Passenger Seat Ep. 1: 7 Hours to Hail

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:02]So, this is not something most stormchasers do. Um, in fact, I think there's only two running right now, but I want to show you something I'm working on. It's not the prettiest in the world, but I think once it's done, it'll look great, and it should work good, too.

[00:00:23]So, this is Titan. Uh, it's an armored vehicle.

[00:00:27]Got/2in polycarbonate for the windows.

[00:00:29]It's not bulletproof or resistant.

[00:00:31]People say it is. It's not. Um, it's got 16 gauge steel. This is the ugly side.

[00:00:36]And all this rust you see, it's just surface rust. It's not bad. And you can see right here, there's So, this is the scary looking rust. And this is what's under. It's just steel. Anyone that works with steel knows how annoying it is, especially when people don't know what they're talking about when they act like they do. Um, of course, we got the clamped on license plate.

[00:00:58]redneck. Um, and yeah, it's not pretty right now. The front's the prettiest, but this side is basically done. I got to weld this sheet on, and then for both the wheel hatches, I'm going to have to put some latches. At the end of the day, it's not going to be ready this season.

[00:01:13]We're definitely not taking it chasing tomorrow. But it's still fun nonetheless.

[00:01:18]I' I've always wanted an interceptor.

[00:01:20]Stormchasers, TIV 1, TI 2, all of the above. Always wanted one. And for some reason, no one will let me take theirs, so I had to build my own. But it's not going to be as good as any of those, but it should get me closer and safer. So that's where I was worried all this rain would mess up the convection for later, but the entire storm is out of eyeball already, which means the the the sky should be getting warmer and our surface temp should be warmer, which means higher chance of seeing neighbors.

[00:02:23]Now, I will say um I'm not I'm not thrilled with the chances of a tornado, but we might get some really beautiful structure.

[00:02:36]I mean, it's a good chase day if you see anything at all. I've driven 16 hours or 2% chance of tornadoes and got the most beautiful structure I've ever seen.

[00:02:47]If we had time, I'd like to get down there in Kansas, but we just that's too far away.

[00:02:53]I'm not even going to click that. I don't even want to see it. All right. So, we are currently heading south to um some junction or something in Missouri. Uh it's about 30 40 minutes and we have finally have a storm. It doesn't look linear. It doesn't look super linear. Um there's a good hint of rotation. So, there's a chance we see a brief QLCS tornado. Um you never really know though. And it's already kind of it's almost 5:00. So hopefully we get this and then be able to go.

[00:03:27]As long as we can get a singular pretty tornado close range this year, it's all worth it. It's just a matter of is today going to be the day. Am I going to drive 7 hours to see nothing and drive back another 7 hours to go to work in the morning? I don't know. But maybe we'll get lucky. I got a feeling about today.

[00:03:48]Not a good feeling. I was going to say, is it a good feeling or just a feeling?

[00:03:54]>> I I got a weird feeling. I I think I I think it could do it or it could also do the not doing it thing, man. 3 minutes.

[00:04:01]I got to turn and I'm going to go do west and just drive in this thing. It'd be nice to get some hail. I'll take just about anything. But there's our storm right there.

[00:04:18]I I would much rather have one really fun day and then have a kind of grumpy day cuz I'm tired because there's nothing worse than being able to go chase and you choose not to and seeing a tornado that you miss or seeing really big hail that you could have pummeled your car. Like to me that's there's nothing worse than that. This is literally what I do. This is what I want to do.

[00:04:45]Someday I will do it full time, but right now I got to get to work in the morning.

[00:04:57]Hell yeah.

[00:05:00]Oh yeah. Okay, we are officially at the store.

[00:05:04]Remember, hang right so we don't die.

[00:05:08]All right, we got to walk cloud to the left up there.

[00:05:14]Whoa.

[00:05:17]Road has other plans for us.

[00:05:21]God, I love chasing in Iowa.

[00:05:23]Technically, we're in Missouri now, but Oh, yeah. Look at that.

[00:05:27]So, right at that left edge there of that kind of Oh, it's straight mud. I'm going to drive on that for fun. Tornado warning.

[00:05:37]>> There she is.

[00:05:39]>> All right. So, this one, it could be right in there kind of behind those houses. Now, we are in a bad area um in terms of chasing, but let's keep going.

[00:05:53]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:05:53]>> Let's find somewhere up here to stop once we get a little bit closer. I thing is this is going on some 55 mph. So, we need to be kind of we need to be able to turn around quick. So, I think at the crest of this hill we're going to pull off um and kind of see what we can do here.

[00:06:12]Okay. Well, maybe not >> in the left side there. Maybe. Yeah.

[00:07:14]Yeah, this one will uh this one probably won't produce a tornado, but it's a beautiful stom. Maybe we get a little bit of hail if we're lucky.

[00:07:28]Okay, that guy lives there. I don't live there, so I'm not going to follow him.

[00:07:46]Just keeping an eye out everywhere.

[00:07:51]I've seen tornadoes drop in these types of storms from several places. So, you do want to keep your eyes out. But thing comes quick, too.

[00:08:17]May be getting hit pretty hard here soon. I say we let the core hit us and see if we see anything in it. Okay, tornado warning just updated.

[00:08:24]>> Oo, >> that's actually big.

[00:08:26]In fact, just because of that. Let's get north more.

[00:08:59]GPS is very confused.

[00:09:05]This doesn't feel right.

[00:09:14]All right, we're in a small town.

[00:09:16]Tornado sirens go off. We got the golf ball size hailstone radar indicated rotation. So, we want to keep our eyes open. We're right in it right now.

[00:09:32]We want to We want to keep our eyes open before our left probably.

[00:09:55]Woo!

[00:10:08]This looks clear ahead.

[00:10:18]What? Got a clear spot up there.

[00:10:25]So the tornado, if there is one, it's going to be that rain band right there.

[00:10:28]That rain curtain right there.

[00:10:31]Let's get up on it and see if we see it.

[00:10:33]But yeah, watch left, right, every direction.

[00:10:37]All right. So, right up here, I don't see anything to our left. So, it's either behind us where we just were if there is a tornado or I think it's going to be up in this dark section up here.

[00:11:14]That was an outflow man right there.

[00:11:35]Oh, wow.

[00:11:48]I don't really like All right. Watch our right. Watch our right.

[00:12:10]>> Oh god.

[00:12:11]>> Watch for what?

[00:12:12]>> Tornado.

[00:12:19]>> How do I know if I see tornado?

[00:12:21]>> Uh, you know.

[00:12:22]>> Okay.

[00:12:36]What?