28-07-2025
Manure Tornadoes, Waterspouts, Folks Surviving In Funnels? Wild Stuff
Cars on Highway 395 near Star Island, Florida, encounter a tornado on May 12, 1997, as it touches down in Miami. (Photo by Kent F. Berg/The) Getty Images
The recent 'Twisters' movie (2024), preceded by the original flick 'Twister' (1996) starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, has fascinated the public and inspired hundreds of regular folk to join the storm-chasing community. Some chasers are veterans who know what they're doing, like Reed Timmer, a meteorologist who has famously been chasing since the late 1990s, and Raychel Sanner of Tornado Titans.
Others are amateurs cashing in on a fad. Sophisticated weather apps are now available to most anyone, and can be easily downloaded to any cellphone. There are even 'tornado tours' whereby the curious can join up to see one of nature's weirdest wonders - and pay significant bucks to do so.
During my own chasing this past spring, I was lucky enough to witness half-a-dozen twisters. In the process, I gleaned a lot from the experts I chased with while spending time traveling thousands of miles with them by vehicle.
One of the more interesting things I learned about is the strange behavior of tornadoes going back through history. Nelson Tucker, of the OTUS drone project (link below), mentioned a few while we chased together in the Midwest earlier this month. Below are five of the odder phenomena.
Actor Glen Powell at the "Twisters" premiere in Westwood Regency Village Theatre, July 11, 2024, Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images) Variety via Getty Images
(1) Manure Tornadoes: These are twisters which pick up dirt and animal feces as they churn across open farmland. As expected, the cones are often colored dark brown and have an odd smell. Some of the side effects are respiratory, including valley fever, and pink eye, for humans who come in contact with the menacing dust mixture.
Other unlucky folks have been infected with flesh-eating bacteria from soil the tornadoes dig up from deep in the ground. Some have even died. The 2011 EF-5 monster twister that devastated Joplin, Missouri, killed five from such bacteria deposited into their wounds by the tornado.
(2) It's Raining Fish: While waterspouts generally are not considered tornadoes unless they hit land, they can pick up fish, frogs and other marine wildlife and transport them great distances. If a spout does make land, the amphibious life forms sometimes drop over cities and open land as a tornado weakens - hence a strange barrage of frogs and fish found in land-locked areas.
Every year, in Yoro, Honduras, for example, fish rain down on the city thought to have been sucked into waterspouts. In December 2021, folks in Texarkana, Texas, found fish of all sizes on the ground in their town after an intense storm. Various hypotheses have been offered up, but most point to waterspouts as the main reason.
(3) Animals: Yes, like in the 'Twister' film, cows and other large farm animals are sometimes pulled into a tornado's funnel. Many, of course, are killed, though there have been cases of survivors. A 1915 tornado originating 16 miles from Great Bend, Kansas, reportedly picked up five horses in a barn and transported them unharmed a quarter-mile away.
(4) People: It's not just animals who wind up in a tornado's cone, but humans, too. Many, like animals, are killed. Take the case of Discovery Channel chasers Tim Samaras and crew in the infamous 2013 El Reno wedge twister. But some folks miraculously survive.
HEMMINGFORD, NE - MAY 28, 2006: Customers are ordered back to their van as skies darken during a Tempest Tours storm-chasing trip across the Great Plains. (Photos by) Getty Images
In 2006, then-19-year-old Matt Suter was picked up in his mobile home by a Missouri tornado rated F-2 and deposited 1,307 feet away. It is a world record. Suter lived to tell the tale, though during most of his flight he was unconscious. In 1999, a baby was transported 100 feet by an Oklahoma tornado and survived.
(5) Mail: It is not unusual for light debris to be carried long distances by big storms. The objects get caught in powerful tornadic updrafts which carry them thousands of feet into the air, then deposit them when the twister weakens. In 1991, for example, a tornado carried a personal check from Stockton, Kansas, to Winnetoon, Nebraska, 223 miles away.
