This thrilling new documentary series follows a
team of intrepid scientists and filmmakers as they

attempt to pursue twisters in America’s Tornado
Alley. This week, the storm chasers track an
enormous mesocyclone across a desolate
expanse of land. A difference of opinion between
the team leaders results in a panicked retreat from
a gathering storm.
Every spring, filmmakers and scientists descend
on the Midwest of America to document one of
the most destructive weather patterns on the
planet: the tornado. Filmmaker Sean Casey is one
of a dedicated band of storm chasers who has
travelled the world recording nature’s extremes,
from hurricanes to earthquakes. He is determined
to cap his latest film with the holy grail of storm
images – footage from inside the eye of a tornado.
To help him chase these great forces of nature,
Sean has teamed up with meteorologist Dr Josh
Wurman and his team of tornado hunters. Using
state-of-the-art radar equipment, Josh tracks
weather patterns across America’s world-famous
Tornado Alley, a vast area some 1,600km long and
1,000km wide. “Tornadoes are some of the most
stunning and fascinating – but also very dangerous
– things in nature,” Josh says. “They represent one
of the unknowns in our scientific knowledge.”
Both Sean and Josh share the goal of
intercepting a tornado, but for entirely different
reasons. Josh needs an individual who can carry
his scientific instruments into the vortex of a
tornado, and Sean needs someone who can
direct him into the correct position to get the
perfect shot for his film.
In practice, this arrangement sees Sean
venturing out in a self-designed armoured tank
called a Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV). With
bullet-proof glass and a rotating turret for his
camera, the TIV enables Sean to go inside a storm
– a feeling he describes as being “under the foot
of a giant”.
As the leader of the team, Josh guides the TIV
towards the intercept point from his captain’s
chair in his mobile command post – the DOW
(Doppler on Wheels). Josh must make splitsecond
life or death decisions from information he
gathers on his Doppler radar, fully aware that the
safety of the entire team rests on his shoulders.
This week’s episode finds the storm chasers
drifting around Kansas waiting for a calm spell to
end. As storm fronts begin to gather, Josh, Sean
and the rest of the crew set off in pursuit of a huge
mesocyclone – a spinning vortex of air that is often
the precursor to a tornado. The chase takes them
across the heart of the Texas Panhandle and into
the Canadian River Valley, a wilderness area
completely devoid of paved road – making the
storm virtually impossible to intercept.
Against Josh’s orders, Sean races the TIV
down a dirt road towards the point of
interception, but ultimately panics and orders a
retreat from the valley that threatens to trap him
and his crew in the middle of the massive storm.
The hurried withdrawal may have dented the
team’s hopes of catching a tornado in its full fury,
but within a few days, they seem to be back on
track. After a complete computer failure threatens
to sabotage their mission once again, Josh
manages to place the TIV in the centre of three
menacing tornadoes...