Really impressive, especially considering it was over 30 years ago and this was the first time a tornado was covered like this! The close-up video of the tornado on the ground is amazing. I found it amusing how many of the "tornado safety precautions" were the same then as they are now. Thank you for sharing this video!!!
I remember watching this exact broadcast as it happened when I was 15. We were in the projected path of the storm. Everything was a dark gray-green outside and it was terrifying. Now I often drive past the Springbrook Nature Center and remember this afternoon. Thanks for sharing this!
For those who don't know, this footage was even more special because it should never have happened. Few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas describing multiple reasons why this footage should not exist. Copied here wccoradio.radio.com/blogs/paul-douglas/kare-11-tornado-1986 1: That helicopter was not sent to cover the tornado. The station didn't know there was a tornado. Nobody knew there was a tornado. There was no severe weather forecast, or even occurring more than a few miles away. The helicopter happened to be on its way to cover an unrelated story in the northern suburbs when- shit, holy shit, that's a fucking tornado! So unexpected that the studio personnel didn't all believe it at first. Paul himself had just gotten to work when the guy talking to the helicopter shouts, "Tornado, we got a tornado in the north suburbs!", and Paul's first thought was, "do you have any idea how irresponsible a joke that is?!?!?!" 2: The pilot was the only guy in the state who would have done that. He'd been in Vietnam, done search and rescue for Air Force pilots who had been shot down (read, trying to airlift them out of the jungle before being captured and killed, while under continuous hostile fire and trying to improvise a place to land a helicopter in the middle of the jungle). After Vietnam he had gone on to mountain search and rescue in the Alps. Any helicopter pilot will tell you that mountain SAR is the most dangerous non-combat helicopter work in the world, as it pushes the very limits of what helicopters are technically capable of. So this guy was the Rambo of helicopter pilots. As evidence (this may only be in the full-helicopter-film version of this video), when he says "Highway 10 and Highway 47" for a location... he did not know that beforehand. You can see him drop low over the intersection that is, in fact, County 10 and Minnesota 47 and hesitate as he READS THE FUCKING STREET SIGNS. That was officially batshit crazy WITHOUT a tornado half a mile away. Quote from Paul: "I remember pleading with Max, on the air, to stay a safe distance away from the tornado. Which would be Kansas..." 3: Last of all, the camera this was shot on was not the type in standard use on the station's helicopters. This was a new prototype which the cameraman had randomly decided to take on this flight to familiarize himself with it. This new model allowed for a much more stable image at high levels of zoom, which was responsible for the high quality of this footage. I should conclude this by mentioning that it is amazing that this did not kill anyone. The nature center it was over for most of its life was one of the few undeveloped areas for miles around, even in 1986. Half a mile away... was a shopping mall. Industrial or residential developments on all other sides. It even dodged several neighborhoods when it jumped the Mississippi River (I know tornadoes don't jump rivers, but for whatever reason this one did), including the house that I would be born into three years later. Maybe just chance, maybe because our neighbor Father Kennedy was on his knees, in his basement, going through every prayer in the book. Hey, you never know...
I'd just come back to Minneapolis to visit my parents, after a one-year assignment in Korea (Air Force). My cousins said, "We've got videotape of a tornado shot from a helicopter." My reaction was, "You WHAT?" I watched what looked like bushes being blown around, only to realize they were actually trees! Lucky this thing stayed in an uninhabited area.
#3 1/2 mile from the shopping mall. I was at that mall getting my paycheck from working at Dayton’s. I was told to either go home or go to the interior of the mall. I went home, Brooklyn Center. I parked, got my camera and took a picture of this tornado from the parking lot. Was so excited, wanted to call someone and the power went out!
I lived in Brooklyn Park on 85th and Zane and was driving home from Cub Foods, where I had stood in the parking lot and watched it develop. It was such a slow-moving thing and it had crossed Zane by the time I got to the townhome where I lived on 85th. All my neighbors, rather than taking shelter were standing out on the street watching it, so I stood there and watched it with them. Max Messmer hit legendary status that day. Even though the tornado was very small Empey's video footage was completely unique.
I was in the Dayton’s parking lot. I was told Rio either come in and go to the center of the mall our go home. I. Went home to my apartment 63rd and Douglas Drive and watched the tornado from the parking lot. I took a photo to remember it
I didn’t expect to see such quality footage from that long ago. Seeing it going in those trees is incredible. What a job from the helicopter personnel.
I was 7 and living in Spring Lake Park when this happened. I remember seeing the tornado from my backyard before going down to the basement! It definitely made a big impression on my childhood.
