Stormy Skies 2009-2010

Storm Observation Highlights Video by John Farley

This 50-minute video features:

Hawk Point, Missouri tornado, April 23, 2010
Manchester, Illinois tornado, August 19, 2009
Only storm chaser video of these two tornadoes!

Two New Mexico thundersnow storms, March 14 and March 19, 2010

Many funnel clouds, from both 2009 and 2010

Wind, hail, lightning, gustnadoes, and more, from five states!

Approximately 45 minutes of video and 5 minutes of photo montages, featuring every kind of wild weather!


View a short trailer (if your connection speed permits, view it fullscreen at 1080p):

Sorry, the 2009-10 Video is sold out. Watch for my 2011 highlights video, coming soon.


Featured storms from 2010 include:

Thundersnow storms in New Mexico on March 14 and March 19. The March 14 storm was my first successful capture of cloud-to-ground lightning associated with a snowstorm - and I got two bolts! This rare phenomenon occurred along the leading edge of a heavy snow band that eventually produced a total of seven inches of snow in the Santa Fe area. The March 19 storm was the most intense thundersnow event I have ever witnessed, in terms of the frequency and closeness of the lightning. Numerous bolts of lightning occurred within a quarter-mile of my location, as you can see in the video with sometimes less than a second separating the lightning and the thunder. This storm produced about an inch of snow and graupel (snow pellets) in only about 20 minutes!

Nighttime lightning with long-track supercell on April 4. This segment features nighttime lightning with a supercell that moved across most of Missouri during the day of April 4, and on into Illinois after dark. The storm produced multiple tornadoes in Missouri, and reports of severe weather all along its track. I captured "anvil-crawler" lightning looking across Dunlap Lake in Edwardsville, IL toward the storm, while it was still far away, in Jersey County - then some spectacular cloud-to-ground lightning from a closer view point in Macoupin County.

Tornadoes and funnel clouds with cyclic supercell in Warren and Lincoln Counties, MO, April 23. I was on this storm from near initiation south of Jonesburg, MO through the time when it produced two tornadoes near Hawk Point, MO. This video segment shows the early stages of the storm, the huge wall cloud it developed as it matured into an intense supercell, a spectacular rotating wall cloud with multiple funnels rotating around one another (which has now been confirmed by the National Weather Service as a tornado), and finally one of the two tornadoes I saw near Hawk Point - captured on video from only a mile or two away. Although there was another chaser on this storm, he did not get video of this tornado due to battery issues, so to my knowledge this is the only storm chaser video of this tornado. I also know of no other video of the earlier tornado associated with the funnels rotating around one another.

High-precipitation supercell with 2-inch hail, high wind, and funnel clouds in southwest Illinois on May 3. This photo montage features an intense high-precipitation supercell I followed as it moved from just north of Bethalto, IL eastward through the New Douglas, IL area where it produced at least one and probably two funnel clouds. In addition to producing 2-inch hail in several locations as it moved across eastern MO and southwest IL, it also produced widespread wind damage in the Bunker Hill, IL area. And around the time I got my first pictures of the storm, it produced wind so strong it picked up a car with teenagers in it off the road and dropped it in a nearby cornfield - and they have the video to prove it. Near the end of the photo montage, you will see at least one and probably two funnel clouds that formed near New Douglas, IL as the storm crossed an outflow boundary from earlier storms to the southeast.

Three hailstorms in New Mexico and Colorado on June 6. In this segment, you'll see video of hail falling near the Colorado-New Mexico state line in Raton Pass, and a beast of a storm that produced six inches of hail west of Walsenburg, CO and one of the most spectacular daytime lightning displays of the year. Then from that night, you'll see video of a more intense hailstorm near Rowe, NM, taken mainly from the shelter of the underpass where route 63 crosses under I-25.

Another 3-storm day on June 12 in the Texas Panhandle, and this time, all three are supercells. The video from the first storm features a series of gustnadoes, then some rapid cloud motion as the storm goes HP (high-precipitation) and surges eastward. The second storm featured is a tornado-warned supercell between Dumas and Stinnett, TX that produced some strong cloud-base rotation. It also produced several reports of golfball hail and wind as high as 66 mph around Dumas, TX. And the third storm, which occurred after dark, is shown in both video and a photo montage, featuring a ground-hugging wall cloud and tail cloud, and perhaps the best lightning show of the season, again near Stinnett, TX.

Upward cloud motion in thunderstorm updraft, June 13 near Borger, TX. - This segment features both actual speed video and a 4x timelapse of upward motion in the updraft a thunderstorm near Borger that several hours later, as it approached Oklahoma, produced a tornado. This video shows how strong the upward motion in a thunderstorm updraft can be.

Cloud motion with some rotation, under the updraft of isolated storm ahead of Illinois squall line, July 24. An isolated storm formed just west of Springfield, over the leading edge of outflow from a severe squall line farther to the west and north. I was in the right place to capture the wild cloud motion - and again this cloud motion is shown both at actual speed and in a 4x timelapse.

2009 Highlights include:

Manchester, Illinois tornado, August 19. Video of the early stages of the Manchester, Illinois tornado, just before it hit Manchester along the early part of its 18 mile track. This tornado was the first of three long-track tornadoes produced by this storm, and this is the only storm chaser video in existence of it. I only know of one other chaser who saw it at all, but he was much farther away than I was and thus unable to get video.

2009 photo montage, featuring 4-6 inches of hail in Las Vegas, NM on May 27 and a funnel cloud near the Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico on May 23 - along with other pictures of the best storms I saw in 2009.

This video is sold out. For info on my forthcoming 2011 video, please send an email to jfarley@johnefarley.com