Through the end of September, there had been 1180 tornadoes reported in the United States. But only 850 actual tornadoes had been confirmed (as of the end of June), and 2009 appears poised to fall well below the three-year average of 1,297.

Kansas has a preliminary total of 87 tornadoes so far this year, though that number may well decrease as officials find multiple reports of the same tornado.

There have been 21 tornado fatalities this year – none in Kansas.

Brandon Ivey knows it. Matt Hughes knows it. So do almost every other serious researcher, photographer or scientist who chases storms.

I’ve been told by some chasers there’s even an informal pool on when it’s going to take place. Chasers are taking bigger and bigger risks to get that piece of video no one else has, or to gather that scientific data that could provide a breakthrough in understanding the trigger for or sustaining mechanism of large tornadoes. That can reduce the margin for error to the size of a sliver.

But I suspect the more likely scenario will be something similar to what Ivey and Hughes described from last April: a cluster of chasers so tightly bunched on a remote rural road that they can’t take sufficient evasive action when a tornado takes an unexpected turn…or someone dies in a collision caused by efforts to flee the tornado.

Law enforcement and emergency management officials have complained to me in the past about the chaser convergences that have only intensified in recent years. But how do you separate legitimate researchers from local yokels seeking a thrill or tornado tourists who have paid healthy sums to come from across the country – or even from around the world – to witness a tornado firsthand?

Especially in the midst of an outbreak, when law enforcement officers are focused on doing what they can to preserve public safety?

It’s a tragedy waiting to happen, and solutions are hard to come by – particularly in a nation that celebrates freedoms.

The tornado touched down at about 1:50 p.m. in south Minneapolis, then moved virtually straight north toward downtown before lifting near the Convention Center at about 2 p.m. The track was about 4.5 miles long, with a maximum width of about 500 yards – though the most intense damage occurred along a path perhaps 250 yards wide.

Here’s a map of the track, which I find remarkable for how straight it was for most of its length.

There were 28 tornado reports on Wednesday in six different states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

A storm damage survey team from the National Weather Service was still working its way along the damage path today, and no Fujita rating had been assigned as of early afternoon.

However, the agency’s Web site posted this description of the track: “It was a tornado which touched down in south Minneapolis, initially near East 53rd and Park Avenues. The tornado then moved north from that location toward downtown, and lifted near the Minneapolis Convention Center. The most intense damage was found along and near Portland Ave between East 45th St and 43rd St. Numerous trees were downed in this area, with damage to a number of homes as well.”

You may be wondering why I’m sharing information about a tornado that hits in Minnesota. It’s another piece of evidence that dispels the myth that tornadoes won’t hit the downtown area of a major metropolitan city.

The Kansas counties included in the watch are Barber, Chautauqua, Commerce, Cowley, Harper and Sumner.

No injuries have been reported. Here’s a photo of the tornado near I-35, as posted on Twitpic.

More photos of damage in Minneapolis are being posted as the afternoon unfolds.

When she was a student at Brooks Institute, a prestigious photography school in Santa Barbara, Calif., Robin Lorenson was often asked what she wanted to do with what she was learning there.

“I’d tell them, “I want to be a storm photographer,’” she told me. “All my instructors were like, ‘Why are you here?’”

She was, after all, studying the industrial science of photography – not how to take pretty pictures of storm clouds. But Lorenson said she enjoyed the instruction nonetheless.

“Weather is my passion, but photography is also my passion,” she said.

Her training at Brooks has been valuable since she returned to her home state of Kansas and began photographing weather, she said.

“It’s helped me immensely…it’s been unbelievable,” said Lorenson, 29, a native of Salina.

She will be showing examples of severe weather that she has photographed over the past year or so during Final Friday tonight. Her show will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Picture Framing & More, 323 N. Mead, in Old Town Square.

She saw her first tornado on May 8, 2008, on the high plains of western Kansas – a landspout that gained notoriety among storm chasers and others because of Lorenson’s video of weather photographer Jim Reed running toward the stationary tornado in the final moments before it dissipated.

“I was like, ‘It’s a landspout, this is awesome! Oh, my gosh! What’s he doing?’ when he took off running toward it,” Lorenson said of Reed, with whom she had an internship while taking courses at Brooks.

Her most memorable storm chase came later that same month, when she and Reed were driving through northwest Kansas. Multiple tornadoes had touched down near Quinter in Gove County. They were returning to Hays, convinced the violent weather had ended for the evening.

“It’s dark, and all of a sudden we get a report of two tornadoes heading north, and lo and behold they’re within a quarter mile of us – and I can’t see them,” Lorenson said. “That struck a nerve.”

Her father committed suicide when she was 12, Lorenson said, and she found solace and healing in being outdoors and losing herself in studying the weather.

“It was my way of spending time with him,” she said. “It helped me cope and deal with everything, sitting outside in the wind and rain.”

But that night, she said, “my coping mechanism turned into one of my triggers.”

She worked through those emotions with the help of a therapist, and hopes to find a way to use her weather photography as a way to help others heal.

Stuart Robinson, a storm chaser from Leicestershire, England, was among those who were able to photograph the EF1 tornado that touched down near Belpre on June 15. He told me he shot this about 3.5 miles south of the small Edwards County town.

According to a storm survey by the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down at 5:56 p.m. about 6 miles southwest of Belpre and dissipated at 6 p.m. about 4 miles southeast of Belpre. No injuries were reported, but storm chasers who saw the tornado told me they were impressed by its strength.

But there was one undisputed star on the team: the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, or TIV. Its mission – seriously – was to drive into a tornado and collect scientific data while inside.

“It strikes a chord with people,” said Don Burgess, a research scientist for the University of Oklahoma who was part of the Vortex2 team.

“There is this interest that people in general have with tornadoes,” Burgess said. “It’s a realization of that strong power of the universe.
“Something that can challenge that or get close to that or get inside it kind of reveals nature to them, so they find it interesting.”

The TIV looks like a modified tank, with a turret for a camera and windows so the three-person crew has expanded visibility. The crew sits in race car seats with head restraints and 6-point seatbelts. They can even put on Kevlar vests and helmets for added protection.

Butler County officials told me they documented a total of 8 brief touchdowns by tornadoes that evening. Other than some tree damage, however, no injuries or building destruction were reported.