- 6 months ago
43 Minutes Long.
TV-PG
Originally Aired on 10/2/2011
Full Subtitles: Yes
Full Episode: Yes
Full Quality: Yes
Wikipedia Description:
It's the most violent tornado season in over fifty years, with death and destruction savaging the Midwestern Plains before chase season has even begun. Now there's a powerful storm tracking toward downtown St. Louis, and after a hot start to the season, Reed Timmer has suddenly lost his mojo. A series of bad decisions leaves team Dominator out of position and at each other's throats. After completing an IMAX film that was ten years in the making, Sean Casey is using his armored TIV to film a sequel in 3D, but first, he needs to find the right storm. Tim Samaras and team TWISTEX follow the path of destruction into the St. Louis area, and in an attempt to place their probe in the path of a tornado, they end up chasing too close.
Discovery Go Description:
The teams follow a storm headed toward downtown St. Louis.
TV-PG
Originally Aired on 10/2/2011
Full Subtitles: Yes
Full Episode: Yes
Full Quality: Yes
Wikipedia Description:
It's the most violent tornado season in over fifty years, with death and destruction savaging the Midwestern Plains before chase season has even begun. Now there's a powerful storm tracking toward downtown St. Louis, and after a hot start to the season, Reed Timmer has suddenly lost his mojo. A series of bad decisions leaves team Dominator out of position and at each other's throats. After completing an IMAX film that was ten years in the making, Sean Casey is using his armored TIV to film a sequel in 3D, but first, he needs to find the right storm. Tim Samaras and team TWISTEX follow the path of destruction into the St. Louis area, and in an attempt to place their probe in the path of a tornado, they end up chasing too close.
Discovery Go Description:
The teams follow a storm headed toward downtown St. Louis.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00On this episode of Storm Chasers...
00:09Take a left ear!
00:10Hold on.
00:13Team Dominator's chase gets even more deadly,
00:16as their vehicle fails them while tracking a tornado in western Missouri.
00:20Pop those cranks!
00:21Dominator 1 is quickly turning into a death trap.
00:25Here's rotation.
00:26Yeah, here we go.
00:27Team Tiv embarks on a brand new mission.
00:29It would be incredible to get some footage in 3D.
00:32It's going down.
00:33We got multiple vortices.
00:34Get in there, Mark!
00:36A tornado watch is in effect tonight for the St. Louis area.
00:39And Team TwistX faces a massive tornado on course to decimate a city of over 300,000 people.
00:47Here it is!
00:48Tighten up!
00:49Tighten up!
00:50Oh yeah, definite tornado!
00:52Oh, that's some serious damage.
00:54This house got destroyed.
00:56We're getting hit by the green!
00:59We're excited!
01:00It's going right at us!
01:01Get up on it!
01:02Get up on it!
01:03Get up on it!
01:04Right here!
01:05Tornado!
01:06Right in front of us!
01:07Oh man, that is huge!
01:08Go off and get closer!
01:09Boom!
01:10Everybody's down!
01:11She's down!
01:12Race for impact!
01:14Get up!
01:15Get down!
01:16Get down!
01:17Race for impact!
01:18Everyone's down!
01:19Get down!
01:20Race for impact!
01:20Fernando, right in front of us.
01:22Oh, man, that is huge.
01:23Go off and get closer.
01:30Move!
01:31Everybody down!
01:32Get down!
01:33Race for a pad!
01:43In early April, a slew of unexpected storms blew up all over the southern and midwestern United States.
01:50Mother Nature is definitely raising the stakes this season.
01:53I think it's partially attributed to the La Nina conditions in the Pacific, and it could get extremely active.
01:59This could be a record breaker.
02:01But these early season tornadoes caught storm chaser Reed Timmer off guard.
02:07This is bad. Really, really bad.
02:09With his 9,000-pound heavily armored chase vehicle, the Dominator, in the repair shop,
02:14and his brand-new vehicle, Dominator 2, far off schedule and still under construction,
02:20Reed decided to head into the storms in a standard SUV.
02:24Yeah, if we had the Dominator today, possibly could have gotten some groundbreaking data,
02:27but it's not going to be ready for another week.
02:29But people need eyes under the storm here.
02:32That's why we're out here streaming live video and helping out the warning process the best we can.
02:36It's on the ground already!
02:38Stop! Stop!
