Tornado effect WIP, After Effects

A couple of times every year I get hooked on tornadoes and take out the movie Twister to watch (saw it yesterday). Ever since I was a small child I've always been interested and fascinated by tornadoes and twisters. The later years of my life I've become more and more interested in storms, the power and strength of nature. I remember only five years ago I was terrified of thunderstorms. Now, I love them. It's a shame there aren't many thunderstorms up here in Norway where I am located. Well, not that many powerfull ones. I remember a few years ago there was a huge one, with lightning flashes all over the sky and loud thunder. I think that was about the time when I started to turn from the scared side to the fascination side, because I remember everytime it sort of stopped I wanted to see more.
The reason I didn't like thunderstorms before was probably because of my sister. When I was a baby she popped a balloon right infront of my face. Naturaly a "bang!" appeared. And ever since that time (which I don't remember) I've never really liked loud bangs. Up until about five years ago. Even fireworks was scary, but beautiful to watch. Still, I hate balloons though.


Now, on to the main purpose of this post.
In After Effects I am working on creating a tornado using Trapcode's plug-in Particular. I'm not very skilled with the plug-in yet and still trying to figure it out. I think I know how to use most of it's functions, though. Anyway, here's a WIP (Work In Progress) of the effect.


Tornado Test #1 from Robin Heiberg on Vimeo.


I know it's not rotating, I haven't added the rotation yet. I'm working on it as I write. If anyone reading this has any advice on how to make it look even more realistic, please don't hesitate to tell me. I can always use the help.
I'll post updates on this as it progresses and as long as the result is better. And... whoops, After Effects just crashed. Shit. Well, nothing was lost. Thank God for saving.


EDIT: Okay, so here's an updated version. Added more particles (got a feeling it might need some more) and rotation.


Tornado Test #2 from Robin Heiberg on Vimeo.