Tornado near Rock Valley, IA around 7 PM 5/1/08

[Baylorfan]

Can you guys get a bit closer next time?

[mikederay]

Great footage!!

[al1377]

Hey Waldo...... haha, sounds funny....anyway, how close would you say you got to that amazing tornado? Awesome footage!

[vwaldoguy]

Al, I think I was about 1/2 mile away at one point. Close enough!

[moobie1010]

Why does noaa deal with county sized warning areas when tornadoes are so small? Wouldn't we be better served if they instead mentioned how close they are to particular cities? Google maps doesn't know from counties. Just give us a google map type service with a doppler image and a tornado symbol that we can zoom in on and pinpoint our location in relation to these monsters.

[masterking300]

damn dats huge

[hotdoggy854]

I was waiting for a cow to fly across the road

[b0mb3at3r]

lol

[CelestineCrower]

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.

[Yarndt]

On the last half of the chase, were you on gravel or dirt? Can't really tell from the vid.

[CelestineCrower]

It appears to be a dirt road. Maybe mixed with a little gravel.

[keifer33comets]

No, if it has houses and farms on it, it is a gravel road.

[FiveoSmash]

holy crud i h8 tornadoes man

[randelld42]

Amazing footage guys. You got guts or just plane crazy.

[MistofSolaris]

Of course it ends up on the road with the power lines and poles. *L* I hate when that happens.

[piyaleela]

OMG...its too near...i would actually die before i do that...lol

[rjpeer]

u guys are crazy but it cool

[thoughtlessones]

cool video....i love tornadoes!

[12Ang122]

How far is Rock Valley from Sioux City?

[vwaldoguy]

I believe it's about 60 miles northeast of Sioux City.

[Dominique1970]

Looks like your windshield didn't have much fun!

[frankfurtmaintal]

are you crazy ?????? ITS TOOO NEAR !!!

[izzat0129330485]

i like thisssssssssss

[garycalgary]

yeesh dude scary footage but very cool

[Haloguy125]

How far away is that from Burlington, Iowa?

[Scholtes1991]

long ways

[Baylorfan]

Rock Valley is in NW Iowa, Burlington is in far SE Iowa. They are at least 300 miles away.

[lockheed22]

cool

[Zoloft1]

Yeah I was going out to eat in Sioux Falls when the sirens were going, and out of the whole time I have lived here I didn't look at the weather channel like an idiot.

[MikeyL]

too close for me...........I'd be like "outta here" see yaaaa!

[omg5201314]

the cameraman still survive? y dun the cameraman go in the center of tornado n get the video? haha, juz joke, btw, take care of ur life, dun juz risk it for an awesome video

[ChrisRodrigi]

He didn't "risk" this for a little YouTube video. The videographer is a storm chaser. This is their job and they certainly do not get wide-spread recognition for their hard work. Do you realize that storm chasers' save locals' lives by informing a weather/tv network and spectating as to how the tornado/twister is progressing? I could linger on and on, but my point is just because people post tornado/storm cell videos do not just entertain you for fun, this is also their career and its fun.

[keegsmeister]

only in America.

[titans102732]

We have F-4's in CANADA to bub,not only in America(USA)...

[remy5858]

Reminds me of Twister

[klyk21]

wow. i have a question...is iowa full of dirt roads like in the video?

[qernst8]

lol no, that's basically what most people think though. this would be a little more difficult to film if a tornado was ripping its way through a town or city, don't you think? although iowa has a lot of rural areas, it actually has some pretty nice larger cities, like davenport, iowa city, cedar rapids, etc. i'm from iowa :) it's not that horrible hehe.

[skylarthompson]

crap that is huge!

[Lemmy4ever333]

Im from Iowa :D

[madhouse1337]

very nice piece of video!!! Thanks for taking us along for the ride!!

[gravesgravy]

what side of town was this?

[WOODBARRY]

it was on the south side of Rock Valley on Eagle ave. and was going north, i know this side of the county by heart, even tho i live in south dakota, one fact to point out is that he gos by Doug Kooima's farm about half way through and then later changes scene to be right next to the downed Machine shed owned by brad kooima but is facing the opposite direction, i wonder if he could see lee kooima in the cattle yards(thats where he was during the storm)

[BeastlyMan44]

whoa, that thing is huge!

[ThePrimalFear]

I checked wikipedia, and tornadoes are rated by windspeed, well, at least where I live.

[slurpieman101]

THATS G!

[SupraTompan]

Extremely interesting footage!

Thanks!/ Mattias from Sweden

[bullhaulr]

just saw that on the news the f2 thing the cattle had a few lumps but seem ok

[misshvidovre]

ARE YOU CRAZ?

