The catastrophic night in Kentucky

On the night of December 10th, I had just got to a good spot to park for a bit
and prepare all of my equipment. I'd jerry rigged a teather for my drone which
I didn't end up needing, and got my camera focused before it got dark. The
national weather service was calling for a decent potential of strong,
nocturnal tornadoes. I had bee chasing all season on my first year to no avail
when it came to tornadoes, but this was my chance.

I work nightshift and had just driven all day from Pennsylvania to chase these
storms in Western Kentucky, and the moment I laid down in my back seat to nap,
the first tornado warning popped off to my East. I made an attempt at it, but
the thing was moving so unbelievably fast that I gave up and focused on the
cells to my West. A tornado had just dropped down in Jonesboro Arkansas, and
judging from the projected path of the storm, I decided I could head south
southwest and get right into the storm right around the Paducah/Mayfield area.

As it turns out, I went right through downtown Mayfield heading due West about
30 minutes before it was hit. I don't chicken out easy, but I got a strange
feeling - almost like a stomach ache - and veered South on a whim and skirted
right past the hook echo signature on the radar - the signature on radar that
indicates a tornado. If it hadn't also been that I wanted to avoid rain so I
could get some decent images, I would have conintued with my original plan to
perform a core punch. I would most likely not be here if I had coninuted. This
thing was an absolute monster, and I had actually very likely got a picture of
it in the distance and not realized it at the time. I stayed with some people
in Mayfield that night that had suffered a tremendous loss, and when the sun
came up, I put my drone in the area and captured the shocking destruction.

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>Noah Stainbrook >

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