Omg I remember this I was 8 when this happened I was so scared but I live in St Paul and my Gramma said we have literally never had a tornado but boy do those sirens do something to me...scares me and makes me excited at the same time. Thanks for the upload
I was living in Savage Minnesota at the time, I could see the storm from my deck. I had been watching this channel when they broke in. Saw this whole broadcast live. Max Messmer was a badass. My mother knew him when she was younger, and said she was not surprised he did this.
i just listened to all the WCCO tapes of the 1965 outbreak, and geez, poor Fridley was in that too! Like Xenia Ohio, Fridley must be on every local tornado's bucket list to hit!
Mee too. my first visit to Minnesota, but I was loving it. I never seen that much rain come down...and the sirens that went off during the parade.. good times! lol
What do you mean? Technology has improved immensely and there are definitely far clearer tornado shots, even 4k ones. This was great for the time but it's hardly the best of ALL time.
@@carlotta4th right? 🤣 what about all the storm chaser, insane videos?? There are thousands and thousands out there. For the time this was shot, absolutely best footage OF THAT TIME. But “ever???” Of all time? Aw hellll nah. Still amazing, nonetheless and that pilot has balls of steel!
@@nicholltupak I know this is late, but... A few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas (who is, believe it or not, still active in the Twin Cities forecasting community, in which he mentioned that the pilot was basically the only person in the state who would/could have done that. Max the pilot was a Vietnam combat vet; he had done combat rescues for airmen who had been shot down. This meant racing in on short notice, behind enemy lines, trying to find these guys and then find/make a landing zone in the middle of the jungle, while under ground fire and racing to get them out before Vietcong infantry could take them prisoner for the next several years. After the war, Max went to something about as challenging- flying search-and-rescue missions in the Alps. Any helo pilot will tell you, this is the most dangerous non-combat helo work in the world. Right at the very limit of what helos are physically capable of- one wrong twitch equalled a crash. You can see his attitude and skill in this video. Right after saying he doesn't know quite where he is, you see the helo descending. That wasn't coincidence. There are other versions of this, which show the footage and radio that didn't air live, which show that right after that Max told the station that he was at the intersection of County 10 and Minnesota 47. He learned from the fucking street signs. With a tornado half a mile or less away. 36 years later, I don't know if Max is still alive, but man, I hope he is...
I watched this live from the Emerald Inn which was on I694 and I believe I35E. We were on our way to Aitkin for vacation. If I remember correctly, the only injuries were two guys on White Bear Lake that got hit by lightning.
I was 16 working at Mc Donald’s in Fridley, I remember watching it from the lobby while everyone was in the basement. It was just a few blocks south of where I lived at in Coon Rapids.
the pilot might of been in trouble if the footage hadn't been so good and famous. Someone at the time mentioned that he was way too close for the longest time with the threat were any flying debris to hit the prop blades would be life threatening. Because of that fact alone, that he was too close, this footage will never ever be repeated like this ever again. big gonads or not! watched it live at 25 & was totally mesmerized.
Look out! Wall of words from another Minnesotan who remembers this! I was 19, and I remember this very well :) I remember the comments about the debris, but there was also the real risk of "Sky 11" being sucked into the vortex. Tornadoes are massive suction machines. They suck up warm air from the ground and around the vortex and discharge it high up in the cold top of the storm. I remember that pilot was seriously criticized at the time for risking his life and the life of the camera operator, and as I recall, a fair bit of that criticism came from the always-calm and extremely kind Paul Douglas himself. This was the first time ever we had not only live, up-close video coverage of a tornado on the ground, but up-close footage of any type that clearly showed the structure of the storm as it progressed. Few people had video cameras back then, fewer still had cell phones, as you know, and nobody's cell phone had a camera. Storm chasing just wasn't a thing outside academia. Any picture of a tornado was rare. KARE 11 so completely eclipsed anything that existed before with this footage that I don't even remember WCCO also having helicopter footage of the same storm. Without the KARE 11 footage, the WCCO footage would probably have been big news. You can tell how ground-breaking this footage was by all the mistakes Paul Douglas made about the tornado being about to die out and the wind speed being probably 200-250 mph. We just didn't know any better until the camcorder video boom, and then obviously cell phones. It was "videometry" that allowed a better estimate of wind speeds, but we needed lots of video to do that work. And we didn't know how normal the small vortices dancing around the main circulation funnel were (what Paul apparently thought was a sign that the tornado was "roping out"). Jeez... get me going on this topic and I can't stop! This was such a huge event, and I hope younger people can appreciate it for the breakthrough that it was, though it was insanely dangerous.
