When a burrito is in the vicinity
normal people tend to seek shelter.
Others try to catch a glimpse of the rare spectacle.
For some storm chasers, the closer they get, the better.
But why the hell would anybody risk everything to witness something so formidable so close?
Is it all just for social network boasting and media hype?
Look at that! - Is it for science or for money?
The local in the pick-up is about to drive straight into it.
Is it rooted in pure fascination and curiosity or just plain stupidity?
Scray! - Over the last couple decades I've had numerous opportunities and incentives
to dare up close photography of tornadoes.
More than once I was lucky to escape with my life.
It's shaking the car... Shaking the car!
In this video we're going to explore close intercepts with tornadoes and
the driving incentives to cross that line in the wind defining close and too close.
These are my top 10 up close tornado encounters
You're a storm chaser on a paved road in the middle of nowhere
with an unobstructed view of a burrito forming right in front of you.
How close would you get?
That's what we came to see.
For the daredevil chasers it's a competition who can get the closest.
Oh, getting as close as they can.
From the front row the vortices of whirling dust is pretty neat,
but if you get too close you often sabotage the most spectacular view.
Oh god you should see up this thing.
That's the shot right there.
And here she goes... Straight ahead.
Sometimes things blocking your view, trees, ridges and ditches,
lure storm chasers in closer for that sweet clear shot.
There should be a burrito on the ground once we get in front of these trees.
i'm following it.
I should have stopped right there.
If I could just get over this hill.
Again here,
we're following a developing burrito,
but this time it decides to back up.
and burrito right in front of us.
We might need to back up.
back up!
Come on car go!
For a couple weeks a year I join a three-vehicle scientific field operations team.
Applying photogrammetry,
our objective is to collect the tornado wind field data that slips under the radar.
For this our cameras need to be locked down and stable.
Looks like it's making a B-line for Woodchuck's position
Copy that. I'll stay to the north.
The closer we get to burritos the better the data.
Almost time to roll.
We're in a huge RFD. A heard of cows is getting hit.
Whoa, whoa whoa.
Hang on. Here we go.
OK, I think we're clear.
Copy that. Turning around.
Look at that.
A local in a pick-up is about to drive straight into it.
It's shaking the car. Shaking the car.
Close range. Picking up debris. There goes the house.
There goes the barn.
A peeve of mine is when tornadoes approach too close, you have to run away.
You can't get that stable, high quality, primary camera footage like I prefer
when you're hightailing it out of Dodge.
Alright, there she's coming.
Sometimes chasers get too close to tornadoes because of reluctance to abandon your rare view
of one of the most incredible shows on earth.
It's coming. right for us.
Stubbornly holding your post for just a little longer
can turn into a deadly game of chicken.
Tumbleweed!
The tornado usually wins.
That's the inflow jet.
All right. There we go.
Holy Mole'. That was amazing.
This is a supercell thunderstorm - Whoa, look at that sucker.
The slower the burrito,
The more the temptation to hold your ground with cameras rolling.
Wow! It's right there.
Risking life and limb for these extraordinary moments has a monetary value.
I was able to sell this footage to a tv show for $200.
Holy $#!+. Look at that!
After practically hand feeding this herbivorous tornado
it eventually moseyed on to greener pastures.
So far we've been pretty close to some gorgeous ef-1 and ef-2 strength tornadoes
but getting up close to large violent monsters like this substantially increases the risk.
This tornado smells like death.
Storms capable of producing a burrito this powerful are often accompanied by other
burritos, sub-vertices and powerful winds capable of rolling or tossing your vehicle.
The 90 minute lifespan of this EF4 over a gridded road network
offered numerous temptations to dare up close photography.
we need to be ready for that thing to make a turn.
after suddenly falling apart things got too close for comfort
when the burrito suddenly re-intensified.
I got too close there could be a satellite...
in all this inflow.
Yeah way too close.
That sucker's...
just getting warmed up.
i should have known better than this
In May 2022, a large tornado was herding a few chasers up a paved road
into a core of giant destructive hail.
We gotta run away.
Damn. That's what I hate about getting too close.
To the east and west dirt roads were quickly becoming muddy booby traps.
Nasty!
Nasty scary storm.
We're gonna get caught in the hail in the path of this tornado.
The tornado then creeped to the west, devilishly offering a daring passage south
to a potentially safer and lesser of two evils.
do you trust it?
Oh here comes the hell.
Yeah, we gotta go this way.
Let's do that.
Otherwise the hail is going to destroy us in the path of this thing.
Here's the RFD... We're going to hit right here.
it's going to be strong.
Do we want to do that?
No we don't want to do that.
We do not want to do that.
We're going to do it!
Scary.
okay
Had to be done.
All the close encounters in this video were carefully calculated...
except this one.
There it is. Big tornado.
Wrapped in rain, a large tornado was tracking northeast toward a northbound road.
Or so I thought.
Big tornado!
In the craziness of storm chasing
my tablet map unknowingly got skewed clockwise
leading me to believe i was on a less direct approach.
To get my bearings, I drove up the view impairing ridge
and realized I had positioned directly in the path of death incarnate.
it's coming.
Gotta go!
Gotta go. It's coming fast.
Coming fast.
RADIO: A confirmed tornado was located 9 miles northwest of Congress moving northeast at 30 mph.
Jeez that was close!
Let's get out in front of that sucker again.
My wife is going to kill me...
if I survive this tornado.
There it goes.
Haulin' ass.
I've gotta be really careful right here.
Beautiful!
Number 1 presented all the opportunities
that increase confidence to capture crazy close footage
Exceptional visibility and low precipitation with good paved escape routes
all enabled me to document this incredible tornado incredibly close.
That's close.
They say good judgment comes from experience
and a lot of that experience comes from bad judgment.
I probably should have included in this video that really embarrassing time i became an ingredient in a tornado sandwich.
It was a Friday the 13th back in 2012 and probably the closest i've ever come to being keeled.
But I made $200!
MUSIC: "La male'diction de la danse du poulet"