May 10, 2003 Hannibal MO Tornado
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Looking sw at the storm I just punched east through, west of Moberly Missouri. I chased one storm nw earlier and let it go, then dropped south for this now weakening svr warned storm(it had been tor warned). I punched it, figuring it was an elevated hailer moving nne now. I then noticed it seemed to be moving more east than ne as I couldn't get out of the precip on my e-w highway. |
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Wall cloud on east side of Moberly. |
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It really got cranking at this time. |
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South of Monroe city here, after some hard driving. This storm looked like the storm I was on in OK April 19 this year. I never thought I'd catch it and was going to give up if I could not do it by this city. This lowering and meso did damage in the city just north of me. |
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Notice the roof of the casey's store here on the left side of the image-part of the roof is coming off. I'm not sure what was going on as I moved east through Monroe City, with the meso apparetnly to the ene now. It was very calm when I turned east into town. Then part way in I see tree tops slamming over and whipping around violently. Then I could see grass being lofted vertically at a good clip. As I went east it continued right outside my window. Whatever this was it causes that tin to peel off. |
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Not far out of the city this tornado touches down, very quickly. All the sudden it was there. |
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I guess this is the same tornado. This is looking north on a northward jog east of Monroe City. |
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Below are some larger video captures. I thought I'd redo the whole account with them until I saw that I don't have all the video files on the pc. I'm not recapturing the stuff before here just to get them, so those will just have to remain small.
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Turning east, looking north at the large torando. I believe that is a Tempest Tours van there.
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Tornado continues to move quickly off to the northeast.
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Very nice meso. I'm not sure there isn't a tube in there currently. If there isn't, I would still call this all one tornado as it's likely the same tornado cyclone. I was trying to gain some ground going east so I could race north and maybe get closer.
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This is either a continuation of a hard to see tornado or a new one. Whatever happened I'd call it all one tornado. I'm now just west of Hannibal.
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Fat rope continues while I race north. It passes just north of this farm. I'm heading north on the west side of Hannibal.
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I pull over for a second and then quickly decide I could get closer.
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I bet this guy was surprised at his view to the west as he dropped south.
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I wish I would have been right there when it crossed.
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I punch the gas as I try to at least sneak up behind it and get close.
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Tearing up the trees. It seemed to really slow up the second it entered that line of trees.
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Still mowing trees.
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This is very close...perhaps 1/8 to 1/4 mile away now. I've never seen anything like this. It was simply amazing to watch. It was a bit unnerving for a moment, as it seemed to come to a complete stop.
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I really wish I was able to take some stills. I couldn't decide while trying to keep up with it and just made sure I kept the vid running. Had I had a camera mount in my car this would not have been an issue.
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After my brief stop next to it, I continued on with the highway turning east now. It abruptly dissipates in the field next to me, just south of the road. It was so cool driving east after this.
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It was like a gigantic lawn mower bag was released overhead. Lots and lots of grass falling sw from the ne. This object I believe was a small tree. It was flipping end over end as it fell back to Earth.
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Not sure what this one was. Some portion of a tree most likely.
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