Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Welcome to Ancient Air Theatre! This is some fun film commentary about a tornado event in the Texas panhandle from May 28, 1980 in the Tulia and Wellington, Texas region. All of the films showcased were provided by meteorologist Dr. Erik N. Rasmussen, scanned at The Chicago Film Archives and permanently archived at the Southwest Collections Library at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas in October 2023.
Enjoy the movies!
Welcome to Ancient Air Theatre! This is some fun film commentary about a tornado event in the Texas panhandle from May 28, 1980 in the Tulia and Wellington, Texas region. All of the films showcased were provided by meteorologist Dr. Erik N. Rasmussen, scanned at The Chicago Film Archives and permanently archived at the Southwest Collections Library at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas in October 2023.
Enjoy the movies!

![Weather Segment with Dave Whitford on WZZM 13 | 1991
These are two weather broadcasts with [former] meteorologist Dave Whitford on WZZM 13 ABC in Grand Rapids, Michigan from presumably July 1991. At the time all three stations in West Michigan had live operational radar systems, both conventional and Doppler. While Im not aware of the specific date of these broadcasts, they were from sometime in the late summer of that active weather year!
Enjoy! Weather Segment with Dave Whitford on WZZM 13 | 1991](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o3MhvDiU58s/mqdefault.jpg)


![April 21, 1967 Northern Illinois Tornadoes
A deadly tornado outbreak transpired across the Midwest and western Great Lakes on April 21, 1967. Significant tornadoes swept through the communities of Belvidere and shortly thereafter Lake Zurich and Oak Lawn, Illinois. 58 people died and thousands others sustained personal injuries. Locally for several generations this day became known as Black Friday, nor has there been a repeat of this event in the decades since, although a few events have come close in geographic occurrences and intensity [Lamont 1976, Plainfield 1990, and Chicago, west suburbs, 2023].
This Universal Newsreel chronicles only a brief glimpse of the tornado aftermath. Further information on the April 21, 1967 tornado outbreak can be accessed here: https://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes
Film © 1967 UPI, Universal Newsreel. April 21, 1967 Northern Illinois Tornadoes](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p7gbJv8AcoY/mqdefault.jpg)


![Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team, April 1998, WSBT-TV Segments
In April 1998, WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana produced a two-part feature on the Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team [VUSIT]. These were recorded off-air from the original broadcasts. I visited the meteorology department and later applied at Valpo in 1998. Although ultimately I was not accepted due to abysmal initial math test scores and eventually attended Western Michigan University for geography/meteorology/GIS, the small Midwestern meteorology department was just one of two others that were within the Great Lakes region [those being Ball State and College of DuPage]. Central Michigan University or Purdue University did not have academic storm chase programs at the time. This is a fun time capsule with several familiar faces whom went on to fruitful careers in broadcast meteorology, forecasting work at the Storm Prediction Center and other routes entirely.
Enjoy!
Video © WSBT-TV. Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team, April 1998, WSBT-TV Segments](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qDOpECsTuOI/mqdefault.jpg)


