Engineers Catch Funnel Cloud in Action

“Dorothy?! Dorothy!!”
Don’t look now, but that’s a funnel in the photo, dropping out of the clouds behind radio engineer Aaron Winski. His friend Andy Andresen took the picture Tuesday evening in Oneida, Ill. No sign of Toto, though.
You can see the image at http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/aaron_winski.shtml.
The engineers were atop a 100-foot tower doing work for a cable TV contract client, preparing to install some HDTV off-air antennas. Winski says the funnel “dropped down, and then eventually back up, but came out of nowhere, and fortunately skirted about 4 miles away from us.”
He said the weather system was moving in a different direction, so the engineers didn’t feel endangered. He said he saw no wind, rain, lightning or noise.
“It popped down, took shape and went back up. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said, adding, “I hope.”