Seeing Was Not Necessarily Believing

A tornado (left) forms about a mile SW of the town of Mapleton, Iowa around 7:22 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. This view of the storm--which includes an inflow band at far right--looks north along Sumac Avenue, a gravel road just under seven miles SE of town. The tornado, which would later be rated EF3, did damage to about 60% of the town. At this point and partially because of the lateness of the day our chase team was not fully convinced of what we were seeing. The camera, as validated here, did a much better job of resolving its structure. Our chase team then proceeded north until we reached a point about 5.5 miles SE of Mapleton, before moving NE to follow the storm system. Two and a half hours and a half dozen or more tornadoes later, we concluded our chase.