Hutchinson, Kansas Tornado Was An Awesome Thing

The giant Hutchinson, Kansas tornado
roping out and stirring up a big
 cloud of dust on Monday.  

As part of a massive severe weather outbreak in the nation Monday (more on that later) a large tornado touched down right near Hutchinson, Kansas.  

Luckily, the enormous storm did not go right through Hutchinson, but mostly stayed in rural areas just outside town. So damage wasn't all that great.

What was great was how photogenic the Hutchinson tornado was. And how far and wide you could see it. One of the videos below is from a drone that captured the tornado.

From the photos (click on them to embiggen them) one person took a photo of the tornado from a jetliner flying sort of nearby. Another great photo is the one when the tornado is "roping out" but still flinging up tons of dust.

The tornado came out of a what is known as a low precipitation supercell, obviously meaning there wasn't much in the way of rain to spoil the tornado show.

Roping out is what a tornado very often does when it's falling apart and dissipating. It gets narrower and narrower until it finally looks like a rope dangling from the sky. Then it falls apart and becomes pretty much nothing.

The Hutchinson tornado as seen from a passing jetliner.  

The tornado near Hutchinson surely wasn't nothing, though.  

For videos, let's start with that drone view. I love how sunny and pleasant it seems where the drone is, in contrast to where the tornado is swirling:



Here's another view of it: