Night Tornado Video Frame-Captures In Western Iowa

The eight-person, two-vehicle storm chase team in which I was a part of witnessed at least ten tornadoes while chasing in western Iowa during the evening and into the night on Saturday, April 9, 2011. All but one of the twisters were seen after dark. These two images were created from video frame captures during brief illuminations from lightning. In the left panel, a stovepipe tornado churns up ground around 8:30 PM as seen from County Highway M31, about a mile south of Arthur, Iowa (city lights in image). The tornado started as a wedge ahead of us and began morphing into a stovepipe before our eyes with each new lightning flash. The video from which this image was taken was shot after we pulled our vehicle over to the side of the road. The right panel shows a wedge tornado along US Highway 71 in Sac County near Early, Iowa. The video was shot around 9:00 PM. Our chase continued until just before 10:00 PM, when we finally called it quits and headed for home in Ames and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.