Original subtitles

So, this one might be the storm of the day, bro.

This is gonna be a strong tornado, dude.

This is gonna be a strong tornado.

This is really, really freaking bad here.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

Hello?

I'm not really sure where this thing's like,

where is this thing trying to drop?

How's it looking on radar?

Yeah, it looks great on radar.

It's got like a boundary like, ingested into it.

Just beautiful, beautiful supercell.

And look at that radar. This thing looks amazing.

My name is Freddy McKinney,

and I'm a storm chaser.

I'm just fascinated by weather.

Ever since I was a little kid-- thunderstorms,

tornadoes, really all kinds of natural disasters

and weather events.

This thing's looking pretty impressive here.

Switched off of it there for a second, but it's got a nice

mesocycle, and It looks like just to the west of Clear Lake,

South Dakota right now.

I work with the National Weather Service.

As a certified weather spotter, they get live reports from me.

They usually tune into my livestreams.

It's my responsibility to let as many people know that

there's a violent tornado headed their way.

The ability to get that information out

is what saves lives.

It looks like the severe storm threat for today gonna be just

south of North Dakota, so that's the good news.

The bad news is South Dakota getting in on this

and the potential for some tornadic development as well.

We're late to the supercell thunderstorm.

We're late to it, but we are closing in.

You can see our location right here, and the supercell's just

to our southwest right now.

I wonder, this thing might drop.

I'm chasing with my best friend, Eli.

Moving in for the close-range intercept.

The great thing about Eli is, is he trusts me.

It's tough to find people that trust me

because I am a bit of a maniac.

- Hey, that's weird. - Huh?

- What is that? - I have no clue.

Is it rotating?

'Cause I can't really look at it.

Very close. It is.

It might be a funnel then if it's--

it looks like one.

If that thing is spinning hard, that's a funnel.

We gotta cook.

All right, what's up, guys?

Today, I'm accompanied by Lauren and Caleb.

Whoo.

Caleb was on the chase yesterday, and now we're

accompanied by his wife, Lauren. - Hey.

And I'm friends with both of them, so it's just, like,

extra fun for me today.

So I'm pumped to have them with,

and yeah. - Whoo-hoo!

- Let's see them 'nados. - Let's see them 'nados dangle.

OK, anyways.

My name is Tanner Charles.

I've been chasing for 15 years,

and I am really blessed with what I get to do.

My plan for the day is to get there and document whatever

storm may form in the area.

That's the mission, and be a helping hand

to anyone who needs help.

Come on.

You drive like a grandma, Tanner.

- Oh, I know. - You gotta floor it.

As we were sitting there in the vehicle just

looking at all the models, there appeared to be two targets--

one in Minnesota and one in South Dakota.

We decided to head towards South Dakota.

All right, Lauren, you're gonna handle on stream.

- Ready? - All right, here we go.

That way.

- There. - Whoo!

- There we are. - Nice cone.

I'm hoping to get closer.

All right, let's get closer.

Right in front of Freddy, God, that's OK.

We're gonna get right next to it.

We got one. Oh, yeah, rapid rotation.

Tornado trying to drop.

This tornado horn.

Look at the rapid rotation on the right side.

Tornado trying to drop right now.

If you're watching the stream,

we're gonna try to get really close to this tornado.

I don't know if it's gonna drop or not, but we have

this road here, and this is gonna be our opportunity

to get extremely close if it does drop.

This is approaching Clear Lake.

If you know anybody or you live in Clear Lake, Iowa, you gotta

take cover, man. You gotta take cover.

This is really, really freaking bad here.

- South Dakota, right? - Did I say North Dakota?

- You said Iowa. - I said Iowa?

- You said Iowa. - South Dakota, not Iowa.

Wow. It's getting big.

It's getting big.

This thing might put down an absolute just beauty.

We're moving in for that close range intercept here.

We're starting to think this is gonna be the one.

Yeah, my name's Randy Hicks, and I'm a tornado chaser.

I've been chasing storms for 33 years.

I mean, I do it 'cause I love it.

It's-- it's my whole life.

You gotta have guts, you gotta have courage,

and you gotta be willing to take chances.

My chase partner, Bryant, is in the car.

He's on the radar.

Some of the younger chasers don't have a clue.

They just get a mile from it, start screaming, and then run

an 80 mile an hour as fast a way as they can.

They go into a complete panic mode.

And once panic sets in, fear sets in.

Once fear sets in, then right behind that's, stupid decisions,

which can cost you your life.

