Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
June 8, 1951 stands out in United States tornado history as being one of the earliest known silent home motion picture films taken of a tornado at Corn, Oklahoma by resident John Gossen. Two violent tornadoes, one of which was anticyclonic, caused significant damage to the small community as showcased in the film and later classified as F4 on the original Fujita scale of tornado damage intensity. These films were primarily reserved for educational clips over the decades, yet it was not until The Tornado Project issued the first of a four-part VHS video series about tornado video history in 1992, along with a 1994 documentary by The Weather Channel entitled "Target Tornado" that the film gained broader notice.
A few years later in 1995, it was discovered that a 1933 Pathé motion picture film made in Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba was the earliest known motion picture of a vortex. That film can be viewed here: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/video/funnel-cloud-forming-above-land-mass-at-santa-cruz-del-news-footage/1178752329
A KWTV 9 story on the original footage can be read/viewed here: news9.com/story/5e35b49083eff40362bef2b3/corn-resident-one-of-first-to-capture-tornado-on-motion-pictures-59-years-ago
Motion picture films of tornadoes were relatively rare from 1951 onward until the advent of affordable 8mm and Super 8mm motion picture film cameras in the mid to late 1960's.
Original 16mm Film © John Gossen, courtesy the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Film to videotape transfer of original film.
June 8, 1951 stands out in United States tornado history as being one of the earliest known silent home motion picture films taken of a tornado at Corn, Oklahoma by resident John Gossen. Two violent tornadoes, one of which was anticyclonic, caused significant damage to the small community as showcased in the film and later classified as F4 on the original Fujita scale of tornado damage intensity. These films were primarily reserved for educational clips over the decades, yet it was not until The Tornado Project issued the first of a four-part VHS video series about tornado video history in 1992, along with a 1994 documentary by The Weather Channel entitled "Target Tornado" that the film gained broader notice.
A few years later in 1995, it was discovered that a 1933 Pathé motion picture film made in Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba was the earliest known motion picture of a vortex. That film can be viewed here: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/video/funnel-cloud-forming-above-land-mass-at-santa-cruz-del-news-footage/1178752329
A KWTV 9 story on the original footage can be read/viewed here: news9.com/story/5e35b49083eff40362bef2b3/corn-resident-one-of-first-to-capture-tornado-on-motion-pictures-59-years-ago
Motion picture films of tornadoes were relatively rare from 1951 onward until the advent of affordable 8mm and Super 8mm motion picture film cameras in the mid to late 1960's.
Original 16mm Film © John Gossen, courtesy the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Film to videotape transfer of original film.