02:39We've got to get out of here.
02:40It's starting off faster than I've ever seen in 13 years of storm chasing.
02:45It's really violent. Look at that wedge!
02:47Oh, my God.
02:48Mother Nature has an edge this year, and hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.
02:53Six days later, Dominator 1 is finally out of the shop and ready for chasing,
03:07as teams Twistex and Tiff join them back in Tornado Alley to resume the search for nature's most powerful wins.
03:14And it doesn't take long before an already volatile season heats up.
03:21SkyTracker Doppler radar, give you the overall scenario.
03:23There's a warm front drifting through from south to north.
03:26Strong thunderstorms from Kansas City to the greater St. Louis area.
03:28These storms could be packing hail, gusty winds, and I hate to say it,
03:32but maybe even an isolated tornado or two.
03:34That storm is hauling ass.
03:39But look at that thing. That's insane.
03:41This one has the look of a tornado producer. We want to be on this storm.
03:46Twistex represents a team of very passionate storm chasers, meteorologists, and scientists.
03:51They're trying to understand why some supercells are creating tornadoes and others don't.
03:56Boy, it's showing rotation in the right spot.
03:59That's a meat eater, man. We've got to get our butts up there.
04:02Today is one of those days that looks pretty good.
04:05We're hoping that this will be the opportunity to get our probe deployed in a tornado.
04:09It's going to come right by us.
04:11I've consistently been deploying these instruments every year since 2002.
04:15We're on this edge of the circulation.
04:16Come on, everyone. Here comes a tornado.
04:18Move.
04:19We're trying to measure how powerful tornado winds can be near the surface.
04:23It's going in. It's going in.
04:24It's going in.
04:25Ah!
04:27Whoa!
04:28Yeah!
04:28If we understood that mechanism better,
04:30we could hand this information off to structure engineers,
04:34and they could perhaps build a better home that can withstand stronger winds.
04:38Collecting that kind of data set from that instrument is amazing!
04:43Look at that hook.
04:45That's got tornado written all over it.
04:46The rotation there, the signature, that's a classic sign of a tornado right there.
04:50Boy, that is the storm of the day right there.
04:52So it looks like possibly the northern side of the Ozarks could get hit, which is bad terrain.
05:04I mean, we're used to it.
05:05It's like a walk in the park, a gentleman's chase for us.
05:08Yeah, I'm a little surprised Twistex even came out.
05:10Yeah, I am too.
05:11The Ozark Mountains are a dangerous place to chase and a very difficult place to see tornadoes.
05:17There are lots of trees everywhere.
05:19It looks like a jungle.
05:20A lot of chasers don't go there, but Team Dominator is going to chase anywhere.
05:27A little outside their territory of Kansas.
05:30They're in trouble, aren't they?
05:32You think Tib's out here?
05:33There's no way that the Tib could probably run even up a hill, can't it, without breaking down?
05:40For Team Dominator, it's my job to put us in position to intercept tornadoes and accomplish our goals.
05:47We proved in 2009 that we can intercept tornadoes.
05:51Holy !
05:52Holy !
05:53I have a huge sense of curiosity for the complex dynamics inside a tornado and how fast those wind speeds can get right at the ground.
06:01The wind speeds right at the surface are the ones that are directly responsible for the loss of life and damage to property.
06:09This season, we'll be unveiling a new Dominator, which will be able to withstand stronger tornadoes.
06:14We need to better understand the EF-4 and EF-5 tornadoes, and that's what we're going to be targeting this year.
06:19While Team's Dominator and Twist-X race to St. Louis, Sean Casey remains in Oklahoma, retrofitting the Tib for his latest film project.
06:31What we're doing right now is we're changing this turret so that we can put a 3D rig in here.
06:47For the last eight years, I've been filming in IMAX, and I've finished that film, you know, tornado alley in IMAX.
06:53Look, it's directly behind us! We're coming up on the road!
07:00Oh-ho-ho-ho!
07:02Now it's moving to a new format to capture weather and tornadoes in 3D.
07:10To have debris and the trees flying by, I mean, that's a new challenge, and that excites me.
07:16Hey, Sean? Yeah?
07:19Do you know about how long it's going to take?
07:21There's no blueprint on the Internet to show you how to build your Tib with a rotating turret that can fit 3D camera.
