Gizmodo: tornado

Holy Crap, Storm Chasers Captured Footage Inside a Tornado

Adam Frucci — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:20:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Storm chasers drive towards tornados, hoping to photograph them from up close and study them as they're happening. But usually they just get close. Not last week, when these storm chasers went inside a twister.

This happened last week in Goshen co., Wyoming, the clip taken by the TornadoVideos.net SRV Dominator. The footage is impressive not because of what it does capture (the inside of a tornado) but also because of what it doesn't (girlish screaming and crying). [TornadoVideos.net via Neatorama]

Fighter Pilots Are Absolutely Nuts

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:10:04 EDT

When they say fighter pilots are crazy, they're absolutely right. As this Italian Tornado shows, flying only a few inches from scratching the surface of this runway, they're both crazy and bloody lucky. [The Dew Line]

Vortex Fountain Scares the Piss Out of Traditional Fountains

Mark Wilson — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

The Vortex Fountain eschews gentle, soothing streams for a powerful water funnel. The illusion of a standing block of water is created by an acrylic case hidden by transparency and water cascading down the sides, and the vortex itself is formed through the combination of strong, alternate currents of water that collide in the tank. Depending on the angle from which you view the fountain, it alternates between a majestic restraint of nature and an oversized science experiment involving expensive two-liters. Here's a clip of the Vortex Fountain in full vortexness:

[WilliamPye via OhGizmo]

Armored Tornado Interceptors Are Probably Driven by Batman, Mad Max

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:38:00 EDT

Here's a close-up look into the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, a heavily-armored, modified Ford F-450 that was used in the famous Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers. With its plates, small windows and top turret, it looks like a cross between a B-17 Flying Fortress, a Panzer tank and a Mad Max truck. The new version of the Interceptor, however, looks like it's out of a Batman movie:

Created by cinematographer Sean Casey, the Tornado Interceptors are used to film impressive images of supercells like this:

Armor or no armor, I wouldn't like to be in that car when something like that hits me. [Ryan Mcginnis at Flickr]

World's Largest Indoor Tornado

Adrian Covert — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:24:02 EDT

It's far from destructive, but the indoor tornado set up at the Mercedes-Benz museum is cool nonetheless. Using the museum's 144 air intake nozzles, they set up a smoke machine on the ground below, had air blowing in from the sides causing a swirling effect and let the nozzles suck up the smoke. The Guiness Book of World Records officially declared it the largest indoor tornado. I think want one of these in my house. [Pop Sci]

Tornado Survives Gadget Thunderdome

kthompson — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:30:12 EST

Yahoo Tech hosted its annual Last Gadget Standing competition at CES this morning. Ten gadgets entered, but only one left victorious: Data Drive Thru's USB data transfer cable, The Tornado.

Facing down challengers like the RS Media Robosapien and the Nokia N95, the Tornado wowed an aging media that appeared more interested in last fall's news than anything new CES had to offer. The Jitterbug old person cell phones made an appearance, but weren't simplistic enough to out-do a plug-and-play data transfer cable.

The highlight of the contest? Data Drive Thru's chimpanzee spitting into a microphone, followed by the company rep saying, "That's what we think of the iPhone!" Where are the camcorders when you need them? – Karson Thompson

The Tornado USB Direct Transfer Kit

Travis Hudson — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:30:12 EDT

In the olden day, transferring files from computer to computer either required a little bit of networking know-how or some painstaking CD burning or USB flash drive swapping. The Tornado eliminates any troubles and makes PC-to-PC transferring as easy as creamy pie. Plug the retractable Tornado into each machine and simply drag-n-drop. Easy peasy.

The Tornado and its 25MB/s transfer rate could be very handy when I'm transferring uhm...large movies files to my media center. – Travis Hudson

The Tornado - Auto-load PC Transfer it [Everything USB]

Tornado Sim: Not in Kansas Any More

Charlie White — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:29:27 EDT

We likes us some tornadoes around here, especially since one of our esteemed colleagues lives in Tornado Alley, and sometimes shudders in fear that he may be tempest tos't some night à la Wizard of Oz. But no need to fear when you have this tornado on your desk, a store-bought model similar to the kit and homemade tornado simulators we've shown you.

This 24-inch high tornado demonstration model includes seven experiments you can perform with it, and then you can make up some of your own involving Barbie dolls and so forth. Wonder if this thing is really noisy—might be fun to have one running on the desktop 24/7. Office looks like a tornado hit it? Here's your excuse. – Charlie White

Product Page [Ward's Natural Science, via Sci Fi Tech]

Tornado Simulator Kit

gizmodo.com — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:27:26 EDT

Want to make your own tornado machine but you're too lazy to hunt down all the parts? $120 buys you this neat Tornado Simulator Kit, which comes with building instructions, experiment ideas, and all the parts you'll need to get going except an ultrasonic humidifier. If you don't have one already the site will sell you a humidifier for $49.95, but there are better deals online.

Tornado Simulator Kit [Science Kit & Boreal Laboratories, thanks David!]