All language subtitles for S R S01E02 1080p DSNP WEB-DL DDP5 1 H 264-NTb (1)_track3_[eng]

(SIRENS WAILING)

Here we go. Hold on to your butts.

Look at this thing! (LAUGHS)

(THUNDERCLAP)

Whoa! Lightning right in front of is!

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). Yup.
REED: Look at this roof.

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.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

REED: There it is! Tornado! Huge wedge!

-(DOG BARKING)
-REED: The storm's taking off.

Usually when she starts barking like this,
it means that a tornado's imminent.

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 US.

But as we move into the summer,
tornado activity shifts north,

and we've been seeing insane outbreaks
appear 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 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.

(GIZMO BARKING)

A tornado can come out of it any second.

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 in to Miami.
Look at the dark clouds.

(ALARM BEEPING)

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 notice 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.

(ALARM BEEPING)

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.

Ooh, yep, there's the lowering.

Right up in there tucked up
against the rain.

(EXCLAIMS)

Ooh, is that a funnel cloud I'm seeing?

It is. Yes, it is.

Oh, yeah, it's coming down.

(LAUGHS) Whoo! Tornado, guys!

It's a big one! Whoo!

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.

Yeah, we got a road, we got a road!

Drive into it!

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!

Whoo!

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 that tornado
was a water spout.

It touched down right
over this reservoir here.

We just needed a Jet Ski to make it happen
here at Box Butte Recreation Area.

We almost got there.
We gave it everything we had,

but we'll just have to wait
until next time.

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.

(SIGHS WEARILY)

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.

(ELECTRICITY BUZZING)

Can you hear that?

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,
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,
you can't let you guard down

because Mother Nature does have
tricks up her sleeve, promise you.

REED: Want a Froot 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.

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.

-(WHISTLES)
-(THUDS)

Oh, no. (CHUCKLES)

And she's the love of my life.

The absolute love of my life.

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.

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.

-(HAILSTONE THUDS)
-Holy (BLEEP) do you see that?

You wanna get in the car.
A huge hailstone just came.

This one is 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 5 or 10 miles
east of the storm

and we're already getting blasted by hail.

Whoa.

These are baseballs,

absolute huge baseball-sized
hail coming in.

These are huge!

We're about to lose our window.

Oh, (BLEEP)!

(GIZMO BARKING)

And just like that, it's over.

That was a 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 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?

Whoo!

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)

It must have been that (BLEEP) ranch road.

I knew it!

We need the (BLEEP) east option.

A huge pipe of a tornado.

(BLEEP)

(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 1004,

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
is running out of time.

So I need to get back with Reed

and see if we can get the probe
in one last twister.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

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.

Beautiful little lamb.

Let's see how bright-eyed she is,
that means it's gonna be a big day.

(SINGING) 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.

(DEVICE BEEPING)

Wow.

Look at how long of a path this was.

You can see rotational patterns out here,

the 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, 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 front that we've chased yet.

All the ingredients are in place
for this storm to really take off.

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.

-There he is.
-Hey. There he is.

-Just in time for the grand finale.
-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.

Deploying the probe is difficult.

-When I left, this wasn't there. (LAUGHS)
-REED: Yeah.

MIKE: Definitely need a new windshield.

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.

Blow that sucker right out.

-REED: Yeah, we will.
-(MIKE LAUGHS)

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 wedges-sloped sides
make it look wider than it is tall.

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 a small town.

The damage was so extensive
that the town was never able to rebuild.

So right now is, we have
one-quarter of a tank of fuel.

-We're down to one-quarter?
-Yeah.

REED: Yeah, we're probably
gonna run out of gas.

There's nothing up ahead?

-Great. Great.
-Nothing for miles and miles.

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! (LAUGHING)

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.

Oh, yeah, it's getting bigger.

REED: Quarters.

Coming in hard and fast!

MIKE: Holy (BLEEP).
REED: Here it comes.

Here it comes!

-(HAILSTONE THUDS)
-REED: Whoa!

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!

-(HAILSTONE THUDS)
-MIKE: Whoa!

Wow!

MIKE: That was a softball.
Did you see how big that one was?

Yeah. They're bouncing up off the road.
Look at that. Holy cow.

Big time winds.

Whoo! Whoo! We're almost there!

0.4 miles.

-Careful, careful. Car left, car left!
-MIKE: Whoa!

Whoa!

We're good, we're good. We're good.

REED: Whoo.

A little hydroplaning.

