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♪ ♪ REED: Here we go! Hold on to your butts! Look at this thing! Don't go. Whoa! Lightning right in front of it! MIKE: Wow. REED: High Plains insanity about to happen. The weather up here in the northern plains is insane. The tornado is up in that area somewhere. It's hard to see 'cause it's rain-wrapped.
MIKE: Oh (bleep). Look at this roof. Yup. REED: Oh my gosh. That's tornado damage. The tornado is right in front of us, guys. Where is it? Do you see it? MIKE: I don't see it. REED: Oh, there it is! Tornado! Huge wedge! (barking) REED: The storm's taking off.
(barking) Usually when she starts barking like this, it means that a tornado's imminent. (barking) Come here, Gizmo. I got you. That storm over there, that's our target. It's been a tough tornado season. It's been incredibly unusual. Chased a lot of marginal setups, we've had a lot of difficult tornado days, but finally, we're in position.
All the ingredients are in place for an outbreak of tornadoes up here in the northern High Plains, eastern Wyoming, the western Dakotas, Nebraska Panhandle. We are in a whole new weather paradigm here. Many people think of tornado season as happening in the spring in a very concentrated area in the Central U.S. But as we move into the summer, tornado activity shifts north and we've been seeing insane outbreaks up here in the northern plains. Whoa, is that big. Wow. These aren't areas with a history of big tornadoes like we see in the traditional tornado states, which means it's harder for local agencies to predict them
and to keep people safe. Oh, it hit something! That's why we need to be on the ground directly in the path of these tornados to record data that no one else is getting. This will help the scientific community paint a clear picture of how these weather patterns are evolving. Tornado season is coming to a close. I think this could be a final big storm system for us to intercept, so we have to execute. The pressure is on because I don't know if we're gonna get another setup like this.
Get a quick look at it. Wow! Look at the spin on it! Big rotation on this storm. (barking) A tornado can come out at any second. (barking) All right, getting the battery in the probe! This is the ground-based probe. If we see a tornado today, we'll drop this in the path of it, let the tornado move over the probe.
It's measuring meteorological data from directly inside the tornado. There we go. The probe's ready. Let's get on this thing. It's really hard doing everything yourself, driving, navigating, finding the storm, flying the drones, coordinating everything. I wish Mike were here, it'd be a lot easier.
MIKE: We're just coming into Miami. Look at the dark clouds. (alarm sounds) We got alarms going off, special marine warning. The prediction is for this to become a hurricane. I really hated breaking off from Reed, leaving him alone. This could be a problem in the future with these overlapping hurricane and tornado seasons. We're gonna have to make these decisions. But I do not wanna miss a possible hurricane this close to home.
I mean, this is right where I was born and raised. This system is starting to strengthen, so we're gonna check it out. Got some rain coming now. There's a boat already sunk. The tide is not normally this high. Look how high it is on the docks. These are the very early signs of an approaching hurricane. Look at all these palm trees everywhere out there on that island.
We can deploy on any of these trees. Forecasters are already predicting a hurricane season that could be off the charts. Being part of a small group of chasers collecting data on the ground, I have to be creative. Cat five force winds level everything in their path, but after 35 years of chasing, I noticed one thing that always seemed to be left standing. The palm tree. I built the Windy Palms Device to collect data and survive even in the biggest storms. I think daybreak tomorrow morning is gonna be when the peak comes through.
The plan is to sleep in the car tonight, and be there right when it comes in. We'll get it done. (barking) (alarm sounds) REED: There's the tornado warning and emergency alert. Tornado warning located near Box Butte campground. So, hopefully there's no campers out there. Look at that thing. Blowing up! Warm air and moisture rising off the ground fuels a thunderstorm. Winds high in the atmosphere cause the thunderstorm to rotate turning it into a supercell. If the rotating core of a supercell is strong enough,
it can extend to the ground and become a tornado. Oop, yep, there's a lowering. Right up in there tucked up against the rain. (making noise with mouth) Ooh, is that a funnel cloud I'm seeing? It is! Yes, it is! Oh yeah, it's coming down! Woo! Tornado, guys! It's a big one! Woo! Tornado. We gotta figure out a road to get down there.
There it is, look! A stovepipe tornado out there right now, growing in size. It looks like there's a county road right over here we can take. We're going to the State Recreation Area. This is pretty close to that. All we need is a road to get out there. (barking) Yeah, we got a road, we got a road! Drive into it! (rain hitting windshield) If it can hang on we'll be able to deploy the probe in the path of this tornado.
