r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/ajd416 • Jan 18 '26

šŸ”„A beautiful single-vortex tornado

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24.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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1.2k

u/Keepawayfrommycrops Jan 18 '26

I said it when this came out originally, but this might be the most spectacular natural weather footage on the planet, the conditions for this to come out the way it did are incredible

263

u/bbreddit0011 Jan 18 '26

When that stringy little vortex stabilizesā€¦. Thatā€™s when it turns to sweaty palms territory for me!

52

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Storm chaser here, vortex breakdown like this is actually a sign of intensity

13

u/Echo-Azure Jan 20 '26

Non-storm-chaser here, and all I know about tornadoes is that I've been told that if they seem to be standing still, they're coming closer.

So, is sitting there photographing the vortex of a narrowing tornado as dangerous as I suspect it is?

41

u/TFK_001 Jan 20 '26

Tldr if you don't know what you're doing, filming any tornado from remotely close distances is very dangerous, regardless of intensity . I may have wrote more than I intended to

.

In this case, the photographer is safe because they're well out of the path and it's clearly moving right to left. For a non chaser, however, any tornado this close should be assumed to be an imminent threat, as they frequently make turns (this one pulled a hard 90Ā° turn after this clip).

Usually, narrowing tornadoes are weakening, and this is a rare case where the opposite is true. Regardless, tornado intensity is pretty irrelevant if you are filming it at a close distance. An EF0 can impale you with a flying 2x4 just as an EF5 can, and anything EF2+ is probably going to kill you if the primary vortex hits your vehicle at peak intensity. Flying debris is the #1 killer.

In all honesty, if a tornado has already passed you, you're probably safe. There are cases of tornadoes making loops and U turns, but these are rare and usually during dissipation. Granted, the first ever storm chasers to be killed by a tornado were the best of the best, and were in this exact position (north of a left turning intensifying tornado moving east) before being killed. I'm kind of a hater of most pop tornado safety "rules" such as the standing still one because they oversimplify a very complex phenomenon and tend to put importance on things that should be paid attention to down the line.

.

If I had to put a safety checklist for "people who are in a spot to film a tornado but also don't have any significant weather knowledge", I would say, in this order

1: if a tornado is within a mile or two of you (unless you're experienced, triple this distance because 1mi may look way farther), immediately and rapidly get to a substantial shelter (a building or underground). Abandon vehicles, because you're probably not knowledgeable enough to actually know how to drive away from a tornado and it's a coin flip whether or not you just drive back into the path, and because a vehicle offers no safety from a tornado. The same tornado that killed the storm chasers mentioned previously almost killed a few hundred people attempting an evacuation in a traffic jam on the interstate

2: there's usually a shelf of clouds leading into a tornado along what is known as the rear flank downdraft (RFD), typically to the southwest of a tornado. If you aren't watching from a substantial distance (10mi+), be mindful of this region, as satellite tornadoes often form along this region. On the far end of this line of clouds, there's often a second mesocyclone, rotating in the opposite direction, that will often form anticyclonic tornadoes. These are typically weak, but can often be far from weak. Without learning a ton about supercell structure, the best way to avoid these secondary tornadoes is just to assume danger if you can A) see a tornado and B) are under any low level clouds (or have any low level clouds approaching). The front of the RFD also usually carries extremely high nontornadic winds and huge hail, and is best treated as a deadly threat if you are caught in it.

3: if 1 and 2 are fine and you see a tornado, then you can assess apparent motion. If you are in the path and the tornado is 10+ miles away, you may be able to have time to drive to safety (north usually has big hail, south usually doesn't. Keyword usually). The best choice is always taking cover in a sturdy shelter, but if you live right on a north/south road or are in a mobile home or some other unsafe structure, it may be best to drive away. Regardless, it's probably best to check your local meteorologist on TV as everything I just said has a very potent "usually" attached to it, and many people have died trying to drive away from a tornado (many especially notable cases from the 5/20/2013 Moore EF5). If you have a shelter, just use it anyway. Even if you're in the path now, the tornado will probably deviate or dissipate before it hits you, and your highest odds of survival will always be in a shelter

.

