There were 18 thousand photos made on purpose for this purpose, which now, after hundreds of hours of work in choosing, editing and producing, give rise to a video of 3 minutes and 54 seconds in timelapse, showing how tornadoes and other storms that plague the famous Tornado alley, in the United States of America.
The video, entitled «Atmos» (from the Greek ἀτμός, which means water vapor, gas…), has just been released on the website of extreme atmosphere, being the result of the work of Bruno Goncalves, the young Algarve tornado hunter, who this year, from May 27th to June 5th, went to the United States for the third time…and finally saw and photographed tornadoes.
«The technique of timelapse allows the photographic record of the evolution of the various meteorological phenomena over time and then joins all those hundreds or thousands of photographs into a small clip video, speeding up “time” and making it possible to understand all the small details of the growth of clouds, the development of a storm, the power of a thunderstorm», explains Bruno Gonçalves.
This is not the first time that the travels and activities of members of the Extreme Atmosphere have resulted clips de timelapse. But never until now had the images been so spectacular, nor the work of producing the short video so gigantic. «Only exporting the plans, I spent 150 hours on the computer. Outside the hours of editing work. And now it all comes down to 4 minutes of video», said Bruno, in an interview with Sul Informação.
After having been in the Tornado alley, a vast area in the center of the United States of America, twice before (in 2015 and 2018), always with a group of others stormchasers (storm chasers) Portuguese, members of the Troposfera, the environmental engineer from Câmara de Lagoa decided to travel in different ways, in May and June.
«This year, the opportunity arose to join a group, with a famous tornado hunter (Brett Wright) It is like Mike Olbinski, one of the best timelapsers of US storms. The opportunity arose and I threw myself forward», Bruno Gonçalves told our newspaper. And he lived ten very, very intense days, “of great learning”.
“This time, I wanted to learn more, to better understand the whole process, in order to make better predictions. I also wanted to learn more about photography of this type of weather phenomenon and about timelapse».
«I wanted to know the daily life of American tornado hunters, to know their procedures. And I even found out that what they do is what we did when we were there. But they have a lot more experience!»
The starting point was Denver, Colorado, but then the group of tornado hunters passed through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico. «We walked these ten days always aimlessly, at the whim of the winds». Literally.
On the day of arrival, when he went to put his bags at the hotel, «we left and, half an hour later, we had a tornado in front of us».
On the first effective day, the 27th of May, Bruno was to hunt supercells after lunchtime, with Mike Olbinski and the rest of the group. "We saw five or six, consecutive". With cameras in hand (a photograph, a video and a gopro), the young Portuguese amateur meteorologist recorded as many images as he could.
But the best was yet to come. That same day, in Nebraska, at a place called Imperial, a supercell appeared in front of them. “There were hunters there with many years of experience and they said that this one from Imperial was in the top3 of what they had seen! And it really was a fantastic supercell».
«The first day of tour it was absolutely magnificent and, after a few hours hunting other equally beautiful supercells, we arrived in the Imperial area, in Nebraska, where this supercell developed and presented us with this fantastic image, minutes before it became even more epic», explains Bruno Gonçalves , in the photo album you have been posting on your Facebook wall.
And how does it feel to see a structure like Imperial's up close? “It's indescribable. I was there with people with enormous experience, like Mike Olbinski, and they all said “epic!”, “wonderful!”. My mouth dropped open, marveling at that structure, which is nothing more than water vapor rising into the atmosphere», said Bruno Gonçalves.
This supercell gave rise to several tornadoes, although barely visible, as they formed within intense precipitation zones.
The group's objective was to record the phenomenon in images, so they always kept 'further away from the supercells, in order to be able to understand the structures, instead of going closer. It's safer, but the goal is to see and record all the dynamics, it's not about being taken away by tornadoes», he summarizes.
After having been twice in the United States to hunt tornadoes, without having seen much, this time Bruno returned with the full tummy. "This year was an above-average year" in terms of extreme weather events in the lands of Uncle Sam. “Last year was the worst, there was almost nothing…I mean, the worst for us tornado hunters. For the population, it was five stars», corrects Bruno, with a laugh.
Now that he has more experience, Bruno reveals that “I wish something more could come out of this activity. In addition to being able to go there myself and experience this, next year I'm thinking about organizing a trip for Portuguese photographers and other interested ones, to take them there to Tornado alley». For now it's just an idea…but when Bruno gets an idea in his head…
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