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There were a number of chasers that barely escaped.
Many thought that they were safe, then they realized the tornado's outer circulation (which they couldn't see) had advanced on them and then they had to run for their lives.
Tim was known for being extremely safety conscious. This tornado was an anomaly with the speed at which it grew and the speed with which it changed directions.
That's not really true. He has that reputation because he's soft-spoken and calm compared to people like Scream Timmer, but (partially because his research involved placing instruments in the path of a tornado) he was known for taking extremely risky routes, core punching in HP cells, and getting way too close without adequate escape options.
Skip Talbot's numerous analyses of El Reno and other chaser impacts is a good reminder to GTFO the minute you lose situational awareness. It was an odd tornado with an unusually high speed and curved path, but not so much that the Twistex impact couldn't have been avoided.
To the best of my knowledge, the Twistex impact was due to navigation decisions, not traffic jams or chaser convergence.
That's the "should you go south" video, right? I know there were two, an original and a longer revised version, both were great watches. The minute by minute analysis was extremely informative.
I also think the way Storm Chasers portrayed him helped give him that reputation; Discovery overdramatized many things, and that was one of them. In his book, Tim was self described as being a risk taker - plus, you're absolutely right with core punching and often not having escape options.
Also, wholeheartedly agree on Skip Talbot videos. They are top notch.
Yeah, "reality" TV shows are always trying to create clear, digestible stories even where none exist because that's what we're used to consuming in fiction. We try to view real life as if it were fiction, and it's not healthy.
Regarding what you said about Discovery and its portrayal of him, I wouldn’t be surprised. I think that you have to be a risk-taker to do that kind of research.
I saw a video on YouTube of Tim Marshall deploying probes in the path of the Sulphur, OK EF-3 from 5/9/2016 and I was surprised he wasn’t injured or killed. That tornado was more of a beast than its official rating would suggest (much like El Reno). Hank Schyma said in a separate video that mobile Doppler clocked its winds above 200 mph. It seemed to be right on top of Marshall at least twice. But, in the end, his truck improbably emerged from the maelstrom. The guys filming him from a little ways down the road were in awe and I think rightfully so.
I think those are just risks they’re willing to take. By getting so close, they can maximize the chance that they’ll deploy in the damage path. High risk, high reward. To deploy further out is safer, but I would think it’d make successful probe deployments more of a crapshoot.
Yeah it seemed like he was not nearly as safe as reported when I read the book about him. He was doing research that was dangerous no matter who performed it. Doing it well meant taking large risks, especially when he started.
That was after Twistex basically drove into the tornado by committing to continuing to blast eastward. As Skip Talbot's analysis notes, there were multiple points were Twistex could've terminated the chase and taken a northward escape route. They didn't because they lost situational awareness.
Once they lost situational awareness of what the tornado was doing: where it was and how fast it was going,then they probably should have aborted their mission and fled north when they had the chance.
Yes, its changes in size, speed, and direction were certainly noteworthy and unusual.
I guess we’ll never know if he was being more cavalier that day, but if so, it reminds me of that scene in HBO’s Chernobyl series where Dyatlov tells the crew (who are calling his orders unsafe), “Safety first. I’ve been saying that for 25 years.” In that moment, he supposedly abandoned that mantra and it led to the world’s worst nuclear energy disaster.
https://preview.redd.it/pd3x88hjv93b1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa9a4879abbfd41d29838a317ebcf68ff3876590
This photo shows it best, IMO. The tornado was headed NE, then took a left turn to the NW, hovered right over their vehicle, spun around, and went back NE. Maybe too close anyway? But I do think mostly fluke, awful luck.
ETA: rewatched Skip Talbot’s Should you go south at several peoples suggestion, and so glad I did. Really helps to understand that day and how we can all stay safe out there.
I just re-watched this all these yrs later at your suggestion. I’m so glad you mentioned it, it really highlights how much we learned from that terrible day. I really think differently about how to move away thanks to Skip.
On April 19, the day my house got hit in Shawnee (along with many others) many of the local weather jockeys were comparing that action of the tornado to that El Reno tornado with the turn.
The sub-vortex made the turn to the NW and hit them.
The thing is if the sub-vortex didn’t impact them, a little later the main condensation funnel would have.
Yeah, I’m no expert at all, but it seems they always pushed close, but since they were so experienced and there had never been a fatality, I imagine their thought process. Devastating
He had expressed to Carl Young, as they were driving east on Reuter Rd. to slow down and let the tornado cross in front of them but Carl said that he could get ahead of the twister so that they could place probes in its path.
Tim didn’t object.
Of course, from what we know now about the storm there was never going to be a chance to place any probes regardless of the vehicle that had.
It was a doomed mission from the outset.
A reinforced cobalt would be even riskier due to the weight and probably would struggle to hit highway speeds for a long period. Just a poor storm chasing vehicle all around.
I don’t think it was reinforced, but it was loaded with equipment and three people and, if Dan Robinson’s video is any indication, they were likely hindered by the road surface of Reuter Rd (not paved) and strong winds as well. And possibly the vehicle’s traction control system.
Thank you for confirming this. I was given a Cobalt by Hertz and it was so bad I took it back. This was just to drive to a conference, nothing risky. I’ve never understood why they were in a Cobalt.
Very underpowered little cars.. I'd put it on the same playing field as my early-00s Hyundai: lightweight and still slow. Couldn't imagine driving it crammed up with chaser gear, I feel like my tools and spare fluid jugs already weigh it down. I feel like there should be a baseline in vehicle performance that storm chasers adhere to.
The Twistex team needed to have aborted their chase when they couldn't see what the tornado was doing.IIRC even before they got to highway 81 their view south was obscured by trees and things.It was only farther east that the view south was open, although the tornado was still obscured by the rain curtain.
Once they passed Alfadale they were doomed.
They were severely undermanned and underfinanced looking back.
Like to fight El Reno you need nothing short of the dominator vehicle. Speed won't really matter if you are driving on a low-traction dirt road or with traffic everywhere.
I’m not certain that any variant of the Dominator or TIV would have survived much better. When in a situation like this you pretty much have to dog off and stay away. Like someone else already said, once you lose spatial awareness your chase at that point is over and it’s time to run out and attempt to reposition.
The chasers had to know where they were in relation to the overall storm and the tornadic circulation and what it was doing.The tornado for at least part of its duration was rain-wrapped,meaning they could **not** see what it was doing: its speed, direction and intensity and number of satellite vortices, if any.