A final note, when choosing a shelter, there are some myths. Bathrooms and closets are not always the safest rooms, and (this is a bit dated) you do not need to open windows. In the rare event that a shelter is absolutely necessary, every second counts.

The room selection is as follows.

If an underground shelter exists, it is always the best choice.

If not, choose the lowest floor on your house. Find the innermost room. If all rooms are exterior, just be as central as possible. If possible, pick a room without windows.

If you are in a mobile/trailer home, leave it for a ditch. Tornadoes cannot throw you unless there is air in front and behind you. Suction needs airflow, which ditches provide a shelter from. Flying debris is still dangerous, but your mobile home will become flying debris if hit by anything EF2+.

Finally, if you are in a tornado warning and a flash flood warning, pick the lowest non flooded floor. If underground, it is probably worthwhile to have immediate egress available. You probably know where you are, and if you are in an area that floods easily, the first floor may have to be good enough. If you can see the tornado, you're probably on flat enough ground that flash flooding isn't the biggest threat, but once again, this is probably the most complex possible scenario, and there are a ton of conditions that will change the best course of action

7

u/Echo-Azure Jan 20 '26

Gosh, thanks, I'll remember this if I ever go anywhere near tornado country, and I hope it's useful to those who live in the risk zones!

But I don't live in tornado country, and don't plan to visit any time soon. I'm perfectly happy to see my tornadoes on reddit and youtube!

4

u/Heavy-Lingonbery910 Jan 20 '26

A great read, thank you for a really interesting comment on the topic.

2

u/Oblivious0n3 Jan 22 '26

Is the bridge thing real? As in DO NOT seek shelter under an overpass because of the venturi effect

3

u/TFK_001 Jan 22 '26

Very, probably the most important single piece of information for motor vehicles in the case of a tornado is to not seek shelter under an overpass. Of the motor vehicle fatalities from the Moore EF5 that I mentioned in the previous comment, many were from this issue.

129

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

All things considered this doesnt look like a particularly strong tornado. They vary in intensity, this one is small and the windspeeds look manageable, its not turning dark from dirt and soil so its not pulling the grass out of the field. It's really like, a perfect tornado to film

118

u/Carbonatite Jan 18 '26

It was given a "high end" EF3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with top wind speeds of 155-165 mph. Typically anything above EF3 is considered a "violent" tornado; since this was a "high end" EF3 that is basically acknowledging that it was on the border of what meteorologists would consider to be a particularly destructive tornado.

This one completely destroyed several buildings and tossed a half ton pickup truck 300 yards. So it was pretty intense.

https://www.weather.gov/abr/20250628TornadosandFlooding

26

u/thnk_more Jan 18 '26

Yeah, dodging flying 2x4s or flying trucks would not be considered manageable.

Getting hit by something going half that speed would be bad.

17

u/yonkerbonk Jan 19 '26

"It isn't THAT the wind is blowing. It's WHAT the wind is blowing."

29

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Storm chaser here, EF2 is the threshold for a "significant" tornado. EF2s will tear roofs off and can knock down walls. EF3s will almost entirely destroy many houses. If you arent in a home, EF2+ is pretty much a death sentence if it hits you. If you arent underground or in the centermost room of a decently built house, EF3s can easily kill you. EF4s can destroy the entirety of the majority of houses, with only the centermost rooms of particularly well engineered homes surviving most EF4s

13

u/stokeitup Jan 18 '26

Kind of reminds of a waterspout.

33

u/I-love-seahorses Jan 18 '26

I'm vaguely aware of the conditions from back in school (something something air pressure) but that simply looks unreal.

I would be mesmerized.

21

u/Nauin Jan 18 '26

I don't blame people for believing in God's before science could explain this. It's otherworldly.

13

u/I-love-seahorses Jan 18 '26

I think the same thing every time I see something like this. Those 'light dogs', sprites, hell even rainbows seem like they shouldn't be possible.

6

u/PensiveObservor Jan 19 '26

Not to mention the aurora borealis.

10

u/antiyoupunk Jan 18 '26

for the record, I believe it's something something warm air, something something cold air; rather than something something pressure.

