PhotoFiles: It's a Twister! Nebraska tornadoes through history
In the pre-digital photography era, it's a near miracle anyone took pictures of tornadoes. Fortunately they did, and today we can marvel at the moxie it must have taken to capture images of these monsters.
It's a Twister!
A tornado picks up debris outside of Hebron in 1965. A photographer for the Hebron Register newspaper was able to capture this clear shot of the funnel right as it reached the ground.
It's a Twister!
A tornado approaches Milford in 1964.
It's a Twister!
A tornado tears across the Plains southwest of Ord in 1961. Harold Holoun got this picture from his father's farm.
It's a Twister!
Farmer Wallace Peterson got this shot of a tornado 1¼ miles south of his rural Nebraska homestead in 1968.
It's a Twister!
A still-forming tornado approaches a stalled train near Grand Island in 1990. The storm would eventually derail 24 cars several cars back from the engine. Note the silhouettes of the two daredevil engineers standing on top of their machine in the lower left corner.
It's a Twister!
This is a tornado in its infancy. This thunderhead near Stromsburg spawned a series of tornadoes across south-central Nebraska in 1968.
It's a Twister!
A low, wide funnel cloud dips below the horizon near Auburn in 1963. Witnesses said the cloud was at least a half-mile wide.
It's a Twister!
It may look small, but it's mighty. A funnel cloud contemplates whether it should visit the ground 10 miles west of Nebraska City in 1972.
It's a Twister!
One of the factors that make tornadoes so dangerous is how hard it often is to see the funnel clouds before they reach the ground. A fledgling tornado is barely visible in this 1977 photo from rural Walton.
It's a Twister!
The same funnel cloud near Walton quickly tightened up and made itself more visible.
It's a Twister!
This thin tendril of swiftly rotating clouds doesn't look like much. But its location directly over Grand Island in 1982 was nerve-wracking for the thousands of people who lived there. Luckily, none of the three funnels from this storm touched down inside the city.
It's a Twister!
An ominous funnel cloud is seen through torrential rains from 5400 Orchard Street in Lincoln in 1961.
It's a Twister!
This undated photo from rural Nebraska was used as an educational tool by the General Adjustment Bureau of New York City in the 1980s to illustrate what kind of monster could cause such damage on the plains. Those city boys don't know what they're missing out here!
It's a Twister!
A great white devil of a twister nears the Edgar Klein farm in northeast Stromsburg in 1968.
It's a Twister!
This photo defies both death and time. Taken from the heart of Hildreth, this tornado touched down and terrorized the town in 1908. The picture is more than 100 years old.
It's a Twister!
Talk about a near miss. A sinister-looking funnel cloud skirts north Lincoln in 1975 but never touched down. The photo was taken from the observation deck of the Capitol (not a safe place to be in a tornado). In the next edition of PhotoFiles, we'll show you what could have become of the Capital City had it touched down. That's right. Next time is the aftermath of tornadoes. We'll see you after the storm clears.
The Experimental Aircraft Association is offering continuous rides Thursday, from 2-5 p.m. and Friday to Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Lincoln Airport.