07:28So we are camping out here, and I've got a feeling this year that the storms are going to come right to us.
07:34Here we go again. Many storms will be strong to severe. Also, a tornado watch is in effect until 10 o'clock tonight for the St. Louis area in points west and to the north.
07:54God, that's incredible.
07:55This thing is going to produce a tornado very soon.
07:58Are we going to make it?
07:59We're going to make it.
08:00We wait nine months for storm season to begin, and it's finally here.
08:06It's a lot like Christmas time.
08:08This is our opportunity to open up those presents and find the tornadoes.
08:13The hunt is on.
08:14Holy crap!
08:15It'll go past dark, and it'll go right into St. Louis.
08:17It's making a line straight forward there.
08:19Yeah.
08:20Any metropolitan area offers up some incredible challenges.
08:23You can get caught in the middle of the interstate, traffic jam, here comes the tornado.
08:28Very, very dangerous.
08:29This thing is going to go right back in the St. Louis.
08:32Lee's got to get her butts over there.
08:34We've got a tornado on the ground right now.
08:36Take a left ear!
08:38There you go.
08:39Oh, those cranks.
08:40Hold on, guys.
08:41Jesus!
08:42Go!
08:43Go!
08:44Go!
08:45God, that's incredible.
08:57This thing is going to produce a tornado very soon.
08:59With a tornado warning issued for the St. Louis metro area, Team TwistX is 75 miles out.
09:04We're going to make it?
09:05We're going to make it.
09:06They are heading east towards the city in hopes of deploying a probe directly in the path of an oncoming twister.
09:1525 miles behind them, Team Dominators leader Reed Timmer is second guessing an earlier decision to follow the St. Louis storm system to the east as their best bet for intercepting a tornado.
09:29Setup up in St. Louis doesn't look nearly as good as the storm to our west.
09:33I think we're going after storms that aren't going to do it.
09:36Mine's still there.
09:37Look at the storm due east.
09:39That's thick.
09:40I don't think so.
09:42Joel and I have been storm chasing together for over a decade, and I think forecasting is definitely one of his weaknesses.
09:49This one's definitely going to do it.
09:51There's going to be two supercells due west of us that are going to go up and move along this warm front and produce.
09:56That?
09:57That's exactly how I invented it.
09:59This is our first big decision of the season, and Reed's wanting to blast west to play an area that there's not going to be any tornadoes.
10:05Nothing's going to happen to the east. I bet you 500 bucks.
10:08Fine. Let's go chase the stuff to the west when nothing produces.
10:11Looks good, actually.
10:12No, it doesn't.
10:13Yeah, it does.
10:14We're going to turn west eventually.
10:16Reed does have the hot hand right now.
10:18Everybody sitting in his base so far this year has been spot on.
10:21I agree that we can catch anything to the west.
10:24Come on.
10:26Please just turn the car around.
10:28Dude, we're not missing anything.
10:30Please.
10:32Please.
10:33No.
10:38Don't make me make this awkward.
10:41We have east options.
10:43We have to keep that in play.
10:45There's no reason to miss a storm because we get over-aggressive with .
10:48Turn this car around.
10:50We're not going east.
10:52If we skip setups, we're going to miss intercepts.
10:55If there's anything that'll make me go off the deep end, it's that.
10:58I forecast and navigate the vehicle, and Joel needs to understand that.
11:03So which way are we going?
11:04Strides.
11:05Six miles from our turn to the west, and we're going to close on this thing.
11:09Wow.
11:10With the decision made to abandon the storm cell to the east, Team Dominator heads toward
11:16a different cell, which is beginning to blow up on the western edge of Missouri.
11:21Less than 20 miles to the south, Team TwistX remains in full pursuit of the original target,
11:27which is still bearing down on the St. Louis metro area.
11:31There's the storm right there.
11:33You can see some definition.
11:35Yeah, visibility is a real chore here.
11:38Look through the trees.
11:39Train yourself.
11:40Look through the trees.
11:42Missouri is a very dangerous place to chase.
11:45Oh, Jesus.
11:46This is woods chasing, man.
11:48It would be a tall order to even try to get a deployment down here.
11:52But the forecast was so perfect, we were willing to take that step.
11:57What do you see to your west there?
11:59Trees.
12:00Lots of them.
12:01What do you see?
12:02What do you see?
12:03I don't see anything.