Hang on! Come on, baby! Hang on! Woo! (barking) REED: We got a tornado right now in the Nebraska Panhandle. If it can hang on, then we'll be able to deploy the probe in the path of this. Hang on! Woo! Come on baby, hang on! (bleep) It's moving around, it's starting to rope out! Damn it! It just roped out right in front of us.
Can't intercept over a lake. I think that tornado was a waterspout. It touched down right over this reservoir here. We just needed a jet ski to make it happen here at Box Butte Recreation Area. Well we almost got there. We gave it everything we had, but we'll just have to wait until next time. (thunder)
MIKE: What a night. I would be lying if I said I'm not exhausted right now. I did not get a good night's sleep in this car. Ohhh, this is the life of a hurricane chaser. Looks like some of these outer bends are already starting to come in. It's gonna get interesting here soon. I'm at the right spot. Now, it's up to Mother Nature.
(sizzling) Can you hear that? (sizzling) Wow! The sizzling of the electricity going through those lines. The reason that's happening is there's salt spray in the air, hitting those and causing that sound. So, if one of those comes off that pole and falls down to the ground, it sparks, things will be sparking, it'll catch things on fire. If there's anybody around, it'll be a huge danger. We got 39, almost broke 40 miles an hour. Oh, there it is! 41 miles an hour. It is coming right into the coast here, so we'll see what kind of winds we get over the next several hours.
We have a really good handle on figuring out the track of hurricanes, it's the intensity that we still are lacking. But you definitely don't want to miss anything that strengthens at the last minute. You gotta keep watching it, you can't let you guard down because Mother Nature does have tricks up her sleeve, promise you. REED: Want a Fruit Loop, Gizmo? Another day, another chase. We've got a big-time storm up here in Montana. All the ingredients are in place for this to really take off.
The sunny skies out here are increasing the instability, like there's no tomorrow. We've got a dew point of 59 measured just to the east of that storm. This is the greatest chance of us seeing a large tornado so far this season. Want to go pee-pee? This is Gizmo. She's a hardcore storm-chasing dog. Hang on! She's been through a category five hurricane. (barking) Tornado! She has seen about 200 tornadoes, so more tornadoes than any other dog on the planet.
Gizmo helps me get through the grind. She's my best friend. (Whistling) Oh, no! And she's the love of my life. The absolute love of my life. (cows moo) There it is. We're just trying to get a little bit out ahead of this thing. But this road network is killing us. Based on the projected path of the storm, I think I'm on the right road.
One thing about chasing in Montana up here in the northern plains is the data coverage is a lot more sparse, so you don't get any radar updates. A lot of times you have no idea what the storm is even doing, and you have to go pure visual. But this is definitely a rural area. There's not a lot out here. There's just a couple of road options to keep up with this storm and we're gonna have to get really lucky to get a probe deployment because we're gonna need this tornado to pass over one of these roads.
You have to be at the perfect place at the perfect time or you're not gonna be able to get a probe inside this tornado. There's gonna be huge hail with this, enormous hail. (barking) Get outside and see what's going on. As supercell storms sweep over the northern plains, warm air rising from the ground mixes with cold air higher in the atmosphere. If enough moisture is present, it gets trapped between these colliding air masses and freezes into ice droplets
getting larger and larger until they fall. The area of heaviest precipitation, or the hail core, can cause extreme damage on the ground and hide tornadoes within. Holy (bleep). Do you see that? You wanna get in the car. Huge hailstone just came. This is one of the smaller ones out there. It's a golf ball-sized hailstone. Here it comes.
This storm is such an intense hail producer that, we're probably five or ten miles east of the storm and we're already getting blasted by hail. (barking) Whoa! These are baseballs, absolute huge baseball-sized hail coming in. These are huge! (barking) We're about to lose our window. (smashing) Oh, (bleep)! (barking) And just like that, it's over. That was very large hail back there. The window busted but thankfully, the van is not disabled.
Are you okay, Gizmo? Looks like we could break off to the east up here maybe. But I just don't think that's the road. I think that whole thing's trying to spin. It's going through the motions. We've got to get east. Tornado! Big one right in the middle. See a bright white cone? Woo! We got to find that east option.
