What do you do if you spot a twister?

Its not a fun situation. If you're stopped be looking for a ditch or someplace low to hide out. I've been through a couple close calls and hated every second of it.

 

I drove through one when I lived in Iowa. Didn't know it was one until I got home....

 

Weather apps with radar and weather band radios are your best friends in bad weather situations.

 

I was working for Electrolux in Webster City at the time. It was an hour commute. Anyways I worked the 3pm to 12am shift. Was on my way home and about 20 miles out of Jefferson where I lived with my aunt I ran into one hell of a storm. Torrential rain and winds so fierce I could barely keep my car on the road.

Anyways I get home and oddly the lights were on. I come in and my aunt and cousins were up sitting at the table. They told me the tornado warnings went off and they had all ducked into the basement. Tornado had passed just north of town.......right where I was driving. I was listening to a cassette so I didn't have my radio on and didn't hear any warnings.[emoji32]

 

I've chased storms 5 of the last 7 spring storm seasons. They are actually somewhat predictable once you're aware of the situation and your position in the scene. They are generally moving in an easterly or north-eastery direction. They typically traverse at about 25-35 MPH, although some can move very slowly and cycle up and down over a period of up to 20 minutes. Some large systems can produce multiple tornadoes simultaneously, as well as a tornado can raise, then might recycle and drop again minutes later a few miles away, so be aware

Most have a ground path of less then 2 miles, but single tornadoes have traversed 25 miles and longer. If you see a large "meso-cyclone", and if conditions are favorable for a tornado to develop, it will probably be on the SE quadrant of the system.

Do not leave your vehicle unless there is a sturdy structure nearby. Most tornado injuries are from flying debris that comes from winds that are supporting the tornado, and not so much the tornado itself. They have inflow winds and RFD winds at varying locations in the system that is producing the tornado but as a general rules the most violent RFD and inflow winds will be within 1.5 miles of the tornado itself. These winds can easily top 90 MPH 2 miles from an EF-4+

I recommend stay away from the glass in the front of the truck and remain in the sleeper. Usually tornados are accompanied by hail in the vicinity also. Slow down to below 35 and you'll be fine with hail up to nickle size and if the wind is not bad but speeds over 45 and small hail can damage your condenser fins in front of your radiator but will remove those pesky stuck-on bugs from your finish.

But if you must stop try and stop off of the fog line. I see so many people congregate near bridge overpasses and this is not safe for a number of reasons but when hail reaches baseball size and larger, I understand the instinct to park under cover.

Night time tornado systems are the most dangerous for obvious reasons, but thankfully about 70% of all tornadoes occur between about 14:00 and 20:00 local time. Also a lot of "ingredients" must come together to form tornados so if the area is not currently under a tornado watch, you probably only need be concerned with hail and damaging wind potential. Hail is usually represented with a "pinkish and purplish" color on base reflectivity radar. Hail cores are typically less then a mile wide. But if you intercept an east moving hail core as you're moving east, you've got problems and need to rethink your driving plan. You can be in nickel size hail and get slammed with a baseball size out of the blue, so be aware.

Radar app is the best tool you can have. The free apps tend to have updates that are in excess of 10 minutes old. When in severe storm area, you need 2-5 minute max age updates, and typically the better paid apps will provide you with more frequent updates and will show warned areas. I recommend Radarscope for the casual user.

 

THIS. And a ditch not a culvert, which can funnel the air flow (Same reason to stay away from bridges.) It's far better to be wet and alive than to find out if the twister can throw your truck hard enough to kill you when it lands.

 

I forgot to mention, if the radio is talking about a single tornado that has been active for a long time (like the last 30 minutes), this is a long-track tornado and these tend to be EF4 and greater. So their wind/hail damage potential path is considerably wider then what you would expect from smaller tornadoes.

If there is talk of tornadoes approaching a large metro area, try and avoid entering the area until the the system has passed. Remember the tornados that went through the DFW area several years ago? Traffic was at a standstill across most of southern DFW area for many hours. Power is lost, traffic is stopped, power lines may be across major thoroughfares and interstates. It's just best to avoid the ENTIRE metro area altogether until it's passed and the coast is clear.

And driving along interstates or other roads during/following major storms, that are heavily lined with tall trees, is dangerous anytime, but especially at night. (Think LA/MS I-20)

 

Also don't forget to wake up co driver and it doesn't hurt to grab wallet and phone if you exit vehicle