12:04You can't see.
12:05If this thing does produce a tornado, we could be in trouble.
12:11Here comes the core.
12:13It's a big hail.
12:16Going through a hail core, visibility can drop to zero.
12:20Hey, this is pretty dangerous right here.
12:23We're getting close to a tornado we can't see.
12:25Just keep watching the edge of the tree line here.
12:28And if you're not careful, you'll get into what they call the bear's cage.
12:32The bear's cage is the curtain of heavy precipitation that wraps around a tornadic thunderstorm.
12:39The cage often contains heavy rain, baseball-sized hail, and sometimes a hidden tornado.
12:45Short of being inside a tornado's circulation, the bear's cage is the most dangerous place for a cheeser to be.
12:52We've got to punch through this core, guys.
12:55We're going to lose the window.
12:57Just get past these trees, we'll be able to see.
13:00I think we've got to get to 70 fast.
13:03It's heading for St. Louis.
13:04It's heading for St. Louis.
13:05Oh, great.
13:06Just what I wanted here.
13:10That'd be it.
13:13We'll blast through this rain, maybe we'll get a good view.
13:19Yeah, there's the right top.
13:20Look at that.
13:21Look at the right side.
13:22Keep going.
13:23Keep going.
13:24Right here?
13:25Yeah, it's right there.
13:26That's definitely a tunnel up there.
13:27You can see the whole thing spinning.
13:28It's right straight out.
13:29It's about to happen.
13:30He sees tornadoes everywhere.
13:31There's got to be a tornado on that.
13:32It's possible right up here.
13:33I don't see anything.
13:34It's right above us.
13:35You're going to want to get out just before these trees and take a look at this.
13:36Quick look, quick look.
13:37Yeah.
13:38Don't have a lot of time.
13:39Huh.
13:40Looks a lot different when I was looking at it.
13:48I thought it was right back here.
13:49Just driving him crazy that nothing's happening.
13:50It almost seems like he wants to think that he can control the weather and make a storm.
14:05Do I know his weather?
14:06I don't see anything.
14:07he wants to think that he can control the weather and make a storm and that's just not the case
14:12north of us we gotta keep going that almost looks like let's go reed
14:20man get ready to go east joel i was wrong we should have been heading straight for the
14:26st louis storm it's extremely frustrating because i know that the whole team depends
14:31on me navigating the vehicle to get into position to accomplish our goals we're going east when i
14:36fail that's just not acceptable you gotta hurry
14:48reed's navigational error forces the team to double back
14:51and head east to try and intercept the tornado meanwhile team twist x appears to have made
14:58the right call and is in pursuit of their first probe deployment of the season
15:02this could be a violent day if you've got a tornado moving through downtown st louis the dangers are
15:18extraordinary making me nervous here this thing can put down a wedge this is dangerous as hell i think
15:23that everyone has butterflies in their stomach because this is going to be a storm where in all
15:28likelihood people are going to lose their lives all right let's go in again guys
15:38their newest update which was just a few minutes ago the storm was giving very strong indications
15:43of a tornado how far away are we i think we should still be a few miles away from the rotation we've got
15:48to punch through this floor guys we're right on the outskirts of st louis
15:53and we're watching this storm we're watching this incredible hook on radar i mean this has got to be
15:58producing a tornado
16:04keep your hands in sight man i think that everyone is a bit on edge a bit nervous as we go through
16:11these sheets of rain
16:12things are turning dark this storm has obscured all light in the sky
16:21suppose there's a tornado on this one here yes we're not going to be able to see it here we need
16:26to get higher
16:27that's the tornado right there guys
16:42we got a tornado on the ground right now so we're going to head east and we should be able to get
16:47really close to this thing oh no no yeah take a left ear hold on hold those brakes hold on guys hold on
17:03right before our turn i feel something wrong
17:05we're going to be able to be able to get really close to this thing
17:21as nightfall approaches team dominators
17:35still 30 miles west of the tornado that has dropped into the st louis metro area
17:39the result of a crucial navigational error by team leader reed timmer oh no no the chance of
17:45an intercept has been compromised by a failure in the dominators braking system take a left ear
17:53pump those brakes
17:56the brake pads are worn down hold on keep pumping them
18:00a little hard hold on hold on and they're just getting worse
18:06dominator's in bad shape it's not the ideal chase vehicle anymore
18:14oh my god
18:16so much dust brake dust is just feeding inside the dominator like like a vacuum cleaner
18:23my eyes it's making our eyes water up you can feel it in your lungs
18:29this car is killing me this is dangerous dominator one is quickly turning into a death trap take a
18:34little ways behind the storm now
18:39that's coming right at us right or maybe you go like a mile north
18:43at this point we're under this very powerful storm that's obscuring any light in the sky
18:50oh power flash power flash means that tornado has passed over some power lines
19:02there's a tornado moving through downtown st louis the dangers are extraordinary hopefully
19:09people seek shelter
19:14well that's not a comforting thought this is a very scary situation thriving through a city with a
19:22tornado coming right at us maybe we should get off and watch here people are in danger
19:27i think this tornado probably passed right here but for damage oh there's damage there's damage all over
19:32this tornado came right over the highway oh boy oh boy we just missed it we're pulling off on the
19:46side of the road here so there's major damage oh that's some serious damage
19:54we've got some damage pictures now coming in from lambert international airport where a tornado
19:57touchdown i have heard the phrases war path i have heard it's like the scene out of a movie
20:02it is really really really bad here there's damage there's injuries people are outside on the street
20:07this is the worst that i have seen so this is definitely a very dangerous area you want to stay away from here
20:14oh jesus the storm we are on and uh could barely keep up with produced a tornado on the northwest side
20:21of st louis with considerable structural damage so this is not a good situation for the st louis area
20:27the first one while we left nice we pretty much missed the storm that produced a tornado in st louis
20:40should have kept chasing that yeah it's extremely frustrating if we'd gone east maybe we could have
20:46called that in given that extra minute or two of warning to the people of st louis
20:50it's very difficult to predict how things are going to unfold but i made a mistake i i should
20:58have listened to joel we should have gone east we would have been in st louis seeing tornadoes and
21:02calling in reports and helping out in the warning process
21:16there's a house got destroyed there's pieces of um roofing and timber in the road here we have debris
21:22across the road tree limbs down houses destroyed i honestly don't know how much help we can provide
21:27here guys parts of the house were all over the highway we were sitting in traffic we're stuck lots of
21:32emergency personnel on the scene now certainly a chase is over tonight
21:40the ef4 tornado that teams dominator and twistex were chasing ripped a 21 mile path of destruction
21:46across st louis county with wind speeds in excess of 165 miles per hour miraculously there were no
21:53fatalities due in large part to a 34-minute warning lead time issued with the help of storm spotters
22:02we'll have this energy coming in right over north central texas we'll probably have with work finally
22:15completed on the turret that houses his new 3d camera sean casey's tiff team is mapping out their
22:21first day of storm chasing this season you know we'll have better upper level wind support today but what
22:26we're going to be lacking again are these surface winds okay so that's obviously going to make or
22:31break the tornado potential today why don't we stay where we're at and just hang here yeah stay here
22:37we can see how things set up i'll keep an eye on the weather and if we need to get out of here and
22:42head west we'll go ahead and do that you know it'll probably be a late initiation again probably around five
22:47we try not to get involved in chasing inside any metropolitan area and that tornado in st louis was
23:02especially dangerous it was rain wrapped it was at night so it's very difficult to see there's major
23:09damage oh that's some serious damage and then makes a very very deadly combination
23:13however our basic goals is to target any storm that we can physically get to and deploy on
23:22all right we have a target cell right south of abilene is everyone ready over copy your turn
23:27but i don't want to succeed at the expense of getting somebody hurt that's what i'm most afraid of
23:33that's right that's rock
23:39yeah bring it on
23:46it's pretty easy target saying this is the only storm going up in all of texas everybody should
23:51be close in on this my mom could close in on this storm my opinion it looks better a little bit further
23:56north twistx are targeting a little bit further south i don't think there's going to be too many storms
24:00on here and the environment looks better further north probably going to set up here abilene so
24:05you probably don't want to go much further than that we don't want to be over aggressive like we
24:09were on the st louis storm we don't want to move in for an intercept unless the storm is about to produce
24:15may have a tornado on the ground by four o'clock right now it's one o'clock so we've got about 380
24:20we need to park here with the decision made to wait for the abilene storm system to build
24:26reed checks in on the progress of dominator 2 which is being assembled by designer kevin barton
24:33in freeport michigan
