Drone footage shows storm chasers measuring ‘heartbeat' of a tornado

On May 12, 2023, Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer and his team accomplished an exceptionally difficult task -- intercepting a tornado in an armored vehicle. The terrifying and groundbreaking experience was captured on video from several angles, including breathtaking drone footage.

Leading up to the intercept, Timmer and his team were preparing for a unique severe weather setup, with storms moving from east to west over Nebraska instead of a typical west-to-east motion. In preparation for the chase, the team had a full checklist of responsibilities to ensure the safety of those in the Dominator 3 -- a heavily modified truck with armor strong enough to withstand winds up to 200 mph -- the wind speeds of an EF5 tornado.

When built, the vehicle's suspension was modified to an airbag setup that can drop the vehicle and its armor into the ground to safely ride out a tornado, according to The Drive. The vehicle made its first intercept in May 2013, surviving three separate EF4 twister intercepts near Shawnee, Oklahoma.

As the team prepared for the chase last week, every piece had to be checked, from the hydraulic spike system to the window lift system - the vehicle had to be checked thoroughly. It is essential for each part to be working to ensure a safe intercept.

"Most importantly, we have to make sure that our scientific instrumentation is dialed in because the whole point of intercepting a tornado is to measure scientific data from inside the tornado," Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer told AccuWeather in an interview.

Those inside Dominator 3 -- consisting of Brian Allen, Ryan Hall, Sierra Lindsey and Reed Timmer -- spent the night prior to the chase driving to Nebraska and sleeping in the vehicle. The team woke up in Salina, Kansas, and realized a significant tornado threat was developing north of them.

"We targeted central Nebraska right on the eastern fringe in the Nebraska Sandhills," said Timmer.

Increased instability and moisture were some of the clues given by Mother Nature that long-track prolific tornadoes were possible from the storms produced in the area. There was another harbinger of the volatile conditions present in the atmosphere. A storm formed early on that day produced a tornado near Ord, Nebraska.

"That was kind of a sign of things to come for the rest of the day," said Timmer.

The team waited on the eastern fringe of the Sandhills to stay close to a more favorable road network. Timmer was monitoring which storm would be the healthiest supercell to go after. Then, Timmer pinpointed a target storm that was evolving and growing in size and intensity.

"It had a very high top, which means it has a very high updraft speed too. It's likely rotating a lot faster," described Timmer.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the team's target storm. Storm chaser Mike Leandro was already chasing the storm in a different vehicle and provided Timmer and his team with ground visuals, telling Timmer to "get on the west side of the storm." The picture showed a cone starting to come down. The mission was then set into motion: intercept this tornado.

Spalding, Nebraska, tornado approaching Team Dominator. (Reed Timmer)

As the Dominator 3 approached the tornado, video captured by Timmer showed the roaring size of the tornado along the Nebraska Sandhills.

Storm Chaser Jordan Hall was in the vehicle with Timmer as they approached the tornado near Spalding, Nebraska, that afternoon. Timmer momentarily stopped Dominator 3 to allow Hall to deploy a drone to get a bird's eye view of the incoming twister. Hall launched the drone from inside the Dominator 3, providing a breathtaking and unique view of the incoming fury.

"It was crazy how you could see all the inflow, you could see the condensation streamers over the tops of the hills. You could see the terrain as well, and you could even time intercepting with the vehicle," explained Timmer.

The unique real-time perspective helped the team visualize that they could take a north-south road that would get them lined up right into the path of the tornado. The bird's-eye perspective also helped Timmer analyze the tornado to ensure it wouldn't be too strong for Dominator 3 to withstand.

"I identified it as the perfect candidate for us to intercept, especially realizing the terrain and that there wasn't going to be a huge amount of debris," said Timmer.

Video continued to roll as the powerful layers of the tornado approached closer to the vehicle -- debris wrapping around the twister as it made its daunting approach. The team needed to make one last maneuver to ensure a successful intercept: getting to the south of the tornado to be right in its path. The team executed the maneuver just in time.

"I was watching the left edge of it. It was not moving side to side. I knew we were right in the path of the tornado," said Timmer.

Inside the Spalding, Nebraska, tornado from Dominator 3 (Reed Timmer)

The windows of the Dominator 3 were rolled up, and the ground spikes were deployed. The hydraulically powered spikes are built to instantly dive into the pavement and penetrate the road surface 3-4 inches deep. This locks the vehicle into place and makes it impossible for a tornado to lift the vehicle off the ground or slide. The front wall of the tornado began to impact the vehicle, producing winds from the back side and lifting up Dominator 3.

"You could definitely feel the lift from the tornado from the back end. But you could feel physically the spikes latching onto the pavement, which was an incredible feeling too," Timmer recalled.

Dominator 3 was now directly inside the wedge tornado. It initially felt more powerful than Timmer thought. As the tornado lofted debris at significant wind speeds across the vehicle, the storm chasers' ears popped from the significant pressure change. Then, in a matter of seconds, it was over.

"The tornado is arriving, and then it's gone before you really have a chance to fully process it," said Timmer.

"Just feeling the sun come down and the rain and the hook and seeing the wedge move off into the distance. Realizing that we captured that scientific data set from inside of the tornado is a feeling that I'll never forget."

Four chasers had just experienced the Dominator 3's first direct intercept of a tornado in over a decade -- including Sierra Lindsey, who became the first female to be inside a tornado purposefully, according to Timmer.

But the intercept came at a cost - Dominator 3 suffered damage to several parts as a result of flying debris. The side of the vehicle sustained damage, and the anemometer masts used to measure wind speed were bent at a 45-degree angle. The anemometer itself was blown off and taken away by the tornado. The door system was also jammed on the right side, and some of the armor peeled up.

"Overall, the Dominator 3 definitely survived that tornado very well. It served its purpose, stayed on the ground, allowed us to measure data inside and most of the fixes are largely cosmetic and relatively simple fixes to get it ready for the next intercept," explained Timmer.

The intercept of Dominator 3 produced not only astonishing footage but also remarkable advancements in meteorological science. During the intercept, the team was able to record the highest-resolution pressure data from a tornado ever captured. This was made possible by a subsonic sensor invented by ChasinSpin -- a science educator and researcher who designs and launches sensors into tornadoes. The device is a very sensitive micro barometer capable of recording very low frequencies that are lower than what the human ear can hear.

The device showed a 1.54 inches of mercury (53.23 mb) pressure drop and recovery in just 1 minute, including a 0.68 of an inch of mercury (23 mb) pressure change in less than a second.

Timmer explained that the dramatic pressure shift may have led to his disorientation after the intercept. Timmer also noted that estimated wind speeds inside the tornado reached about 160-170 mph. The full data was released online to help aid further research from the historic intercept.

"The 3D understanding of the tornado and measuring those pressure falls above the ground, I think are so important for us to understand the evolution of tornadoes and understand tornado behavior and strength," Timmer added.

As for the long-term plan of Dominator 3, Timmer says the team is considering installing a pressurized cabin to better weather the dramatic pressure falls and rises.

"Overall, we'd like to deck it out with more instrumentation. I'd like to launch rockets again. That's kind of my number one mission now is to get back launching rockets once again from the Dominator 3. It has about 110,000 miles on it. So, apparently, it's hardly even broken in," Timmer joked.

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