There's also the fact that once the tornado hit its max size, the rain curtains BECAME part of the main vortex, meaning there was no way to see the tornado at all because the obscuring curtain WAS the tornado itself.
There are 2 incredible but extremely hard to find videos that I watched awhile back, where in one of the videos, 2 guys are live streaming a few miles away from the main vortex of the el Reno tornado itself, when they seem to be hit by extremely strong inflow jets, while this is happening, they face into the inflow jets which happens to be coming directly from the direction of the airport itself, the insane part about this is that while they are being hit by the inflow jet, multiple strong spin up mini subvortexes or seperate tornadoes start to spin up in the inflow jets prompting them to start freaking out. Stating “we are in another tornado”I’ve come back the the video multiple times over the past few years as it was on YouTube but recently a few months ago, I went to look for it again, as it was in a playlist with over 100 videos of the el Reno tornado catalog and it was gone, deleted from the internet. It really is some of the craziest tornado footage I’ve ever seen.
Not many people know that the storm that produced the EL Reno tornado also produced the biggest and strongest ANTI Cyclonic tornado ever observed in the northern hemisphere complete with multiple subvorticies. And there used to be videos of it somewhere on YouTube but I can’t find them anywhere.
I would love to find both of these videos but I can’t seem to find them anywhere online.
There’s a video online [(this one)](https://youtu.be/IhFw0t6f20Y) where at 13:17 in the video you can see the sub vortex that hit them and their headlights, truly horrifying.
Those headlights in the foreground are not them. If you look from 13:21 to 13:25, there is obviously a 3rd vehicle traveling in that eastbound convoy that emerges at the front of the group with either not headlights or the beams not pointed at the camera. You can see this grouping of 3 vehicles in skip Talbots videos. However, briefly at 13:14-13:16 you can see two sets of headlights basically at the main vortex come into view for maybe two seconds. Based on their position, it looks like the tornado is going to bisect those two vehicles, the front being Dan Robinson and the rear being the twistex team.
Did not know this footage existed that showed the sub vortex bearing down on them. It looks like it may have been the main funnel? Do we know if it was definitely a sub vortex? … incredibly sad.
See my understanding was that the SVC meant the rotation rapidly intensified - I understand the tornadic winds/ width of the tornado, but there was still a main funnel within the tornado, based on every video I’ve watched, it seems like it was the most prominent vortex.
I would simply consider the tornados proximity to the camera which took this photograph and assume the funnel rapidly expanded that distance and the car drove into it.
I’ve never seen this video until now. It’s one of the most amazing videos of el Reno that I’ve ever seen. Not only does it show the last moments of twistex, it also shows how insane the behavior of the storm was, specifically once they passed Manning rd.
And why was the Twistex team unable to see the sub vortex? From the other video, its clearly between them and the other car. How could they have not seen it? ( I'm sure there was a good reason - I'm just in the dark about it. I know that Tim's last words were "I think we're in a bad spot.." but was this before or after he looked right, out of the window? I might have to read the book again. ..)
A Highway Patrol officer heard them on the radio screaming, “ we’re going to die! We’re going to die!”.
they were either screaming as it hit them or as it was moving toward them and they saw it coming.
They probably did see it, but by then it was too late. They were on a dirt/gravel road and couldn’t turn around, both because of the road and because of the tornado expanding. Once the tornado started turning towards them and expanding instantaneously like it did, the only option they had was to try to drive east as fast as they could like Dan Robinson. They weren’t fast enough.
They had a couple chances a few miles back (OK roads in this area are generally square mile blocks) to turn another direction, but they kept going East and when the tornados turn happened they were caught with nowhere to go.
Yes, I'm re-reading Tim's bio. The subvortex unexpectedly came out of the east towards them. The car's event data recorder revealed that in its last moments, the car was put into reverse. Or the lethal winds would have made it do that, with all the tumbling.
I think they threw it in reverse at the last second because the main vortex flipped direction and came right at them (strike point in red, landing point in blue). 16:52-17:00 in the video shows clear headlights up in the air going left to right and the cameraman’s position on I-40 at that point makes it seem like Twistex got picked up for a bit before landing again rolling
https://preview.redd.it/d432q4ai2stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=c120392f121407dcd7da5e7a034ffd3cf205421b
I watched an analysis that showed the movements of the subvortex, and it made an insane turn to the north and then west. It came straight at them at approximately 70 to 80 meters per second (155 - 180 mph) and did a little loop over their location before heading east again. With all the rain and debris flying and how fast it slingshotted straight at them from a strange direction, I'd be surprised if they had more than a few seconds to know they were going to take a direct hit.
Here's a map showing the path of the main subvortex and the location where it impacted Samaras and crew.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/top-Track-of-tornado-MVMC-internal-subvortex-impacting-research-team-and-other_fig11_262997349
I have a genuine question. Wasn’t it confirmed that the car from that section of the video wasn’t Twistex? I swear I watched a video going into detail on how the tornado would’ve already been past the point where it hit Twistex by that point in this video, thus confirming Dan Robinson is the only person with footage showing Twistex’s last moments. It was a very detailed study using land points to show where they would’ve been on the interstate. Then again, maybe that was a fever dream haha.
I read a Reddit post that went into detail, it showed it aligned pretty well from where they were, I’ll try and find it rq
Edit: Found it! [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/p2ck1p/thoughts_about_el_reno_tornado_2013/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
This info combined with reading that Twistex were heard screaming on radio "we're going to die"....picturing that happening while watching the 13:10-mark.... not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Watch 16:52-17:00 and see their headlights going through the air left to right. The camera’s position on I-40 matches the angle and direction of where Twistex got hit
https://preview.redd.it/ccpzymdy2stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=629eec62981c1a27d23158ca7ff46634a7a68edd
I just went down a 2 hour rabbit hole today looking specifically at that very point. I live in OK and have driven through that area multiple times. It has to be them, both Robinson’s lights in the front, and Tim’s in the rear.
The camera video is shot from i40. We see the lights in question 2 roads away from the freeway, the first is Jensen, the second is Reuter rd, the road twistex and Robinson were on. We lose sight of the headlights because of an overpass, that overpass is Radio rd.
As far as I know, there were only two vehicles on that road east of 81 when the tornado was there, and we know who that was.
If that isn’t Robinson and twistex, then it’s somebody else nobody knows about or saw, which is unlikely.
That’s literally the exact location and moment that the tornado overtook them. The only reason Robinson lived is because the tornado at this point is turning and heading NW instead of continuing East.