Quoted from a retrospective by the weatherman who the pilot was talking to at the studio: "I remember pleading with Max, on the air, to stay a safe distance away from the tornado. Which would be Kansas..."
His photographer was using a telephoto lens, which makes the tornado appear closer than it actually was. When Max Messmer spotted debris that could've affected his helicopter rotor, he backed off. Give the guy credit for having some sense.
Skywarn was brand new in the area then. I was certified in Skywarn's first year, 1985, so was a pretty inexperienced spotter in '86. There were no watches or warnings, and the tornado was already on the ground before any precipitation formed, so initially, they could not see it on radar. The Skywarn nets were not up. I was the first spotter on the scene, as it formed directly straight up from my house at 84th and Scott, in BP. It looked like ice cream in a blender, doing about one revolution per second. Now THAT is a view that you don't want to see as a spotter!! Because the cloud base was so high and there was so little precip, it could be seen from all directions, and from a long distance. I don't think that the NWS believed our reports as we tried to call them in. A few things that I learned as a spotter that day is that there is not a good reference when looking up, so it is impossible to gauge how high is high, how far is far, and how fast is fast. When it touched down and I first saw debris, It was only two blocks from me, but I thought it was over a mile. Keep that in mind for spotter safety when you are out in the field!
I know this is late, but... A few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas (who is, believe it or not, still on TV and radio every day, and still does the weather when shit gets real) in which he mentioned that even in the heat of the moment, even live in the middle of this, there was a small corner of his brain that was going, "My God, this footage is unprecedented. This is going to give us more knowledge than any other footage ever filmed".
Good ol Springbrook Nature Center. They built apartments just to the East of where this was no long afterwards. We would walk into the visitors center to watch this video and see the damage displays almost every day
Currently live in one of the homes damaged by the tornado and repaired after. In the early 2000’s another tornado went right by it again and barely missed me
I watched this from Brooklyn Center and there was a another one that spun up right over our house on 72nd and Dallas just off of West River Road and watched it take leaves off our cotton tree and ropes of sand coming down the street and heading right for me with my brother there as well, he took off running and I stood out the onslaught which was really weird because the winds was lifting upwards and the sand was stinging me under my chin from the upward movement!!!!! After that I was hooked!!!! And chased 12 more tornadoes and a couple ended up chasing me!!!!!! That day went from calm to chaos in very little time!!!!!
Not sure, but I think he started several years before this. Ok, Wikipedia says 1983. What really surprised me is that Dr. Walt Lyons was still working at WCCO then! I thought he was long gone by then. He was billed as the Twin Cities' first true meteorologist broadcaster in the 70s. Before him there were only "weathermen." (I remember the likes of Bud Krehling and "Barry Zevan, the Weatherman," with their markers on big sheets of paper making scribbles all over the map. After Walt Lyons, I don't think any local news station hired any more weathermen, only meteorologists. And I'm not sure, but I think Walt Lyons came with the new "color weather radar" that would actually show us on a map where it was raining and how heavily. That was so cool! Before that, the only radar imagery we had was a snapshot of an ordinary radar screen. And I mean a snapshot, as in a photograph of the monochrome radar screen taken with a camera. Am I just old, or have we really progressed that far?
I have a VHS of this, it abruptly cuts from a Charlie Brown cartoon, to this. I asked my dad what this was about, he said "We need to remember this." So he put the thing in, cranked up the volume, and went downstairs.
I was 9 miles south of this dangerous tornado 🌪️ in North Minneapolis I looked up to the North the sky was black and heard several distant rumbles of thunder. Where I was at the air was completely still !
I remember the instructor in my Meteorology class showing us the footage. I remember he said the FAA was none too happy with the pilot and wanted to throw the book at him for staying up there to film it. But the scientific community lauded him as such a hero, the FAA gave him a slap on the wrist. Was the pilot a veteran? I seem to remember that, too. EDIT: Yup, two tours of Viet Nam with the Air Force and prior to that, Swiss Air Rescue.
i and flight instructor Dave Klett just took off from Anoka airport when that funnel was no more than a mile away and directly wsw of our location, we immediately landed and i ran into the office exclaiming that there was a tornado and knowing that we were in what would have been the normal trajectory, i ran to move my uninsured vehicle as everyone just sat there like i was crazy.....next day they copped an attitude because i didn't help them tie down planes and intentionaly misdated my flight log......that tornado was stationary, had it been moving at even 10 miles per hour it would have been right over the airport in minutes or even seconds.
I'd assume there were sirens there since the 1950's or 1960's. Tornado sirens are just repurposed nuclear warning sirens, so I assume they would have been installed during the cold war.
