publicly exists.

Shane Adams deleted his chase videos from 5/4/07 around a year ago, i do remember the videos, I believe he documented all large wedges from the cell including Trousdale. Hopefully, he reuploads them sometime soon. Would recommend contacting him.

 

[WeathermanLeprechaun]

Yeah, those photos that @Western_KS_Wx found on that forum are pretty eerie. A lot of the old weather forums back on the day got taken down, and some of those forums likely retained rare media such as this event, and many more. This photo in particular is just insane.

I have never seen such a prolific large wedge spammer like this-oh wait, i have. This year. In the SAME area.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Shane Adams deleted his chase videos from 5/4/07 around a year ago, i do remember the videos, I believe he documented all large wedges from the cell including Trousdale. Hopefully, he reuploads them sometime soon. Would recommend contacting him.

I have a good amount of screenshots from his videos that I thankfully saved. I would like to contact him at some point and see if I can get the full footage from that night. He is the only chaser I know of that caught all 3 of the major tornadoes after Greensburg.

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

I actually found several photos of the tornado, which I discussed in this post here.

Post in thread 'Significant Tornado Events'

Sep 13, 2024

I recently uncovered an old weather forum that had a thread with a large number of chasers discussing the Greensburg tornado. Using the Wayback Machine, I was able to archive the posts and found a website one of the members posted and discovered some pretty neat stuff.

The member was a chaser who came up on the Greensburg supercell from the south on Highway-183 around 10:00 PM or so, arriving a little late to the party but just in time to capture what I believe is the only images of the supercell cycling before producing the monstrous Trousdale tornado. There was probably 200+ photos in...

• Western_KS_Wx

• 

You can make out the satellite tornadoes in those photos as well. The Trousdale tornado was in progress out of frame to the left of the satellite tornadoes.
View attachment 48821View attachment 48822

Then there’s this photo from Demko/Farrar of the Trousdale tornado with an undocumented satellite.
View attachment 48823

I wonder why these photos are so little-known. These were the photos I was referring to:

The left one is often cited as "the only Trousdale photo" and I'm not 100% sure why, given the Lemon study basically confirms that at least one other exists, aside from the above-right one.

Also, watch out when using any of Dan Robinson's (StormHighway.com) photos, especially Greensburg - he has been extremely aggressive with copyright lately (which includes the longest copyright rant I have ever seen) and has been going after anybody who uses his photos anywhere.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I wonder why these photos are so little-known. These were the photos I was referring to:
View attachment 48824View attachment 48825
The left one is often cited as "the only Trousdale photo" and I'm not 100% sure why, given the Lemon study basically confirms that at least one other exists, aside from the above-right one.

Also, watch out when using any of Dan Robinson's (StormHighway.com) photos, especially Greensburg - he has been extremely aggressive with copyright lately (which includes the longest copyright rant I have ever seen) and has been going after anybody who uses his photos anywhere.

Those two are actually from Hopewell. That’s a common misconception and I also thought it was Trousdale at first but after reading Shane’s interview that would be from Hopewell. The thing with Trousdale is other than earlier on in its life it was almost completely obscured, while Hopewell was much more visible.

As for Dan Robinson’s photo, I totally blanked out on that. I do actually agree with the points he makes, and he is right about the law. I think he mainly goes after those who profit off his work and claiming it as fair use, but I haven’t read his whole speel or watched the video. If it’s for the better, I can take down that photo.

 

[Sawmaster]

As for Dan Robinson’s photo, I totally blanked out on that. I do actually agree with the points he makes, and he is right about the law. I think he mainly goes after those who profit off his work and claiming it as fair use, but I haven’t read his whole speel or watched the video. If it’s for the better, I can take down that photo.

You could email Dan and ask. Considering that the copyright thefts effectively out him put of business I can certainly understand him wanting his stolen profits back.

 

[WeathermanLeprechaun]

I wonder why these photos are so little-known. These were the photos I was referring to:
View attachment 48824View attachment 48825
The left one is often cited as "the only Trousdale photo" and I'm not 100% sure why, given the Lemon study basically confirms that at least one other exists, aside from the above-right one.

Also, watch out when using any of Dan Robinson's (StormHighway.com) photos, especially Greensburg - he has been extremely aggressive with copyright lately (which includes the longest copyright rant I have ever seen) and has been going after anybody who uses his photos anywhere.

I really don't blame him. The guys been put out of business and it's pushing him away from doing what he loves. The best option is to contact him, but i wouldn't be too optimistic on any hopeful response given his situation.

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

I really don't blame him. The guys been put out of business and it's pushing him away from doing what he loves. The best option is to contact him, but i wouldn't be too optimistic on any hopeful response given his situation.

I generally get where he's coming from, but he is extremely hostile about it.

 

[WeathermanLeprechaun]

I generally get where he's coming from, but he is extremely hostile about it.

