Storm chaser witnesses red and white cone over Nebraska field.
I was tornado chasing in the midwest for several weeks towards the end of May. I had stopped to watch a developing funnel cloud (somewhere near Omaha) from a safe distance when this object caught my eye to my left. It was round and somewhat cone shaped and appeared to spin. It looked metallic because even though it was overcast, it did produce a glare. The bottom portion of the object looked to be red in color, but I saw no lights of any sorts. At first I thought it might be a meteorological device that scientists use to actually get into the eye of a tornado. They are similar in shape and usually painted red and often are lifted and thrown great distances to later be picked up and studied. As I realized it was headed my way, I also realized that this was much too big to be such a device. This thing was at least 20ft in diameter or more and moving in a controlled manner. At that time I lifted my camera and took two photos before the object stopped for two seconds, hovered, and shot vertically at a very high rate of speed. Then it was gone. I was puzzled and in disbelief at what I had witnessed and immediately began trying to rationalize that this was some sort of debris from a nearby storm, but it simply wasn't.
((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))
I was tornado chasing in the midwest for several weeks towards the end of May. I had stopped to watch a developing funnel cloud (somewhere near Omaha) from a safe distance when this object caught my eye to my left. It was round and somewhat cone shaped and appeared to spin. It looked metallic because even though it was overcast, it did produce a glare. The bottom portion of the object looked to be red in color, but I saw no lights of any sorts. At first I thought it might be a meteorological device that scientists use to actually get into the eye of a tornado. They are similar in shape and usually painted red and often are lifted and thrown great distances to later be picked up and studied. As I realized it was headed my way, I also realized that this was much too big to be such a device. This thing was at least 20ft in diameter or more and moving in a controlled manner. At that time I lifted my camera and took two photos before the object stopped for two seconds, hovered, and shot vertically at a very high rate of speed. Then it was gone. I was puzzled and in disbelief at what I had witnessed and immediately began trying to rationalize that this was some sort of debris from a nearby storm, but it simply wasn't.
((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))
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Omaha
USA
1min 15sec
1min 15sec
41.25
-96.04
cone
NE
Occurred : 5/25/2004 14:00 (Entered as : 05/25/2004 14:00) Reported: 6/19/2004 1:08:16 AM 01:08 Posted: 6/23/2004 Location: Omaha (near), NE Shape: Cone Duration: 1min 15sec
Storm chaser witnesses red and white cone over Nebraska field.