This was on my birthday I remember like it was yesterday it's getting ready to storm now radar shows it looks pretty strong tornados spotted up north and the dewpoint right now is 74 I can hear the thunder in the distance heading this way ! Stay safe in every way ! hang on to your loved ones !
Yes, I was thinking the exact same thing..later he goes one the say an F3 could be in excess of 250 mph. He got the F2 and 3 right I would guess. Just not the wind speed. I'm sure he wasn't used to them they always appear to be bigger than they are when you are close by
@Jcat: Not rural, more suburban - about 10 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. Once it touched down, the tornado was mostly stationary in a very large wooded area called the Springbrook Nature Center. Since then, they've built some apartments and a Walmart supercenter in the area where it ended.
The MN History Center exhibit is about the 1965 Fridley tornado, which was a more destructive tornado that hit the residential area. The 1986 tornado caused very little damage and was mostly confined to a nature center.
I remember this, I lived in Fridley at the time. I worked as a volunteer at Spring brook Nature Center on the other side of Town. Our house didnt get touched but the Nature Center was a total mess. My mom was driving me to the nature center for my shift, and when we got to the stop sign we looked to the right and saw that big son of a bitch. My mom did a U turn and we hauled ass on home, then we hid in the basement til it was over.
Gnev Gnok The tornado was judged to be an F1 to F2 tornado over the course of its life. It's very doubtful it would be ranked any higher today, even with the Enhanced Fujita scale. The damage observed in this video is consistent with an EF2, with "large trees snapped or uprooted."
I talked with an employee at the NWS Twin Cities who said this tornado had wind speeds that were likely around 180 MPH, but the tornado did not strike anything substantial at the time of those winds. They also analyzed the video and saw how violent it appeared on video. It was a very violent looking tornado, and wind speeds were likely in the neighborhood of 180 MPH.
When journalism was something news rooms took pride in. This is incredible footage and a fantastic broadcast all around. Well done to all involved!!!
Really impressive, especially considering it was over 30 years ago and this was the first time a tornado was covered like this! The close-up video of the tornado on the ground is amazing. I found it amusing how many of the "tornado safety precautions" were the same then as they are now. Thank you for sharing this video!!!
I remember watching this exact broadcast as it happened when I was 15. We were in the projected path of the storm. Everything was a dark gray-green outside and it was terrifying.
Now I often drive past the Springbrook Nature Center and remember this afternoon. Thanks for sharing this!
I was 8 that year.
@@johnshafer7214 that was a GREAT day made my balls swell up🤣
For those who don't know, this footage was even more special because it should never have happened. Few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas describing multiple reasons why this footage should not exist. Copied here wccoradio.radio.com/blogs/paul-douglas/kare-11-tornado-1986
1: That helicopter was not sent to cover the tornado. The station didn't know there was a tornado. Nobody knew there was a tornado. There was no severe weather forecast, or even occurring more than a few miles away. The helicopter happened to be on its way to cover an unrelated story in the northern suburbs when- shit, holy shit, that's a fucking tornado! So unexpected that the studio personnel didn't all believe it at first. Paul himself had just gotten to work when the guy talking to the helicopter shouts, "Tornado, we got a tornado in the north suburbs!", and Paul's first thought was, "do you have any idea how irresponsible a joke that is?!?!?!"
2: The pilot was the only guy in the state who would have done that. He'd been in Vietnam, done search and rescue for Air Force pilots who had been shot down (read, trying to airlift them out of the jungle before being captured and killed, while under continuous hostile fire and trying to improvise a place to land a helicopter in the middle of the jungle). After Vietnam he had gone on to mountain search and rescue in the Alps. Any helicopter pilot will tell you that mountain SAR is the most dangerous non-combat helicopter work in the world, as it pushes the very limits of what helicopters are technically capable of. So this guy was the Rambo of helicopter pilots. As evidence (this may only be in the full-helicopter-film version of this video), when he says "Highway 10 and Highway 47" for a location... he did not know that beforehand. You can see him drop low over the intersection that is, in fact, County 10 and Minnesota 47 and hesitate as he READS THE FUCKING STREET SIGNS. That was officially batshit crazy WITHOUT a tornado half a mile away. Quote from Paul: "I remember pleading with Max, on the air, to stay a safe distance away from the tornado. Which would be Kansas..."
3: Last of all, the camera this was shot on was not the type in standard use on the station's helicopters. This was a new prototype which the cameraman had randomly decided to take on this flight to familiarize himself with it. This new model allowed for a much more stable image at high levels of zoom, which was responsible for the high quality of this footage.