24:40hey kevin it's reed how's it going hey reed what's up uh dominator 1's having some issues joel's lex
24:45hand on the driver's side going all the way up uh we've got the dust issue i will get this thing done
24:51for you but i'll get it done when it's done right i can't put it out there ahead of time we've just
24:55got to get diamond air 2 ready to go as soon as possible i got the team working 16 hours a day
25:01i mean they're working hard on it we don't have any more time i just need two more weeks on this
25:05thing two more weeks and i promise i'll get it out to you well we got to hurry that up kevin two weeks
25:10is not acceptable we got to get it out here faster the eta for d2 keeps getting delayed every time i talk
25:16to him it's a few more days or a week i'll have it ready in two weeks i promise i'll keep you updated
25:22all right bye that's frustrating because the season is extremely active and we don't want
25:26to miss any more research opportunities hey guys bad news kevin's saying two weeks now
25:34are you serious dominator 1's not working anymore it's no longer safe to drive
25:39into tornadoes how do you feel about this he's working 16 to 18 hours a day it's just not going to
25:45happen looks like we're gonna have to do dominator 1 for two more weeks a couple more chases when
25:49you're talking a life or death situation that's not acceptable for me we need to get dominator 2
25:54out here as soon as possible otherwise we're gonna have to start changing the way we chase
26:02there's rotation all right i heard it 11 o'clock oh here we go here we go wow it's rotating right in
26:07front of us it's going down debris on the mountains tightening up tightening up oh yeah down with a
26:12tornado we gotta go north let's go
26:19the april 22nd 2011 tornado was the strongest to hit st louis in 44 years it left the longest
26:27damaged path in missouri since march 18 1925 when a twister left a 215 mile swath of destruction in its wake
26:37in north central texas a supercell storm system is forming which has the potential to produce
26:51multiple tornadoes all three chase teams have converged upon the area in hopes of being
26:58on the ground just as the tornadoes start to form
27:09the storm is 23 nautical miles away it's moving northeast at 20. i'm just sitting there
27:16oh you know a lot of chasing is waiting you know whether it's in a parking lot in town or it's you
27:31know out on some field somewhere wow look at them jump so that's what we're doing wait a lot of weight
27:40a lot of weight mark you want some ice cream here you go
27:50yeah ice cream
27:56uh-oh i guess this went tornado worn how low is that cloud scary don't it yeah it looks low
28:05almost looks like a funnel back in the tree there i mean that could be a tornado
28:15getting the signal that a tornado may already be on the ground nearby
28:19team tib heads off in pursuit capturing their first 3d footage of the season
28:2540 miles away
28:26come on reed team dominator is discovering that reed may have them out of position again
28:33they are too far east to catch up with the growing storm we got storms blowing up just far west
28:39oh that one's gonna go isn't it yes sometimes you think you have more time than you do but our forecast
28:46was a little bit off so we have to catch up so you think maybe we should uh cheat south it looks like
28:51that might be the only show so we need to get out of here yeah i'm up right down to breckenridge
28:57let's do it
29:03oh yeah looks like a bit of a lowering in there oh boy yeah that's what i'm talking about
29:14when i hear the silence go out that always raises a sense of awareness
29:18we think this storm could produce a tornado so the pressure's on to get our deployment oh there
29:24you go that's a near classic cup i can see the ramping rain curtains right underneath it
29:35that area looks like it's rotating too this area this area yeah there is it's like multiple
29:42mesocyclones a mesocyclone a mesocyclone is a rapidly rotating air mass within a supercell thunderstorm
29:49that is often a breeding ground for tornadoes when multiple mesocyclones are forming on the same storm
29:56the potential for a sudden tornado outbreak poses a very real threat to anyone in the area
30:01so we're going to get out of here we're going to get out of here we're going to get out of here
30:10oh yeah down the tornado top of the hill yeah that's confirmed tornado
30:17we gotta go north let's go yeah let's go north
30:19tornado was confirmed eight miles south albany moving northeast of 35 so we gotta step on it joel
30:33as fast as the dominator will take us because of reese decision we are way out of position and we have
30:39to blast as fast as we possibly can just to try to catch up we still got to start staying more ahead
30:44of schedule uh maybe just be a little bit more of the ball well we were waiting for these storms
30:51for the northeast i mean meteorologically it's not a bad play you know we're out of position and when
30:56reed's wrong he doesn't like to admit it he just twists it around in his head and just makes it sound
31:02like he's right we can catch these it's not even that far we're up in time we can catch those well we'll
31:08be on it in a half hour don't know about that what's the deal with all the edginess right now
31:15i'm trying to get us to the tornado about time to get on top of your game you know chris and joel
31:21can be a little sometimes but i'm going to lead this team to victory we got to take this road right up
31:27here be sure this is the right call tell you what i'll cut off both my if we miss this tornado it's game time
31:38the area rotation is just right up there we're getting ready to drive under it'll be right to
31:46the west of our group it's gorgeous it's just this huge cylinder it's just rotating right in front of
31:51us it would be completely incredible to get some remarkable footage in 3d you feel that panic and
31:59that adrenaline humming through your blood i feel young again now we're getting some action that's
32:08one big storm climax film was really driving me into the ground i was not enjoying chasing
32:19that's beautiful now that it's done i feel totally liberated to go out and really experience
32:26weather again and experience it with a new format a 3d format it's close to put down tornado if you
32:33get a clear view i would stop this storm is one of the best structures of a storm i've ever seen in
32:40my life i would drop in town that'd be bad yeah we're right under it and to capture that would be an
32:45amazing shot just rotation yeah here we go give me a position 11 o'clock oh here we go here we go
32:52uh yes we're right in the middle of it wow right in front of us it's going down
33:05here it is tightening up tightening up oh yeah down in the tornado top of the hill that's confirmed
33:10tornado with the storm system in breckenridge texas threatening to put down a multi-vortex tornado
33:16there's rotation uh right in front of us teams twist x and tiff are only moments away from
33:22intercepting a tornado meanwhile team dominator is out of position and still struggling to catch up to
33:29the storm you got to step on it joel this past the dominator will take us as a result of yet another
33:34questionable call by team leader reed timmer we're coming into breckenridge in about 10 minutes
33:41so if you want to try to figure out whoa there's no west options to solve the breckenridge
33:54wow to have a navigation error especially one that took reed 10 minutes to realize turn the car
34:03around that gets really frustrating i don't know where reed's head is for us to lose 20 minutes when
34:10we're trying to get a storm that can easily cost us a tornado i think it's uh pretty bad we're
34:17probably about 30 minutes behind where we want to be this has all been problems throughout the day
34:22everything just seems everything you try to do doesn't work everything
34:31everybody tries to cast blame on everybody else navigating can be stressful if you make one mistake
34:37one small error that could cost you the whole entire storm chase
34:48while team dominator struggles to get back on the storm system blowing up east of abilene texas
34:54sean casey and his tiff team are right in the middle of it and poised to get their first 3d shot of a
35:00tornado oh here we go here we go uh right in front of us it's going down it's going down mark get ready
35:08to go we're going to drive right up to it anybody can film from three miles away i don't want to do
35:15anything half-assed i want to get right up in it and i want to film it this is it you can't get any better
35:23than it is right now we're underneath the mezzo we're right in the bear's cage and it can drop a
35:28tornado in any direction at any moment right now these are the moments that i really live for you
35:34want to get closer to a violent tornado a stronger tornado each year it's boiling up it's starting to
35:40do it it's going to get there oh yeah it's going to happen in a second slow slow slow slow slow
35:55these are gravel roads you don't want to be on them when they're wet keep going mark okay
36:03we gotta get this it seems to be ramping up we got multiple voices
36:08we got a tornado in there guys it's pretty significant it's right in front of us
36:19do you see it oh yeah yeah oh yeah oh yeah serious funnel
36:24multiple vortices guys multiple vortex tornado multiple vortex tornado we can see the multiple
36:31vortex structure right in front of us okay here come the wrapping rain curtains yeah we're gonna be
36:36we're getting close too we only have maybe just a few minutes but we do have a chance of getting
36:41our hardware out and getting it deployed the path of the stream watch it we're awfully close here we're
36:46good we're good we're good we're good okay we're gonna pull over well this is it
36:52a big funnel struck up on top of us right here i can't even picture this thing so close
37:13right in front of us oh yeah we actually can see basically on the inside of this tornado and see the
37:21multiple vortex structure as the smaller trails we're wrapping across the road right in front of
37:27us it's moving towards us oh that's gonna spin around yeah we're too close
37:37turn around turn around
