By now you've probably seen pictures of Hurricane Sandy circulating the Internet. Many of these photos have been forwarded to the KJRH Channel 2. Are they real? Here's the scoop:
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| A supercell thunderstorm is pictured here, and the Statue of Liberty is pasted in the foreground. Two real pictures, but not real together. The background storm picture was taken in 2004 by Nebraska storm chaser Mike Hollingshead. |
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| No, not from Hurricane Sandy. This supercell storm photo was likely taken in the Plains. Hurricanes don't look near this ominous from ground level. |
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| This view of the iconic Tomb of the Unknown soldier is a real picture, but it was taken earlier this year. The rain from Sandy would have resembled this. | | | | | |
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| Fake. No, the waves were not 100-200 feet tall! |
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| Look familiar? From the movie the Perfect Storm. |
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| I sure hope this is fake. 1,000 foot waves would not be good! |
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| Yes! It's definitely a real picture. ;) |
Note: You will rarely see actual hurricane pictures of "interesting" or "cool-looking" clouds from ground level. Hurricanes are so large that the cloud layers aren't obvious from close range. Instead of the individual bands or layers which are easily spotted in supercell thunderstorms, hurricane clouds look one shade of gray. The bottom of the clouds are also much closer to the ground than Oklahoma storms.
Another interesting to note: lightning is rare in hurricanes!
Hopefully this info helps... George
