Second wave of tornadoes rakes Plains (CNN)

Sometimes when reading news articles on destructive weather systems I am thankful that the UK has such a benign climate. We rarely have any violent weather at all.

The Mid-US on the other hand has tornado alley and this weekend has seen some horrific destruction including 90% destruction of the town of Greensburg, Kansas. In the central business district only the court house and the town's one bar was left standing.

On Saturday there were over 75 tornado touchdowns and in the wake of such destruction several areas have been declared major disaster areas by the federal government.

It is also clear from the CNN article that the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina has not been forgotten:

"We're not going to let a disaster happen here like what happened with Katrina. We're going to take care of people first and then help this city rebuild."

- Todd Tiahrt, Republican member of the US House of Representatives

With Tornadoes come the storm chasers a mix of scientists and amateurs who chase storms getting footage and carrying out research. One such group posts up the footage on tornadovideos.net. They also post on YouTube so have a look at this post taken over the week end where they have a close encounter with a tornado.