Tornado Warned Derecho, Watertown SD US 5/22

Wow !! I have finally had the chance to read all these comments. I had no idea this video would get so many views so thank you all for taking the time to watch it. Sorry I haven't replied individually as a generic reply is a lot easier lol. As I said I was not expecting this kind of a response to it. So here's the thing lol !! I live here in the UK so our dates our back to front lol, so I meant 05/12/22 ?? My bad !! We don't get a great deal of severe thunderstorms here. But when we do it usually happens between late June and September. I have always been fascinated by them and lucky for me I have family who live in MO and IL USA so I plan my visits to coincide with storm season in the US. The other voice in the video was my father who lives in IL. ( Long story lol ?? ) and we both enjoy a bit of storm chasing.  So we both started that day of the 12th not far from Minneapolis, checked the SPC's outlook on Twitter and headed towards SD/ND accordingly. We had driven up to Fargo ND and started to head down I29 and I picked Watertown SD as there was a hotel and somewhere to eat etc just off the interstate and after checking Radarscope and determining that by the time we got there, checked in and ordered food and a beer. It would hit. By doing this we didn't have to chase this storm any longer as it was now chasing us. So I thought I planned that perfectly lol. Now I thought Mammatus cloud normally follows a storm ?? This happened before it hit ?? In hindsight I wish I had kept the video running longer as we went back inside the bar we were in but we both felt that we should warn the other people inside to perhaps move away from the windows just in case. There was defiantly a funnel in the dark part of the video 100 percent. Bare in mind I was there before being too quick to judge. The camera didn't pick it up very well though as It was seriously rain wrapped there was no way to tell if I had touched down or not. I'm no meteorologist but I have been fascinated by thunderstorms since I was a kid and I have an interest in the subject and a desire to learn. My only regret is I didn't study it further when I was younger. I want to spend as much time in the US witnessing severe weather events in the hope that I can try an educate people here in the UK to be more weather wise as we are starting to get more and more severe weather as each year passes. 3 years ago we had record breaking heat ( Over 40C/104F ) around the 4th July and a QLCS battered most of England the following night. Maybe a yellow thunderstorm warning was issued by the Met Office but they are usually asleep at the wheel most of the time lol, unlike the NWS who are proper on it in my opinion !! The Met Office recorded 38.7C in Cambridge as a new official UK record that day, but my car temperature gage was at 43C and I was only in Peterborough at the time which is about 25 miles from Cambridge. So once again I would like to thank you all for watching and for all the comments, which I have taken onboard btw, and I hope to post more content soon. I enjoy a bit of constructive criticism as I find it helpful. Bare in mind I was there and despite the fact the iPhone 13 Pro has a pretty damn good camera on it and I was recording at 4K 60FPS the video of what I witnessed that day does not do it justice. Many Regards All and Stay Safe 😀😀😀😀 PS I found the curb side pick up at Walmart comment funny whoever sent that lmfao 😂😂

It was a derecho, there wasn't a rotation unless it was way in the back where the lightning was. Derecho still kick up debris but are a conglomerate of supercells bunched together combining energy and moving very quickly. Still very destructive, and very frightening and becoming more and more common.

I looked but i didnt see a tornado. That was a derecho yes, but all i saw were some updrafts that are common at the front of a derecho. Saw nothing actually spinning though.

The speed of the approaching storm made it look like a movie special effect. It just didn't look real - yet it was.

One of the best weather videos I've seen and the guy filming it did a nice job showing what was going on while keeping his shit together, that had to be one badass experience

Pretty amazing footage. Thank You for both capturing and then sharing this video.

You can get anything at Wal mart these days even a Tornado, Curbside pickup anyone?

I was in the same storm. Our whelen 4004 went off and we were hit by another tornado rated as an EF2. It was crazy!!

You sure do get some weather! That sunset after the storm was beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

That storm structure is unreal

I saw nothing close to a derecho, and I don't think the camera operator actually saw a tornado - not the way he was panning the camera around as if he was looking for it. He said he saw debris - all I saw was a cloud formation with updrafts. Someone said "wedge", but I saw nothing of the sort. The sirens going off don't prove anything - sometimes local authorities have itchy fingers.

You guys do realize there is such thing as rain wrapped tornados you never know there might have been a tornado i mean they usually put those sirens on for a reason

That was definitely an SLC. There was no rotation with what may or may not be an updraft. It is still ominous and scary to see such a formation of clouds in any event.

The beauty of the beast

Last summer, in Northampton MA, our emergency broadcast system alerted. I was driving,t he sky turned black so I pulled into a Walmart. I went in and everybody in the shop was moved to the rear of the store until the daner passed. Such Fun!

Yeah I live in Watertown I took cover for an hour long before it was over it was scary I thought I was going to die

Derechoes never form a tornado, because a derecho and a tornado are different types of severe thunderstorms, or at least, a derecho isn't a supercell exactly at all.

If you pause the video at 3:32 and look at the lightning you can see something forming in the backround

Looks similar to a tornado, but it could be a mixture of something. I mean rain wrapped tornadoes are so deadly.

Those sirens are eerie af.