The Observations of Tornadoes by UAV Systems (OTUS) project is an effort to gather reliable measurements of the environment within & surrounding a tornado.
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The best dataset we collected this year was on the Jeffersonville, IL EF1 tornado on June 21. One of our drones completed numerous direct passes through the center of the vortex, providing us with a treasure trove of data on the latter half of the tornado’s life cycle that we will be doing thorough research and analysis on. This flight is especially valuable because we were able to observe in depth during changes in surface roughness between open fields and thick forest, causing dramatic changes in the turbulence and structure near ground level.
- Nelson Tucker
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The OTUS 2026 tornado of the year was the Tulliby Lake, Alberta EF3 on July 11… the most photogenic sight we have flown on.
What are your "Tornado of the Year" candidates so far for 2026?
Feel free to reply with photos, videos, or any information on the tornado you think deserves consideration! I'm starting to compile a list for my annual 2026 Tornado of the Year competition later this year.
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The tornado just earlier near Mattoon WI @NWSGreenBay
OTUS deployed on a tornado but was slightly too far to risk in forest, drone confirmed it was completely condensated to the ground, just east of Mattoon, WI @NWSGreenBay #wiwx 8pm CT
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OTUS Project retweeted
OTUS deployed on a tornado but was slightly too far to risk in forest, drone confirmed it was completely condensated to the ground, just east of Mattoon, WI @NWSGreenBay #wiwx 8pm CT
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OTUS Project retweeted
The Tulliby Lake, Alberta EF3 tornado on July 11 with @project_otus was such an unbelievable spectacle that I can hardly stop pondering it. After the traffic of peak season, it’s a humbling, rare, and beautiful gift to experience a top tier event in near solitude. #abstorm
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A tornado-supercell perspective like none captured before. Almost three days later we are still wrapping our minds around the wonder of the Tulliby Lake, Alberta tornado.
With this speed-ramped clip from our 360, you see large oil tanks (4-8 tons empty) being knocked over and a grove of trees demolished as the twister moves onto the lake surface, illuminating the subvortices near ground level. At the same time we can see the entire tornadic structure, wall cloud, RFD cut, billowing updraft and fanning out anvil cloud 12 miles above - complete with a double rainbow.
Sadly, just downwind a house was swept clean from its foundation and vehicles launched into shredded forest, but fortunately, the home was unoccupied at the time.
We have a lot of data analysis to do, but we will share both findings and amazing video perspectives like this over time on our socials!
- Nelson Tucker
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The oil tanks and downed trees at the start of this clip (second video in Trenten’s tweet):
Oil bins tipped over by the tornado at multiple sites in the area one along range road 20 and the other on the west side of Two Hills Lake NE of Tulliby Lake Alberta
July 12, 2026
#abstorm
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No words. Here is a peak at one of our most incredible drone flights around a #tornado to date near Tulliby Lake, AB.
The odds were completely stacked against us on this one, but thanks to some determination to make the 18 hour drive up here pulling an all-nighter, and brilliant forecasting by Nelson Tucker we were able to see this beauty.
This will likely be one of our last intercepts of the season, thank you so much to everyone for following along as we press on to properly measure tornadoes to push weather science forward!
#stormchasing #nature #weather
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OTUS Project retweeted
Phenomenal @project_otus chase today with structure/tornado combo at Hubbell, NE. Two drone intercepts with data on this, will be out tomorrow searching/recovering drones - if you’re in the area with a camera drone and have some time would love the help!
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Drone inside rope tornado 5 mins ago lime springs IA @NWSLaCrosse new wall cloud rapidly rotating now
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We are excited to announce that OTUS is officially sponsored by @BambulabGlobal! This is a HUGE step forward for the science we’re doing.
This will accelerate our progress in getting usable data inside of tornadoes & streaming our drone feeds back live to help ultimately protect life & property.
Thank you to Bambu Labs Let’s Make It Fund for taking the chance on us, we are excited to show the world how you can create anything using 3D printing and that Bambu Lab printers are the best way to do it (we’ve been using them personally since OTUS was born in 2024).
If you all see us mention them in posts, make sure to show them support and you all for following us on this journey!
#BambuLab #theotusproject
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OTUS Project retweeted
Launching an @project_otus drone into a tornado at Hitterdal / Ulen, MN this evening - had the ground circulation pass approx 100 yards in front of us a minute before at tornadogenesis. #mnwx
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The Jeffersonville, IL tornado was our first intercept over forest, and we are excited by what we can learn from how tornadoes interact differently with varying surface roughness.
During the flight we can see areas where trees were snapped and uprooted, while at other points the vortex has less effect at the surface. We are eager to dive into the dataset we collected to learn more about tornado-surface interactions!
- @TornadoStudy
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Upon further video review, OTUS flew through a confirmed GARY WIGGLE during the Jeffersonville, IL tornado flight 🌪️🚨
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Yesterday OTUS deployed a drone into the rain-wrapped Charleston, IL Wedge Tornado (preliminary EF2)
Huge thank you to @maxvelocitywx for featuring our intercept live and for allowing us to use the stream for our content.
This was a very tricky chase, with storm speeds up to 60mph. We got close to other tornadoes but road networks made getting in range tough.
More footage to follow soon!
#tornado #theotusproject #dronepilot
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A look INSIDE the Jameson, MO multivortex tornado yesterday🌪️
We are still have NOT found the drone, and will do a full search in the coming days. If anyone is in the area and would like to help, let us know!
We’re hoping to get it back soon to start processing the data & 360 footage
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