The twister in Clement’s video touched down a little before 12:30 p.m. Central time in south-central Oklahoma, around 10 miles east of Interstate 35. Like the trunk of an anteater on its lunchtime prowl, the funnel drifts carelessly northeast, dancing elegantly for Clement’s camera.
“It wasn’t an overly strong tornado and didn’t do any damage, so my reaction seeing this was pure joy,” Clement said.
The drone captures the details of the twister remarkably well — its view unobstructed by rain or hail. In most storms, the “rear flank downdraft” would swirl curtains of rain and hail around the vortex, shrouding it from sight. But not with this storm. There wasn’t even any wind to jar Clement’s drone — making Tuesday’s supercell a “perfect storm” in his book.
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.
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