I think that's generally due to him just being angry that the thing he loves for a living is being taken away because of money or companies having to find the "best shots". But i wouldn't be hostile to people trying to help him at all, that's unfair

 

[andyhb]

Lost 8 mm footage of the Ellis/Agra KS tornadofest from 5/10/1985 from Erik Rasmussen has been posted. The last three minutes have sound.



Lou Wicker's footage of the Kellerville TX tornado from 6/8/1995.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

Lost 8 mm footage of the Ellis/Agra KS tornadofest from 5/10/1985 from Erik Rasmussen has been posted. The last three minutes have sound.



Lou Wicker's footage of the Kellerville TX tornado from 6/8/1995.

What was the last tornado filmed on an 8mm?

 

[CheeselandSkies]

I think that's generally due to him just being angry that the thing he loves for a living is being taken away because of money or companies having to find the "best shots". But i wouldn't be hostile to people trying to help him at all, that's unfair

Good news; Dan's site appears to be back up for the time being. Before browsing it you have to read and click an acknowledgement form that you won't upload his content to social media sites.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Lost 8 mm footage of the Ellis/Agra KS tornadofest from 5/10/1985 from Erik Rasmussen has been posted. The last three minutes have sound.



Lou Wicker's footage of the Kellerville TX tornado from 6/8/1995.

Big shout-out to longtime chaser Blake Naftel for collecting and sharing all this vintage content. Both his YouTube channels (personal and Ancient Air Theatre) are a real treasure trove of tornadoes, chasers and their stories from the 1980s through the mid-2010s.

 

[andyhb]

Blake is at it again. A holy grail video for me -> Howie Bluestein and co's chase video from the Red Rock tornado in its entirety. Absolutely incredible footage.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Blake is at it again. A holy grail video for me -> Howie Bluestein and co's chase video from the Red Rock tornado in its entirety. Absolutely incredible footage.

Also an (unfortunately short) video from an unknown chase group of the Wichita-Andover tornado from shortly after it started near Clearwater, and crossing I-35 in south Wichita. Jon Davies' famous footage of that same moment from the other side is the first tornado video I distinctly remember seeing (surely it was on The Weather Channel quite frequently in the months and years after the outbreak occurred).

 

[buckeye05]

At least one, potentially two "lost media" tornado clips below in this documentary:

1.) The clip beginning at 15:36 is supposedly video of the January 21, 1999 Little Rock, Arkansas F3 in its early stages. I am skeptical of this because from my understanding, the tornado hit the city after sunset. It's definitely one of the tornadoes from that outbreak, but I'm not sure its the Little Rock tornado.

2.) Now here's the really interesting one. At 27:26 is the only known footage of the April 3, 1999 Benton, Louisiana F4. The tornado was rain wrapped, and this is tripod footage from inside a home's garage of the tornado sideswiping the house and snapping trees. I have never seen this footage anywhere else.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Oh man, I saw that documentary in my early teenage years (It was apparently Part 3 of a four-part miniseries, Part 2 was called "Awesome Force" and Part 4 was called "Chasers," I can't for the life of me remember what Episode 1 was titled nor can I find it on YouTube. I do seem to remember though that there were in fact four. It might be on a VHS tape or DVD-R at my parents' house, though...).

I've always been skeptical of the 4/3/99 "Benton" footage. Might be from the same day and same region but I'm pretty sure it shows a derecho or microburst; everything blows/falls in the same direction for the duration of the video.

Likewise the Little Rock tornado of 1/21 began at 0024 UTC, 6:24 PM CST which is over an hour after dark this time of year. However, there were quite a few tornadoes in Arkansas beginning several hours earlier, some of which would have been in the last of the daylight.

Tornado outbreak of January 21–23, 1999 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In my experience this is pretty common "artistic license" for tornado documentaries to take when there isn't footage of the specific event in question. Miss the days when TLC aired stuff like this instead of endless garbage "reality" shows about international dating and weight loss surgery.

 

[buckeye05]

Oh man, I saw that documentary in my early teenage years (It was apparently Part 3 of a four-part miniseries, Part 2 was called "Awesome Force" and Part 4 was called "Chasers," I can't for the life of me remember what Episode 1 was titled nor can I find it on YouTube. I do seem to remember though that there were in fact four. It might be on a VHS tape or DVD-R at my parents' house, though...).

I've always been skeptical of the 4/3/99 "Benton" footage. Might be from the same day and same region but I'm pretty sure it shows a derecho or microburst; everything blows/falls in the same direction for the duration of the video.

Likewise the Little Rock tornado of 1/21 began at 0024 UTC, 6:24 PM CST which is over an hour after dark this time of year. However, there were quite a few tornadoes in Arkansas beginning several hours earlier, some of which would have been in the last of the daylight.

Tornado outbreak of January 21–23, 1999 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In my experience this is pretty common "artistic license" for tornado documentaries to take when there isn't footage of the specific event in question. Miss the days when TLC aired stuff like this instead of endless garbage "reality" shows about international dating and weight loss surgery.

Ah dang that’s a bummer. I thought the Benton video at least was the real deal.