• Welcome to TalkWeather!
    We see you lurking around TalkWeather! Take the extra step and join us today to view attachments, see less ads and maybe even join the discussion.
    CLICK TO JOIN TALKWEATHER

Historic tornado videos missing from youtube/the internet?

buckeye05

Member
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
Just want to know if anyone has copies of these tornado videos that I can no longer find? The first two were on youtube.

-First one was a pretty high-quality video of the Phil Campbell, AL EF5. It was a backlit view of the huge wedge crossing a road and causing power flashes. It had sort of a dark grey/bluish tint to it. At some point in the video, there's a small plastic roadside sign that gets blown out of its frame by the inflow winds and blows away. It was probably the highest quality video of this tornado hitting Phil Campbell, and now I can't find it.

-The other was a video titled "Joplin Tornado Up Close" or something similar. It was high-quality tripod video of the Joplin, MO EF5 tornado passing very close to the camera man's back yard. You can't really see to much, but it's impressive and had great audio. It just shows an incredibly dark sky and rain curtains rapidly moving around the outer edge of the tornado, with the sky completely filled with debris. There's a large tree getting thrashed by the wind throughout the video. It was probably my favorite clip of the Joplin tornado. Can't find it now.

-The last one wasn't ever on youtube and I doubt many have even ever seen it, none the less have it saved. I found it on a news website in the early 2000s. It was of the May 3, 1999 Moore F5 and was titled "Too Close for Comfort" I believe. It was home video from shot from inside of someone's garage in Moore looking out towards the street, pretty much within the outer edge of the circulation. It showed a parked car in the driveway being pelted by shingles and structural debris, with a nearby small ornamental tree bending over almost to the ground IRRC. You can hear somebody screaming and absolutely freaking out in the background too (understandably). It was a really scary video. It was NOT the Moore tripod window video with the power lines in the foreground, but was quite similar.

Anyway, I think it's a shame these videos have pretty much been lost to time. This is just my desperate attempt to dig them up again. Any help finding them would be greatly appreciated!
 

buckeye05

Member
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
Try this one.

Nope. Again, it isn't video of a direct hit and is filmed entirely outside in someone's backyard. It's just a view of a wall of flying debris while a tree thrashes around in the foreground with a loud audible roar. No talking throughout the whole video either. I think it's truly gone from the internet which is a bummer.

I'm sure someone on this forum knows the video i'm talking about.
 

andyhb

Member
Messages
1,033
Reaction score
2,689
Location
Norman, OK
There’s another home video from Moore ‘99 that is featured in several documentaries, which is missing. It shows the tornado tearing through a neighborhood from close range from the perspective of someone’s backyard.

Perhaps the one I’ve tried to find most is the one showing the evolution of the Jarrell tornado at peak intensity from rather close range. There are bits and pieces of the footage in places, but never the whole video. It was, by far, the best footage of the tornado I’ve seen. Have posted a couple of pics/clips including portions of said video below.

1589039941760.jpeg
1589040011104.png

3:43 and 4:40 into this video.


0:30, 2:15, 2:24, and 4:35 into this video.
 

buckeye05

Member
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
Does anyone here at all remember the close up backyard video of Joplin? I’m sure others on this forum remember it.

I know the other Moore clip Andy is talking about. There are several other videos of that tornado that I can only find parts of in documentaries, but are never available in full form. It’s unfortunate that there seems to be several incredible 1990s era tornado videos that were released in bits in pieces in documentaries, but never made it to YouTube or any reliable website. I imagine most are in storage at local news stations or stock video companies.
 
Last edited:

Equus

Member
Messages
3,290
Reaction score
3,368
Location
Jasper, AL
Special Affiliations
  1. SKYWARN® Volunteer
I remember a similar backyard Joplin video if it's the one where debris is landing everywhere and the little tree is being thrashed. I think a trampoline went flying too? If that's it I'm pretty sure I saved that on a hard drive somewhere for offline viewing several years back (couldn't watch videos at home with crappy bandwidth so had the habit of saving a few to watch later when on decent internet) - I'll have to check

Jarrell videos seem to have achieved some sort of mystical qualities much akin to the tornado itself with the strange rarity of certain clips and the unknown whereabouts of the whole versions of clips shown in documentaries. Someone uploads another Jarrell documentary every couple years so maybe one day who knows, we can piece them together from the three or four second attention-deficit cuts that are shown throughout the documentaries lol

There is a video that used to be on ABC 33/40's website 15+ years ago I haven't been able to find since; it was a backyard shot of a wispy multiple vortex tornado somewhere in east central AL from 2003. Weak F0/F1 I think but got very close to the camera and might have had a tree fall in the background. Pretty sure that one is long gone but before 2011 videos of AL tornadoes were pretty hard to come by.
 

buckeye05

Member
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
I remember a similar backyard Joplin video if it's the one where debris is landing everywhere and the little tree is being thrashed. I think a trampoline went flying too? If that's it I'm pretty sure I saved that on a hard drive somewhere for offline viewing several years back (couldn't watch videos at home with crappy bandwidth so had the habit of saving a few to watch later when on decent internet) - I'll have to check

Jarrell videos seem to have achieved some sort of mystical qualities much akin to the tornado itself with the strange rarity of certain clips and the unknown whereabouts of the whole versions of clips shown in documentaries. Someone uploads another Jarrell documentary every couple years so maybe one day who knows, we can piece them together from the three or four second attention-deficit cuts that are shown throughout the documentaries lol

There is a video that used to be on ABC 33/40's website 15+ years ago I haven't been able to find since; it was a backyard shot of a wispy multiple vortex tornado somewhere in east central AL from 2003. Weak F0/F1 I think but got very close to the camera and might have had a tree fall in the background. Pretty sure that one is long gone but before 2011 videos of AL tornadoes were pretty hard to come by.

The Joplin video you’re referring to is a home surveillance video, and is still up on YouTube. The one I’m referring to was handheld video camera video. It’s high-quality, has a dark grey tint to it, and ends with the camera man zooming in to a treetop being thrashed around while copious amounts of debris falls out of the sky. I swear that there was a screengrab of the video somewhere on extremeplanet.me at one point? The YouTube title was almost certainly “Joplin tornado up close.” Ugh this is driving me crazy.

OH! Another detail I just remembered. There’s a clear plastic beach ball blowing around in the fenced in back yard throughout the video.
 

OHWX97

Member
Messages
1,013
Reaction score
1,425
Location
Maineville, Ohio
There’s another home video from Moore ‘99 that is featured in several documentaries, which is missing. It shows the tornado tearing through a neighborhood from close range from the perspective of someone’s backyard.
Found this while browsing Youtube today. Thought I'd share. Doubt it's complete, but it's the closet to it I've personally seen.

 
Back
Top