Beautiful/Terrifying Hurricane Photographs

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A friend of mine forwarded me a series of photographs purportedly of Hurrican Katrina. These were supposedly taken somewhere in Louisiana, but we have no way to prove their authenticity. Regardless, I found the pictures so striking that I put them up on my rinky-dinky little whatsis of a weblog. Trust me, they are stunning photographs. See them . Click on each to enlarge.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 04:16 (twenty years ago)

Hurricane

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

cool, but me thinks a wee bit retouched or photoshopped. Pretty and compelling nonetheless.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Saturday, 10 September 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, some of them just look a little too clean.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

alex i think those look more like "supercell" thunderstorms

which precede tornadoes in the midwest (not hurricanes).

still - they are awesome!!

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 10 September 2005 04:40 (twenty years ago)

Cheers, Vahid. That certainly looks accurate.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:01 (twenty years ago)

Vahid OTM. There's nothing hurricane-y about those photos. Hurricanes from the ground look like... grey. They're hundreds of miles across.

But I do so love thunderstorms, and those are really great photos.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

Actually, hurricanes tend to look a lot more like this:

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/WEATHER/05/30/hur02.overview/story.andrew.jpg

At any rate, they don't have features that you can stand a few miles away from and see.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

Also, I don't think those photos look retouched or photoshopped at all. They look like good ol' fashioned big-ass Great Plains thunderstorms. It's spectacular to watch one of those form, it really is. (Right before you get struck by lightning.)

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm...I should really amend my site.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, before a bunch of midwesterners comment saying, "You dork. That's not a hurricane."

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

And this is even scarier than a hurricane:

http://vassifer.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/i000767_big.jpg

You see that shit, you fucking run.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:31 (twenty years ago)

Or cower.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:33 (twenty years ago)

Wonder why you didn't build a cellar.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:35 (twenty years ago)

What must it be like to get sucked into that and perhaps spat out several hundreds of feet up into the air? Could you breathe at all? Would you die long before you started heading back toward earth?

― Fatso Risk, Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:35 (twenty years ago)

There are stories of cows being sucked up and dropped off hundreds of yeards away and living. I don't know about people.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:38 (twenty years ago)

You see that shit, you fucking run.

Yes,....but where?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

AWAY

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 05:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.filmthreat.com/UploadImages/kingkings06story.jpg

"RUN AWAY!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 06:47 (twenty years ago)

Having been in almost 20 tropical systems, they're definitely supercells. I've never seen a tropical storm or hurricane produce anything like that. The cloud cover's usually just an ominous flat wall of varying shades of grey.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: Let this bastard out, and you'll get whiplash! (Eastern Mantr, Saturday, 10 September 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

these are photos taken in the eye

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 10 September 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Those are beautiful! And all the moreso because you know that what's going on just under all that fluffy stuff is one of the most terrible things our atmosphere does.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

"Beautiful/Terrifying"

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 10 September 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

This is not Katrina. These photos appeared after Ivan as well, and it wasnt even that.

Snopes to the rescue:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/storm.asp

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 11 September 2005 05:13 (twenty years ago)

(I especially love how one attribution for those pics has been " Australian tornadoes, May 2005". Um.. we dont *get* tornadoes in australia. Cyclones on the northern coast but no tornadoes.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 11 September 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)

They are pretty, but my god, they shit me up. Just looking at that tornado pic upthread gives me shivers, and not in a good way.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Sunday, 11 September 2005 08:13 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, hurricanes look nothing like that when you're in them. Having been through half a dozen hurricanes and one tornado that demolished my home around me while I was in a walkin closet, I have to say that the tornado was more terrifying.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Sunday, 11 September 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

stupid

― 1212334444555566666677788899000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000----, Monday, 30 January 2006 00:58 (twenty years ago)

Ah, so this is the thread that promted a nice guy to politely email me and tell me we do get tornadeys in Aus. Been wondering what thread it was for ages.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 30 January 2006 01:03 (twenty years ago)

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