As wild weather has ripped across the U.S. over the past week, one storm chaser took a direct hit from a tornado in Alabama on Tuesday.
Storm chaser Reed Timmer posted a video of the tornado to social media and his YouTube channel late Tuesday.
“Check out this camera angle of the tornado intercept with @localmanweather capturing the impact of the violent tornado core,” Timmer said in a post of the collision on X.
Timmer uses a Dominator 3 vehicle for storm chasing, which can be anchored to the ground.
“It spun the Dominator 3 while in park either 460 or 100 degrees. I thought we were airborne for a split second but the Dom3 did its job!” Timmer wrote. “@WillClay25 whipped up the air cannon with a direct hit on the first launch. Insane patience to wait until a half second before impact.”
In the video, the tornado can be seen ripping through powerlines before moving across an open field and directly hitting Timmer’s vehicle.