Driving Into Tornados

TexasTimbers · May 17, 2007, 02:24:58 PM

I saw this car on Science Channel or maybe Discovery, but I just got this HowStuffWorks link in my daily Global Spec e-letter and read it. I must not have been paying close attention when I saw the program because until I read this article I didn't know his goal is to chase down a tornado and drive into it, or place himself in the direct path.
I don't care how strong Lexan is I would want 2" not 1/2".

It only weighs 14,000 pounds (mine weighs 10,000 and that's like a tin can in a tornado) but can hit 90MPH. Go Ford! ;D

I'm fairly flaky but even I wouldn't intentioanlly drive into a tornado.

Furby · May 17, 2007, 08:07:12 PM

I would! ;D

I was driving through dust devils in IL the other day and another driver claims he was in a small tornado the other day as well.

joelmar10 · May 17, 2007, 09:12:08 PM

Is the guy a Lexan salesman?

WDH · May 17, 2007, 09:16:20 PM

Some F 5 tornado's even suck up the asphalt. If you drove into one of those, you would fly out.

alexinoklahoma · May 17, 2007, 09:20:31 PM

Quote from: Furby on May 17, 2007, 08:07:12 PM
I would! ;D

And pictures of folks that do such are always entertaining! Gives us' scaredy-cats something to chuckle about after the wind calms down. I see every day a car not far from my house that was lifted into a big (now downed) tree as it flipped a trailer house (a few weeks ago) with an old lady in it. She had plenty of warning(s), but chose not to do anything. Darwinism in action ;)

Alex

pineywoods · May 17, 2007, 09:30:17 PM

You don't want to fool around with a full-blown tornado. I worked a cleanup after one hit north alabama several years ago. 250 gallon propane tank 1/4 mile from any building, and it was full. cotton pickers rolled up in a ball. neighbors ford pickup torn into 3 pieces and strewn across a pasture. 2x6 timber punched completely through a 24 inch maple tree. One neighbor and his wife crawlled under a D6 dozer parked in their yard. Dozer moved a couple of feet, wasn't even a dirty spot left of their house. Nosir, people who deliberately fool around with tornados must have some kind of death wish...

Furby · May 17, 2007, 09:33:57 PM

It's not a death wish, it's a life wish!
I have no fear of death.
Those that fear death, forget how to live.

These things are here for a reason, I want to know that reason! ;D

Dan_Shade · May 17, 2007, 09:58:14 PM

i'll tell you what they are, furby, they're idiot magnets!

Faron · May 17, 2007, 10:49:10 PM

Almost a year ago I rode out a direct hit from an F2 twister with a 200 yard wide path. I have to say it was a unique and exciting experience. This is the twister that hit our new unfinished sawmill building. We kind of took cover behind my pickup parked in the building. Since there was no metal on the east side of the building, we had a pretty good view. I watched it demolish a building about 90 yards east of us. It lifted the roof off kind of slowly, then when the roof got at about a 45 degree angle, it took off like someone had lit a rocket. When the tornado was over us, we could hear stuff hitting the west side of our building. At the same time, it began to peel lumber off a stack in the south east corner of our lot and carry it northwest to the building. I couldn't see a funnel as such, just lots of debris flying around. One hundred men hammering on the building couldn't have made as much noise, I think.
It was an awesome display of power, and that from a fairly small and tame twister.
Furby, Dan_Shade may be right. Part of a tornado's purpose may be to weed out those creatures who don't have enough sense to get out of the way. ;D

WDH · May 17, 2007, 10:54:21 PM

Faron, looks like you were lucky

.

sawguy21 · May 17, 2007, 10:54:46 PM

After riding a twister out in 1987, I don't care if I never see one again. That was not fun.

TexasTimbers · May 18, 2007, 01:10:52 AM

I have had 2 tornado encounters of the third kind. The scariest was the one in Yuba Oklahome where me and the new preacher for that town ended up side by side in a ditch, and we were not even in the tornado itself. But the raw power is incredible. You feel it and hear it so much that it is sensory overload.

