Customer Reviews

Tornado Chasers [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tornado Chasers was the best documentary on Tornados that I have purchased or rented...it's a keeper. It includes interviews with some pros that I have not seen in any other videos as well as some excellent amateur interviews and video.

It included dynamic footage of storm clouds forming directly overhead as well as a long piece on the May 3, 1999 tornados (76 of them) that ravaged Oklahoma. Val and Amy Castor, young husband and wife chasers who work for News 9 in Oklahoma City (with Gary England) got closer to the tornados than any video I have seen and they truely chased them. Some footage was shot inside the field of flying debris. The F4 Tornado shown crossing the interstate West of Moore Oklahoma was unbelievable!

A rather superficial treatment of storm chasing, complete with cheesy "dramatic" music and attractive young female storm chasers. Discussion of technical matters like Doppler radar or the conditions necessary for tornado formation is either incidental or entirely absent. Nevertheless, the film does at times capture the awe and exitement of chasing. There are dozens of tornadoes and some interesting mesocyclones and wall clouds. Some of the edits are annoying, cutting away from a tornado just as a subvortex is about to descend, for instance, or showing a newsroom staff looking at a monitor when we actually want to see what's on the monitor ourselves. The film is worth watching, though, if only for the final 10 minute sequence showing chaser video of the violent and deadly May '99 Oklahoma City storm. All in all, this is lightweight filmmaking speckled with some truly fantastic footage. Recommended, grudgingly. I'll give it three and a half stars.

I am a tornado buff. I like to watch videos about or regarding tornadoes. To me, they are one of the most fascinating things to look at by being extremely dangerous, but at the same time, highly captivating Watching a tornado is like watching a great white shark swimming nearby. It is both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Recently, I purchased one of the best videos on tornados I've ever seen. It is entitled, "Tornado Chasers" and I purchased it recently at a video store at the mall in Wilmington. The video discusses the different types of people who chase tornadoes from amateurs who barely know what they're doing, to experienced meterologists who do this thing for a living, including paid storm chasers who do that sort of thing to help save lives. The climax of the video focuses in on a specific time and place: May 3, 1999 around Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. According to Tornado Project Online, a video site that documents information about tornadoes, " a violent storm system with 76 reported tornadoes raked central Oklahoma and the Wichita, KS areas, killing 44 people, at least 36 in Oklahoma and 5 more in Kansas (on May 3, 1999). Warnings were put out well in advance, and television stations tracked the swift-moving storms continually. " In addition, "the preliminary estimate of the damage (made this outbreak) the most damaging tornado outbreak in US history...$1.485 billion damage in insured losses, (and) $995 million was in the Oklahoma City area." This "Tornado Chasers" video documents the most damaging tornado of the 76 reported tornadoes. That tornado was rated F3 in the video on the Fujita scale which rates the intensity of tornadoes. An F3 tornado is considered "severe" with winds estimated at ranging from 158-206 miles per hour. This video shows how Amy and Val Caster, two professional storm chasers employed by a local T.V. station in Oklahoma City, were among numerous chasers who kept up with that F3 tornado as it ground its way into Oklahoma City proper. The footage in this video is incredible and frightening. I have numerous videos of tornadoes and the footage captured in this video is among the best I have ever seen. I would still rate "Tornado Video Classics One" by the Tornado Project as one of the best videos on tornadoes I have ever seen, but after that video, I would rate this video, "Tornado Chasers," as second on my all-time favorites list. This is because of the details shown in the video footage of "Tornado Chasers." Hopefully, no one reading this will ever have to actually see a tornado close up, but if you've ever wondered what it might look like, this video shows you at least one very dangerous tornado up close and personal. If you're tired of watching boring videos and would like to see something frightening and real without any actors and with real drama going on, instead of fake melodrama written up by script writers, this is the video to see: "Tornado Chasers" from TLC Video. This is just as compelling as the movie, "The Perfect Storm," but unlike that video, there are no actors here: just nature and real live human beings playing themselves. I highly recommend this video. I certainly wasn't disappointed.

This is a nice, easily explained look at toradoes and the danger that chasers face. The video also shows the difference between amatur chasers (the 3 sorarity girls from South Dakota, Dr. Jason Persov from Florida), professional storm chasers (Tim Marshall), and the KWTV chase team (Val and Amy Castor and the helicopter pilot). It doesn't go into the science of tornadoes and the Fujita scale. The last 10 or so minutes goes into KWTV's coverage of the May 3, 1999 tornado. It doesn't show the longevity of the giant (it was on the ground for over 2 hours). The tornado started a few minutes before 6:00, just west of Cyrill, Oklahoma (about 45 miles SW of OKC) as an F2, at 6:15 the tornado had traveled about 5 miles and was near the Verden/Chickasha area. It was an F4 1/4 mile wide wedge when it crossed the Chickasha airport. For about 50 minutes the tornado paralleled IH-44, crashing through Amber and Bridge Creek. Through Bridge Creek the tornado was more than a mile wide and packing winds of 301 M.P.H.(that's F5), then flattened the town. At 7:11 the tornado crossed IH-44 and traveled into Sothern OKC. The wedge lifted and touched back down about 600 feet wide and an F3. At 7:16 a second stowpipe touched down and the two merged and wided to about 1.5 miles wide and packed winds of 318 miles per hour. At 7:24 the tornado passed about a mile north of downtown Moore (but still destroyed many homes) and continued north to Tinker Air Force Base (7:40), Del City (7:42) and Midwest City (7:44). The fat @$$ tornado lifted about 7:47 near the OKC Zoo and the I-44-I-35 intersection. I got this video when I was 8 years old. I'm 13 now, my intrest in tornadoes has come and gone. But the final 10 minutes still gives me on hell of a rush!