Fortunately for the Clear Lake tornado, it was

in open fields, crops, stocks.

Not a lot of properties were getting hit.

If it was hitting structures, of course, it would be doing

extreme damage.

I think it's moving southeast, so that would put it coming

directly at me. - Oh, cool.

Yeah, it's coming right at us.

Debris in the air.

It's coming at us.

We gotta move.

Almost under the tornado cyclone.

I wanted to make sure that I was the closest chaser

to that tornado.

Nobody could outdo me and, yeah,

maybe got a little too close.

Wow, dude, look at that, dude.

You can see how it's starting to like, wither away.

Be careful when it's roping.

It might do weird things,

but now there's a shot. There's a shot.

It's roping out, so we might as well just take this good shot

that we have here.

What a beautiful tornado!

We didn't hit any structures or anything, but that is a--

it's gorgeous, man.

- Wanna get out? - Gorgeous tornado!

We can hop out for a second.

We can hop out for a second here.

It's just insane, bro.

Frickin' insane. Hey!

Freddy, come here. Here's Brandon.

- Let's go! - Wow!

Take a selfie?

Oh, where's the tornado? Freddy!

Yeah, hold on.

- Freddy! - What's up, guys?

Oh, toward a new one.

Yeah, I just wanna make sure I didn't, like, hit anybody

at all. - Yeah, well, that's fair.

Selfies with it, but--

I guess since Brandon's coming back this way.

Yeah, watch you guys.

- Brandon! - Corey's coming this way.

- Bran, get on this side. - Was that your first tornado?

First tornado, guys!

Let's go, bro!

Heck, yeah. Here's Corey.

We gotta probably get out--

probably get out east out ahead of it.

I guess we gotta get east probably, right?

Yeah, we probably gotta go.

Yeah, we gotta get on that, so.

All right, back we go.

Ow.

All right, we gotta flip back around.

I hope that tornado was not...

it looked like a pretty mean tornado, if I do say so myself.

So, let's hope that did not hit any structures or anything.

So, yeah. You know, like, there are...

structures and stuff out here.

All right, yeah, new wall cloud.

Yep.

What is happening?

We have a tornado to the right.

Yep.

My name is Will, and I'm a full-time storm chaser.

I'm chasing with one of my best friends

in the whole world, Jack.

He flew all the way from the UK to chase with me.

He's never seen a tornado.

I'm one of the younger chasers.

And so, you know, everything is a competition,

especially with all these other content creators out there.

You have Freddy and Tanner.

I love them to death, but I have to see-- I have to see

the thing, and I have to see it better than them.

I have to have the best shot.

I have to be able to encounter that story.

I have to show them that,

like, you know, I'm not just a little kid.

Holy [bleep], that thing is shooting up from nowhere.

Yep, yep.

It's gonna go! That's it!

Oh, big funnel. Oh, perfect timing, by us.

This one-- this one might be the storm of the day, bro.

This might be it.

Look at it!

Oh, my gosh!

Dude, this is gonna be strong.

I know. OK, it's moving south.

Be careful.

Yeah, dude, we're gonna just get in it.

We're just gonna get in it, bro.

OK, go, don't get too close, though.

Just watch it. Oh, my gosh, look right here!

Look right here!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Can we get out? Can we get out?

You guys have five seconds.

Oh, my gosh! Right here!

Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!

Look at it! It's huge!

It's huge!

As we're really, really close to these vortices,

suddenly that boundary surges in front of us.

And if this tornado makes even a tiny little deviation,

this could kill me. This could kill us.

Get in. Get in.

Connor!

Let's go, baby! Let's go!

Let's go, baby! Look at this thing!

It was the next generation of storm chasing

with the live streaming.

There's definitely a competitive edge.

The best shot of a tornado is right up on it, just like where

you can witness its true power.

Let's go!

Come on! Yo!

Whoo! Oh, my God!

It's getting violent! It's getting violent!

We are about a mile away from it right now, about a mile.

I am Brandon Copic.

I am a full-time storm chaser.

I work with a major news organization.

Here it comes.

The reports get relayed to the National Weather Service,

who issues the tornado warnings, upgrades the warnings

to emergencies and such.

But inherently, what we do does save lives.

What a freaking tube!

I've been a storm chaser for 30 years now.

It's definitely a lifelong passion.

I grew up a science nerd

and I became obsessed with weather at the age of five.

We are here in the Dominator in full-blown tornado

intercept mode.

