iStockphoto / Alif Ramadhan
Last weekend saw some of the most violent tornadoes of the year so far as multiple states across the heartland of America got hit. With storm chasers on the ground and average citizens filming storms, some truly surreal footage of these violent tornadoes from Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri has emerged.
The weekend started off with St. Louis getting hit by a powerful EF3 tornado which tragically claimed the lives of five Americans. Clips hit TikTok over the weekend and people were stunned to see the Gateway to the West hit by such a powerful tornado.
This video in particular has picked up 4.1 million views on TikTok and it begins with the roof flying off a house and goes on to include other clips from homes that were devastated by the St. Louis tornado:
Footage From The Violent St. Louis Tornadoes
St. Louis, a tourist destination for those visiting the Budweiser factories, catching a Cardinals game, and/or visiting the St. Louis Arch, had tourists inside of the arch when the tornado hit. They were safe but the arch was swaying and they had to be terrified up there:
@rissa.copley When going to the arch, we knew that there was a tornado watch day, but once you get underground and in line to start your experience, you are unaware of the weather and cell service is spotty. I did ask what happens in a storm to a staff member and they insured me that no one goes up during tornado warnings there or in nearby counties so our surprise of all our phones going off telling us tornado warning seek shelter when we’re 630 feet in the air was scary.
This third video from Missouri includes some very colorful language so be forewarned but this one is insane. They are caught in the heart of the tornado on a construction site as trees are toppled and homes get shredded to pieces around them.
Meanwhile in Colorado…
Not to be outdone, Denver, Colorado had violent weather of its own. There are two clips in particular that make the violent Colorado tornadoes historic, for me. In the first, we see a tornado from an angle I’ve never seen before: a plane window as someone is landing at the Denver airport.
If you are the plane’s pilot, how do you feel about landing in that? And then is the protocol to just de-plane as fast as humanly possible and get to the tornado shelters in the airport? Or were they clear enough to be out of the range of the tornado warning because I’d be skeptical about other weather in the area and the potential for another storm.
This second clip comes from Colorado meteorologist Chris Bianchi. He himself describes this clip as “one of the craziest tornado videos (he’s) ever seen” and when I first clicked ‘play’ I didn’t understand why but then I saw the full scope of this violent landspout tornado which he explains is common in Colorado and means it is a tornado that starts from the ground up.
Unreal!
Violent Tornadoes In Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas
As I tracked the weather cells from here in Florida, I was struck by just how wide the region of violent weather systems was last weekend. Case in point, in addition to Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri, there were also violent tornadoes in Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
This ‘Dead Man Walking’ tornado from Gordon, Texas (which had 7 tornadoes touch down) is surreal. If it’s not obvious from the clip below, a ‘Dead Man Walking’ tornado is one with multiple vortexes.
Over in Grinnell, Kansas, multiple tornadoes touched down and this one crossed I-70. It also flipped a semi-truck and treated vehicles like rag dolls. The power of this storm is unreal.
Tornadoes also touched down in Nebraska and Indiana with people capturing footage that was shared by MSNBC here:
@msnbc At least 10 states experienced tornadoes this weekend, including some in Reno County, Kansas, and Palo Pinto County, Texas. At least 28 people died in severe thunderstorms and twisters over the weekend that hit Missouri and Kentucky the hardest, razing neighborhoods to piles of debris and ripping the roofs off homes. Ana Cabrera speaks to Cara Spencer, Mayor of St. Louis about the damage. #news #weather #tornado #storm #thunderstorm
These violent tornadoes were so prevalent over the weekend that TikTok literally started suggesting videos to people that were tours of tornado shelters in people’s basements, all 5 square feet per person of them. You know it got bad when the algorithm is like ‘I’m going to turn storm shelters into MTV Cribs style content.’
Content shared from brobible.com.