Starship Asterisk*

Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas

Explanation: The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. During 2004 in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Featured here, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.

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Thank you for repeating this, as I'd not seen it before. What a fantastic image! Best regards from Oz.

Edit reason: stupid typo.

Internet Classic!

Nitpicker wrote:Thank you for repeating this, as I'd not seen it before. What an fantastic image! Best regards from Oz.

I think this is at least the third time I've seen it. It was tempting to write a snarky comment about the photo becoming hackneyed but just looking at the responses on Facebook and yours here it's clear that boundary has not yet been crossed for most APODers.

A very pretty picture to be sure, but how is it related to astronomy? If anyone wants to see wonderful photographs, there are hundreds of good photography sites; I'd prefer that APOD stick with astronomy.

fastartcee wrote:A very pretty picture to be sure, but how is it related to astronomy? If anyone wants to see wonderful photographs, there are hundreds of good photography sites; I'd prefer that APOD stick with astronomy.

It is related to astronomy by virtue of the fact that it was chosen by an astronomer. And that's all that APOD requires.

Dibs on the POT OF GOLD!!!!

OOOO....I'm gonna be RICH!!!

Nice Repeat...
:---[===] *

Boomer12k wrote:Dibs on the POT OF GOLD!!!!

OOOO....I'm gonna be RICH!!!*

Or dead.

Very interesting photo and glad you shared it again. I wonder if Jupiter and/or Saturn have tornados?

Interesting that no one has noticed the damage. Upon close inspection, the tornado (probably a strong EF-1) appears to have made a direct hit on the house. The roof is gone on the right, and the center of the house appears to have collapsed. There appears to be a good bit of damage to the trees, as well.

eLarge wrote:Interesting that no one has noticed the damage. Upon close inspection, the tornado (probably a strong EF-1) appears to have made a direct hit on the house. The roof is gone on the right, and the center of the house appears to have collapsed. There appears to be a good bit of damage to the trees, as well. :shock:

I'm not convinced there's any damage visible here.

Chris Peterson wrote:

eLarge wrote:Interesting that no one has noticed the damage. Upon close inspection, the tornado (probably a strong EF-1) appears to have made a direct hit on the house. The roof is gone on the right, and the center of the house appears to have collapsed. There appears to be a good bit of damage to the trees, as well.

I'm not convinced there's any damage visible here.

I can see several downed trees for sure and what looks like a torn up fence. It's hard to say anything about the other structures, though.

geckzilla wrote:I can see several downed trees for sure and what looks like a torn up fence. It's hard to say anything about the other structures, though.

I'm not at all convinced there is any damaged vegetation here. And in the image taken right after, there's virtually no debris in the road. I don't think the winds got extraordinarily high at this location.

Fair enough... if one wants to see Martian canals one will see Martian canals.

Chris Peterson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:I can see several downed trees for sure and what looks like a torn up fence. It's hard to say anything about the other structures, though.

I'm not at all convinced there is any damaged vegetation here. And in the image taken right after, there's virtually no debris in the road. I don't think the winds got extraordinarily high at this location.

If you dig into Eric's pictures and report, the image sequence surrounding this APOD is more telling. The adjacent picture lacking debris, I believe you're referring to, was taken at 7:32pm. Eric annotates that picture: "Damage path as the tornado continued towards the southeast." The APOD was taken ~2 minutes later. A 6-image sequence between 7:32pm and 7:34pm does reveal definite damage and debris in the field area and landing in trees like ornaments. In the APOD there also does appear to be lines down, e.g. the pair originating from the service pole behind a tree, and laying the trees and fence. I agree there is some question about definitive damage in the APOD, but the additional pictures + annotation provide convincing evidence of damaging winds occurring in this area, and probably at the APOD location.

I may be in my 50's but thought this looked familiar....and posted just 3 years ago, that's kinda short turnaround for repeating, no?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110814.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day
2011 August 14

mtbdudex wrote:I may be in my 50's but thought this looked familiar....and posted just 3 years ago, that's kinda short turnaround for repeating, no?

Do a search on "speeding". APOD'S been CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe ten times, and worth it every time.

Joules wrote:

mtbdudex wrote:I may be in my 50's but thought this looked familiar....and posted just 3 years ago, that's kinda short turnaround for repeating, no?

Do a search on "speeding". APOD'S been CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe ten times, and worth it every time.

Hey - I remember 55mph national speed limit, paying $0.59 for premium lead gas octane, pizza 3 slices for $1 ..... guess anything is possible

mtbdudex wrote:I may be in my 50's but thought this looked familiar....and posted just 3 years ago, that's kinda short turnaround for repeating, no?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110814.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day
2011 August 14

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050613.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060702.html

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=3711
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=24882

bystander wrote:

mtbdudex wrote:I may be in my 50's but thought this looked familiar....and posted just 3 years ago, that's kinda short turnaround for repeating, no?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110814.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day
2011 August 14

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050613.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060702.html

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=3711
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=24882

Well then 1 original post and 3 repeats, 4 times being APOD in total, is that an APOD record??

mtbdudex wrote:Well then 1 original post and 3 repeats, 4 times being APOD in total, is that an APOD record??

Not even close. I don't know which APOD is the most often repeated (Depends on if you want to only count it when the image AND description are the same, descriptions alone are more rehashed than images) but if you scroll up to Joules's post, the CMB Dipole has indeed been posted ten times.