We are missing this east option. I cannot find the east option right now. I think I might have taken a wrong road. (bleep). REED: Tornado! Woo! We got to find that east option. We are missing this east option. I cannot find the east option right now. I think I might have taken a wrong road. It must have been that (bleep) ranch road.
I knew it! We need the (bleep) east option. Huge pipe of a tornado. (bleep). Yeah, it's done. Damn it! I could've gotten closer to it if I didn't make that road mistake. Yeah, that's why you need a navigator. We gotta deploy hardware inside of a tornado or this mission is not a success.
MIKE: 30 miles an hour gusts. The tropical system's been downgraded to a tropical storm. We could check the pressure too, we got 1,004, which is very high, which means it's not strong. Some dry air came into it, it just eroded the core of it. Hurricanes, as powerful as they are, are also very delicate, and this one just never really got going. I think it's time to call it.
We're still really early in the hurricane season, but the tornado season's running out of time. So I need to get back with Reed and see if we can get the probe in one last twister. (birds chirping) (barking) REED: We have evidence of a major tornado that happened in Black Hills National Forest. And this looks like a strong violent tornado to me.
Probably 200 plus mile per hour winds. Just an incredible event. We've got to get out there and survey this thing. (barking) Beautiful little lamb. Let's see how bright-eyed she is, that means it's gonna be a big day. ♪ ♪ Who is the cutest lamb? ♪ ♪ Gizmo is the cutest lamb. ♪ ♪ She likes that song sung to her. Ready to go do a damage survey, Giz?
This is such an unusual crazy event. Tornadoes just climbing up the western slopes of the Black Hills. A common myth with tornadoes is that they don't happen in mountains. Many people think that the topography will act as a block, but this definitely dispels that myth. This goes along with how unusual the northern plains are behaving overall. It just goes to show you that you've got to expect the unexpected moving forward in Tornado Alley and beyond.
Holy cow, look at this! Whole Ponderosa pines completely snapped off here. I'm gonna get the drone in the air to do this survey. Here we go! Wow! Look at how long of a path this was. You can see rotational patterns out here, trees falling in all different directions.
This is definitely a big, strong tornado. I see where the tornado lifted. There's a valley up there, and then it's gone. A tornado like this in the mountains, this strength, this width, and intensity is something I've never seen in my 22-year storm chasing career. But we've gotta keep moving because today is the biggest tornado threat that we've chased yet.
All the ingredients are in place for this storm to really take off. REED: We've got an enhanced risk here across western South Dakota to northern Nebraska. And we've got Mike Theiss flying in just in time for the grand finale. We absolutely have to execute today or basically this whole season is a bust. There he is! (barking) There he is! MIKE: Hey! There he is! REED: Just in time for the grand finale. MIKE: Yes, sir. REED: Looks good today, man.
MIKE: The team's together. Let's get it done. REED: Man, chasing solo has been tough. MIKE: Yeah. REED: Deploying the probe is difficult. MIKE: When I left, this wasn't there. REED: Yeah. MIKE: Definitely need a new windshield. REED: Yeah, might as well start with a clean slate. I go through about a dozen windshields a year.
We got a brand-new windshield here. MIKE: Blow that sucker right out! REED: Yeah, we will. MIKE: It's like a brand-new car now. REED: Enjoy it while it lasts because look at that. MIKE: Yeah, wow. REED: It's already got some rotation on it. This looks like another one of those big-time wedge intercept days out here. Wedge tornadoes look like an upside-down triangle unlike normal funnel-shaped tornadoes.
The wedge's sloped sides make it look wider than it is tall. REED: Get in the car, get in the car! One of the closest I've ever been to a tornado was an F4, half mile wide monster in South Dakota. Back up, back up! It's coming back towards us. (bleep). Oh my God, I hope they're okay. Please be okay. The F4 tornado struck with estimated wind speeds of 260 miles per hour decimating the small town. The damage was so extensive that the town was never able to rebuild.
MIKE: So, right now, is we have one quarter of a tank of fuel. REED: We're down to one quarter? MIKE: Yeah. REED: Yeah, we're probably gonna run out of gas. MIKE: There's nothing up ahead? Okay. REED: Nothing for miles and miles. MIKE: Great. REED: We just got to push it until we run out of gas, because this is the last chase of the season and we've got to do whatever it takes. Holy (bleep), look at that hail core! Absolute monster hail core, look at this thing!