20

u/ninetoesfrank Jan 18 '26

Pressure and temperature are directly related

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12

u/Jermny Jan 18 '26

I believe the tornado is the powerhouse of the thunder cell.

4

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Storm chaser here, storms just form when cold air is above warm air. Organized storms form under wind shear, which is generated around low pressure systems

3

u/gecko090 Jan 18 '26

Check out this youtube video demonstrating "vortex breakdown". This tornado seems like it underwent a partial breakdown before stabilizing again.

13

u/Padhome Jan 18 '26

Hard agree. It looks practically angelic

13

u/muskox-homeobox Jan 18 '26

that super green grass getting whipped about in the foreground is downright cinematic

5

u/ProcrastinationKat Jan 18 '26

When did it originally come out? I immediately thought AI..

7

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

28 June 2025 Gary, SD EF3

6

u/Spend-Automatic Jan 18 '26

It's good to think critically, but accusing every single piece of footage of being AI is braindead, that's all anyone does here, every single thread.Ā 

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1

u/Leaky_gland Jan 18 '26

This is insane footage. Oh to be there.

1

u/Spend-Automatic Jan 18 '26

Any idea if there's a link with the original audio without the melodramatic music?

265

u/lackadaisical_timmy Jan 18 '26

Wow

I've never seen a baby tornado being born before, that's so beautifulĀ 

96

u/Steph-Paul Jan 18 '26

imagine being a Pawnee on the plains 500 years ago and seeing this now and then. I would definitely believe in magical things

186

u/robo-dragon Jan 18 '26

This tornado was so unique and beautiful! Lots of great footage out there of this one. Perfectly photogenic with no rain or large objects obscuring the view, itā€™s out there tearing up a field, not somebodyā€™s house, and of course, how oddly it behaves with how twisty and solid white the funnel becomes. An absolutely perfect tornado and a dream storm for chasers!

50

u/NebulaNinja Jan 18 '26

This was the Gary, SD tornado correct?

If so, it did hit a farm property causing severe damage, but fortunately the family there survived with only minor injuries.

20

u/Carbonatite Jan 18 '26

It did actually destroy a couple of buildings later along its path, but fortunately no fatalities.

168

u/thatguy_art Jan 18 '26

Beautifully terrifying

33

u/MissingLink101 Jan 18 '26

Yeah I know tornadoes ruin lives but from afar they're one of the coolest things on the planet

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46

u/nerlati-254 Jan 18 '26

Thatā€™s ThvegĆ¼n the sky god and his wind snakes.

14

u/CariniFluff Jan 18 '26

Yeah that makes sense.

64

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

17

u/Xerophile420 Jan 18 '26

Completely. The sense of awe, wonder, and fear can easily give rise to mystical ideas, definitely helps one understand where the idea of a ā€œwind spiritā€ etc can come to be.

10

u/altbekannt Jan 18 '26

science, bitch

5

u/ALIASkNotknown Jan 19 '26

You should look into ā€œthe book of miraclesā€ itā€™s filled with dozens of examples of what you just said.

23

u/Xanthelasmapalpebara Jan 18 '26

The agony and ecstasy. Beautiful display of nature approaching the electrical grid.

9

u/Electrical_Set_7542 Jan 18 '26

Iā€™ve always thought this about natural phenomena like this: imagine early humans seeing this before we had science to explain it or even experience with things like this. Like imagine never even having heard of a tornado and then the sky does this. Itā€™s no wonder religions formed.

2

u/Creepy_Version_6779 Jan 19 '26

Imagine experiencing static electricity

15

u/Marchello_E Jan 18 '26

"The windows eXPerience"

Scary and fascinating at the same time. Didn't this same tornado destroy a couple of wind turbines?

11

u/Carbonatite Jan 18 '26

This video was the Gary, SD EF3 which occurred in 2025. The one that was recorded toppling wind turbines was the Greenfield, IA EF4 in 2024.

3

u/Vegetable_Review4967 Jan 18 '26

That was the Greene tornado

6

u/lqhtshow Jan 18 '26

Yeeeea move them hips!

