Armed with an array of instruments including drones, radar, and specialized trucks, storm chasers take educated risks to get the most data on every twister.
The Tornado Intercept Vehicle 1, featured on the Discovery Channel show, features a steel shell with bullet-resistant windows to withstand extreme weather.
we re in a safe position. we re just waiting to see this thing so we can run at it and film while we do so. when you say run at it and film, explain exactly what s going on to the viewers out there who don t understand why you do something so we are watching the tornado just to our northwest that is rain-wrapped. it is almost completely stationary. we were hoping it s going to come up on to our road and we will drive right up. after our intercept yesterday, you can understand, you know, that with experiencing those kind of winds, we re a little gun-shy today. you should be. tell us a little bit about the vehicle you use, it s called the tornado intercept vehicle that was made especially to film inside the tornado. what s it like? yeah. this is a 15,000 pound armored vehicle designed to take an imax camera to a tornado for a film we did called tornado alley.
to that? i have no you know, the chances are this thing is not as strong as that but the moore tornado was a very rare tornado, ef-4, ef-5 tornado. this one probably looks like an ef-3 tornado. but it s very wide. can your tank withstand an ef-4 or ef-5? hang on one second. we re going for it. whatever you think. sorry about that. there s always a little yelling involved when you re storm chasing. no, you got to do what you got to do. i was saying, can your tank withstand an ef-4 or ef-5? yesterday we were in an ef-4 tornado near lebanon, kansas. what was that like? what was that like? we were taking 170, 180 mile per hour wind with heavy debris. so we know that the vehicle can take that. it s just it s always a crapshoot because you don t know if a telephone pole will dislodge and come at you. we were lucky that that didn t happen yesterday, because we were taking monstrous winds and
we re going for it. sorry about that. there s always a little yelling involved when you re storm chasing. no, you got to do what you got to do. i was saying, can your tank withstand an ef-4 or ef-5? yesterday we were in an ef-4 tornado near lebanon, kansas. what was that like? what was that like? we were taking 170, 180 mile per hour wind with heavy debris. so we know that the vehicle can take that. it s just it s always a crapshoot because you don t know if a telephone pole will dislodge and come at you. we were lucky that that didn t happen yesterday, because we were taking monstrous winds and monstrous debris in this vehicle. yeah, we can see the video. in terms of chasing tornadoes, sean, how close can you actually get? we go inside the tornadoes. so you re right in the middle of it. yes. you can get not only close but you re right there, it s going over your tank? that s right.