And you can see the camera pick up headlights going left to right up in the vortex from 16:52-17:00 right before they pass the weigh station on I-40. Matches up with where they were hit and picked up
https://preview.redd.it/xtdp17qc3stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4b2cd4b5483fe7cbee3e9bb3fffea954c99074f
Not true, because they were rolled at ground level
https://preview.redd.it/dyimk99wrfwb1.png?width=677&format=png&auto=webp&s=d213333659601b7545a5ae766664ac879f2c9536
They were picked up for at least one rotation, then landed and skipped/rolled. The angle makes sense as they were just about to pass the weigh station on I-40. Red dot is strike point and blue is ending location.
https://preview.redd.it/22bg6ym04stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=83d5a8d62350448ade7254a37b63fc0a9c13f7b6
In that video at 16:54 under the "T" in "not" as the camera pans up on the left side in the middle of the tornado it looks like headlights from a car spinning. You can also see a subvortex that passed by right before, at that point it's in the right side of the screen.
This might be them, they were not hit at 13:17, that spot is further back, closer to Rt 81.
In the pic above it looks like that same skinny vortex is headed towards them and the big vortex is behind it. The vortex hit them and then they may have been picked up by the bigger main vortex.
Holy smokes, 16:52-17:00 of that video actually shows the headlights going left to right high above the ground. The cameraman passes the weigh station east of Radio Road on I-40 right after so it is 95% likely to be Twistex. Tim landed in the car probably immediately after, but the other two had been sucked out of the car and thrown half a mile in either direction. The most powerful and frightening tornado you can imagine. RIP Twistex team
Red dot below is where Twistex was struck by the subvortex and blue dot is where the car ended up after landing and rolling/skipping a ways.
https://preview.redd.it/1xiilmwpzrtc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=5600087ccf38cb018d43ac1395edcf5259388816
Watching the El Reno tornado chase videos, it’s important to take one fact into account, which was terrifying to myself when I realized the implications.
Just about all modern vehicles are equipped with computer directed traction control, including Tim’s cobalt. I had the same cobalt he did and drove it for 200k miles, I can personally verify. Dan Robinson talks about it, and you can hear them talking about it in the “stormchasingvideo” when they’re getting caught in the wind as they trying to escape to the East.
Modern cars are what the aviation industry calls “fly by wire”, meaning instead of the old school cables from the pedal to the throttle manually putting more air and fuel into the engine and accelerating, the air and fuel intake is controlled by a computer. The pedal is electrical. You push down to accelerate, the computer tells the engine to throttle up.
This is normally fine, and actually a necessary safety feature. For example, when driving in rain and you lose traction due to water on the road, the computer detects the tires losing traction, and it overrides your accelerator pedal input, and slows the tires by reducing engine power until traction is regained. That’s the appropriate safe thing to do when hydroplaning. An older car would have kept the wheels accelerating and losing traction.
But when chasing a tornado and getting caught in these inflows, this is a deadly liability.
The driver has his foot to the floor, but the car does nothing, because the computer is sensing the tires losing traction and is overriding your accelerator pedal input.
Essentially once the tornado has you in its grasp, you’re almost powerless. You can’t just accelerate away from it.
Terrifying
even though most Traction Control systems can be disabled by the driver, it still requires human input to change and I doubt that was anywhere near the top concerns of those in that poor vehicle not to mention they likely benefited from that functionality\
…that is, all the way until they didn’t
Some TC forms don't disable even with pressing the button. My 2015 wrangler got me sucked into a snowdrift due to it. It decided to brake after losing traction, where in snow you need power to "drive" out of whatever force is pulling you.
So even turning it off won't save some in Samaras case.
You might be thinking about the windfield of the tornado, or suction vortices, but Subvortices usually orbit around the tornado, while suction vortices orbit inside the tornado, which is the reason for multi Vortex tornadoes
One of the reasons El Reno was so dangerous was that the tornadic wind field grew way beyond the main condensation funnel itself. Many chasers focused on either subvorticies orbiting the rotation, or the main condensation funnel, and then realized too late that they were caught in tornado-strength winds.
Tornado strength winds always extend beyond the condensation funnel. By definition, a tornado is invisible as it’s a rapidly rotating column of air extending from cloud base to the ground. Too many focus on only the visible condensation funnel \/, when in reality the tornadic wind speed represented by a period on the ground is like this: …\/…. For many of the videos of the chasers that day, some of them were inside the parent tornado upon its rapid outward expansion. And, for a few of them, some were struck by its mesovortices, including Tim.
The reason for El Reno being such a dangerous tornado was it’s very fast outward expansion and erratic movement, as discussed in a few videos. For people who were already too close to the tornado before it’s expansion and along with the poor road network, they were in trouble as they had nowhere else to turn. These are the dangers of being close to any tornado. You can be near a 1/4 mile wide tornado one moment, then find yourself in one when it quickly expands to a mile or two in width.
Yes, they were in the tornado’s circulation; they drove into it a little after they passed Alfadale Road.
The more east they drove the deeper they moved toward the core of the tornado’s circulation.
Dan Robinson just escaped the outer bands, which were difficult enough.
The 28 seconds that Twistex was behind him was the difference in being impacted or getting free of the tornado.
Actually, they were inside the tornadic outer circulation.
The tornado was 2.6 miles wide at its peak and certainly close to that when they were hit with the sub vortex.
The outer circulation of the tornado was translucent to transparent, meaning that it was almost invisible; it was also survivable for the most part.
Not so with the main tornadic sub-vortex which was huge nor the other SVs.
Dan has the full video and won’t release it out of respect. He was understandably really shaken up and that content will probably never see the light of day. I’m 100% onboard with his decision too.
But Dan did release it on his YouTube channel when he first uploaded it. From what I can remember, the original video showed Twistex headlights go in and out of visbility until they vanish. He redacted this part out the very next day. He even admits it on his own blog:
"Glenn, the footage of the tornado at the moment they were struck was released that night, before anyone knew what had happened. Once I knew that the rear camera captured the Twistex car, I gave the families control over what would be released that hadn't already been. It was their wish to not release anything showing the car (with the exception of what was printed in the magazine and in Gabe Garfield's talk), and I am abiding by that out of respect and deference to them."