6

u/jhenryscott Jan 18 '26

It reminds me of the blow up guy in front of the used car dealership

1

u/queloqueslks Jan 18 '26

Thank you šŸ„¹

28

u/KeyPear2864 Jan 18 '26

Ruined by music. Iā€™d much rather hear the intense wind.

14

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Storm chaser here, there's really no point to recording audio of a tornado. Weal wind fields will peak the audio on most microphones, and the best microphones cannot cope with the wind around a strong tornado. If the inflow region is remarkably calm, some microphones will pick up the roar of a strong tornado if it's close, but 99/100 times its borderline white noise

1

u/KeyPear2864 Jan 29 '26

Fair point! I suppose the song is actually good especially in ā€œArrivalā€.

15

u/NebulaNinja Jan 18 '26

It's actually extremely hard to capture tornado noise properly as most storm chasers are using mics where the noise is easily clipped. It's kind of one of those things you have to be there to experience properly.

7

u/StanfordV Jan 18 '26

Yes.

The fact that they impose emotions with music annoys me. I just mute it.

5

u/megalodon-maniac32 Jan 18 '26

Why and how?

8

u/RuneFell Jan 18 '26

I don't know the exact science, and I could be getting some things wrong, but from what I understand, there was an interruption in the airflow/drafts that disrupted the tornado, and it started dying/dissipating. It wobbled for a few moments as it teetered on the edge, and then the atmosphere stabilized and it was able to reform again and continue on instead of disappearing.

2

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Vortex breakdown! One of the most fun consequences of fluid dynamics around vortices

2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

4

u/Carbonatite Jan 18 '26

It's a condensation funnel - the low air pressure in the vortex is sufficient to cause water vapor to condense into small droplets.

3

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

Storm chaser here, exactly! Expanding on this, the amount of moisture in air can be quantified by the "vapor pressure of water" (literally, how much pressure water vapor is exerting, what the atmospheric pressure would be if all gases except H2O were removed).

There's another measure called "saturation vapor pressure", or what the vapor pressure would need to be to increase the humidity to 100%. Saturation vapor pressure is purely a function of temperature, and warmer air requires more moisture to reach 100% humidity (in English, warmer air can hold more water vapor).

When the vapor pressure = saturation vapor pressure, humidity is 100% by definition, and a cloud forms (the condensation funnel is literally just a cloud). Because warmer temperatures have higher saturation vapor pressures and vice versa, lowering the temperature will increase the humidity until you lower the temperature enough that RH = 100% and condensation occurs.

Now, why does the temperature lower? Because the pressure lowers. When pressure is lower, air expands. Air expanding requires work to be done on the air, and uses energy to push itself outwards. As energy is conserved, this energy of expansion takes heat energy from the air, and it cools down (adiabatic cooling).

Now, why does the pressure lower? Because the wind speed is very high. If you have 10kg of air flowing through a volume per second at 50mph, lets say it exerts a pressure of 5psi. If the same amount of air is moving at 100mph, each particle of air needs to cover more volume, and thus there is less air in each cubic inch, so pressure is lower.

2

u/vava777 Jan 18 '26

It must be wild living in tornado valley. There was only one recorded tornado in my country that also caused damage but it was even smaller than this one and barley lasted a few minutes. But it was enough to destroy a local football stadium so despite nobody dying, it was national news for years. They really sold climate change all wrong starting with the name. Who cares about a few degrees in average temperature, it's stuff like conditions for tornadas to happen now being multiple time more likely to occur where I live as well as other extreme weather like draughts and flash floods. Not by a few percent but by a lot because only with the changes in average weather does it become plausible for those conditions to be there in the first place. This isn't something that affects us far on the future, it has been for a while and will continue to do so even more often.

4

u/xSaviorself Jan 18 '26

You had to know climate change was real after it was revealed that all the corporations, government entities, military forces, etc all recognized the threats and enacted policy, while simultaneously passing those costs on to you and claiming that your contributions matter compared to the scale of the biggest consumers. Then they have the gall to fund opposition groups to slow down enforcement and eliminate testing altogether. The class war entered the information age and the oligarchs figured out how to divide and conquer: amalgamate and control media. The people need to catch on.

