A tornado too close for comfort - Storm chaser's Blog

Too close for comfort — this storm chaser got more than he bargained for on one of his trips to Tornado Alley in the US.

Weather & Radar's Meteorologist Hendrik Flügel started storm chasing before he was allowed to drive a car, pushing up and down the hills around his hometown – by bike.

Many storm chases in Europe later and with a driving licence in his pocket, it became clear that he, like many other storm chasers, needed to head over to the US to see the big stuff.

In 2018, on his first trip to the US, after two weeks of intense chasing across the Midwestern states, he and his team headed to New Mexico. This is his story:

“I think we might have been a bit less focused on this storm, after chasing for two weeks straight and this one looking to be a rather underwhelming weather setup.”

But as it turns out, even meteorologists can be mistaken.

While driving down into a canyon-like landscape, they encountered an intense thunderstorm and got stuck in heavy rain and hail, battering against their windscreen.

"We temporarily lost internet connection and lost track of where exactly we were located. Therefore, we didn't know in which part of the thunderstorm we were.

At one point, the rain stopped for a minute, and we went outside the car. Water was flowing down the muddy street, but something different caught our attention:

There was a roaring sound. It sounded like a plane starting right next to you.

Our view was very limited by the hills and heavy precipitation covering the sky, so we couldn’t see anything.

Later on, when we left the canyon, we could then see the massive supercell, which had been right above us half an hour ago, moving off to the northwest."

But it took another few hours until they saw a picture of a solid tornado touching ground in the canyon, nearby their exact past position.

"This solved the mystery of the massive roaring sound that we heard: We had been right next to the tornado, but could not see it.

I am hoping for this to remain my closest tornado encounter ever.”

While most storm chasing stories are those of beauty and natural drama, Hendrik's story is a reminder of the power that nature can produce.