May 24, 2004:  Tornado in Albany, Missouri

I don't have any actual tornado  photos to go along with this day.   I saw the tornado as it was about 3 blocks away and decided to run for cover instead of trying to get a shot.   It was so dark out that I'm sure that photos would probably not have come out good anyway.   There was no slow, lumbering, elephantine trunk of a tornado associated with this storm.  The storm leaned toward the HP or High Precipitation Supercell type and so the tornado was difficult to see and the skies ahead of the storm were very dark.  Due to the darkness my camera exposures were in the 1/4 or a second range and almost impossible to hand hold.    Below are the best shots from these very adverse conditions.
 

Storm Chaser Report II  More Pictures of the Tornadoes from another chaser.
Storm Chaser Report III  Scroll down when you get to this link.  Search for Albany.
Storm Chaser Report IV  Search for Albany on this page.
Storm Chaser Report V   Good Pictures from the Area.  Second page is here.

Watch a radar loop of this day  You can easily see the tornadic supercell pass over the area. This may take a while to load.  Radar loop courtesy of National Severe Storms Laboratory.



 
 
 
This radar image was "screen-captured" on my computer when the Supercell was moving into Nodaway County.  It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes more for it to hit Albany, Missouri.  Albany is just below the two letter L's in the word  Maryville on the map.

3:55 pm according to the time at top of radar screen.

"THIS IS BIG!",  is what I can be heard saying on the video. 

It was...........................
 
 

5:09 pm

 

Just beyond the trees the cell gets closer to us.  Notice the blur in the trees.  This is caused by the long exposure of the camera recording  the wildly moving tree branches.  The winds were fairly strong by this point. 

5:13 pm


Looking southwest the view was just as ominous.

5:13 pm

A green sky such as this almost always means hail.  Hail was the least of our worries on this day but was indicative of how strong this monster storm really was. 

5:14 pm

 
 

No more pictures.  I shot video from this point on due to the darkness and then due to the fact that I had to help man the emergency operations center for the next day and a half.

   
Satellite View from the Tornado (Time: 4:40  p.m. CDT)

Satellite View from the Tornado (Time: 6:10 p.m. CDT)

Satellite Images from NOAA

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