that is a monster tornado. reporter: battle hardened storm chasers in awe of nature s power. oh, my gosh. this is awful. dude, the trees. the trees are debarked! reporter: residents running for cover anywhere they could. in a crowded convenience store some 20 people hunkering down in a darkened commercial refrigerator. can we go in the cooler? [ screaming ] go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missouri, will rebuild, but it will
reporter: battle hardened storm chasers in awe of nature s power. oh, my gosh. this is awful. dude, the trees. the trees are debarked! reporter: residents running for cover anywhere they could. in a crowded convenience store some 20 people hunkering down in a darkened commercial refrigerator. can we go in the cooler? [ screaming ] go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missouri, will rebuild, but it will never be the same. hello an
like a hot-air baa log. the sun comes out to warm the ground and the air wants to rise. as the air rises into space it goes up higher and higher and gets into colder and colder air. so all the particles start to congeal down here. all the humidity comes in and then it goes straight up in the air. you can see the towering cumulus clouds, a lot like everything in the northern hemisphere that spins to the right and everything in the southern hemisphere that spins to the left. eventually if you move this stuff long enough on the way up, literally 60,000 feet in the sky, 12 miles from the surface to the top, you will get this spin and eventually the whole storm spins into the back half, we call it the mesocyclone, the conservation of mo pen tim momentum like an ice skater she skates faster and faster. at the bottom a tornado falls out and comes out of the storm. we ll have much more on the science of tornadoes and why this year has been so deadly
what s happening. that s ahead. we will have the latest on this developing story in a few minutes from now. president obama is back at the white house of a spending several hours in joplin, missouri. it was exactly a week ago that an f-5 tornado ripped through the city killing people in minutes. 5:41 central time there was a moment of silence marked by the precise instant that tornado hit. our dan traveled with the president to joplin and dan, a tough job for the president to try to lift spirits of a being amongest the people but seeing this disaster first-hand. this is a president who has had to do this quite a bit lately. other natural disasters as well. the president as you know last week was overseas among other things building relationships with european partners. throughout that time, white house aid said the president was getting updates on the situation here in joplin. today the president got to see the devastation up close. before touching down, air force 1 fle
rooftops. people were marched to demand the release of political prisoners and the bullets rained down. and sarah palin thundering into d.c. today, but is she ready to roll into the presidential race? the best political team on television is weighing in. i m drew griffin. the news starts now. in the headlines tonight president obama went to joplin, missouri, today. it was his first chance to see the unimaginable damage caused by last sunday s ef-5 tornado. he spoke at a memorial service for the 142 known victims. a live look at the president s visit just ahead. and sarah palin drew attention riding on the back of a motorcycle in rolling thunder. despite all the symbolism of the moment, the former alaska governor insists she is just riding, not running, at least not yet. i m an american. i have no title, i have no office, and to be an american citizen with the freedom to come out here and assemble and thank our veterans, i can t tell you how honored i am. lockheed mart