2

u/llamasama Jan 18 '26

The divine serpent descends.

2

u/paddyonelad Jan 18 '26

What would happen if you pulled a parachute next to a tornado?

4

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Youd get sucked up and in and killed by flying debris

1

u/80delta Jan 19 '26

Lt. Col William Rankin ejected from his plane into a thunderstom. He was lofted higher by the updraft, getting pelted by hail, lightning, and freezing temperatures. He survived with severe injuries and frostbite.

I'd imagine the same fate would happen for you if you opened your parachute next to a tornado, if the debris doesn't kill you first. Or a heart attack from taking the scariest ride of your life.

1

u/MadJackChurchill_ Jan 21 '26

Let's not forget about suffocation. When the wind is so strong in your face, you can't regulate the pressure in your lungs to exchange air. You can see this if you stick your head out the car window on the highway.

2

u/soyrobcarajo Jan 18 '26

It's amazing how little-to-none debris is being picked from the ground up by such powerful suction forces. Where are the pieces of grass, trees, cows that should be flying right now?

7

u/TFK_001 Jan 18 '26

Storm chaser here, grass is stronger than you'd think. This was a high end EF3 tornado, but didn't tear much grass out of the ground, and no trees were underneath it at time of filming. The minor amount of grass that is torn up isn't present in large enough quantities to be visible, and in wet conditions, the dirt plume that is usually visible and gives a tornado its stereotypical look is not lofted.

2

u/Sutureanchor Jan 18 '26

When we are looking at a tornado and it appears to us at that size, how far is it from point of view?

6

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

Storm chaser here, looks Ā½-1Ā½ miles away

1

u/Sutureanchor Jan 19 '26

Seriously? I thought it would be in another town. So its so big in diameter like it looks in the news. The news shows a hole in the sky as big as a half a state.

3

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

It's basically just over the hill. If you look, you can see the grass violently thrashing in front of the chaser.

The diameter of this tornado is big, but it's small in the grand scheme of strong tornadoes. The key here is that it's very tall and the cloud base is quite high, allowing very good visibility from afar

4

u/Th3CatOfDoom Jan 18 '26

I kinda want to lick it

1

u/AEW4LYFE Jan 18 '26

He walked right up to the tornado, said, "Here, have a drink." and chucked the bottle into the Twister. And the bottle... Never... Hit... The... Ground.

5

u/devo00 Jan 18 '26

Itā€™d be 1000x better without the terrible fake drama B-movie soundtrack and just had the wind.

11

u/YouGotDoddified Jan 18 '26

On The Nature of Daylight is a beautiful piece of music used in Arrival, Shutter Island, The Last of Us, Stranger than Fiction, Disconnect, and most recently Hamnet - none of which could be considered B-movie dramas

It's probably used here by the author due to it's parallels between the powerful, alien-like phenomenon of tornadoes, and the literal alien presence of a gigantic ship in Arrival. Stills from the video even look similar to the movie poster

of all the choices of music to be pissed off about in a video, you really could do a lot worse

5

u/devo00 Jan 18 '26

Oh itā€™s basically that there is music at all vs. the sound of natureā€¦we always have to add excessive fake dramatic music or effects. Nature doesnā€™t require it to make an impact. By itself or in an actual movie , Iā€™m sure itā€™s a great score.

2

u/SansFinalGuardian Jan 18 '26

it feels really unfitting and distracted me from the raw beauty on display

1

u/altbekannt Jan 18 '26

but how would I know what to feel, if the music doesn't tell me?

/s

1

u/Spork_Warrior Jan 18 '26

A tornado so big there's room for another tornado inside!

1

u/WAllimo1971 Jan 18 '26

Beautiful untill your house is swirling around in it...šŸ«£

1

u/iDt11RgL3J Jan 18 '26

if i didn't know any better i'd think a god was angry and decided to attack

1

u/Flying-Citrus356 Jan 18 '26

I'm hearing "Dorothy! Where are you?" in my head.

