Storm Tracker Brandon Copic Details Tornado Intercept Near Teutopolis, Illinois

[00:00:01]Just crossed in front of me, violent. I need to check and see if they're structured. They got powerful others a home hit. I'm going to check on it.

[00:00:10]Yep, I've got visual of it right now.

[00:00:12]WOW.

[00:00:13]>> NOBODY IN.

[00:00:15]>> YEAH, THIS was intense. That's exclusive Fox Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic first on scene in the immediate aftermath of a tornado destroying that home. You just saw it playing out in Illinois. That was just one of many moments the Midwest residents endured in a week of rough weather. So, let's hear more about what it was like on the front lines of all this with Brandon Copic. He joins us now. Brandon, I got to say I was watching a Fox Weather at Night with with Ari Sarsalari. He was shocked for obvious reasons when this all played out. And I I could hear in your voice as you ran over at the check on that home uh that this was a scary scene. What what was that like? What was the emotions as you're running up to that home? Not necessarily sure what you're what you're going to find.

[00:01:03]>> I mean, unfortunately, it's just kind of a part of what we do out here, you know, we've got to be out here and make sure the people are okay. You know, it's all a part of the warning process and trying to help afterwards. You know, thankfully that home was unoccupied.

[00:01:17]It's just something you have to have the mental clarity for. You can't freak out because then all you're going to do is make a bad situation worse if you freak out. And then you could say find somebody who could be critically injured, you're freaking out that causes them to freak out. That causes their heart rate to go up and that can cause a whole lot of bad outcomes. So, you know, it's just really just trying to keep level-headed going in there, doing your best to make sure everybody is safe. And uh thankfully nobody was in that home.

[00:01:43]Uh the home we came to later on uh that was completely swept off its foundation was a very small home. Had uh some minor injuries. I think the worst was a a broken ankle when I was there thankfully.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah. Yeah, we we thankful for that there wasn't a loss of life with these because you say that very matter-of-fact because you are level-headed and it's what you do day in and day out, but you watch the home get ripped apart in front of you and get lofted up into that field. I'm wondering at what point during all this it it may have been in in the lead up to this. You and I had talked earlier that day and there was that early complex of storms that moved on through and it wasn't especially clear what impact that was going to have. It didn't prevent this tornado outbreak, but it delayed it. Did you expect so much activity so late into that evening?

[00:02:34]>> Uh honestly, Ian, no, I did not. I had honestly pretty much written the day off. Uh then that Charleston tornado happened and you know, we were on that first supercell that developed when I did my phone-in with you and then what ended up happening is these storms kept developing further and further west. And when they were developing further west, they were actually developing into an environment that had become more unstable that hadn't been impacted yet.

[00:03:01]That's why we saw those storms that were further east into portions of eastern Illinois quickly kind of died out and then further west storms would re-intensify and it's not a re-intensification. I was misspeaking on my end, but more storms would develop further west and they would be in an untouched environment where then they would be able to take hold of a more ripe environment for tornadoes. So, I honestly after the Charleston tornado, I thought the day was done. Then noticed that supercell to the west and it was just kind of a weird setup because typically what you see is when these storms line out like this in the fashion that they did, how they were staggered, typically your inflow to supercells was out of the southeast and if that was the case, then literally each storm would have been choking the next one off. But we had our inflow out of the southwest.

[00:03:48]We had southwesterly surface winds. So, that meant no matter where they formed, they were getting very clean and healthy inflow into them.

[00:03:56]>> Yeah. Yeah, it was uh it was odd watching how it all played out. But, yeah, we knew all those ingredients were going to be there. And then, uh you guys showed us uh the the unfortunate results of that. Before we let you go, Brandon, I wanted to ask you as a as a Midwest guy, I mean, this hasn't been a long ride for you often times this year. June has been the same way. You got Illinois uh leading the way. I think it's more than doubling up the next closest state.

[00:04:23]It has been a little odd, not necessarily the numbers this year, but where where they've been.

[00:04:29]>> Yeah, it's been an exhausting year. I'll say that much because like this this June uh I actually from I was out from May 27th until I don't even remember what day, honestly. It was right around the June 12th cuz that was me and my wife's anniversary. So, I was out and then I got to be home for 1 day or I wasn't even home. We went and met at my uh wife's grandparents and spent the day with her and my kids. Then, had to go out and chase the 13th. I mean, I have been almost non Excuse me, almost non-stop for the last 3 weeks.

[00:05:01]Uh looking at my odometer here, I was just almost to 11,000 mi in the last 3 weeks. And uh it's been exhausting. It's just been all over.

[00:05:10]>> Sheesh. Yeah, a uh oil change folks love to see Brandon Brandon Cobb coming.

[00:05:16]>> Oh, they do. They do. [laughter] >> Yeah. Hey, well, Brandon, happy belated anniversary to you. I know it's been a long run here. So, we appreciate you taking a few minutes. Great work this week and we'll talk with you soon.

[00:05:31]That's exclusive Fox Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Cobb. Again, uh Brandon, thank you.