Another Hodgepodge Of Interesting Stuff Today

Not much left of this South Dakota ranch after a tornado earlier this month
A 10,000 pound tractor disappeared in the tornado and the
wreckage was later found in neighboring Montana.

It's a relatively quiet day in the weather department, so it's a good day to show a few fun and/or interesting tidbits I've accumulated over the past couple of weeks.

TORNADO STEALS TRACTOR

Near the beginning of the month a powerful tornado crossed the border between Montana and South Dakota. It's a remote part of the country, and there wasn't that much out there for the tornado to hit.

Except for Doug Davis' farm, which is in South Dakota but just 100 feet or so from the Montana border, was pretty much trashed by the tornado. For days afterward, he could not find a 10,000 pound tractor that was on his property. The tornado sucked it up and took it....somewhere.

That had to be a pretty damn strong tornado to do that.

Eventually, the wreckage of the tractor was found back across the border in Montana, having been drawn back there by the tornado's powerful circulation.

At last report, Davis was still missing an ATV, a boat and a camper, which all disappeared in the twister. Unfortunately, his home was also destroyed.

ICEBERG TSUNAMI THREAT?

Here's an unusual weather hazard. An iceberg has come very close to shore near a tiny village in Greenland. Parts of the village have been evacuated, because if a big chunk of the iceberg splits off, it could crash into the water and send a tsunami slamming into the village, says Reuters.

This iceberg is menacing a Greenland village
Photo by Ritzau Scanpix/Karl Petersen via Reuters  

DUST STORMS AND FLASH FLOODS

In the desert Southwest, it's monsoon season. Moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean often create some dramatic weather in places like Arizona, Utah and the deserts of California.

This year is no exception. A massive haboob earlier this week roared across an area of Arizona near Gila Bend.

A lot of storm chasers captured it on film, including Reed Timmer, who always manages to be on the scene of the most extreme weather in the nation.

Haboobs form when strong downdrafts from monsoon thunderstorms form big gust fronts, which stir up walls of dust that blow across the desert. The one that Timmer and others captured was bigger than most.

Here's one of Timmers'  videos of the haboob, some of it in time lapse motion that's really cool:



The monsoon storms very often cause flash floods in what are usually dry washes. Here's a recent one in Utah captured by David Rankin:



WET HOTEL STAY

A couple weeks back, there was some serious flash flooding in and around Des Moines, Iowa. The following video shows how (badly) a hotel fared during the flooding: