Have you ever "chased" a tornado?

@cc1309 (22)
United States
December 11, 2006 1:25am CST
How close have you been to the monster of a thunderstorm? I have only seen one up close and damn if I didn't have my camera.
4 responses
@sierdij (853)
• Philippines
11 Dec 06
No never.And i don't want it to happen. It's so scary.I once saw a tornado in real life when we are on our way from our vacation.I'm with my family that time.I captured it with my camera phone video but it's not that clear to see.But we are thankful that it's not that big to harm people and also it happened in a rice field.
@cc1309 (22)
• United States
11 Dec 06
How close to it was you?
@fbb198 (1322)
• India
11 Dec 06
No, i have't. But have seen many recording of guys chasing Tornado.
@cc1309 (22)
• United States
11 Dec 06
I'm gonna try it this next year. I think it will be fun and exciting, plus a way to get out of the house and do something.
• United States
21 Dec 06
I spent 10 summers chasing tornadoes across Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. During those 10 seasons, I only saw 3 tornadoes. One of them almost killed me. I had been chasing a storm that looked like I was going to produce a tornado. At the same time, there was another storm behind me. The cell I was chasing started to die and I assumed (very stupid) that the storm behind was also going to die off. Wrong. The cell behind me was taking energy from the cell in front of me. The cell behind me then produced a tornado and I was now the hunted rather than the hunter. I was unaware this was all taking place until the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning and reported the position of the storm as just 4 miles west of my location (this was 1989...I didn't have a laptop with radar, etc). The storm was moving northeast, so I turned right and drove due south. Unfortunately, it was too late. The storm caught up with me and I thought it was all over. To this day, I don't know how my car wasn't picked up and tossed like a hot wheels toy. My car just shook a lot and my ears popped as the funnel passed overhead. Terrifying to say the least.
@bsabers (668)
• United States
12 Dec 06
I love storm chasing and actually a few years ago I did see a tornado. It was about 2 miles away, but it was really exciting. Luckily it was very small and only damaged a few trees. I went out a bunch last spring and summer storm chasing but didn't have any luck seeing any tornadoes. Hopefully this spring and summer will be a different story. There's some really good oppurtunites to see great big storms living in the midwest!