Wow: Camera Goes Inside EF4 Tornado

An aerial photograph sent to weather.com this week shows the scar left behind from a western Kansas tornado last month.

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The Weather Channel Facebook friend Jane Ocker posted this incredible photo of the spiral-shaped tornado swath east-northeast  of Ensign, Kansas, about 10 miles southwest of Dodge City.

The National Weather Service forecast office in Dodge City confirmed that the photo was taken near the intersection of 102 Road and Ridge Road.

The darker loops you see over the farm fields, known as suction swaths, were first documented by pioneering tornado researcher Dr. Theodore Fujita during aerial surveys of the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. 

(MORE: 10 Worst U.S. Tornado Outbreaks)

In another damage survey two years later in Illinois, Fujita found these suction swaths in fields were actually composed of small piles of corn stubble or other debris deposited in rows up to six inches high.

Fujita later concluded these swaths were indicative of a tornado with multiple vortices, known as suction vortices.

(MORE: The Strangest Tornado Damage)

A multi-vortex tornado consists of two or more smaller tornadoes rotating around a larger axis, somewhat akin to the "teacup ride" at an amusement park.

These suction vortices can have winds from 80-100 mph stronger than the parent tornadic circulation, producing swaths of higher-end damage.

(MORE: Your Odds of Being Hit By a Tornado)

Fujita used these findings to explain how some homes in adjacent neighborhoods can be demolished while others are only lightly touched, if at all.

Unfortunately, the house in the left-center of the aerial photo took a direct hit from this EF3 tornado and was destroyed.

According to the NWS-Dodge City storm survey, several vehicles were tossed or dragged into nearby fields and power poles were broken and "carried a long distance."

One supercell was responsible for multiple tornadoes May 24, according to NWS-Dodge City. 

(MORE: Dodge City Missed a Disaster By Three Miles)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.

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