I should conclude this by mentioning that it is amazing that this did not kill anyone. The nature center it was over for most of its life was one of the few undeveloped areas for miles around, even in 1986. Half a mile away... was a shopping mall. Industrial or residential developments on all other sides. It even dodged several neighborhoods when it jumped the Mississippi River (I know tornadoes don't jump rivers, but for whatever reason this one did), including the house that I would be born into three years later. Maybe just chance, maybe because our neighbor Father Kennedy was on his knees, in his basement, going through every prayer in the book. Hey, you never know...
I'd just come back to Minneapolis to visit my parents, after a one-year assignment in Korea (Air Force). My cousins said, "We've got videotape of a tornado shot from a helicopter." My reaction was, "You WHAT?" I watched what looked like bushes being blown around, only to realize they were actually trees! Lucky this thing stayed in an uninhabited area.
Thank you for the additional information!
#3 1/2 mile from the shopping mall. I was at that mall getting my paycheck from working at Dayton’s. I was told to either go home or go to the interior of the mall. I went home, Brooklyn Center. I parked, got my camera and took a picture of this tornado from the parking lot. Was so excited, wanted to call someone and the power went out!
I lived in Brooklyn Park on 85th and Zane and was driving home from Cub Foods, where I had stood in the parking lot and watched it develop. It was such a slow-moving thing and it had crossed Zane by the time I got to the townhome where I lived on 85th. All my neighbors, rather than taking shelter were standing out on the street watching it, so I stood there and watched it with them. Max Messmer hit legendary status that day. Even though the tornado was very small Empey's video footage was completely unique.
We were close together. My home was at 84th and Scott. It was exactly straight up from me when I saw the funnel.
you are correct we went by the nature center afterwards
I was in the Dayton’s parking lot. I was told Rio either come in and go to the center of the mall our go home. I. Went home to my apartment 63rd and Douglas Drive and watched the tornado from the parking lot. I took a photo to remember it
I didn’t expect to see such quality footage from that long ago. Seeing it going in those trees is incredible. What a job from the helicopter personnel.
I was 7 and living in Spring Lake Park when this happened. I remember seeing the tornado from my backyard before going down to the basement! It definitely made a big impression on my childhood.
I was 4 almost 5 lived in spring lake park in a trail park no idea where it was. . All i know is it came really close
@@mikegault1179 omg 😭 so glad you’re still here to tell the story! I would be absolutely terrified.
I'm impressed for a 1986. News coverage
My brother, Scott Stachowiak, was a member of this broadcast.
I love watching 1980s videos.
I can imagine the memories I never had.
Omg I remember this I was 8 when this happened I was so scared but I live in St Paul and my Gramma said we have literally never had a tornado but boy do those sirens do something to me...scares me and makes me excited at the same time. Thanks for the upload
I was living in Savage Minnesota at the time, I could see the storm from my deck. I had been watching this channel when they broke in. Saw this whole broadcast live. Max Messmer was a badass. My mother knew him when she was younger, and said she was not surprised he did this.
i just listened to all the WCCO tapes of the 1965 outbreak, and geez, poor Fridley was in that too! Like Xenia Ohio, Fridley must be on every local tornado's bucket list to hit!
I was 10 when this happened and I was scared to death! Thank you for posting this!
Mee too. my first visit to Minnesota, but I was loving it. I never seen that much rain come down...and the sirens that went off during the parade.. good times! lol
I was 8. Can't believe how long ago this was.
Heh, I have this all on VHS, it was quite an afternoon of TV. Pretty wild for the time.
Greatest tornado footage ever, and there isn't a close second. Incredible.
What do you mean? Technology has improved immensely and there are definitely far clearer tornado shots, even 4k ones. This was great for the time but it's hardly the best of ALL time.
@@carlotta4th right? 🤣 what about all the storm chaser, insane videos?? There are thousands and thousands out there. For the time this was shot, absolutely best footage OF THAT TIME. But “ever???” Of all time? Aw hellll nah. Still amazing, nonetheless and that pilot has balls of steel!
@@nicholltupak I know this is late, but...
A few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas (who is, believe it or not, still active in the Twin Cities forecasting community, in which he mentioned that the pilot was basically the only person in the state who would/could have done that.
Max the pilot was a Vietnam combat vet; he had done combat rescues for airmen who had been shot down. This meant racing in on short notice, behind enemy lines, trying to find these guys and then find/make a landing zone in the middle of the jungle, while under ground fire and racing to get them out before Vietcong infantry could take them prisoner for the next several years.
