5/24/2011 Oklahoma Tornado Recap video
In this long format video, it shows footage from BNVN Weather Paparazzi Brandon Sullivan, Chris Collura, Tony Laubach, Verne Carlson, and Brandon Ivey of the major tornado outbreak that hit Oklahoma on May 24th, 2011.
The storms fired up in near Canton, Oklahoma on Tuesday and in the first part of the video by Brandon Sullivan and his chase partner Evan Bookbinder, shows a large wedge tornado from a few miles away. They managed to get closer to the storm as the tornado turned into a rope tornado.
At Fifty Four seconds into the video is footage by Tony Laubach who was also on the Canton, OK tornado, documented the whole life cycle of the tornado from wall cloud to the rope tornado from a different location than Brandon Sullivan. Tony manages to get pretty close to the tornado at times for some amazing video.
Not to be out done with how close you can get to the tornado, at four minutes into the video, Verne Carlson, who was also on the Canton, OK tornado drove right up next to the tornado as it was ripping up a field and doing some major damage. Verne's video shows tree's flying over him as he is driving after the tornado. Verne followed the tornado until Grapefruit size hail started falling on him. One of the huge hail stones actually hit him in the leg and he had to get out the area.
After the Canton, OK tornado, the storm system that was producing the next tornado was near Oklahoma City, OK and hitting interstate 40 near Shawnee, OK. Just after the nine minute mark of the video, Brandon Sullivan shot a rope tornado that was back lit by an orange sky from about a mile away.
If you want to see close up and in the tornado action, Brandon Ivey who is the meteorologist for the TIV or Tornado Intercept Vehicle for the Discovery Channels show Storm Chasers shot the clip that starts at nine minutes and forty six seconds. Brandon was in the TIV which is a custom built tank that is built to withstand being hit by the lower speed tornadoes.
In the video that Brandon Ivey shot near Guthrie, Oklahoma in Logan County, it shows a Semi Truck driving into the tornado and then it was gone. The center of the tornado crossed the road right in front of them with the outer winds of the tornado hitting the TIV. Brandon's video continues to show several clips of tornadoes near Major County in Oklahoma.
The video recap ends with footage from Chris Collura of the tornado near Shawnee, OK which is just east of the Oklahoma City Metro area. Chris followed the storm down Interstate 40 as it lifted debris up into the area. The video shows the incredible destructive power of the tornado. Chris ends the video when stopped to help a truck driver that was hit by the tornado. The footage shows when EMS and state police show up to help the driver who was able to walk away from the wreck after being hit by the violent tornado.
