For a lot of people, there is nothing scarier than a tornado. There’s really no defense against the massive storms except maybe top-notch civil engineering and evacuation. Depending on its power, a tornado will destroy everything in its path.
In case you haven’t realized by now, it’s a very bad idea to run towards a tornado.
Still, there are many thrill seekers and filmmakers who want to get as close to a tornado as they can. To do this, they create heavy-duty, custom vehicles that can stand up to the high winds of a tornado. Two of the flagship storm-chasing vehicles are the Tornado Intercept Vehicle 1 (TIV 1) and Tornado Intercept Vehicle 2 (TIV 2).
This is what the TIVs look like. They started as Ford trucks and turned into storm fortresses.
Both vehicles were conceived by filmmaker Sean Casey and designed to film with an IMAX camera within or very close to a tornado. Below is a test video shot from inside the TIV as they drove straight toward a violent wedge tornado in Kansas.
Before the winds ripped the instruments off the roof of the vehicle the winds were registering at 150 to 175 miles per hour.
Alright, now that is literally insane. Sure, they have a reinforced vehicle, but still. Who knows what kind of debris that tornado might have picked up along the way. Storm chasing is not a hobby for the faint of heart.
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