Posted on 06/14/2008 1:26:14 PM PDT by Vision
Drudge has this up on a story of the Iowa twister.
Looks real to me - it is what the big ones look like up close (seen it). Can’t tell if this is shopped, tho. Some more knowledgable freeper will have to chime in on that.
For what it’s worth, it’s a (short) time exposure, and well done if legit.
If those clouds are spinning that way, and the trees and equipment appear still, the photo’s authenticity is suspect.
There’s no debris around it.
I saw this on my Comcast homepage this morning.
But no idea if it’s real. It IS pretty dramatic, though.
She said it didn't quite touch down.
This might not even be an actual tornado, but a very severe “wall cloud”.
She has steady hands, if that’s the case. I was thinking the camera is resting on something.
From my experience I’d say with 90% certainty it’s a fake, but that 10%.......
Yes, it’s a real photo taken by Lori Mehmen - Orchard tornado near Orchard, IA.
Link to original:
http://globe1.fotki.com/reader-submitted-photos/north-iowa-under-wa/orchardtornado.html
the pic was in the NYPost today.
If those clouds are spinning that way, and the trees and equipment appear still, the photo’s authenticity is suspect.
"suspect"? It's down right destroyed. That scene is impossible.
I’d like to see the data embedded in the original photo.
>>> “suspect”? It’s down right destroyed. That scene is impossible.
It’s the real deal.
Does anyone have a bigger pic of it?
“Cow!” (From the movie “Twister”).
It had better be. It’s on the front page of the ( Suburban Chicago ) Daily Herald today, 6/14. It’s credited to AP and has the caption, “Lori Mehmen of Orchard Iowa, took this photo from outside her front door at 9:04 p.m. Tuesday. Mehmen told local papers the funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up in the clouds. No one was hurt.”
It’s not up on the Daily Herald web site, though, that I can find. Note the flag is blurred, giving an indication of the exposure time.
Wouldn’t it be darker out at 9pm than that, especially with the cloud cover, etc?
Assuming it’s real, and hurt nobody, it sure was an “Oh damn!” moment for that housewife!
I think that it is the calm before all hell breaks loose. At least that is the way I have experienced wall clouds. Look perfectly still and then you are in them and just crazy wind and rain.
It’s a long exposure shot.
So, the camera’s shutter lies open for a lot longer than it takes the human eye to register the light. That makes the image appear much brighter than it actually appears to the naked eye.
No, it’s not. That’s a wide angle telephoto lens. It distorts the image.
That tornado is nowwhere as close as it appears, and the ground is surely not sloping up to the left with leaning telephone poles.
I saw one last year touch down across the street in my neighbor’s backyard. It wasn’t as big as the one in this picture, but everything around it was calm, like in this photo. I believe this photo is authentic.
As my Sainted Father used to say about moments of abject terror,
"Only me and the laundry man knew for sure..."
Here in the mid west, there really are some spectacular sights in the sky. ...But..like a rose, there are thorns.
Here are the details embedded in the photo:
Record Version: 00 01
Object Name: Severe Weather Iowa Tornado
Urgency:
Category: A
Supplemental Category: WEA
Special Instructions: PHOTO TAKEN TUESDAY JUNE 10, 2008.
Date Created: 20080610
Time Created: 200414+0000
By-line: Lori Mehmen
By-line Title: STR
City: Orchard
Province-State: IA
Country Name: USA
Original Transmission Ref: IALM101
Credit: AP
Source: AP
Caption: A huge tornado funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. The Globe Gazette and Mitchell County Press News reported that Lori Mehmen of Orchard, took the photo from outside her front door. Mehmen said the funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up into the clouds. Besides tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported. (AP Photo/Lori Mehmen)
Writer/Editor: CRB**NY** RR**NY** JHC**NY**
Also, there is no depth perception in a photo. You have no idea how far in the background the cloud is. The cloud could be miles behind the bins for all we can tell. It all depends on how big the twister was.
However, the colors in between the beams on top of the steel bins there is consistent with the cloud. If it was photo shopped that should of been a different color since it would of been pasted onto a picture of the twister.
The colors on the photo show no inconsistencies which makes it almost guaranteed real.
It does appear it was taken with a wide angle lens, at about 10 to 20mm. With a lens like that, you can handhold shots and not have camera shake at lower shutter speeds, like 1/15 of a sec. The reason I think it was a wide angle lens is because the way the vertical lines on the left and right edges are leaning toward the center which is much less obvious with other lenses.
The photographer could have been bracing it on something stationary, can't imagine why he'd play chicken with something like that trying to get a photo if it is real.