We built the Dominators to get inside of the tornado

and measure data that other people cannot safely collect.

The hardest part is always showing up

to every storm on time.

Whoo!

Oh, my God!

There you go! I see it now!

We were a little bit far out and had to drive and close

pretty quickly to get in position for an intercept.

Let's get it! Go up!

Go, go, go, go! You got it!

We got a lot of east.

Look at that thing go!

The Dominator III isn't a fast-moving vehicle, per se,

even though with the turbo in there, the vehicle

is a lot heavier.

It's up like 13,000, 14,000 pounds,

and it's a little bit hard to be as mobile as we'd like.

This storm is gonna be capable of all hazards.

I did have to put the pedal to the metal there

for a little bit.

We can get it! We just have to keep going!

I wasn't missing this intercept for anything.

We got ourselves a violent tornado on the ground

approaching Gary, South Dakota, right on the Minnesota border.

Right on the Minnesota border here, guys.

My concern is, is if this thing moves into Gary,

it's gonna be a very bad kind of tornado that...

is capable of destroying entire towns.

Oh, my gosh. Look up.

Eli, look up. Look up at it.

Look at the tube overhead.

Yeah, I got it.

That is surreal.

This is the most insane tornado I've ever seen.

The way it behaved, its erratic movement,

the shape, the longevity.

It just went through multiple

different phases throughout its life.

Let me zoom you in on this motion.

It's absolutely surreal, dude.

- This thing is so cool. - It is.

This thing is so cool.

This is one of the cooler tornadoes, dude.

Look at the inner vortices. Look at the inner vortex.

It has like this inner tube inside...

of the outer tube.

It's like a tornado within the tornado.

And you see it dancing in there.

There's little vortices orbiting around,

like it's fluid. It's alive.

Dude, what is going on?

[bleep] Wanna get a better shot.

- There's so many chasers. - I know.

It's crazy that it's late June in South Dakota and we have

this many storm chasers out here.

This is nuts.

- Yo, what up? - Whoo!

Yeah!

Whoo! Look, there's Freddy.

Yo, inside, inside, inside.

Look at the vortices.

- [bleep] Oh, my God, look at it. - Oh, keep filming.

- OK - I'll film out the window again.

Breathe, breathe through the nose.

Breathe through the nose.

It almost feels like it's alive.

Like it feels like there's a monster in front of you

and you're trying as hard as you can to document

this monster while not getting eaten.

It's the best tornado ever.

This is the best tornado I've ever seen.

Holy [bleep].

Oh my God!

That is a joke! That is a joke!

What is that? [bleep]

What the hell?

- What the hell? - Oh, my God!

- Oh, my God! - What is this?

Dude, this is genuinely the coolest thing

I've ever seen.

Dude, honestly,

this might be turning into a tornado of the year, bro.

The wind speed in tornadoes of this magnitude often exceed

160 miles per hour,

and can reach that 200-mile-per-hour threshold.

This is an upper-echelon tornado, and you only get

a couple of these a year.

This is when tornado takes this hard left turn,

and it's now heading straight for the road

that I'm on, and so are my friends.

- Oh my gosh, dude. - Oh, my God

Let's get across. Go, go, go, go, go!

Come on. We can get it.

We can get-- we need the closest shot.

- I just like-- this thing is an EF5, you know. - Yeah.

We're just in time getting into the Gary tornado.

It looked like the perfect tornado intercept,

just to get inside of the tornado and measure that

hard-to-achieve surface wind data.

The Dominator is built to withstand winds of up to EF4

intensity, but it's not

a guaranteed survival in these tornadoes.

Here go the poles. Here go the poles.

I'm just trying to thread the needle.

I'm trying to get as close as I can get to this tornado while

not getting killed by it.

I'm trying to get my close-range intercept

of this thing.

And the Dominator is sitting

in the middle of the road, blocking it.

We do have big blind spots on the Dominator,

especially off to the side.

I cannot believe that in front of one of the craziest

tornadoes both of us had ever seen, that my idol,

Reed Timmer, and the Dominator

crashed into me.

My car is going to do a little bit worse off

the Dominator, considering, you know, it's an armored tank.

I think any time you try to pass behind the Dominator

with its reverse lights on,

you know, that's what can happen.

If you get in the bear's cage, you might get bit.

Whoo!

Suddenly, I saw the road open up, and I saw an opportunity

to intercept this tornado.

We have an anemometer on top of the Dominator that measures

the real time wind speed inside of a tornado

and the pressure fall.

Nobody's trying to come back at us.

