weatherporn: amazing tornado photo

[mckitterick]

Would you be brave enough to snap this shot? On June 11, Lori Mehmen of Orchard, Iowa, took this photo from just outside her front door:

Click the image to see the story.

I loves me my weatherporn.

Chris

Comments

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

Holy Christ! I hope that was telephoto. I bet she had to change her undies....

[victoria-lane.livejournal.com]

That stole my breath in just picture form. People can be oddly calm, though, in the midst of craziness.

[royal-spice.livejournal.com]

That's...amazing.

It's one of those things that you do in the moment, but then it hits you later what you just did. ;)

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

That's incredible.

[archway.livejournal.com]

Perhaps she had a little pre-cog when she went out with her camera a decided that morning to wear her BROWN pants.....~G!~

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

Jesus fuck!

Also, if you look at that picture wrong it looks just a tad bit naughty.

[curieuse.livejournal.com]

I can't believe the air is so clear and empty near the base... weirdness.

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

We've got video tape from back in the day when my family lived in Emporia of two different tornadoes passing over the house.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Whoah! Have you YouTubed it yet?

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

Ya know, that never even occurred to me. I just need to find a way to digitize the old tape.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Wow,that's a pretty amazing photo, but I'm pretty sure if I saw that, I wouldn't have the foresight to capture it on film/in pixels. I'd be long gone!

[margaretq.livejournal.com]

That looks so unbelievable... So very clean (where debris, waterspots, etc?) and photoshopped! Is that what makes it porn-worthy?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I define weatherporn using Merriam-Webster's third definition of pornography:

3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick, intense, emotional reaction.

Just add weather.

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

I still think that's been Photoshopped. It's too clean-looking, if you know what I mean.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

As it turns out, the funnel never touched down. This was in its formation. But could be!

[lanerobins.livejournal.com]

Amazing picture. Reminds me of the ones that were circulating post-Katrina, just that huge mass of SKY falling in.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I remember those! Those shots were just plain scary.

[theoneinblue.livejournal.com]

oooooooooooh - damn!!! That looks like the one that jumped my parents' house a few years ago - sometimes they can look photoshopped - but I can't believe she wasn't running for cover...yeppers, that is some fantastic weatherporn...

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

wow! what a sassy picture!
as to whether or not i would be brave enough to snap the shot...idk. i spent about an hour one night up at youtube watching videos of tornadoes...there are people who chase them. and i thought about how fun it would be to do that.

while looking at the above pictuer, i found myself wondering if the direction of the flag was indicative of the direction of the movement of the funnel cloud. if so, it was moving AWAY from her.

if i knew it was moving away from me, i'd snap that shot! you betcha!

[stuology.livejournal.com]

Fantastic photo! You can tell that it was either 1)a longer exposure to compensate for darkness or 2) a shaky hand because, eeks!

You can see the shadow exposures in the stop sign, railroad crossing and especially the flag, which probably was moving.

You can also see spots and it isn't as horribly compressed or cropped like the paper did in its snope entry: http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/iowatornado.asp


As for those who think it looks too clam, it is absolutely possible to be really close to a tornado and have it be really, really calm. I've been in quite a few, including this one. It was an F4, and I didn't even know it was there. I was outside playing basketball. It was calm as can be. My neighbor and I stepped to the side of the garage and there it was. It took a bit before the wind really picked up. Here is a photo of it.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I really like the Snopes image, but I can't link to it (only get a Mr. Yuck).

Wow! You've been in several? That one looks scary.

[stuology.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Kansas since I was 5. I've been in more than several, but I've actually seen more than one.

I saw this one as well. It was a year later than the one linked above. I spent two spring breaks in a row in high school cleaning up people's destroyed houses. The Hesston one destroyed my best friend's house. We didn't find a piece of it bigger than my forearm.

There was also one in Lawrence that I didn't see, but I heard that they were spotted. I was out driving around that area, and a street divider sign blew down in front of my car. I was on 6th street heading west.

I should be a tornado chaser because they fascinate me and I have no fear of going out and looking for them. At least, I didn't before I had kids.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

At least, I didn't before I had kids.

Perhaps another child-bearing psychological side-effect as you noted today....

[emessar.livejournal.com]

Tornados.

God's way of saying "Get the hell inside."

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

HOLY SHIT FIRE.

You know, if it were that close, I'd probably cash in all my chips on that picture, because either I'd live to upload it, or I wouldn't.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I saw one of those too, when I lived in Nebraska. It was a tornado precursor cloud of some sort (maybe a mesocyclone, but I'm not too sure about the terminology) that didn't quite form into an actual tornado. The sirens were going though.