National Geographic: Cyclone!

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This is the bottom of the ocean

- an ocean of air as vast and

volatile as any sea.

Above the earth's surface,

currents ebb and flow.

Some spiral into whirlwinds.

The dust devil has more bluster

than bite.

Other twisters are downright

deadly.

Tornado on the ground

on highway 44!

Damage everywhere.

We've got numerous people

injured!

Get away from the windows!

Tree just blew over!

Get away from the windows!

Get away! Get away!

Tornadoes pack the fastest winds

on earth.

But in magnitude,

this spinning giant goes unmatched.

Hurricane, typhoon, cyclone

all equally fearsome.

By any name,

the greatest storms on earth.

Severe tropical storms afflict

every continent except Antarctica.

In this century, they have claimed

over half a million lives.

Tornadoes have killed over 10,000

in the United States alone.

Today, electronic eyes pierce

the atmosphere,

and map its shifting winds.

Scientists chart the anatomy

of a storm.

Their sensors record speed and

bearing.

Make yours the same level

as the tripod.

But none can predict the birth

of a killer.

That thing's a right mover!

We gotta get out of here, fast!

Let's go!

Nothing in our power can stop the

fury of Nature's whirling winds.

Early spring, 1991.

A southern sun heats the waters

of the Gulf of Mexico.

Warm, moist air rises,

and travels northwest,

over Texas, Louisiana,

and on

toward the central United States.

More than a thousand miles away,

cool dry air rushes south

from Canada.

Rising over the Rockies,

dry upper level air flows east,

then spills onto the Great Plains.

These forces collide over Tornado

Alley on Friday, April 26th, 1991.

Fast winds high above the ground,

over slower winds below,

make the air roll horizontally,

like a pencil on a table top.

The atmosphere is unstable.

Thunderstorms erupt across

the plains.

Here and there, an updraft lifts

the horizontal spinning of the air

into a vertical position.

Now the storm rotates as it feeds

on warm, moist air near the ground.

The day gives rise to "supercells"

- the most complex and dangerous

thunderstorms on earth.

Their underbellies bubble with

instability.

Lightning and hail are the least

of their threats.

Under the right conditions,

they can also spawn monsters.

The National Weather Service

has tracked the warning signs

for a week,

predicting severe weather.

By April 26th, conditions are

text-book perfect

for a major outbreak of tornadoes.

Throughout the afternoon and

evening, across the central states,

fifty-six twisters are reported.

Honey, be careful.

Is it going away from us?

Honey.

Honey.

Is it going away from us?

I sure hope you're right.

Then, at 5:
57

a killer touches down in Kansas.

In Wichita,

residents are sitting down to dinner

when warnings send them running

to basements and storm shelters.

Look at this stuff

floating in the air, Ginger.

Take cover!

Around 6:
20, the tornado takes

on a pinkish hue

as it pulverizes a nursery full

of geraniums.

By the time it hits McConnell Air

Force Base,

the twister is nearly

The base hospital, school,

rec center

and over a hundred housing units

are leveled.

the town siren fails,

but most residents heed warnings

by police, and news reports.

The tornado's funnel has widened

to almost 600 feet.

At 6:
40, it tears through the

Golden Spur Mobile Home Park.

The twister finally dissipates

northeast of Andover.

Within minutes, its parent storm

drops another funnel

along the Kansas Turnpike.

Can you get in the left lane, Greg?

Yah!

I'll like you know this go away.

You're okay, you're okay.

Keep going', man.

Keep going'.

Faster?

No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lots faster.

Lots faster!

A local TV crew tries to outrun it.

Lots faster, Greg.

It's catching us.

You gotta go buddy!

Even at 85 miles an hour,

they can't get out of its way.

They stop at an overpass

where a father and his two

daughters run for cover.

As the twister spins out its

final moments,

a dread calm takes its place.

We need some place to sit down.

Along the turnpike,

people are pulled from trucks and

cars tossed like children's toys.

Andover is hardest hit.

In what was the Golden Spur

Mobile Home Park,

ten bodies are found.

Is anybody in there?

Kansas bears a bitter toll:

over 1,700 homes destroyed

or damaged, and 20 dead.

Survivors will never forget.

The car was hovering.

It was about three foot

off the ground,

and just sort of floating

in the air.

Then all of a sudden the car left,

and went right out the roof.

What looked like typing paper

floating around was really not,

it was like Garage doors.

Garage doors and window

frames, parts of houses.

Ambushed on a country road,

Brook Ibarra took shelter under

the nearest tree.

In a flash, she was airborne...

then dropped a thousand feet away.

The cows all of a sudden started

running like a stampede.

I was picked up by the tornado

and there was all sorts of debris.

One thing I remember was the cow

that flew past me.

He was screaming.

And then, before I knew it,

it was over.

I was just laying in the field

next to a tractor engine.

Wounds are healed.

Neighborhoods rise from the rubble.

The human spirit endures.

Such is life in Tornado Alley, USA.

Midwesterners once called them

"cyclones".

Early photographs

and motion pictures held viewers

spellbound.

Tornadoes begat their own myths.

Some claimed they fused coins

in people's pockets,

and cooked potatoes in the ground.

In truth, they make airborne

missiles of everyday objects.

Some have deposited heirlooms

forty miles from home.

Do they pluck feathers from

chickens?

No. Blame that on sheer fright.

They inspire no less terror

in people.

April 3rd and 4th, 1974.

In the largest outbreak on record,

March 18th, 1925.

The deadliest tornado in history

leaves the longest path.

Until the 1950's, accurate tornado

wind speeds remain a mystery.

Then a frame-by-frame analysis of

this footage clocks flying debris

at 170 miles an hour.

Tornado science takes a leap

forward in 1953

when Dr. Ted Fujita leaves Japan

for the American Midwest.

Main reason why we are here

is to find out what tornado did.

And in case of future tornadoes

what people should do.

That's the kind of thing

we want to find out.

Four decades of research will earn

him the title "Mr. Tornado."

I think it's a grain elevator

up there.

At disaster sites, Fujita proves

there's much to be learned without

braving a twister directly.

He likens tornadoes to criminals

who leave their fingerprints

behind.

Ground markings are clues

to a twister's inner structure

and dynamics.

To test his theories,

he builds a tornado machine

at the University of Chicago.

He discovers that

most strong tornadoes

are actually several small twisters

rotating around the center

of a larger one.

These mini-tornadoes can lay

waste to one house,

yet leave its neighbor unscathed.

Fujita's ideas have been amply

confirmed in Nature,

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