AFAIK, all digital cameras preserve exif data, but it was stripped off when processing this photo by whatever graphics program is was saved with (I have a little reader on the menu in IE that I can get it on some photos), gives date, time, camera model, aperture, shutter speed, mode, flash used or not, etc. Having the original and linking it to a time and place would be the only way to know for sure.
PS CS2 is telling me it has an embedded color profile that does not match the current working space, then Embedded: Adobe RGB (1998)then the color profile, now I have to convert it to mine. I don't know what that means exactly. The description under File>File info says:
Title: Severe Weather Iowa Tornado
Author: Lori Mehmen
Author Title: STR
Description: A huge tornado funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. The Globe Gazette and Mitchell County Press News reported that Lori Mehmen of Orchard, took the photo from outside her front door. Mehmen said the funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up into the clouds. Besides tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported. (AP Photo/Lori Mehmen)
Description Writer: CRB**NY** RR**NY** JHC**NY**
Copyright Status: Unknown
Down further it says: Created 6/14/2008 3:41:54 PM Modified 6/14/2008 3:30:26 PM (may be odd)
Nothing in Camera Data 1 or Camera Data 2 as I figured.
So there is a place and newspaper that can be checked, but still won't give us the original.
I zoomed in on it, and it doesn't look too suspicious, a couple pixels blown, I can alter photos but am not good at analyzing what others may or may not have done.
You can type in all that description info yourself. The camera records the rest and spits it back to you on the origional but not on a saved copy that destroys it.
Just my opinion, take a look at the flag and the trace of light in the picture. Those are clues to a long exposure shot.
If something like that weather phenomena appeared in my backyard, and also partially engulfed some features around, I’d not expect the tree leaves to remain so still and sharp, on the image.
If the photo is indeed real, then the cloud wasn’t as violent as it appears to be.
>>>If the photo is indeed real, then the cloud wasn’t as violent as it appears to be.
It’s a developing tornado. That’s what they look like. Sometimes.
sunrisesunset.com for Iowa shows sunset at Orchard on June 10 as 8:50 PM, and "Civil twilight" ending at 9:25 PM.
Note the same site gives the end of twilight as 8:58 PM for Chicago. Orchard IA is about 250 miles WNW of Chicago, which gives it the later twilight.
Civil Twilight
Civil twilight is defined when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. This is the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; at the beginning of morning civil twilight, or end of evening civil twilight, the horizon is clearly defined and the brightest stars are visible under good atmospheric conditions in the absence of moonlight or other illumination. In the morning before the beginning of civil twilight and in the evening after the end of civil twilight, artificial illumination is normally required to carry on ordinary outdoor activities.
THAT is a “wall cloud” - I had the misfortune to encounter one of those beasts while stationed at Ft. McCoy, WI in summer of ‘04.
You have light winds, then steady and strong as the wall approaches - then the hammer of Thor begins to strike around you...
Look at the flag in the photo... it is being ‘pulled’ into the direct of the tornado and its circular winds.
The flag is straight out so the wind is blowing pretty hard.
It is a super thunder head. Not seen often here but Australia sees them on a more or less regular basis.
You would see debri flying and trees bending.
I like using BMNT and EENT myself.
:-)
You used to always be able to say a picture never lies. Unfortunately we can't do that anymore.
I am so suspect that I could have sworn this picture was photo shopped based on how the people go down in size, the fact they are facing all different directions, and there are 5 chairs and only 4 people. But I was wrong on this, since it is a true picture.
I’d think AP would have checked the EXIF data embedded in the photo before declaring it authentic and publishing it, so I have to say it’s real unless otherwise proven.
This is a wall cloud. A tornado could form out of it.
Lol!
I think the fault lies squarely at those “all” focus lenses.
There is no way that a twister that size wouldn’t be affecting the buildings and whatnot nearbye.
The media isn't beyond doctoring up pictures. Wasn't it the AP that printed this one where all the extra smoke was added? If not the AP it was another media outlet.
If that’s a long exposure, that is the world’s slowest moving tornado.
2) Wind direction (towards the cloud) is consistent with strong storms.
3) In my town, street lights go on automatically when it gets dark; sometimes, a storm in the middle of the day will turn them on. (Other lights as well).
4) Debris would not be expected in a tornado that hasn't touched ground.
I'll check Google for another "wall-cloud" photo. One monster appeared to the left of a freighter at sea.
Really? Interesting. I'll have to ask Dad about those.
>>>There is no way that a twister that size wouldn’t be affecting the buildings and whatnot nearbye.
It was not a tornado...it’s a developing one. Destructive winds had not developed yet....and didn’t. It dissipated not long after the photo according to the news story that was written to accompany it that is linked above.
Check the trace of the light on the road, and the ghost image of the flag.
A quick exposure won’t give you that, typically.
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