This is the biggest hail core I've seen in my entire storm chasing career. If we can get through that hail core, get on the south side of the storm, we'll be in position to see the tornado if it drops. Let's see if we can get in there. Here we go! We're already getting nickels just this far out. MIKE: Oh yeah, it's getting bigger. REED: Quarters. It's coming in hard and fast.
MIKE: Oh (bleep)! REED: Here it comes. Here it comes! (thump) Whoa! (thump) MIKE: It's ripping the windshield apart! REED: Hold the line! We're going through the heart of the hail core now. Hang in there! (thump) MIKE: Whoa! REED: Wow! MIKE: That was a softball. Did you see how big that one was? REED: Yeah. They're bouncing up off the road. Look at that! Holy cow! Big time winds. Woo!
We're almost there. Point four miles. Careful, careful! Car left, car left! MIKE: Whoa! REED: Let's go, we got it! We're almost there! It is happening. Careful, careful! Car left, car left! MIKE: Whoa! We're good, we're good. REED: Woo! MIKE: A little hydroplaning.
MIKE: Yeah, they were. REED: The circulation's wrapping all the way around, so I think if we can get out here, we could have a chance deploying on it. Not a lot of great roads down here. Yeah, this might be it. We're trying to get back out in front of the storm but the road network is not very favorable out here. And with all the rain that this area's gotten over recent days, we could easily get stranded out here.
MIKE: (bleep). Eight minutes. REED: See how bad it is. MIKE: Four-wheel drive activated. There we go. REED: How does it feel? MIKE: Mud's sliding. REED: Well, it's the only option now. If it's nasty, we're just gonna have to get towed out of here. MIKE: It's getting real slippery now. REED: I just don't want to roll it.
Whoa! MIKE: Oh! That was really soft. REED: It was? MIKE: Yes. REED: Definitely slow down. MIKE: I'm gonna need to slow down. REED: Yeah. Because we're on the storm, so great driving. (thunder) MIKE: Oh! REED: Big lightning. We're about to come through now. MIKE: Getting a little more visibility. Getting over this hill.
Here we go. REED: That's our storm. We're keeping pace with it. (makes noise with mouth) MIKE: We got a paved road coming up. REED: You got to be kidding me. This is great. MIKE: You got to be kidding me, you got to be kidding me, you got to be kidding me! Paved road! REED: Gas. MIKE: All right. Reed? REED: We can't stop yet. We're gonna lose the storm. MIKE: Okay. REED: It's really coming down to this intercept, so.
(alarm sounds) REED: Tornado warning. Holy cow. That's where the tornado would happen. It's very possible that this storm could produce a tornado before it reaches our road. MIKE: Oh, we've got to merge over. REED: Oh, no. This is not good. That is spinning. This thing could be running into a populated area. All right, let's go, we can get this. We can deploy.
Let's pull over here. MIKE: Hold on. Right here I'm gonna stop. REED: Okay, Gizmo, shh. Settle down. Daddy's got to go deploy. (thunder) Look at this! This whole thing is just planting over the mountains. Oh, wow! Look at that, Mike! MIKE: Yeah. Look how fast it's moving in there. (barking) REED: Stay, Gizmo, stay. So, this supercell is slamming right into the Black Hills. It's spinning above us right now.
And I think it's gonna become a tornado producer. Could even be a tornado buried within this. MIKE: It's gonna do it right here. REED: Oh, it is! On the right, look at it! MIKE: Look at the right side! REED: Let's go! That's a wedge. Let's go! East! Gotta get east! MIKE: We gotta get east!
REED: Here we go! Hold on to your butts! Look at this thing! Oh, big lightning. Oh, lightning right in front of it! MIKE: Wow! REED: This is an incredibly dangerous storm. It is a big-time supercell, tornadoes embedded within that. Hopefully, we can get out in front of it, and then we can deploy the probe. It's starting to get real. We gotta get it. MIKE: Our light is on. REED: Gas light? MIKE: Yeah. REED: Oh, no.
One mile, then we can take a left. MIKE: Keep going straight? REED: Yeah. See, the tornado's up here. It's gonna pass over here and we're back here. So we've just got to get to that point before it does. MIKE: Yeah. (barking) REED: It's gonna be intense.
Please get this, man. Please do it for us. MIKE: Come on! REED: The tornado's up in that area somewhere. It's about two miles to our northwest, maybe three. MIKE: Come on! REED: We'll just pull over, get out and drop the probe. MIKE: Come on. REED: Keep going. Can you go a little faster? Keep blasting. Almost there, woo! MIKE: Whoa! REED: Oh, those are tornadic winds right there! MIKE: Yeah. REED: You're doing good.
