Tornado? Put down the camera!

Next week is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota but events this week prompt us to get a head start on things.

Step one: When a tornado is coming, put the camera down.

One year ago, almost to the day, Clem Schultz of Fairdale, Il., got a great video of the approaching tornado — the one that killed his wife and the woman next door.

Once you see this video, you might be inclined to take tornado warnings more seriously.

He told his story this week to the Daily Herald, a newspaper in Chicago’s western suburbs.

He stayed upstairs filming the tornado too long. He and his wife had no chance to get to the storm shelter by the time they realized it was going to hit their house.

It took him a long time to work up the nerve to take a look at the video. But he shared it with a graduate student in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, and it’s being spread across the Internet today.

“I’m proud of it,” Schultz says. “My video is saving lives.

(h/t: Bob Moffitt)