You may remember a 2015 video by Olbinski, “The Chase.” A storm chaser, he didn’t quite catch a tornado that time. In this one, he does. And on his Twitter page he notes that if you look closely in the last clip you can see two cows running for their lives. You might want to turn the music down, but you’ll want to watch this on as big a screen as possible.
Be sure to read Olbinski’s notes on the Vimeo page below the video, or on his own website, Mike Olbinski Photography, where you can see more of his amazing videos. Many additional videos also appear on the Vimeo page.
This film is dedicated to the memory of Chester Barnes, a 76-year-old who was killed in the May 9, 2016 tornado in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. While looking for information on Barnes, I came across this really terrifying video of that storm. I thought I knew a bit about storm chasers, but in my opinion, these guys got too close! (It reminded me of stalking a wild animal.) And the little traffic jam at the rural stop sign … that’s the sort of thing that gets chasers killed.
(There’s a lot more tornado footage on the Basehunters Chasing website.)
Wow… those videos are mesmerizing. Especially that second one with the storm chasers. Footage is amazing!
It looked at times like they weren’t even 50 yards away. I’ve never seen chasers get so close and stay so close for so long.
Nuts. Crazy.
From a distance, I’m almost as fascinated with tornadoes as the chasers are, although it’s a business for them. I’ve even thought about going on a hunt with some of them (they do that here). But I’d have bailed on these guys. Waaaay too close.
Awesome videos PT, especially the second. Those guys are crazy!
I thought of you when I came across the Olbinski video. I think you were the first person, several years ago, to tip me off to the existence of such videos — the grand, timelapse videos of sky and storm. And I agree, the chasers in the second video are crazy, or at least the craziest I’ve seen to date. True, chasers know their prey and its usual behavior, but it looked like these guys got so close there was no margin for error if that twister did something unepected.
What I notice is that it’s not possible to predict the path of a tornado. Freaky.
Precisely why you don’t get too close. Only a few years ago, three Denver chasers near Oklahoma City were killed when a twister took an unexpected turn.
Wow! Just…. WOW!
Yep, I think I was slack-jawed through the whole thing.
I looked and looked and went back again but still couldn’t see those cows 🙁
I think I saw them, two light colored blurs going by very quickly from right, next to the road, to left. At about 05:07. Remember, it’s timelapse, so they won’t just be standing there looking like cows. Think how fast the cars go by.