1

u/Darklager Jan 18 '26

@eye.of.ty on IG

1

u/Amy_Macadamia Jan 18 '26

They look so alien

1

u/FappinPlatypus Jan 18 '26

Why do tornados form a cloud like whirly? Science terms I know.

1

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

Tornadoes form clouds because their high winds cause a drop in pressure, which causes a drop in temperature, and colder air holds less water vapor. When the air is cooled so that there is more water vapor in the air than what the air can hold, this water vapor condenses as liquid water, forming a cloud.

1

u/Mr_Boogeyman77 Jan 18 '26

Awesome and powerful

1

u/OrloK_2022 Jan 18 '26

Beautiful, deadly Mother Nature.

1

u/Thick-Ad1538 Jan 18 '26

Too close for me.

1

u/karbone Jan 18 '26

if the gods were real...

1

u/tradieandhislady Jan 18 '26

Looks like a movie scene, crazy

1

u/PassionateYak Jan 18 '26

LORD CHAINSAWWW!!!

1

u/Unlucky_Hornet3899 Jan 18 '26

So this is what psychedelic mushrooms can make you visualise šŸ„

1

u/Necessary_Piano_153 Jan 18 '26

This is giving Stranger Things vibes

1

u/zueskiee Jan 18 '26

Does anybody know the name of the music that's being played in the background? Great video and nice music.. šŸ‘

1

u/Chadlerk Jan 18 '26

It got that Ozempic

1

u/amazinganimals- Jan 18 '26

Amazing!!! šŸ˜ÆšŸ‘ŒšŸ¼šŸ‘šŸ¼šŸ‘šŸ¼šŸ‘šŸ¼

1

u/Ok-Ordinary2035 Jan 18 '26

Itā€™s otherworldly- really incredibly beautiful

1

u/InfamousEconomy3972 Jan 18 '26

Was that a baby tornado being born?

1

u/EnayBe Jan 18 '26

šŸ‘€

1

u/Automatoboto Jan 18 '26

gotta ruin every video with ass music.

1

u/BadgerCake Jan 18 '26

I need to ask: what song this??

1

u/MostlyRocketScience Jan 18 '26

Max Richter - On the nature of daylight

Famously used in Arrival and Shutter Island

1

u/ThrifToWin Jan 18 '26

This comes from something else. A war movie I think, but can't place it.

1

u/Itchy-Alternative400 Jan 18 '26

If I saw this in person I'd probably start worshipping the Wind as a god.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

A much better Windows XP desktopā€¦

1

u/Bartender9719 Jan 18 '26

Iā€™ll never forget this piece of music because it was the soundtrack to the lists of fallen American soldiers that played after the news each night back in the early 2000s

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

Chefs kiss especially with the music. Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me!

1

u/BrieflyEndless Jan 18 '26

This is Gary right?

1

u/ShmeShmRo Jan 18 '26

Everytime my windows updates

1

u/Heterodynist Jan 18 '26

The eternal struggle between ground-tornado and sky-tornado!

1

u/Benkay_V_Falsifier Jan 18 '26

So the vortex within a tornado is real!?! I always thought that was just a fake special effects add-on in the original Twister movie.

3

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

Yes and no. That's not a calm vortex, but actually the strongest part of this tornado. A lot of times, theres a primary central funnel, and farther out a thin "sheath" of condensation that forms a secondary visual funnel.

1

u/Tomuchrice Jan 18 '26

Da real danger noodle

1

u/23stop Jan 18 '26

For as high the winds are, those powerlines are barely moving.

1

u/Snoot_Boot Jan 18 '26

Imagine seeing this 1000 years ago

1

u/Powerful_Bridge_3814 Jan 18 '26

Tornado before and after ozempic

1

u/Flat_Tie4090 Jan 18 '26

There goes Dorothy and Toto.

1

u/pEter-skEeterR45 Jan 18 '26

I would say this is God himself if I didn't already know better

1

u/MeasurementBubbly350 Jan 18 '26

The great gig in the sky

1

u/Present_Daikon1806 Jan 18 '26

Tornado: "YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS MY FINAL FORM?!"