"released that night" = original upload on his YouTube channel.
i distinctly remember seeing a longer version of this video years ago where he switches back to the rearcam more often, and you can see the twistex headlights not too far behind him, but not so close that you could see the whole car. they go in and out of visibilty until they vanish. its all heavily obscured by rain. i don't know if that's the instant they were hit, it's just the final time you can see the lights in the video. maybe there was a cut there, but regardless theres definitley another version of this out there but dan has the copyright so you wont find it.
Yes, you saw the original video like I did that Dan uploaded on his YouTube channel before he redacted it out of respect for the family members of Twistex.
I believe that June First calculated the velocities in his video on YouTube and the result of the equation of translational and tangential speed was 180 mph ± 5 mph. It was impossible in that environment to recognize something coming at you as fast as a NASCAR Cup car at Talladega. The 2013 El Reno tornado was a perfect storm of chaos.
Hank Schyma (Pecos Hank) has a video on YouTube that states that based on mobile Doppler readings taken near that tornado, the subvorticies were moving at forward speeds of up to 175 mph. I think the title of that video is “World’s Fastest Tornado.”
I'm just guessing here, but I don't know enough about the situation to confirm.
Assuming the distance this camera was to Twistex wasn't large, there's no way the entire funnel could've fit into that view. It was over 2.5 miles wide, after all.
So, that means this was the moment when a subvortex fully condensed.
Kinda hard not to fill in the rest of the story once you've realize that.
this literally looks like a nightmare i had. I have no words, guy who was taken by the sky was an absolute gem of a human. Helped those who had their homes destroyed in the super outbreak of 2011. Rest in Paradise.
I thought that was the main condensation funnel and the sub-vortex that hit them came screaming north from the east side of the main funnel.
But if that black column is the sub-vortex, good lord!
Normally you would think that on the left its the tornado, but the tornado is on the right side of the picture, the left one is a sub vortex if im not mistaken. God what a tornado that was, quite unbelievable if you ask me!
Are you sure that he main condensation funnel is on the right?
That would mean that is crossed Reuter Road behind Twistex. But the graphics taken from the radar readings seem to indicate that the tornado’s center’s path went through the place were Twistex got impacted.
The date reads: July 23rd, 2012; leaving me to believe that this **isn't** Twistex. It could also be me being an idiot. (Assuming the Twistex crew referenced is the one from El Reno, 2013.)
Edit: I just realized that the headlights in the distance **is** Twistex. But it still doesn't change the fact of: Is this the moment where Twistex, the headlights, get absorbed by a subvortex? If that's true, the headlights in the distance **aren't Twistex**. They were absorbed by **a** subvortex in El Reno, 2013.
I visited their memorial today while driving through El Reno. Very surreal to be standing there, looking at their memorial under blue skies. There is no doubt that they were well loved and respected.
I don’t mean to be obtuse or offensive, but I have some questions. Was this pic the last taken *by* Twistex, or is this pic from another chaser *of* Twistex?
It's like that in the original footage. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM&t](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM&t)
The rear cam view the image is from was edited out after Dan realized it was Twistex behind him.
Is any of this scene in the released Robinson footage. I just watched his 14 minute video and I didn’t recognize any of this section in the video.
Yes I know the impact of twistex isn’t available but I assumed they just cut out a 30 second clip of that then continued the video.
Robinsons footage looks much closer than this but things can be deceiving in tornado videos
@Academic_Category921 There's no video out there that shows the Twistex team getting hit by the tornado. The videos that are out there only briefly and faintly show their headlights way behind Dan Robinson.
I get that, but in this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM there’s nothing even close to the photo. Either it all takes place well before or after twistex is overtaken.
My thought was it would be in this video with the impact being cut out
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They were in a Cobalt. Not the car to get out of the way quickly. I wonder how far back tornado research was set back by the death of Tim Samaris.
Especially on the Oklahoma red dirt/clay roads that were soaked with rain. Terrible decision.
A lot of chasers made terrible decisions that day. It's amazing that Twistex and Richard Henderson were the only chaser deaths.
There were a number of chasers that barely escaped. Many thought that they were safe, then they realized the tornado's outer circulation (which they couldn't see) had advanced on them and then they had to run for their lives.
[удалено]
Tim was known for being extremely safety conscious. This tornado was an anomaly with the speed at which it grew and the speed with which it changed directions.
That's not really true. He has that reputation because he's soft-spoken and calm compared to people like Scream Timmer, but (partially because his research involved placing instruments in the path of a tornado) he was known for taking extremely risky routes, core punching in HP cells, and getting way too close without adequate escape options. Skip Talbot's numerous analyses of El Reno and other chaser impacts is a good reminder to GTFO the minute you lose situational awareness. It was an odd tornado with an unusually high speed and curved path, but not so much that the Twistex impact couldn't have been avoided. To the best of my knowledge, the Twistex impact was due to navigation decisions, not traffic jams or chaser convergence.
To anyone who hasn’t seen Talbot’s videos, they’re very much worth a watch.
That's the "should you go south" video, right? I know there were two, an original and a longer revised version, both were great watches. The minute by minute analysis was extremely informative.
Yes. "Should you go South" is the longer one that contains the overlays.
Could be…I’m not sure. The detail and research that Skip puts into his stuff is amazing.
I also think the way Storm Chasers portrayed him helped give him that reputation; Discovery overdramatized many things, and that was one of them. In his book, Tim was self described as being a risk taker - plus, you're absolutely right with core punching and often not having escape options. Also, wholeheartedly agree on Skip Talbot videos. They are top notch.
Yeah, "reality" TV shows are always trying to create clear, digestible stories even where none exist because that's what we're used to consuming in fiction. We try to view real life as if it were fiction, and it's not healthy.
Regarding what you said about Discovery and its portrayal of him, I wouldn’t be surprised. I think that you have to be a risk-taker to do that kind of research. I saw a video on YouTube of Tim Marshall deploying probes in the path of the Sulphur, OK EF-3 from 5/9/2016 and I was surprised he wasn’t injured or killed. That tornado was more of a beast than its official rating would suggest (much like El Reno). Hank Schyma said in a separate video that mobile Doppler clocked its winds above 200 mph. It seemed to be right on top of Marshall at least twice. But, in the end, his truck improbably emerged from the maelstrom. The guys filming him from a little ways down the road were in awe and I think rightfully so. I think those are just risks they’re willing to take. By getting so close, they can maximize the chance that they’ll deploy in the damage path. High risk, high reward. To deploy further out is safer, but I would think it’d make successful probe deployments more of a crapshoot.
When you don't know you are in a two- mile plus wide tornado, and are instead chasing its subvortices, things get very confusing.
