Brett Adair on January 22nd 2012 caught great video of one of the Tornadoes at struck near the town of Dewitt, Arkansas. While much is not visible in the tornado you can clearly see power flashes pretty close to Brett’s position. Power flashes are one of the tell-tale signs of a tornado at night. As I explained yesterday it is going to be very difficult to get some good video of this tornado outbreak. The power flashes in this video as the tornado approaches Brett are near the 32 second mark. Significant lightning is also seen in the video.
Power flashes are caused by the tornado striking power lines. When tornadoes hit power lines the lines often cross and cause an electrical short and nearby transformers will literally explode. Without these transformers exploding you would have not known a tornado is near – which is one of the major dangers of tornado chasing at night.