Tornado pictures

[walt]

This last August, I had a rare sailing encounter with a tornado and I finally organized some pictures I took on this this day here:

http://analogengineering.com/elevenmile/tornado/

I was single hand sailing an old Magregor 26S which I primarilly trailer sail at this lake.

 

[AXEL]

Very nice photo's, thanks!
I can't believe you had the composure to snap pictures with that "monster" heading down on you.
What did it sound like?

 

[Alan]

Very COOL pictures!!

If I could suggest, your halyards both main and genoa are way too loose. You would get far better sail shape and performance if the halyards were tight.

Oddly enough we had a water spout in our harbor this summer also.

 

[walt]

On a normal day in the summer, this lake will have thunder storms building to the West (the snow capped mountains you can see in one picture is the continental divide - a bunch of the Rocky Mountain 14'ers are visiible from the lake). Early afternoon, the wind will come up out of the West / North West and a passing thunderstorm is common.

On this day, the wind came up fairly strong out of the East with the typical thunderstorms building to the West. When the Tornado came onto the lake, the wind dropped off and was actually fairly calm when the tornado got the closest to me (maybe 2- 3 hundred yards it seemed). I dont remember any noise - it seemed actually quite..

After the Tornado passed, the wind came back up farily strong out of the west with rain and hail for about a half hour.

 

[Marcia]

WOW! Great shots! I think I'd have to change my underwear after that experience.

 

[Brian D]

Fascinating photos! Send them to WeatherUnderground and the to Weather Channel. Those are fantastic.

 

[Lucky Bum]

Glad you are safe! That is to much power to be caught up in. Pixs are definitely more than a thousand words. Thanks for sharing.

 

[walt]

Some pretty good youtube video of the same tornado from a different angle.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr2B0HTbdxk&feature=related

 

[Capt. Ed]

Well done .We in the east had a few encounters with nasty thunderstorms and a few small tornados this year ,but nothing like that !

 

[elle]

Kudos for being able to keep your composure and take such stunning photos while dealing with an errant outboard.

Thanks for posting those.

 

[Steve L22188]

Whoq

 

[Steve L22188]

Whoa! Bet the pucker factor was pretty high that afternoon. Great pics. Thanks for sharing.