Twisters

Respect Jan de Bont!

Batten down the hatches, folks, because we're about to take you on a wild ride through the heart-pounding world of tornado chasing in North Texas.

The weather these past few days has wreaked havoc across Oklahoma. All the way from the panhandle to the Red River, Oklahomans have experienced tornadoes, big hail, flooding and high winds, causing significant damage to homes, cars and anything left exposed to the elements - some of those were animals.

It's not every day that you get to witness a true mountain tornado, but that's exactly what happened in Wyoming today as a confirmed twister touched down near Laramie Peak in Wyoming.

Almost no one was prepared. It was early morning in a small Illinois town on March 19, 1948 when the ominous clouds rolled in. A monster tornado dropped onto an unsuspecting Illinois town leaving only 20% of it standing once the winds subsided.

Early in the afternoon of May 22, 2011, meteorologists knew a serious weather situation was developing near Joplin, Missouri. By nightfall, 158 souls were gone as a killer EF-5 mile-wide twister had carved a massive path of destruction straight through the heart of the city.

There are some very scientific ways to measure the strength of a tornado. A new ranking attempts to combine some major factors to determine the strongest twisters Missouri has seen in the past decade. The biggest of them all was a 1,800 foot wide beast.

I'm positive we've talked about this before, but I'm going to tell it again. When I was growing up, the original Twister film was shot in and around my hometown. You cannot believe how exciting it was to Small-Town Oklahoma.

When it comes to tornadoes, Texas averages more per year than any other state. In fact, according to World Population Review, Texas averages about 155 twisters each year. It's no wonder that The Lonestar State is part of the infamous "Tornado Alley".

It began as an iconic Kansas sight. It was a tornado spotted by storm chasers near Emporia, Kansas in the distance as if it were painted against the sunset. It would become a nighttime monster that would also be captured on home security cameras.

Here’s who’ll be chasing those twisters.

It’s a “new chapter.”