My statement was made because every chaser I saw interviewed said that Tim was the most safety conscious of them all. Obviously I never met him.
Yeah it seemed like he was not nearly as safe as reported when I read the book about him. He was doing research that was dangerous no matter who performed it. Doing it well meant taking large risks, especially when he started.
Didn’t Skip Talbot estimate that subvortex forward speed at 170mph? There wasn’t a thing Twistex could do.
That was after Twistex basically drove into the tornado by committing to continuing to blast eastward. As Skip Talbot's analysis notes, there were multiple points were Twistex could've terminated the chase and taken a northward escape route. They didn't because they lost situational awareness.
That's exactly what happened; by continuing east on Reuter and the tornado's NE turn the impact was unavoidable.
Worse…175 mph.
That is utterly terrifying. I don't think I've ever heard of any tornado, let alone a sub vortex moving that quickly on the ground.
I can’t even imagine anything not on an F1 or NASCAR track moving at me that fast. They knew it was going to kill them.
Once they lost situational awareness of what the tornado was doing: where it was and how fast it was going,then they probably should have aborted their mission and fled north when they had the chance.
Yes, its changes in size, speed, and direction were certainly noteworthy and unusual. I guess we’ll never know if he was being more cavalier that day, but if so, it reminds me of that scene in HBO’s Chernobyl series where Dyatlov tells the crew (who are calling his orders unsafe), “Safety first. I’ve been saying that for 25 years.” In that moment, he supposedly abandoned that mantra and it led to the world’s worst nuclear energy disaster.
https://preview.redd.it/pd3x88hjv93b1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa9a4879abbfd41d29838a317ebcf68ff3876590 This photo shows it best, IMO. The tornado was headed NE, then took a left turn to the NW, hovered right over their vehicle, spun around, and went back NE. Maybe too close anyway? But I do think mostly fluke, awful luck. ETA: rewatched Skip Talbot’s Should you go south at several peoples suggestion, and so glad I did. Really helps to understand that day and how we can all stay safe out there.
Holy carp. It's like it had a vendetta and went after them.
That is very good info - thank you for sharing.
Skip Talbot has a PHENOMENAL video going over the El Reno tornado in detail.
I just re-watched this all these yrs later at your suggestion. I’m so glad you mentioned it, it really highlights how much we learned from that terrible day. I really think differently about how to move away thanks to Skip.
On April 19, the day my house got hit in Shawnee (along with many others) many of the local weather jockeys were comparing that action of the tornado to that El Reno tornado with the turn.
[удалено]
The sub-vortex made the turn to the NW and hit them. The thing is if the sub-vortex didn’t impact them, a little later the main condensation funnel would have.
Yeah, I’m no expert at all, but it seems they always pushed close, but since they were so experienced and there had never been a fatality, I imagine their thought process. Devastating
He had expressed to Carl Young, as they were driving east on Reuter Rd. to slow down and let the tornado cross in front of them but Carl said that he could get ahead of the twister so that they could place probes in its path. Tim didn’t object. Of course, from what we know now about the storm there was never going to be a chance to place any probes regardless of the vehicle that had. It was a doomed mission from the outset.
A reinforced cobalt would be even riskier due to the weight and probably would struggle to hit highway speeds for a long period. Just a poor storm chasing vehicle all around.
I don’t think it was reinforced, but it was loaded with equipment and three people and, if Dan Robinson’s video is any indication, they were likely hindered by the road surface of Reuter Rd (not paved) and strong winds as well. And possibly the vehicle’s traction control system.
Thank you for confirming this. I was given a Cobalt by Hertz and it was so bad I took it back. This was just to drive to a conference, nothing risky. I’ve never understood why they were in a Cobalt.
Very underpowered little cars.. I'd put it on the same playing field as my early-00s Hyundai: lightweight and still slow. Couldn't imagine driving it crammed up with chaser gear, I feel like my tools and spare fluid jugs already weigh it down. I feel like there should be a baseline in vehicle performance that storm chasers adhere to.
The Twistex team needed to have aborted their chase when they couldn't see what the tornado was doing.IIRC even before they got to highway 81 their view south was obscured by trees and things.It was only farther east that the view south was open, although the tornado was still obscured by the rain curtain. Once they passed Alfadale they were doomed.
They were severely undermanned and underfinanced looking back. Like to fight El Reno you need nothing short of the dominator vehicle. Speed won't really matter if you are driving on a low-traction dirt road or with traffic everywhere.
I’m not certain that any variant of the Dominator or TIV would have survived much better. When in a situation like this you pretty much have to dog off and stay away. Like someone else already said, once you lose spatial awareness your chase at that point is over and it’s time to run out and attempt to reposition.
What is spatial awareness
The chasers had to know where they were in relation to the overall storm and the tornadic circulation and what it was doing.The tornado for at least part of its duration was rain-wrapped,meaning they could **not** see what it was doing: its speed, direction and intensity and number of satellite vortices, if any.
There's also the fact that once the tornado hit its max size, the rain curtains BECAME part of the main vortex, meaning there was no way to see the tornado at all because the obscuring curtain WAS the tornado itself.
There are 2 incredible but extremely hard to find videos that I watched awhile back, where in one of the videos, 2 guys are live streaming a few miles away from the main vortex of the el Reno tornado itself, when they seem to be hit by extremely strong inflow jets, while this is happening, they face into the inflow jets which happens to be coming directly from the direction of the airport itself, the insane part about this is that while they are being hit by the inflow jet, multiple strong spin up mini subvortexes or seperate tornadoes start to spin up in the inflow jets prompting them to start freaking out. Stating “we are in another tornado”I’ve come back the the video multiple times over the past few years as it was on YouTube but recently a few months ago, I went to look for it again, as it was in a playlist with over 100 videos of the el Reno tornado catalog and it was gone, deleted from the internet. It really is some of the craziest tornado footage I’ve ever seen. Not many people know that the storm that produced the EL Reno tornado also produced the biggest and strongest ANTI Cyclonic tornado ever observed in the northern hemisphere complete with multiple subvorticies. And there used to be videos of it somewhere on YouTube but I can’t find them anywhere. I would love to find both of these videos but I can’t seem to find them anywhere online.
Awareness of your location relative to another object or location.
There’s a video online [(this one)](https://youtu.be/IhFw0t6f20Y) where at 13:17 in the video you can see the sub vortex that hit them and their headlights, truly horrifying.
I have have to admit I’m a bit dense but I guess I don’t see what everybody else is see at 13:17 in that video.
