One year ago today, Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor and I were out shooting material for our next chasing documentary. We encountered one of the most intense tornadoes ever captured on film, closing to within 100 yards. This would soon be known as the famous Ellis County, OK tornado that was featured across Youtube and practically every news network. After that hair-raising experience, we called it a day and started driving to Kansas.

As the evening turned into night, we watched an intense storm on radar as it approached Greensburg. Not long after, we received phone calls from fellow chasers who were chasing that storm and had witnessed firsthand the utter devastation.

A storm chaser is always ready to enjoy the experience of seeing a tornado, but he or she can never anticipate the shock, sadness, and helplessness that comes with observing destruction. That one powerful tornado devastated a town and humbled a whole nation.

I know that the Greensburg event has strengthened the resolve of virutally every chaser on the road. As storm chasers, filmmakers, and weather enthusiasts we have an important mission to spread awareness and continue collecting empirical data to aid in research. As we continue this unending, passionate pursuit of nature’s mysteries, let us always remember May 4th, and the people whose lives were changed forever.

-Ken Cole

On both May 4th and May 5th, Tornado Glory chasers Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor tracked down multiple twisters across the plains. Along with Tornado Glory director Ken Cole, they shot perhaps the best close-up tornado footage in history. Check out the May 4th video:

Also be sure to check out this new footage from just hours ago in SW Kansas:

Reed and Joel are still out chasing in the Plains on Sunday, so check back for updates!

Yesterday Tornado Glory chasers Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor caught seven distinct tornadoes in the Texas Panhandle. The footage filmed by Reed Timmer and Tornado Glory director Ken Cole is currently being broadcast over all media channels.

Click here to see Reed and Joel being interviewed live on the Today Show - taped this morning!

Well, that’s not to say that there won’t a tornado as strong as an F5, it just won’t be called an F5. That’s because there’s a new tornado scale called the “EF” scale - which stands for “Enhanced Fujita” scale.

Dr. Ted Fujita was the scientist who originally came up with the Fujita “F” Scale back in 1971. There were six possible categories, with F0 being the weakest and F5 being the strongest.

So why the new scale? Well, both scales rate tornadoes on how much damage they cause, with an F5 causing total destruction. Over time, scientists have learned that the wind estimates of the scale were too rough and generous - some buildings are built stronger than others, and it doesn’t necessarily take 250 mph winds to destroy a house.

So basically the scale needed to be adjusted and corrected, accounting for many different types of damage. And so we now have the EF Scale!

If you want more info on the EF scale and how tornadoes are now rated, check out this page.

Tornado Glory chasers Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor caught the first-ever EF-4 tornado on Feb. 28th, less than two weeks ago! Check out the video:

That’s a great question - tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes. They can be shaped like “stovepipes,” or “wedges” (wider than they are tall), or in their final phase they can look like “ropes” - very skinny. A great example of a “wedge” is the Manchester, SD tornado of June
24th, 2003. As seen in Tornado Glory, it grows to be over a mile wide, destroying trees and even a two-story house.

The biggest tornado on record is the May 22, 2004 tornado in Hallum, NE, which at its largest was 2.5 miles wide. As amazing and frightening as that sounds, our very own Reed Timmer actually drove through a portion of that tornado when it was in a weakened state.

A clip of this tornado is in Reed’s 2004 highlights video, available on YouTube [warning: adult language]: