Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Dark Days of August is a half hour broadcast special about Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 from inception to impact, aftermath and beyond. It was briefly made available on home video for a few years. This is the original broadcast premiere on The Weather Channel from late 1992.
© 1992 The Weather Channel, All Rights Reserved.
Dark Days of August is a half hour broadcast special about Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 from inception to impact, aftermath and beyond. It was briefly made available on home video for a few years. This is the original broadcast premiere on The Weather Channel from late 1992.
© 1992 The Weather Channel, All Rights Reserved.




![Tornado Rockets with Sterling Colgate, May 22, 1981
Sterling Colgate was a physicist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In the spring of 1981, Colgate attempted to launch instrumented rocket packets into the various stages of tornadoes to attempt to measure heat from electrical discharges that, in theory, aided in strengthening vortex intensity. One such instance and perhaps the most noteworthy transpired on May 22, 1981 near Alfalfa, Oklahoma. Very independent by nature, Colgate piloted the aircraft, operated [by remote] a sound Super 8mm film camera and launched the rockets himself. Due to severe turbulence around the mesocyclone, none of the rockets penetrated the vortex. Colgate made an emergency landing on a nearby road shortly after the film was taken, but was fortunately not injured. All attempts by Colgate to launch rockets by aircraft were discontinued after this event.
This segment on Sterling Colgate is from the 1992 production of Tornado Video Classics Vol. 1 by Environmental Films and illustrates the great difficulty of this attempted project.
For a ground view of the rocket launch by air, go to the :30 mark of this 16mm film by Dr. Erik Rasmussen, taken near Alfalfa, Oklahoma: https://youtu.be/FmEDpidG11k
Original films provided by Sterling Colgate to The Tornado Project, © 1992. Tornado Rockets with Sterling Colgate, May 22, 1981](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/afhKGEFyat4/mqdefault.jpg)

![Columbus, Nebraska Tornado Videos, June 23, 1998
On the evening of June 23, 1998, a supercell thunderstorm produced an awesome and at times terrifying tornado display through the countryside of Platte and Colfax County, Nebraska, specifically around the Columbus region. Several residents recorded views of this significant tornado on videotape, three of which are featured in this composite video produced and made available by a local Nebraska cable access channel.
The final video in the series, recorded by Andy Olmer, became known as the crazy farmer footage by various storm chasers and meteorologists who circulated VHS videotape copies by word of mouth trade in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A lone utterance by farmer Olmer: Susan, get my pants was forever cemented into tornado video history from this point on, and why not! This incredible vortex display as it approached the Olmer farmstead, along with its vortex breakdown, is one of the most spectacular ever documented on home video in the late 1990s. It was never clear if Olmer ever obtained the requested pants prior to seeking shelter.
National Geographic followed up with Andy Olmer years later in this separate 2005 piece: https://youtu.be/IUj0IzcN1vA?si=LpK9aAn6XqVyY8M4
Other aspects of the storm included softball or larger size hail falling to earth as the tornado approached along with fantastic supercell mesocyclone structure from other perspectives. Two farmhouses were destroyed with six others severely damaged. 17 injuries were attributed to the tornado along with F2-rated [original scale] property damage.
Video © 1998 to all noted videographers. Columbus, Nebraska Tornado Videos, June 23, 1998](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bCQ_C_uMUts/mqdefault.jpg)

![WWMT-TV News 3 Severe Weather Special | March 1991
WWMT News 3 | The 1991 Severe Weather Special: This WWMT-TV 3 broadcast originally aired at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 25, 1991, two days shy of a tornado outbreak across the Great Lakes region. The 1991 weather special, hosted by the then TV-3 weather staff Ron Boyd, Keith Thompson and John Wendell, was widely recorded on home video locally in West Michigan, utilized by teachers and educational outlets for several years in the early to mid 1990s. All of the elements of a classic local broadcast television severe weather special are presented. Local severe weather history, public awareness with Kalamazoo County Civil Defense, area school visits with then chief meteorologist John Wendell, interviews with the National Weather Service in Muskegon, Michigan [now Grand Rapids], winter weather awareness and additional pointers.
Video from the March 27, 1991 tornado outbreak in the Great Lakes two days after this special broadcast can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/6FY4wK957kQ
Produced by Noel Sederstrom and the production staff at WWMT-TV 3.
© WWMT-TV 3 Kalamazoo, Michigan, All Rights Reserved.
Remastered from 3/4/SVHS videotape into 1080p by Blake Naftel. WWMT-TV News 3 Severe Weather Special | March 1991](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cBXDOMLroz4/mqdefault.jpg)