After the war, Max went to something about as challenging- flying search-and-rescue missions in the Alps. Any helo pilot will tell you, this is the most dangerous non-combat helo work in the world. Right at the very limit of what helos are physically capable of- one wrong twitch equalled a crash.
You can see his attitude and skill in this video. Right after saying he doesn't know quite where he is, you see the helo descending. That wasn't coincidence. There are other versions of this, which show the footage and radio that didn't air live, which show that right after that Max told the station that he was at the intersection of County 10 and Minnesota 47. He learned from the fucking street signs. With a tornado half a mile or less away.
36 years later, I don't know if Max is still alive, but man, I hope he is...
OMG, I love your Red Owl avatar! That sure brings me back.
You should check out Reed Timmer's drone shot of a tornado from this summer... incredible footage.
I was on vacation north of Brainerd, MN at a resort watching this coverage at the lodge.
I was at the Minnetonka Best Buy store with my dad watching this on about 30 televisions that day. Memories...
I watched this live from the Emerald Inn which was on I694 and I believe I35E. We were on our way to Aitkin for vacation. If I remember correctly, the only injuries were two guys on White Bear Lake that got hit by lightning.
I was 16 working at Mc Donald’s in Fridley, I remember watching it from the lobby while everyone was in the basement. It was just a few blocks south of where I lived at in Coon Rapids.
the pilot might of been in trouble if the footage hadn't been so good and famous. Someone at the time mentioned that he was way too close for the longest time with the threat were any flying debris to hit the prop blades would be life threatening. Because of that fact alone, that he was too close, this footage will never ever be repeated like this ever again. big gonads or not!
watched it live at 25 & was totally mesmerized.
Look out! Wall of words from another Minnesotan who remembers this! I was 19, and I remember this very well :) I remember the comments about the debris, but there was also the real risk of "Sky 11" being sucked into the vortex. Tornadoes are massive suction machines. They suck up warm air from the ground and around the vortex and discharge it high up in the cold top of the storm. I remember that pilot was seriously criticized at the time for risking his life and the life of the camera operator, and as I recall, a fair bit of that criticism came from the always-calm and extremely kind Paul Douglas himself.
This was the first time ever we had not only live, up-close video coverage of a tornado on the ground, but up-close footage of any type that clearly showed the structure of the storm as it progressed. Few people had video cameras back then, fewer still had cell phones, as you know, and nobody's cell phone had a camera. Storm chasing just wasn't a thing outside academia. Any picture of a tornado was rare. KARE 11 so completely eclipsed anything that existed before with this footage that I don't even remember WCCO also having helicopter footage of the same storm. Without the KARE 11 footage, the WCCO footage would probably have been big news.
You can tell how ground-breaking this footage was by all the mistakes Paul Douglas made about the tornado being about to die out and the wind speed being probably 200-250 mph. We just didn't know any better until the camcorder video boom, and then obviously cell phones. It was "videometry" that allowed a better estimate of wind speeds, but we needed lots of video to do that work. And we didn't know how normal the small vortices dancing around the main circulation funnel were (what Paul apparently thought was a sign that the tornado was "roping out").
Jeez... get me going on this topic and I can't stop! This was such a huge event, and I hope younger people can appreciate it for the breakthrough that it was, though it was insanely dangerous.
Quoted from a retrospective by the weatherman who the pilot was talking to at the studio: "I remember pleading with Max, on the air, to stay a safe distance away from the tornado. Which would be Kansas..."
I mean, look how far the Oklahoman stations stay away from twisters. Miles. even the smaller ones.
His photographer was using a telephoto lens, which makes the tornado appear closer than it actually was. When Max Messmer spotted debris that could've affected his helicopter rotor, he backed off. Give the guy credit for having some sense.
@@sturmovik5448That was Paul Douglas who was meteorologist at KARE 11 at the time
Wow. I was 4 when this happened so I don’t remember this at all, but as a NWS storm spotter now, this is really something.
Skywarn was brand new in the area then. I was certified in Skywarn's first year, 1985, so was a pretty inexperienced spotter in '86. There were no watches or warnings, and the tornado was already on the ground before any precipitation formed, so initially, they could not see it on radar. The Skywarn nets were not up. I was the first spotter on the scene, as it formed directly straight up from my house at 84th and Scott, in BP. It looked like ice cream in a blender, doing about one revolution per second. Now THAT is a view that you don't want to see as a spotter!! Because the cloud base was so high and there was so little precip, it could be seen from all directions, and from a long distance. I don't think that the NWS believed our reports as we tried to call them in.
