Tornado Caught on Tape

A strong cold front slowly sagging through the southern Plains kicked off some intense thunderstorms over parts of west Texas and the Panhandle earlier this afternoon. The storms formed over a very compact area but packed quite a punch, causing damaging winds, large hail and even a brief tornado. Check out this video from near Silverton, TX:

This storm was very impressive on radar for over an hour, maintaining a classic supercell structure. Check out some of the radar images:

 Around the time the image below was captured, a Mesonet station at Silverton High School measured a wind gust of 66mph...trained spotters and storm chasers reported seeing a tornado on the ground a short time later, as the cell moved east of Silverton.