These ain't dirt devils Furby. I don't mind hovering over sharks and jumpng off cliffs and out of airplanes but you can have the tornados. You'd probably wet your shorts if you was about to get sucked up into one. ;D

DanG · May 18, 2007, 03:25:46 PM

Kev, I'd be interested in hearing what that preacher was saying during the storm. ;D :D I mean, was he praying for you, or praying for himself, or just yelling "HOLY CRAP!" like the rest of ya?

TexasTimbers · May 18, 2007, 04:37:13 PM

We had to scream at each other and then it was hard to hear. The thing I remember most him saying was "I think there is a tornado coming" and I screamed back "I think we are in it!"

Turns out we were just missed by it but the winds were so strong trees and branches were blowing right over us. We would have been creamed if we'd been hit by anything. i showed my wife the ditch once and she says God made that ditch just for me and the preacher. It is really deep. I said yeah He did make it but I sure am glad the Oklahoma Highway Department allowed themsleves to be a tool of the Lord because that ditch was right handy when we needed it the most. 8) 8) 8) ;D

I figure it was there for the preacher and I just got lucky to ride his coattails to saftey. :D

Handy Andy · May 19, 2007, 11:23:50 PM

I have a neighbor who hauls gravel and blacktop for the local paving company. He says that several years back he was hauling gravel back this direction from the quarry about 40 miles east when a twister picked his truck up and put it out in the pasture he was driving by. Took 2 big wreckers to get him back on the road, didn't hurt him or the truck. Or the fence along the pasture.

rebocardo · May 20, 2007, 05:59:05 PM

Does that lexan tank come with a parachute and retro rockets for the 2,000 foot and 300 mph drop? :D

If a 20 foot drop can break your spine just driving off a creek bed, I wonder what would happen when dropped from just 300 feet?
:

Well, I hope at least they have a remote feed for the camera for Max X.

Daren · May 22, 2007, 06:16:12 AM

I found this picture image searching the web for some clipart for a advert. It is a sawblade stuck in a tree like a Ninja throwing star (there are some other cool pics there too of storm stuff and lightning) http://stormeyes.org/tornado/SkyPix/sawblade.htm

sparks · May 22, 2007, 01:49:22 PM

Last years Good Friday my house was hit by a masive hail storm. It was the largest hail I have ever seen. My wife and I stood in the garagewhen it began. It started out aboust 30 seconds of tennis ball size hail and then 3 minutes of golf ball size. I watched as the neighborhood was pounded. Windows, yard lights, garage lights shutters, screens mailboxes oh and the cars. I watched my truck take a beating. When it was all over we surveyed the damage. I lost my yard pole light and my truck looked horrible. As I looked at the front of th houses accross the street I thought about the rear of my house. It looked like it took mortar fire. I had softball size holes, 87 in all, punched in my house. I could see the drywall that is on the inside of the house. When I went inside it had knocked the drywall loose and I had nail pops galore. New roof, siding, windows, screen, gutters, wood trim replaced and painted, inside drywall repaired and walls and ceilings painted $32,000. Truck repaired, $3500.00. A litttle nervous when I hear chance of hail warnings. Thank God for good insurance.

Daren · May 10, 2008, 05:01:31 PM

I thought I would drag this oldie back up after I saw this video. (and this is an F1 maybe F2, wimpy by tornado standards)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clFCtNN3GBM

WildDog · May 10, 2008, 06:36:13 PM

I'm glad we don't get tornados over here, we do get hurricans up north, I see the footage and think what a shocking experience having your family with you when one hit. At least with bush fires we can prepare for the event in advance by reducing fuel loads etc and usually get some time to move our families out so we can look after our's and others property without the added burden.

Lightening is bad enough, it hits my place here regularly we're on an iron stone ridge and we occassionally loose cattle and plenty of trees. It struck the fence I was fixing in 1986 resulting in my dog and I running around like chooks with their heads cut off and solidifiied blood down my left side.