37:40that's right here don't go back that way go go go that's coming right at us
37:51it's right here right in front of us trail right in front of us guys right in front of us on a highly
38:04volatile storm in north central texas team twistx is on the verge of deploying their weather probe for
38:10the first time this season make sure we got enough room here we may have to spin around
38:15yeah we're too close yeah the damn thing's moving almost south it's right here it's moving towards us
38:21it's coming right at us it's right here it's right here there's a tornado circulation that's rapidly
38:28intensifying most tornadoes on this day should be moving northeast and for some reason you know it
38:33appears to be moving south all of a sudden right towards us it's just too bad we can't deploy on
38:38this all right let's get out of here and my big fear is on a multi-vortex tornado if you get one of
38:46those little sub-vortices hit your car that could take us out go go go get out of here yeah yeah yeah
38:53we're in the middle of it watch out he's behind us yeah please realize we gotta get that guy out of
38:57there just no time to look at it you know it's kind of run for your life at this point turn around
39:04that's right here don't don't go back that way turn around around go back go back go back south
39:10watch it watch it go go go that's coming right at it watch it we're awfully close here getting close tim
39:18tornadoes getting moved south the gust front's pushing it okay okay whoa that was a big win
39:29bowl of a vorticey tornado yeah what a beast unfortunately these multiple vortex tornadoes
39:37were very hard to deploy on good job you believe this is your box guys biggest uh biggest and closest so
39:44far but seeing a tornado this early in season gets me pretty jazzed now hopefully we'll see more
39:49and hopefully we'll be in a position where we can actually deploy
40:01yeah i would say it's definitely due south definitely a tornado might have gone through here
40:08so keep your eye out for like something down in the road the tornado turns towards out we're starting
40:14to lose visual on that tornado hey it's getting so messy and the storm is moving at 40 miles an hour
40:21and there are no roads that are tracking with it there's no stretches where we can get back ahead
40:26of it so we're taking all these little you know tiny roads i think it's lifted now it's pulling up
40:33up and our storm is falling apart i think we're just going fast enough to keep uh riding the hail for
40:45we were running on all cylinders but it didn't happen you come up with a crazy idea like shooting 3d
40:52it takes time to accomplish that idea it's the start of a new season and you know this is a marathon
40:59well it was a nice workup right guys even though we didn't see a tornado it was an exciting chase it
41:05was anytime you've got a big old supercell above you it feels like you're mixing it up and i like that
41:12last year took me about two weeks to really get into it you know everything's gonna be okay
41:18what's going to make a 3d movie is the ultimate 3d shot of a tornado and we didn't get that today
41:23we'll get it confirmed tornado on the way west when i'm here now what the hell
41:38it seems like reed's office game all day we've been chasing blips on a radar screen and we miss
41:43tornadoes that's the most frustrating feeling ever to me as a storm chaser you know it's a roller coaster
41:50before we got the dominator ready we saw like 25 tornadoes felt like we're on top of the world
41:55so just got to keep on grinding and not let it get to you team dominator is definitely rusty we uh
42:01got out of the gate a little bit slow every single time you you start a season with a few busts you
42:07start second guessing your decisions and it can spiral out of control and cause you to miss many
42:11more tornadoes it's just a weird setup do you feel like we were in the right position at the right
42:16times obviously not we forgot how to chase tornadoes apparently you know the last two days have been
42:23bust and it's just unacceptable we don't really bust you know that's not what we do there's a chance
42:29we're going to be dominated by twist x this year i think we got dominated by twist x today
42:35it's the beginning of the season i don't know if we're just off but we got to figure out what's going
42:39wrong and then correct it pretty quick optimistic joel think this thing could wrap up like even a
42:43possibility later on um probably not me neither does your stop do we get a view yeah anytime you
42:53miss tornadoes it's extremely frustrating pretty calm i think our patience is starting to run thin
43:00we're not used to being in this situation missing tornadoes and we're trying to figure out what went
43:05wrong this thing's dying i think this is a lot of my fault my job is to forecast and to navigate the
43:12vehicle to get into position and i didn't make that happen today but looking ahead the pattern's only
43:21getting more active looks like the next chance for tornadoes could be a massive tornado outbreak in the
43:27southern plains
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