See it: Storm chasers encounter twin tornadoes in Oklahoma
Storm chasers saw a rare weather phenomenon in Oklahoma on Thursday: A pair of tornadoes, one circling the other.
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby captured a rare sight as two tornadoes spun from the same storm over Osage County, Oklahoma, on April 26.
Rare twin tornadoes were spotted by storm chasers over the weekend in Oklahoma, during damaging severe thunderstorms in the Plains.
"I've got twins!" Storm Chaser Aaron Rigsby exclaimed Sunday while pursuing a storm in Osage County, Oklahoma. While Rigsby was filming two funnel clouds from the same thunderstorm, Storm Chaser Brandon Clement was filming them with a drone, showing both touch down as tornadoes.
"Based on the two videos, the two tornadoes were on the ground at the same time very briefly, becoming a short-lived twin tornado together," AccuWeather Lead Storm Warning Meteorologist Isaiah Schick said.
Storm Chaser Brandon Clement captured the formation of twin tornadoes with a drone near Foraker, Oklahoma, on April 26.
The most common way for twin tornadoes to form, Schick explained, is when a tornado begins to occlude, wrapping in existing cool and moist air. As the original tornado begins to weaken, the parent supercell begins to develop a new tornado in a more favorable environment.
The two tornadoes can be on the ground at the same time briefly, as the original tornado continues to weaken and dissipate.
Two tornados approach Pilger, Neb. The killer tornado story, in which twin tornadoes wreaked havoc in the northeastern town of Pilger, killing two and injures dozens was voted the No. 2 story of 2014 by Associated Press newspaper and broadcast members in Nebraska. (AP Photo/Eric Anderson, File)
Twin tornadoes are distinct from satellite tornadoes, which are usually weaker twisters rotating around the parent tornado, and multi-vortex tornadoes, which have vortices of strong winds rotating near the outside of the main funnel.
One of the most extreme examples of twin-tornado occurrences was the twin tornadoes that devastated the Pilger, Nebraska, area on June 16, 2014. Incredibly, both tornadoes were EF4 in strength on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and ended up crossing paths.
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