(PRODUCER SPEAKING)

Yeah, they were.

REED: 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.

(MIKE SIGHS)

REED: 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: I'm 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.
(CHUCKLES)

-Whoa.
-Oh! That was really soft.

-It was?
-MIKE: Yes.

-Definitely slow down.
-MIKE: I'm gonna need to slow down.

Yeah. Because we're on the storm,
so great driving.

-MIKE: Oh!
-Big lightning.

-We're about to come through now.
-MIKE: Getting a little more visibility.

-Get over this hill.
-(REED EXCLAIMS)

MIKE: Here we go.

-That's our storm.
-REED: We're keeping pace with it.

MIKE: We got a paved road coming up.

REED: You got to be kidding me.
This is great.

You got to be kidding me,
you got to be kidding me,

you got to be kidding me,
you got to be kidding me. Paved road.

(CLAPS)

REED: Gas.

(PRODUCER SPEAKING)

MIKE: All right. Reed?

REED: We can't stop yet.
We're gonna lose the storm.

MIKE: Okay.

It's really coming down
to this intercept, so...

(PRODUCER SPEAKING)

-(ALARM BEEPING)
-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.

Well, 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.
-Hold on. Right here I'm gonna stop.

Okay, Gizmo, shh. (KISSES) Settle down.

Daddy's got to go deploy.

Look at this.

This whole thing is just
planting over the mountains.

Oh, wow! Look at that, Mike!

Yeah. Look how fast it's moving in there.

(GIZMO BARKING)

REED: Stay, Gizmo, stay.

So this supercell is slamming
right into the Black Hills.

It's spinning above us right now.

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!

-Look at the right side!
-MIKE: Let's go!

REED: That's a wedge.

-Let's go! East! Gotta get east!
-MIKE: Gotta get east!

Here we go. Hold on to your butts.

MIKE: Look at this thing.

Oh, big lightning.

Oh, lightning right in front of it!

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.

-Gas light?
-MIKE: Yeah.

REED: Oh, no.

One mile, then we can take a left.

-Keep going straight?
-REED: Yeah.

Dude, 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.

REED: It's gonna be intense.

Please get this, man. Please do it for us.

Come on.

The tornado's up in that area somewhere.

It's about 2 miles to our northwest,
maybe 3.

MIKE: Come on.

REED: We'll just pull over
and get out and drop the probe.

MIKE: Come on.

Keep going. Can you go
a little faster? Keep blasting.

-Almost there, whoo!
-Whoa!

Those are tornadic winds right there!

MIKE: Yeah.

We're doing good.
We're in the circulation right now.

You see a tornado out of your left window.

I'm looking, I can see,
but I can't open the window.

REED: No.

Almost about to see it.
We're about to come through.

MIKE: Man, I can't see (BLEEP).

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.

(SIRENS APPROACHING)

MIKE: (BLEEP) Look at this roof.
REED: The roof. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

-That is tornado damage, guys.
-MIKE: Yeah. That's tornado damage.

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.

Giving us the best shot
at getting this tornado.

All right.

(REED SPEAKING)

(MIKE SPEAKING)

-(REED SPEAKING)
-(MIKE SPEAKING)

(REED SPEAKING)

It's hard to see 'cause it's rain-wrapped.

It's going haywire.

Oh, wow. Look at that thing.

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 pull around
and wait right in its path.

All right, let's go. We can get this.

We can deploy.

We gonna get it crossing the road?

Yeah. Right in front of us.

-We're gonna intercept on this road.
-MIKE: I'm gonna turn into the wind.

All right. Hold on.
Big winds coming, guys.

REED: Here we go!

There it is!

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

There it is!

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: Get it 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!

(TIRES SCREECHING)

Listen to it! You can hear the hail roar.

-Hear it?
-Yes.

I can't see behind me for (BLEEP).

REED: This is big time hail
right here, guys.

Here it comes!

(MIKE SPEAKING)

(REED SPEAKING)

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!

Whoo!

Yeah, we're good. Clearing now, aren't we?

MIKE: Yeah.

-Wow, that got intense.
-Yeah, it did. (LAUGHS)

-Turn back around?
-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.

Whoo!

Whoo!

Whoo!

(MIKE LAUGHS)

REED: The probe should be right up here.
MIKE: Yeah.

REED: There it is! We did it!

-We did it! We did it!
-MIKE: Yes! 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.

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.

-(THUNDERCLAP)
-Whoa!

REED: That was close.
MIKE: Damn.

REED: Whoo.

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!