Tornadoes Everywhere!

This was the view out the back window of our chase vehicle in western Iowa around 7:50 PM, April 9, 2011. We had left Mapleton, Iowa, where an EF3 tornado had struck about a 20 minutes earlier, and were headed east along County Road E16 at 130th Street, following the path of severe weather that had erupted that evening. Though we could see circulation on radar from our laptops, tornadoes began materializing quickly--first this way, then that--to the point where we almost became desensitized by it. A curious thing to be sure, as I had not witnessed a twister on the ground before this day. Speaking of curious, of the up to ten tornadoes or near-tornadoes we witnessed, none were accompanied by a siren alert that we could discern--though most of the time our vehicle windows were closed and the winds were howling! This image was created from a video frame capture.