A few things that I learned as a spotter that day is that there is not a good reference when looking up, so it is impossible to gauge how high is high, how far is far, and how fast is fast. When it touched down and I first saw debris, It was only two blocks from me, but I thought it was over a mile. Keep that in mind for spotter safety when you are out in the field!
Paul Majors is that the same one who does the news here in Los Angeles today? He looks so young.
It is. He left the Twin Cities for Los Angeles
Those folks in Brooklyn Park and Fridley seem to bear the brunt of Minnesota tornadoes!
Isnt that area considered the ghetto?
One of many over the years to cross my path.
That's an F2 or F3 but no way the winds are 250 mph
There was a time when videos as spectacular and personal as these were undreamed of. 😊😊😊
Vortex break down....awesome!
I know this is late, but...
A few years ago I read a blog post by Paul Douglas (who is, believe it or not, still on TV and radio every day, and still does the weather when shit gets real) in which he mentioned that even in the heat of the moment, even live in the middle of this, there was a small corner of his brain that was going, "My God, this footage is unprecedented. This is going to give us more knowledge than any other footage ever filmed".
@@sturmovik5448 met paul douglas hes one hairy guy😁
Good ol Springbrook Nature Center. They built apartments just to the East of where this was no long afterwards. We would walk into the visitors center to watch this video and see the damage displays almost every day
ryan clayson I remember doing that when I was younger. Haven't been to the new center since the update. I've walked the trail once since the remodel.
I moved to Springbrook apts in 1992-93
Awesome , thanks for sharing this with us.
Okay, is it just me, or are old photos and videos of tornadoes in the 1900’s so much scarier to look at and watch back then, than they do now?
Currently live in one of the homes damaged by the tornado and repaired after. In the early 2000’s another tornado went right by it again and barely missed me
Unfortunately I was up north fishing when this happened, I lived in Fridley at the time!
I lived in Brooklyn Park at the time still one of the most crazy things I've ever seen on local news
This pilot had nerves of steel.
Imagine watching that Three’s Company rerun at 4:30, keeping it on to see the news at 5 and seeing a tornado flying around.
i was born 4 days before.. 7/14/1986. Downtown Minneapolis. HCMC
I watched this from Brooklyn Center and there was a another one that spun up right over our house on 72nd and Dallas just off of West River Road and watched it take leaves off our cotton tree and ropes of sand coming down the street and heading right for me with my brother there as well, he took off running and I stood out the onslaught which was really weird because the winds was lifting upwards and the sand was stinging me under my chin from the upward movement!!!!! After that I was hooked!!!! And chased 12 more tornadoes and a couple ended up chasing me!!!!!! That day went from calm to chaos in very little time!!!!!
I lived down the road so to speak in Minnesota at the time. Remember this like it was yesterday
lol did not know Paul Douglas goes back that far
Not sure, but I think he started several years before this. Ok, Wikipedia says 1983. What really surprised me is that Dr. Walt Lyons was still working at WCCO then! I thought he was long gone by then. He was billed as the Twin Cities' first true meteorologist broadcaster in the 70s. Before him there were only "weathermen." (I remember the likes of Bud Krehling and "Barry Zevan, the Weatherman," with their markers on big sheets of paper making scribbles all over the map. After Walt Lyons, I don't think any local news station hired any more weathermen, only meteorologists. And I'm not sure, but I think Walt Lyons came with the new "color weather radar" that would actually show us on a map where it was raining and how heavily. That was so cool! Before that, the only radar imagery we had was a snapshot of an ordinary radar screen. And I mean a snapshot, as in a photograph of the monochrome radar screen taken with a camera. Am I just old, or have we really progressed that far?
I have a VHS of this, it abruptly cuts from a Charlie Brown cartoon, to this. I asked my dad what this was about, he said "We need to remember this." So he put the thing in, cranked up the volume, and went downstairs.
My dad was 6 years old when this happened.
0:05 man that is 80's
I was 9 miles south of this dangerous tornado 🌪️ in North Minneapolis I looked up to the North the sky was black and heard several distant rumbles of thunder. Where I was at the air was completely still !
I was on the ground in Blaine and my brother and I saw this happen from funnel cloud to dropping out of the sky.
My mom had to hide in a McDonalds fridge to take cover for this
My mom got hit hard, it was right next to her house, my dad's neighborhood also got hit.
I remember the instructor in my Meteorology class showing us the footage. I remember he said the FAA was none too happy with the pilot and wanted to throw the book at him for staying up there to film it. But the scientific community lauded him as such a hero, the FAA gave him a slap on the wrist. Was the pilot a veteran? I seem to remember that, too.
