Reader Drew Foster was hoping I could resurrect some videos from a tornado chase I went on in 2008, and he asked me about it via the Contact link:
“Fred: Please re-upload your videos of the Quinter tornado. Part 2 is available on YT but that’s it.”
Sure, Drew!
In a week’s chasing from Texas to South Dakota and Iowa to Colorado — thousands and thousands of miles of driving! — we connected with many powerful storms and one honest-to-god serious tornado, which we were able to observe from the moment of its birth to its dissolution and death.
At one point, we were within about a quarter-mile/400m from the funnel.
Amazing!
I admit that, in viewing these videos now, I wish I had today’s current tech on hand back then: The resolution of these 10-year-old pix and videos is a little lame by today’s standards! Oh well — it’s still fun to see!
If you’ve ever wondered what a professionally-led commercial stormchase is like, this will give you the idea:
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Reader Peter Wharton, who was a driver on the tornado chase, wrote:
“I’ve poked around online and in my original files from the chase (over 1,000 pix and vids), but can find no Part 5.”
My old Blogger blog may hold a clue as to why. I posted Part 4 of the chase videos on June 6, 2008; my next blog entry, from June 11, is titled, “… and then the hard drive went *poof*” ( https://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2008/06/and-then-hard-drive-went-poof.html )
It wasn’t a tragedy — I had backups and lost no data in the crash. But it took several days to get things restored on a new drive and running again. Apparently, “Part 5” died in the interim.
Sorry!