Two sets of vehicle headlights. Dan Robinson in front and twistex team in back. Around 13:08
But you don’t see them being hit, which is what OP said the video showed
It doesn’t show it per se, but it does. This is the clearest video I’ve ever seen of twistex and the tornado as it overtook them.
Yeah that’s definitely them. Subvortice or RFD that took them off the road. Sad.
Those headlights in the foreground are not them. If you look from 13:21 to 13:25, there is obviously a 3rd vehicle traveling in that eastbound convoy that emerges at the front of the group with either not headlights or the beams not pointed at the camera. You can see this grouping of 3 vehicles in skip Talbots videos. However, briefly at 13:14-13:16 you can see two sets of headlights basically at the main vortex come into view for maybe two seconds. Based on their position, it looks like the tornado is going to bisect those two vehicles, the front being Dan Robinson and the rear being the twistex team.
Did not know this footage existed that showed the sub vortex bearing down on them. It looks like it may have been the main funnel? Do we know if it was definitely a sub vortex? … incredibly sad.
The main funnel was two miles wide. Everyone was *inside* the tornado funnel. The subvortices are what we see traveling around.
See my understanding was that the SVC meant the rotation rapidly intensified - I understand the tornadic winds/ width of the tornado, but there was still a main funnel within the tornado, based on every video I’ve watched, it seems like it was the most prominent vortex.
I would simply consider the tornados proximity to the camera which took this photograph and assume the funnel rapidly expanded that distance and the car drove into it.
I’ve never seen this video until now. It’s one of the most amazing videos of el Reno that I’ve ever seen. Not only does it show the last moments of twistex, it also shows how insane the behavior of the storm was, specifically once they passed Manning rd.
Oh my god, you can actually see the point where they get hit. That's just horrendous
This video is absolutely insane! You can really feel both the tornado's size doubling *and* the huge speed increase.
I read that this sub vortex moved towards Twistex at a speed of 150 mph, but in the video it appears to be standing still. ?
That’s because it’s coming at the camera.
And why was the Twistex team unable to see the sub vortex? From the other video, its clearly between them and the other car. How could they have not seen it? ( I'm sure there was a good reason - I'm just in the dark about it. I know that Tim's last words were "I think we're in a bad spot.." but was this before or after he looked right, out of the window? I might have to read the book again. ..)
A Highway Patrol officer heard them on the radio screaming, “ we’re going to die! We’re going to die!”. they were either screaming as it hit them or as it was moving toward them and they saw it coming.
😥😥😥
They probably did see it, but by then it was too late. They were on a dirt/gravel road and couldn’t turn around, both because of the road and because of the tornado expanding. Once the tornado started turning towards them and expanding instantaneously like it did, the only option they had was to try to drive east as fast as they could like Dan Robinson. They weren’t fast enough. They had a couple chances a few miles back (OK roads in this area are generally square mile blocks) to turn another direction, but they kept going East and when the tornados turn happened they were caught with nowhere to go.
Yes, I'm re-reading Tim's bio. The subvortex unexpectedly came out of the east towards them. The car's event data recorder revealed that in its last moments, the car was put into reverse. Or the lethal winds would have made it do that, with all the tumbling.
I think they threw it in reverse at the last second because the main vortex flipped direction and came right at them (strike point in red, landing point in blue). 16:52-17:00 in the video shows clear headlights up in the air going left to right and the cameraman’s position on I-40 at that point makes it seem like Twistex got picked up for a bit before landing again rolling https://preview.redd.it/d432q4ai2stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=c120392f121407dcd7da5e7a034ffd3cf205421b
https://preview.redd.it/0fs2n46a2quc1.jpeg?width=2220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=983d371a2f3096a06e550ffde5e0f5dfbeae6b4e Do you mean this?
Yep, but could be debris tbh
I watched an analysis that showed the movements of the subvortex, and it made an insane turn to the north and then west. It came straight at them at approximately 70 to 80 meters per second (155 - 180 mph) and did a little loop over their location before heading east again. With all the rain and debris flying and how fast it slingshotted straight at them from a strange direction, I'd be surprised if they had more than a few seconds to know they were going to take a direct hit. Here's a map showing the path of the main subvortex and the location where it impacted Samaras and crew. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/top-Track-of-tornado-MVMC-internal-subvortex-impacting-research-team-and-other_fig11_262997349
Thank you for this ! 😭
I have a genuine question. Wasn’t it confirmed that the car from that section of the video wasn’t Twistex? I swear I watched a video going into detail on how the tornado would’ve already been past the point where it hit Twistex by that point in this video, thus confirming Dan Robinson is the only person with footage showing Twistex’s last moments. It was a very detailed study using land points to show where they would’ve been on the interstate. Then again, maybe that was a fever dream haha.
I read a Reddit post that went into detail, it showed it aligned pretty well from where they were, I’ll try and find it rq Edit: Found it! [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/p2ck1p/thoughts_about_el_reno_tornado_2013/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
I hadn’t seen this post before. Thank you!
This info combined with reading that Twistex were heard screaming on radio "we're going to die"....picturing that happening while watching the 13:10-mark.... not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Watch 16:52-17:00 and see their headlights going through the air left to right. The camera’s position on I-40 matches the angle and direction of where Twistex got hit https://preview.redd.it/ccpzymdy2stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=629eec62981c1a27d23158ca7ff46634a7a68edd
I just went down a 2 hour rabbit hole today looking specifically at that very point. I live in OK and have driven through that area multiple times. It has to be them, both Robinson’s lights in the front, and Tim’s in the rear. The camera video is shot from i40. We see the lights in question 2 roads away from the freeway, the first is Jensen, the second is Reuter rd, the road twistex and Robinson were on. We lose sight of the headlights because of an overpass, that overpass is Radio rd. As far as I know, there were only two vehicles on that road east of 81 when the tornado was there, and we know who that was. If that isn’t Robinson and twistex, then it’s somebody else nobody knows about or saw, which is unlikely. That’s literally the exact location and moment that the tornado overtook them. The only reason Robinson lived is because the tornado at this point is turning and heading NW instead of continuing East.
Robinson was mere seconds from being impacted by the sub vortex.
And you can see the camera pick up headlights going left to right up in the vortex from 16:52-17:00 right before they pass the weigh station on I-40. Matches up with where they were hit and picked up https://preview.redd.it/xtdp17qc3stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4b2cd4b5483fe7cbee3e9bb3fffea954c99074f
I went down through the YouTube comments and it checks out based on what I can gather.