- Yeah. - Here's Brandon.

Damn it.

I get east out ahead of the tornado,

and everybody else remains west.

I am virtually by myself on the side of the tornado

that you typically don't wanna be on.

At that point, the tornado's crossing the road.

My friends are worried about me, whether or not I'm about

to get hit by this tornado.

This tornado was violent, and the raw power seeing it in

my roof camera, I just see this white flash back and forth,

and I realize that it's my Starlink.

The mounts are breaking.

All right.

- You on the drone? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- On the drone, boys! - That's crazy, dude.

She's fighting the wind.

That's when you can see it.

It's slowly creeping towards a house.

Wow, this is-- this is bad. And I just start praying.

This is a violent tornado.

This is the kind of tornado that easily kills somebody.

And it's heading straight for these homes.

This is the strongest tornado I've ever seen in my life, bro.

[bleep] Isn't this headed towards Gary?

- Yes. - Oh, no!

It's really close. Keep going, keep going!

This doesn't look real!

This is the greatest tornado

footage I've ever shot in my life!

Brake, brake, brake, brake, brake!

I almost--

Sorry, man. So sorry.

Oh, my God, thank God.

Eyes on the road.

Oh, it's right next to the house.

- I don't like this. - No, the house is good.

- The house is totally good. - All right, good.

The house looks good to me.

When you watch a tornado miss three, four houses along

a highway, I'm thinking, this is the perfect tornado.

It's not hitting anything. It hits trees.

It hits earth. It doesn't hit people.

I would say in this moment, it's sort of a thing

where I'm no longer a storm chaser, I'm a human.

And I really feel like there's, like, golf balls

in your throat.

- Holy smokes, dude. - It just missed that house, too.

This is a violent tornado.

At 200 miles per hour, the kind of damage that's done

is catastrophic.

A house would be completely leveled.

Nothing left.

It'll be swept clean from its foundation.

I'm watching it tear these trees.

Gosh, I really hope there's not a house there.

This isn't a pretty tornado anymore.

It's a destructive tornado.

It may not be hitting houses yet, but it poses

danger to lives.

He hit it.

I started seeing debris, and this did not look like

debris from a barn structure.

This looked like a whole entire house.

You just saw...

essentially death happen in front of you, and now you have

to make the decision to bring yourself

and people that you love

towards it.

OK.

Here, this is sturdy.

At that moment, I hear a scream.

I then notice the family crawling out of the house,

and I realized, OK, everybody's alive.

You know, nobody-- nobody's dead.

And I think...

if someone was dead, I don't know what I would have done.

All right, guys, so there was one injury.

It was just an ankle injury, but he's OK.

Everybody in this house was OK.

Big ol' props to the storm chasers.

Big ol' props to everybody who showed up here.

Big ol' props.

Thank you to everybody who showed up at this house

and started pulling people out of rubble.

Everybody is accounted for, only a minor ankle injury.

Powerful, powerful tornado.

Finally, the tornado, it starts to rope out.

That funnel starts to constrict and...

it takes a left turn away from the town of Gary.

And inside, I just--

a huge sigh of relief

as I know that this tornado is nearing its end

and the town of Gary is gonna be OK.

Nice work.

I get even more excited after all these years, these days.

So the excitement doesn't go away.

The passion only gets more intense with age, and that's

why we have no choice but to continue to chase.

We're gonna wrap up the stream here, but guys, we're done

with the chase here, um,

that was one of the most insane, just, tornado chases

of all time, so just absolutely insane.

Uh, hopefully we help, you know, just warn some people

out there, you know, help the warning process,

help save some lives, you know, potentially, and uh...

...yeah, it was just a crazy day.

Hopefully everybody's OK.

Just crazy, man. Just crazy.

So anyway, take care, everybody.

Whoa.

What a crazy chase.

Today was literally career, like a career chase.

I...

yeah, one of the most incredible chases I've ever been on,

like in my 15 years.

But yeah, this is definitely

one for the record books. I have never...

Whoa.

Oh, my gosh. What a crazy day.

I'm so blessed I get to do this.

- Peace. - Peace out, everybody.

Oh, my God. Thank God.

It's a day where Mother Nature and life,

it really tests if you're serious.

You know, I went into it wanting to prove myself

and wanting to do the perfect thing, but there's no such

thing as the perfect thing.

You can just do what you think in your heart is the best thing

to do and that the day was done correctly.

It's not perfect, and there will never be

a perfect day, but we did the best thing we could.