The Most Unusual Tornado Sound Ever Captured

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This is may be one of the most important observations made in the 49-year history of storm chasing. It is of a vortex breakdown as a Wisconsin tornado lifted earlier this week. You can hear it, here. You can hear it farther away and from a different direction, here.

There is a discussion of what occurred at the first link as well as here. 

As it turns out, there was a peer-reviewed paper on this this topic in the Journal of Atmospheric Science and, based on the science presented, the most likely explanation is that the vortex broke down in a way that caused the winds to exceed the speed of sound for a split second. 

For those of us of a certain age, the sound resembles that heard on The Adventures of Superman when George Reeves landed. 
The next time someone tries to tell you there is no value to storm chasing, remember that the observations we have made confirmed the existence of downbursts, the value of Doppler radar and now that this type of vortex breakdown occurs in the atmosphere. 

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