[sitepacker]

what Level was it on the fujiti scale?

[5609kats]

it ranged from 1-2

[83Kkay83]

this storm yesterday was scary! I know i don't live is rock valley, but there were tordandos were i live to from this storm...

[TylerEnjoi3]

he says it was an ef2...

[bullhaulr]

it was an f3

[vwaldoguy]

Bullhaulr, the official NWS rating was an EF2. Tornadoes are rated on the damage they produce and not size.

[lkrfn1]

i was outside my house in rock valley watching it as it went by and after it was past we drove out in the country to see the damage and we saw 2 more tornados to the north.

[curbshoppin]

nice footage ,having lived in iowa for 47 years and being a rural ups man for the last 31 years i have been witness to 6 twisters

they are amazing and scary at the same time....what a rush

[Tequilero88]

Were those cows at the end of the video?

[vwaldoguy]

Yes, it was a herd of cows across the road from a farmstead that got hit. The cows seemed confused, but otherwise OK I guess.

[1970Dust]

Awesome video! I have storm chased many times in hopes of getting a video like this. Someday I hope.

[DragonxxxFire]

it is an f-4 or an f-5 tornado!!! that tornado is very destructive

[lkrfn1]

it was only an f-2 tornado

[jjustinsc]

nice footage

[WillieDines1]

A few cooments have confirmed what I had also noticed, and that the tornado was at around 1/2 mile wide at one point, but most of this was just because of so much dry dirt.

It looks like the tornado was also multi-vortex, as I noticed some isolated rotation points moving left to right in the debris wall of the tornado, although these can be hard to spot unless you know what to look for.

Top rating for awesome footage and I'm glad that no-one was injured :)

[myprecious4ever]

wow this is amazing...my mom and i are convinced we saw it forming...but we didn't see how big it had actually become...this is crazy and so kewl!!

[russelltonrccenter]

Very crazy footage of a Cold Core Wedge Tornado

[wolfysluv]

Okay, THAT is a frickin monster

[WOODBARRY]

you can see when he is following the white pick up that he is on eagle going towards Rock Valley on Eagle and When he mentions the debris he is near doug and wilma kooima's farm on the right and his brother's farm on the left, that white pick up truck which is said to be Grant Kooima. When the debris is noticed in the air it could be from doug kooima's farm or from Brad Kooima's Machine shed wich was completly taken down on the same road, Eagle.

[rubberduck46]

Unbelievable footage. Awsome.

[wlbngr]

great footage

[ODST27]

Lucky....I only saw a developing tornado west of Sioux Center.

[bnvn1]

WOW, I was watching this on radar and was thinking no way but WOW, that was crazy that the cold core system could kick up a massive wedge like that. Good job and glad it didn't do too much damage.

[KrystalFrizz]

Cold core system? What makes you say that?

[Baylorfan]

Very cool video. A friend of mine from Sioux Center sent me this video. I don't live in Iowa anymore but watching that made we want to go Pheasant hunting!!!  Hope no one was killed.

[kmcgill88]

my dad told me it was half mile wide,..but DANG!!! great footage!

[vwaldoguy]

The official rating was 1/4 mile wide. It probably looked a little bigger than it really was due to so much dirt being sucked up.

[YuffieShinmori]

wow! weak it's my house! it's the one with the red barn and stuff.. i got to see it all it was pretty awesome! i'm glad it didn't hit my house.. but i'm pretty sure i'm glad that no one got hurt. :)

[abriele14]

you thought this was great try being right by it wow and this is rock valley iowa just to let u all know this was an asume storm last night

[joe2mill2002]

great footage... at 1:40m into the video you drove right past my parents house on Eagle Ave.

[traitorist]

very good video! these storms looked anemic on radar when the tornado was occurring. shear across the area was extreme, however.

[joe2mill2002]

my parents live on Eagle Ave. you drove past there house at 1:40 into the video. great footage. I'm just glad it didn't hit my parents house.

[spikyhairdvash]

that is some good tornado vid

[BrideofPinbot]

great video!

[jsandah]

i live there!

[lkrfn1]

i live in rock valley iowa

[Lindiana1]

I got this from a friend. I'm glad she shared this with me and wanted to tell you thanks for sharing this with us. Great coverage!

[bennihana153]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

[voma101]

Very great video!

[nitngale1975]

Which road were you on during this footage?

I got to see it up close too but not by choice. Your crazy man :)

[vwaldoguy]

nigngale1975, I believe the road was Eagle Ave, 1 mile west of highway K30, at least according to Google Maps.