There’s a good chance that you’ve already seen the incredible footage: a tornado forming on the west side of Springfield, MA at the outset of a storm that killed four people earlier this week (video above).
The video has been featured on “The Early Show,” “Good Morning America,” and other national news shows but few are aware of where the dramatic footage originated. It turns out that it came from Springfield CBS-affiliate WSHM.
The Meredith-owned station was doing live tornado coverage from the Monarch Tower in downtown Springfield when a tornado took shape nearby. The station’s rooftop camera captured the dramatic video as chief meteorologist Brandon Butcher warned viewers about the severity of the storm happening outside.
“It was certainly a surreal experience being on camera and looking out your own glassed-in building windows at the same time,” Butcher told TVSpy via email. “The tornado was actually rattling debris against our glass during the coverage, and sucking wind up the elevator shafts and forcing stairwell doors shut.”
“All sorts of damage all around us, but as you see in the video, the tornado seemed to curve around us somehow.”