EDIT: Yup, two tours of Viet Nam with the Air Force and prior to that, Swiss Air Rescue.
NSP and Northelwestern Bell!
I live like five minutes from where it was
grandpa tell me bout them good ol days
Full broadcast of the 5pm news perhaps, but does anyone have the footage of the pre-5pm cut-in?
2019 anyone
Tornadoes don't look like this anymore
i and flight instructor Dave Klett just took off from Anoka airport when that funnel was no more than a mile away and directly wsw of our location, we immediately landed and i ran into the office exclaiming that there was a tornado and knowing that we were in what would have been the normal trajectory, i ran to move my uninsured vehicle as everyone just sat there like i was crazy.....next day they copped an attitude because i didn't help them tie down planes and intentionaly misdated my flight log......that tornado was stationary, had it been moving at even 10 miles per hour it would have been right over the airport in minutes or even seconds.
Off the teletype!?
Wow!!
Forgot about those till they said it.
man thats going like 5 mph
For GOD SAKES, DOUG
Did they have warning sirens in Greater Minneapolis at that time?
TimelessOne Yes they had sirens back then and they went off for this Tornado
I'd assume there were sirens there since the 1950's or 1960's. Tornado sirens are just repurposed nuclear warning sirens, so I assume they would have been installed during the cold war.
My mom was 6 years old!😳
so was my mom
I remember that day it was so hot and humid out was playing frisbee golf in roseville😁we went to chase it also😁
This was on my birthday I remember like it was yesterday it's getting ready to storm now radar shows it looks pretty strong tornados spotted up north and the dewpoint right now is 74 I can hear the thunder in the distance heading this way ! Stay safe in every way ! hang on to your loved ones !
I was 6 and seen this, that's where I get my fear from.
Me too i was 4 almost 5 in spring lake park
we're not trying to hype up this F6 killer tornado.
Just minnasota?
I remember that it was on a fryday I was baked it was moist outside
I was pregnant with my son when this went down
dam I rember this
did anyone else hear a dog bark at 9:12 ?
Aint no 250 mph thats for sure!! Ef 2 maybe 3 at best
The weatherman who covered this said that after the storm they estimated max winds at 130. 250 was just blind flailing.
Yes, I was thinking the exact same thing..later he goes one the say an F3 could be in excess of 250 mph. He got the F2 and 3 right I would guess. Just not the wind speed. I'm sure he wasn't used to them they always appear to be bigger than they are when you are close by
Is that town where the tornado a rural area or was it in 86
@Jcat: Not rural, more suburban - about 10 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. Once it touched down, the tornado was mostly stationary in a very large wooded area called the Springbrook Nature Center. Since then, they've built some apartments and a Walmart supercenter in the area where it ended.
Is this the same tornado that was described at the MN History Center?
The MN History Center exhibit is about the 1965 Fridley tornado, which was a more destructive tornado that hit the residential area. The 1986 tornado caused very little damage and was mostly confined to a nature center.
oh ok
We're off ta see the wizard 😆
I was not even alive then I was born 2008
I am 8
Israelisreal for real same but I am 11
Shonna Lu: If you were born in 2008 and wrote that in 2018, then you need to work on your math.
This happened 13 years before my time
3 quarters of a mile away..in a helicopter?
Rumor has it KARE 11 bought 'ol Max a new pair of boxers to accommodate his giant brass balls.
shut up
I remember this, I lived in Fridley at the time. I worked as a volunteer at Spring brook Nature Center on the other side of Town. Our house didnt get touched but the Nature Center was a total mess. My mom was driving me to the nature center for my shift, and when we got to the stop sign we looked to the right and saw that big son of a bitch. My mom did a U turn and we hauled ass on home, then we hid in the basement til it was over.
Obviously 80's early 90's. Still using paper, and very old color.
+NLDT STUDIOS July 18,1986 to be exact
Wow you're good bro.
Omg this was bad...
Crazy thing is today this would be considered an EF5 Tornado.
Gnev Gnok The tornado was judged to be an F1 to F2 tornado over the course of its life. It's very doubtful it would be ranked any higher today, even with the Enhanced Fujita scale. The damage observed in this video is consistent with an EF2, with "large trees snapped or uprooted."
I talked with an employee at the NWS Twin Cities who said this tornado had wind speeds that were likely around 180 MPH, but the tornado did not strike anything substantial at the time of those winds. They also analyzed the video and saw how violent it appeared on video. It was a very violent looking tornado, and wind speeds were likely in the neighborhood of 180 MPH.
@@paulspomer16 i thought f ratings were based on damage?
@@jpkjnn6733 They are. I never said they weren’t