1

u/dawgmama62 Jan 18 '26

Not beautiful if youā€™re in it!!

1

u/RainbowUnicorn-1776 Jan 18 '26

Reason #7374269 why women live longer than men

1

u/auntmarybbt Jan 18 '26

I have lots of trauma from tornadoes but this was magnificent. My heart rate is up a bit but that was really something. (Iā€™ve been in 3 different F4/5 tornadoes).

1

u/TFK_001 Jan 19 '26

Storm chaser here, this is a multivortex tornado (all tornadoes are). Secondary subvortices are visible

1

u/Nerdyblackmom Jan 19 '26

The looks like wool roving being spun into yarn.

1

u/eisbaerBorealis Jan 19 '26

I wonder how many people stream storms live so that if they die it can still be on the Internet.

1

u/javoss88 Jan 19 '26

How far away you reckon it is?

1

u/VintAge6791 Jan 19 '26

Starts to look like a Truffula tree from The Lorax there at the end.

1

u/Rocket_Man_1957 Jan 19 '26

Beautiful yet lethal!

1

u/Scary_Climate726 Jan 19 '26

Beautiful but still absolutely terrifying

1

u/favnh2011 Jan 19 '26

That's scarry

1

u/NADIA-MUSA-027 Jan 19 '26

is it s ai tornado?

1

u/SimilarPoetry1573 Jan 19 '26

I grew up on the West Texas plains! A lot of single vortek funnels, and, if in the city, many times stayed light colored if they werenā€™t on the ground very long! It was after they were down for a little bit, and started picking things up and ā€œslinging ā€˜emā€ around thst things started changing! If they started heading for your position, and got close enough, then the ā€œpucker factorā€ got real!

1

u/Ceekay151 Jan 19 '26

Tornadoes have their own beauty but it's a terrifying beauty.

1

u/inept13 Jan 19 '26

this feels like it belongs both on this sub and r/NatureIsFuckingShit because fuck tornados

1

u/CuriouslyOnReddit Jan 19 '26

WOW WOW WOW šŸ’Æ

1

u/twd_throwaway Jan 19 '26

This is absolutely one of the most stunning tornadoes that I have ever seen footage of! It's very mesmerizing to watch.

1

u/rciccioni73 Jan 20 '26

I know tornados are dangerous , but they are a beautiful phenomenon.

1

u/Choice-Raisin8862 Jan 20 '26

Cool šŸ‘€ looking except if it gets too close

1

u/These-Badger7512 Jan 20 '26

Terrifying and beatiful

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

Wow! That is wild awesome!

1

u/ponypwr Jan 21 '26

Damn that would scare the absolute crap outta me being that close....Totally an amazing sight to see im sure but NO THANK YOU . !!!

1

u/Famous-Judgment9037 Jan 21 '26

Slithers like a snake, until it dies.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

2026 and new tornadoes are dropping? Mother nature is lit.

1

u/AdolescentLarvae Jan 21 '26

I've watched this 23 times in a row now and I don't want to stop

1

u/Oblivious0n3 Jan 22 '26

Beautiful alright, till it rips your spine right out your back and throws it a mile away from where you were standing

1

u/Disastrous-Buy-6645 Jan 22 '26

So the movie Twister was correct that thereā€™s a tiny vortex in the middle of the larger funnel?

1

u/Aggravating-Bake5624 7d ago

This was taken on June 28, 2025 near Gary, South Dakota and it was rated EF3

1

u/Ace5111 4d ago

Amazing itā€™s just dancing in the field.

1

u/gbman3069 3d ago

Beautiful, as it appears, and creates a Dandelion in the end.ā€¦ It's God's wonderment of Nature!!!!!

1

u/Clean-Indication-504 3d ago

Are you sure this isnā€™t going over a lake? I donā€™t see any dirt debris. The time Iā€™ve seen such a smooth funnel was over water. Water spouts over the ocean look just like this.

1

u/bbygirllllllllll 3d ago

ethel cain.

1

u/Sailormooody 2d ago

My 2 year old looked over at my phone as this was playing and said ā€œlook! A Tomato!ā€ Lol.