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Guy gets way too close to Illinois Tornado

DGAF, Russia style.

Also, much like the Salina EF4 from 14 April 2012, you can see air parcels condense as they horizontally approach the tornado from the right. Cool stuff.
 
I saw an aerial image posted on Twitter that showed the tornado actually made a small wobble to the right at this exact moment, sparing the guy's life. If it had continued in a straight path, he would have been inside the core flow.
 
That guy should play the lottery, he's very lucky

Even saying it at the beginning of the video that he doesn't know which way the tornado is coming or which way he needs to go to get out of the way. The minute you realize that you need to take your escape route. You lost your situational awareness

Great video nonetheless but no video is worth your life
 
Sam seems eerily calm. Does this fellow fully appreciate what a big tornado can do to a car and its inhabitants?

That said, I greatly appreciate the complete lack of screaming, swearing, and other selfish drama. :)

(edit)
After thinking about this unusual video a bit more, I can't decide if Sam is the luckiest, dumbest fool on the planet, or the greatest Zen Master in the history of storm chasing. ;)
 
Last edited:
Greg Campbell said:
Sam seems eerily calm. Does this fellow fully appreciate what a big tornado can do to a car and its inhabitants?

This was also a red flag, I noticed that as well


After thinking about this unusual video a bit more, I can't decide if Sam is the luckiest, dumbest fool on the planet, or the greatest Zen Master in the history of storm chasing. ;)
Click to expand...

I vote Zen Master
 
Or perhaps he's not a chaser at all. Maybe just a Completely Clueless Joe - with one heck of a xanax habit - in the wrong place at the wrong time?
 
Wow... speechless with this one. Amazing video, luckiest man ever to catch it and that it did not go right over him.
 
My neck is sore from tilting my head to the right. Peake has nothing on this guy.... OK, but in all seriousness... WOW...He remained extremely calm. I'm pretty sure he isn't a chaser, simply a guy driving on that highway. I can't imagine the discussion from the weather community about this one. Although this was just a case of extreme luck, and it's really not funny, I honestly couldn't help but grin at his commentary and how calm he remained.
 
The calm says military, but the indecision tells me that if he is/was military, he isn't/wasn't combat arms. We were trained to keep moving if we got hit, as movement (especially for us Cav types), is our friend. I've seen very few civilians keep that kind of calm in that kind of situation.
 
Drew T said:
The calm says military, but the indecision tells me that if he is/was military, he isn't/wasn't combat arms. We were trained to keep moving if we got hit, as movement (especially for us Cav types), is our friend. I've seen very few civilians keep that kind of calm in that kind of situation.
Click to expand...
Combat engineer here, he's probably an 88M, solid driver but when something happens IVO the front of the vehicle they stop and wait for us to get there [emoji4]
 
What struck me more than the tornado itself is the stupidity of the videographer. I think he was so calm because he had no idea what he was doing. IMO, he was trying to do what he sees in the media, and he almost got his wish......them reporting on his death. I have been chasing for 35 years, and would never consider getting that close.
 
I think he was just average joe that along the way saw a tornado then wanted to get a closer look. One of his first statements is "the things I will do for insight" and you hear a kids voice several times in the video. He didn't act as if he had any experience or even knowledge of what might happen if he got hit. Lucky guy, that Sam is.
 
I think he was just an average guy too(not a chaser), that didn't know what he was doing and also apparently didn't realize the gravity of the situation. Some of the things he said just gave me the opinion he really didn't know what a tornado could do to him and his vehicle. Heck he didn't even know if he should at least duck down. Very lucky guy indeed!
 
He definitely comes across as being oblivious to it.
He has no idea what would actually happen had he even been a few feet closer.
"I've never been inside of a tornado" good luck being inside that one I guess
 
I guess the old saying is true,Ignorance is bliss. He didn't even seem to understand how much danger he really was in. He lucked out. I just worry others who see this and also don't know any better will think it's not that dangerous.
 
"... I don't know how to get away from it." Try turning around and driving northbound down the southbound shoulder of the interstate. I don't believe that you're going to encounter too much southbound traffic for a few minutes. "The truck feels like it's about to lift up off of the ground." That may be because the truck WAS about to lift up off of the ground. For starters, it's a good thing that he was driving a heavy Nissan Titan and that he wasn't cut to shreds from the potential of his glass shattering among the other obvious potential dangers to his life. I hope he bought his guardian angel a beer afterwards.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
There's already a rise of interest in chasing since the TV show, I'm worried about the people who will see this thinking this is how to chase
 
I went ahead and grabbed the video and fixed the camera rotation for the second half, but I'm hesitant to upload it back to YouTube without contacting the guy and letting him have it (I certainly don't want to take credit for his video). He disabled comments though so I'm not sure how to go about it. Ah well.
 
Bill Giles said:
I went ahead and grabbed the video and fixed the camera rotation for the second half, but I'm hesitant to upload it back to YouTube without contacting the guy and letting him have it (I certainly don't want to take credit for his video). He disabled comments though so I'm not sure how to go about it. Ah well.
Click to expand...
Isn't there a way to message him still?
 
I saw your post on this on Twitter, Ben. Just nuts. That dude was pretty damn lucky it took that little side step to the right other wise he'd have been dead meat..
 
You know, he had forever and then some to move. He kept saying it was coming right for him, yet he just sat there staring at it and not heading in either direction to clear it. Sometimes natural selection swings and misses....
 
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