If you could get this type of information sent to you in real time, it would be a tremendous advantage in being able to first size up the potential of an event and provide immediate warning. While I'd expect that the National Weather Service would have picked this up on their various weather systems, having video of the actual funnel could give perspective to the size and direction of movement.
There are plenty of other emergencies and disasters that a drone and video could help with in doing search and rescue, followed by damage assessment when it would be too dangerous to put people into the mix.
