Amazing Video of Rochelle, IL Tornado Yesterday

April 10th, 2015 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

Storm chasers captured over 6 minutes of amazing footage of the EF3 or EF4 tornado that killed one person and caused extensive damage in Fairdale, Illinois (northeast of Rochelle, southeast of Rockford) yesterday. This is one of the best tornado videos I have ever seen.

For those hearing this was a global warming-fueled tornado, here’s my post from 4 years ago explaining why more tornado activity typically requires an unseasonably cool airmass.

If warm, moist air was the missing ingredient, the tropics would be filled with tornadoes.

And if you are wondering, “Well, couldn’t more warm, moist air next to a cool air mass enhance tornado formation?” Well, yes, except the equator-to-pole temperature contrast has decreased during warming, not increased. In other words, the cool air masses have warmed more than the warm airmasses, reducing the available energy for these types of storms.

It’s just weather, folks. Global warming didn’t cause your tornado, and it didn’t cause your daughter’s asthma.


19 Responses to “Amazing Video of Rochelle, IL Tornado Yesterday”

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  1. David says:

    Still no post on the Po-Chedley paper?

  2. jimc says:

    “…and it didn’t cause your daughter’s asthma.”
    Next you’ll be politicizing the “if-I-had-a” son.

  3. boris says:

    Roy

    Asthma, tornadoes, high seas, Oh No! Isn’t it curious that environmentalists wish for everyone to be alarmed about these supposed unintended consequences of fossil fuel use and, by extension, convince everybody that we have sufficient knowledge to engineer a different result that will be, by definition, good? I swear it is sometimes difficult to tell if we aren’t trapped on the other side of the looking glass in the emerald city in the year 1984 planning to open our animal farm in the brave new world!

  4. ossqss says:

    Thanks for sharing Doc. That is amazing footage (if that is still an appropriate term for video today).

    I would suspect the recent 2 year+ lull in Tornadic activity will bring out all the alarmist reporting over this natural phenomenon.

    So sad that many desire to seek out and embellish such things to support their own inaccurate self proclaimed dogma.

    Regards

    Ed

  5. Thanks, Dr. Spencer.
    A terrifying show of nature, good thing tornadoes are becoming less frequent after global warming stopped shortly before this new century XXI.

  6. Jim T says:

    Thanks for the footage Dr. Spencer. I live just off the track and the sirens were blaring last night. I didn’t see anything as I was hunkered down in the basement. It is stunning to see what missed us. What a monster!

  7. rah says:

    And then you have morons like this out there:

    Steve Goddard wondered if this might be the stupidest tweet ever. https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/stupidest-tweet-ever/#comment-513739

  8. Dan Pangburn says:

    The daughters aren’t old enough to have experienced any warming let alone asthma caused by it.

  9. Rick Adkison says:

    Have they given it an EF rating yet? Classic wedge tornado and I would guess an EF 4.

  10. Norman says:

    Is the taper crazy, brave or a professional storm chaser. Some excellent footage and looks like they are very close after the tornado crosses the interstate and they sit watching and taping.

    Just wonder what happened to the cars on the opposite side of the Interstate as the “Beast” crossed? There was a lot of traffic moving on the opposite side and no one seemed to concerned with a giant tornado bearing down. I think I might have sped up a bit to make sure I was far away from any flying debri.

  11. Walt Allensworth says:

    Amazing footage.
    It didn’t seem like the wind was all that strong near the videographer until that 18-wheeler blew over right in front of him.

    • rah says:

      I see no reason for the driver to have gotten that close to that storm. A hard right might have saved it though he seems to have been going pretty slow. Noticed that the trailer didn’t have skirts. Might have made the difference. Once the wind gets under the trailer your probably going over. The single greatest factor that determines stability in winds though is the weight and it’s distribution in the trailer. I suspect he was pretty light and doubt he would have come close to going over if he’d had 30,000 lb or more on the floor.

  12. StuartL says:

    Dr Roy.
    While not arguing with your conclusions, I do believe that your handheld thermometer test is just showing the effects of lapse rate.
    Regards

  13. Richard Keen says:

    So, an F4 fueled by Global Climate Dysfunction?
    How about Seventeen (17) F4s?
    http://www.weather.gov/iwx/1965_palmsunday_50
    How can that be? That was 50 years ago yesterday, and 23 years before Hansen declared Global Warming in 1988.
    I’ll never forget the boiling green clouds over Chicago that day. That was the second time in my life the weather actually scared me – the first was Hurricane Hazel in ’54.
    Great video, Roy, and I bet this one would have scared me too.
    Pity no one got a video of this two-footer
    http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/19650411.18.9

  14. illinois says:

    Now I am going to do my breakfast, after having my breakfast coming over again to read
    further news.

  15. Preeti Saha says:

    It is sometimes difficult to tell if we arent trapped on the other side of the looking glass.
    interior painting near me

  16. Thank you so much for sharing that great video.

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