I’m sure you’ve heard of storm chasers, the brave (and some would say off-their-rocker) individuals who seek out tornadoes instead of hunkering down and hoping they pass them by.
These folks capture both breathtaking video and important scientific data every time they encounter a twister, and the closer they can get to the action the better (at least from their perspective).
Most storm chasers know to remain a safe distance away from the funnel cloud, and for the most part they manage to do so. But if the tornado decides to take a sudden and unexpected turn in direction the results can be catastrophic.
There’s one class of storm chasers that take the idea of chasing a tornado to an extreme level. Those folks routinely get as close to the funnel cloud as they possibly can, and if possible they align their vehicles directly in the path of it, occasionally capturing both video and data while actually inside the tornado.
The thing is, they don’t do their extreme storm chasing in a regular vehicle. That wouldn’t end well at all. Instead, they use specially designed armored vehicles that greatly reduce the chance of injury or death from the swirling winds of even the strongest tornadoes.
The short video below is a very brief, but rather interesting “tour” of one of the vehicles. Check it out!
Pretty cool, right? I’d love to take a ride in one of those contraptions! How about you?