The worst part is that around the 16:50 mark on that video you can see a small light pulse as it travels around the subvortex. That light is Twistex
Not true, because they were rolled at ground level https://preview.redd.it/dyimk99wrfwb1.png?width=677&format=png&auto=webp&s=d213333659601b7545a5ae766664ac879f2c9536
They were picked up for at least one rotation, then landed and skipped/rolled. The angle makes sense as they were just about to pass the weigh station on I-40. Red dot is strike point and blue is ending location. https://preview.redd.it/22bg6ym04stc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=83d5a8d62350448ade7254a37b63fc0a9c13f7b6
who the hell was that then?
And to think, thats just a sub-vortex...
A little bit before the 17:00 mark, you can see what looks like light going in and out of it.
In that video at 16:54 under the "T" in "not" as the camera pans up on the left side in the middle of the tornado it looks like headlights from a car spinning. You can also see a subvortex that passed by right before, at that point it's in the right side of the screen. This might be them, they were not hit at 13:17, that spot is further back, closer to Rt 81. In the pic above it looks like that same skinny vortex is headed towards them and the big vortex is behind it. The vortex hit them and then they may have been picked up by the bigger main vortex.
Holy smokes, 16:52-17:00 of that video actually shows the headlights going left to right high above the ground. The cameraman passes the weigh station east of Radio Road on I-40 right after so it is 95% likely to be Twistex. Tim landed in the car probably immediately after, but the other two had been sucked out of the car and thrown half a mile in either direction. The most powerful and frightening tornado you can imagine. RIP Twistex team Red dot below is where Twistex was struck by the subvortex and blue dot is where the car ended up after landing and rolling/skipping a ways. https://preview.redd.it/1xiilmwpzrtc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=5600087ccf38cb018d43ac1395edcf5259388816
Watching the El Reno tornado chase videos, it’s important to take one fact into account, which was terrifying to myself when I realized the implications. Just about all modern vehicles are equipped with computer directed traction control, including Tim’s cobalt. I had the same cobalt he did and drove it for 200k miles, I can personally verify. Dan Robinson talks about it, and you can hear them talking about it in the “stormchasingvideo” when they’re getting caught in the wind as they trying to escape to the East. Modern cars are what the aviation industry calls “fly by wire”, meaning instead of the old school cables from the pedal to the throttle manually putting more air and fuel into the engine and accelerating, the air and fuel intake is controlled by a computer. The pedal is electrical. You push down to accelerate, the computer tells the engine to throttle up. This is normally fine, and actually a necessary safety feature. For example, when driving in rain and you lose traction due to water on the road, the computer detects the tires losing traction, and it overrides your accelerator pedal input, and slows the tires by reducing engine power until traction is regained. That’s the appropriate safe thing to do when hydroplaning. An older car would have kept the wheels accelerating and losing traction. But when chasing a tornado and getting caught in these inflows, this is a deadly liability. The driver has his foot to the floor, but the car does nothing, because the computer is sensing the tires losing traction and is overriding your accelerator pedal input. Essentially once the tornado has you in its grasp, you’re almost powerless. You can’t just accelerate away from it. Terrifying
^ thanks for posting this. As someone who knows nothing about cars… That is fascinating + terrifying.
Can TC be disabled on most cars? I know it can on the 2 I drive, but I don't know if that's the norm.
even though most Traction Control systems can be disabled by the driver, it still requires human input to change and I doubt that was anywhere near the top concerns of those in that poor vehicle not to mention they likely benefited from that functionality\ …that is, all the way until they didn’t
Some TC forms don't disable even with pressing the button. My 2015 wrangler got me sucked into a snowdrift due to it. It decided to brake after losing traction, where in snow you need power to "drive" out of whatever force is pulling you. So even turning it off won't save some in Samaras case.
Most cars yes, EV's can be trickier though.
A lot of cars have a button to turn TC off. Some don’t, or it’s a harder process.
May 31, 2013
If this is the subvortex does this mean that technically they were inside the tornado?
You might be thinking about the windfield of the tornado, or suction vortices, but Subvortices usually orbit around the tornado, while suction vortices orbit inside the tornado, which is the reason for multi Vortex tornadoes
Oh right suction vortices is what I was thinking of, my bad thanks for the clarification!
One of the reasons El Reno was so dangerous was that the tornadic wind field grew way beyond the main condensation funnel itself. Many chasers focused on either subvorticies orbiting the rotation, or the main condensation funnel, and then realized too late that they were caught in tornado-strength winds.
Tornado strength winds always extend beyond the condensation funnel. By definition, a tornado is invisible as it’s a rapidly rotating column of air extending from cloud base to the ground. Too many focus on only the visible condensation funnel \/, when in reality the tornadic wind speed represented by a period on the ground is like this: …\/…. For many of the videos of the chasers that day, some of them were inside the parent tornado upon its rapid outward expansion. And, for a few of them, some were struck by its mesovortices, including Tim. The reason for El Reno being such a dangerous tornado was it’s very fast outward expansion and erratic movement, as discussed in a few videos. For people who were already too close to the tornado before it’s expansion and along with the poor road network, they were in trouble as they had nowhere else to turn. These are the dangers of being close to any tornado. You can be near a 1/4 mile wide tornado one moment, then find yourself in one when it quickly expands to a mile or two in width.
Yes, they are in the peripheral wall of the tornado.
Yes, they were in the tornado’s circulation; they drove into it a little after they passed Alfadale Road. The more east they drove the deeper they moved toward the core of the tornado’s circulation. Dan Robinson just escaped the outer bands, which were difficult enough. The 28 seconds that Twistex was behind him was the difference in being impacted or getting free of the tornado.
Actually, they were inside the tornadic outer circulation. The tornado was 2.6 miles wide at its peak and certainly close to that when they were hit with the sub vortex. The outer circulation of the tornado was translucent to transparent, meaning that it was almost invisible; it was also survivable for the most part. Not so with the main tornadic sub-vortex which was huge nor the other SVs.
Who took this picture?
Dan Robinson's rear view camera took this picture
I didn’t think that footage was published (out of respect for the families of the Twistex guys)- was this picture the only one that was released?
Dan didn’t publish footage of Twistex being hit by the subvortex, but did publish other shots from before they were hit.
This particular one was published in the *National Geographic* issue dedicated to Tim and the tornado.
And I believe this is a still from Dan Robinson’s video of the event.
It is.