We're in the circulation right now. You see a tornado out of your left window? MIKE: I know, but I can't see, but I can't open the window. No. REED: Yeah. Almost about to see it. We're about to come through. MIKE: Man, I can't see (bleep). REED: The wedge is right in front of us, guys. We're very close. Keep going, Mike, you got it! Doing good.
Where is it? Do you see it? It's crossed, it's crossed. Right there, across the road. This is the road. Yeah. It's south of us now. Damn! The tornado crossed the road just in front of us. We were a little bit too late. (siren) MIKE: (bleep). Look at this roof! REED: The roof. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That is tornado damage, guys. MIKE: Yeah. That's tornado damage.
REED: That was not a residential home, but it was a dialysis center. We might be able to catch it if we go due southeast here, we'll have a chance. But it's gonna take a herculean effort for us to get through this storm and then possibly deploy our tornado probe on this. Mike's the man for the job though. If we bend back around, this should naturally take us south of the core. Nice driving. You're giving us the best shot at getting this tornado. MIKE: All right.
REED: It's hard to see because it's rain wrapped. It's going haywire. MIKE: Oh, wow. Look at that thing. REED: Yeah. There it is. We're right there. Look at the middle. You see it trying to wrap around in there? MIKE: Oh, yeah. REED: That's it. Here it comes. We're gonna peel around and wait right in its path. All right, let's go. We can get this.
We can deploy. MIKE: We gonna get it crossing the road? REED: Yeah. Right in front of us. We're gonna intercept on this road. MIKE: I'm gonna turn into the wind. Alright, hold on. Big wind's coming, guys. REED: Here we go! There it is! We're gonna deploy now. REED: We're gonna intercept on this road. MIKE: Big wind's coming, guys. REED: Here we go! MIKE: Hear the lines? These lines are gonna snap.
Holy crap! Watch out for tree branches! REED: There it is! Huge wedge! MIKE: Coming this way, Reed. Move! REED: All right, let's do it! We're gonna deploy now! MIKE: Let's get it out. REED: Get it on the road surface. MIKE: All right, it's coming, it's coming. REED: Let's get on out, go! It's coming fast! Let's get out of here!
MIKE: We're almost out of gas. REED: Slow down, slow down! We're good right here, stop! MIKE: Listen to it! You can hear the hail roar. Hear it? REED: Yes. MIKE: I can't see behind me for (bleep). (wind and hail) REED: This is big time hail right here, guys. Here it comes! (hail)
(wind and hail) REED: Here it comes! It's close. Can you see it? MIKE: It's totally rain wrapped. I can't see a thing. REED: Oh, look at it go. Look at it go! MIKE: Whoa! REED: Whoa! (hail) REED: Yeah, we're good. Clearing now, aren't we? MIKE: Yeah. Wow, that got intense. REED: Yeah, it did. Turn back around?
MIKE: All right. Turn around. Here we go. REED: That was awesome. We are the best storm chasing team in the world, I'll tell you that right now. We are digging needles out of a (bleep) haystack. Woo! The probe should be right up here. MIKE: Yeah. REED: There it is! We did it! MIKE: Yes! REED: We did it! MIKE: Oh my God, that was crazy.
REED: Yes! We've deployed ground probes inside tornadoes before, but I've never deployed one inside of a monster wedge tornado in the northern plains, and that's why this deployment is so important. That's what it's all about right here. MIKE: I know. REED: It's been a really strange tornado season. Very erratic. It was great to end the season with a successful science mission win. (wind and thunder) All right, let's get some gas. That was insane back there. MIKE: Yeah. REED: The tornado Mike and I intercepted, thankfully didn't result in any loss of life, but that's just blind luck.
There's still a lot to learn about how these monster supercells behave in the northern plains, and to figure out if this is the new norm. MIKE: Whoa! REED: That was close. MIKE: Damn. REED: Woo! Analyzing this data from a northern plains wedge tornado gives us an idea of how these changing weather patterns are behaving and could even provide yet another clue as to when, where, and how cat six northern plains storms might one day form. We've already seen tornado season overlapping with hurricane season, unprecedented storm systems exploding over the northern plain.
And now, hurricane season is shaping up to be the most prolific in history. Storm chasing season is just getting started. Oh! Captioned by Cotter Media Group