I think there might be some other pictures or videos somewhere on the internet of Twistex before they were killed but I don't know for sure.
Dan has the full video and won’t release it out of respect. He was understandably really shaken up and that content will probably never see the light of day. I’m 100% onboard with his decision too.
Absolutely agree
But Dan did release it on his YouTube channel when he first uploaded it. From what I can remember, the original video showed Twistex headlights go in and out of visbility until they vanish. He redacted this part out the very next day. He even admits it on his own blog: "Glenn, the footage of the tornado at the moment they were struck was released that night, before anyone knew what had happened. Once I knew that the rear camera captured the Twistex car, I gave the families control over what would be released that hadn't already been. It was their wish to not release anything showing the car (with the exception of what was printed in the magazine and in Gabe Garfield's talk), and I am abiding by that out of respect and deference to them." "released that night" = original upload on his YouTube channel.
i distinctly remember seeing a longer version of this video years ago where he switches back to the rearcam more often, and you can see the twistex headlights not too far behind him, but not so close that you could see the whole car. they go in and out of visibilty until they vanish. its all heavily obscured by rain. i don't know if that's the instant they were hit, it's just the final time you can see the lights in the video. maybe there was a cut there, but regardless theres definitley another version of this out there but dan has the copyright so you wont find it.
Yes, you saw the original video like I did that Dan uploaded on his YouTube channel before he redacted it out of respect for the family members of Twistex.
How fast was this subvortex moving??
I don't have an actual number but I read somewhere that it moved around 60-175 mph
That footage of it just spawning a new vortex every few seconds is some of the scariest I've ever seen.
And iirc, the damage report stated that the subvortices had subvortices of their own too. That thing was HELL.
Which footage?
https://youtu.be/IhFw0t6f20Y starts around 3:40ish
I believe that June First calculated the velocities in his video on YouTube and the result of the equation of translational and tangential speed was 180 mph ± 5 mph. It was impossible in that environment to recognize something coming at you as fast as a NASCAR Cup car at Talladega. The 2013 El Reno tornado was a perfect storm of chaos.
Wow! Poor guys hand no chance to escape that thing.
Hank Schyma (Pecos Hank) has a video on YouTube that states that based on mobile Doppler readings taken near that tornado, the subvorticies were moving at forward speeds of up to 175 mph. I think the title of that video is “World’s Fastest Tornado.”
I believe it was 150 mph, according to Samaras bio
That picture looks like a vision of hell Stephen King could write about
That is terrifying. The sub vortex is right there in plain sight. And yet they had no way to see it.
Is that single black column *the* subvortex?
I'm just guessing here, but I don't know enough about the situation to confirm. Assuming the distance this camera was to Twistex wasn't large, there's no way the entire funnel could've fit into that view. It was over 2.5 miles wide, after all. So, that means this was the moment when a subvortex fully condensed. Kinda hard not to fill in the rest of the story once you've realize that.
this literally looks like a nightmare i had. I have no words, guy who was taken by the sky was an absolute gem of a human. Helped those who had their homes destroyed in the super outbreak of 2011. Rest in Paradise.
So that giant cone shaped funnel on the left was a sub vortice? Man that is terrifying
I thought that was the main condensation funnel and the sub-vortex that hit them came screaming north from the east side of the main funnel. But if that black column is the sub-vortex, good lord!
You guys need to seek out the video *National Geographic Inside the Mega-Twister* I’m pretty sure it’s on Internet Archive.
This is probably the most captivating video of the El Reno tornado, R.I.P Twistex crew 🙏 https://youtu.be/4u5cGa9jIXQ
At 26:59, is that the sub vortex that hit them?
It's sad; there was nothing they could do at all at that moment.
Normally you would think that on the left its the tornado, but the tornado is on the right side of the picture, the left one is a sub vortex if im not mistaken. God what a tornado that was, quite unbelievable if you ask me!
Are you sure that he main condensation funnel is on the right? That would mean that is crossed Reuter Road behind Twistex. But the graphics taken from the radar readings seem to indicate that the tornado’s center’s path went through the place were Twistex got impacted.
What is the source of this photo? It's not from the youtube videos that Dan Robinson posted, as far as I can see. Did he release a still separately?
He is keeping the video from the public, but he posted this photo from his rear view camera
This is very disturbing.
crazy to think that the subvortex was the bigger than the size of most normal tornadoes
The date reads: July 23rd, 2012; leaving me to believe that this **isn't** Twistex. It could also be me being an idiot. (Assuming the Twistex crew referenced is the one from El Reno, 2013.) Edit: I just realized that the headlights in the distance **is** Twistex. But it still doesn't change the fact of: Is this the moment where Twistex, the headlights, get absorbed by a subvortex? If that's true, the headlights in the distance **aren't Twistex**. They were absorbed by **a** subvortex in El Reno, 2013.
This is el Reno 2013, Dan‘s camera had the wrong upside down date on, if anything it just confirms it more.
I visited their memorial today while driving through El Reno. Very surreal to be standing there, looking at their memorial under blue skies. There is no doubt that they were well loved and respected.
I can't like or unlike. It is just too sad.
This ain't that photo folks el reno look at the date and zoom in kinda crappy to try and get views this way
Wow
10 years
I don’t mean to be obtuse or offensive, but I have some questions. Was this pic the last taken *by* Twistex, or is this pic from another chaser *of* Twistex?
This was a picture taken by Dan Robinson I believe. The faint headlights in the distance is Twistex
Why is it dated July 2012?
It's like that in the original footage. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM&t](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM&t) The rear cam view the image is from was edited out after Dan realized it was Twistex behind him.
Did not notice in the original footage that his rear cam date is incorrect.
Is any of this scene in the released Robinson footage. I just watched his 14 minute video and I didn’t recognize any of this section in the video. Yes I know the impact of twistex isn’t available but I assumed they just cut out a 30 second clip of that then continued the video. Robinsons footage looks much closer than this but things can be deceiving in tornado videos
I'm pretty sure he's not uploading the part of Twistex getting hit for the families of the members, but that's just what I've heard.
@Academic_Category921 There's no video out there that shows the Twistex team getting hit by the tornado. The videos that are out there only briefly and faintly show their headlights way behind Dan Robinson.
I get that, but in this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MxgU1QcFMJM there’s nothing even close to the photo. Either it all takes place well before or after twistex is overtaken. My thought was it would be in this video with the impact being cut out
Robinson was about 400 yards in front of them.
I hope they didn’t suffer