On Monday, storm chasers Brandon Ivey and Sean Casey ventured where few have gone before – inside a raging EF4 tornado.
According to the Alabama Media Group, the chasers encountered the tornado in Smith County, Kansas. They waited the tornado out in a Tornado Intercept Vehicle — a massive, reinforced machine weighing in at 14,000 pounds. Based on a Dodge Ram, the vehicle is powered by a modified 6.7-liter Cummins turbo charged Diesel engine that can produce up to 625 horsepower. To keep the windows from fragmenting, designers use 1.63 inch bulletproof glass on the windshield.
Classified one level below the massive tornado that wreaked havoc in Moore, Oklahoma, last week, the enormous wind funnel encountered by Ivey and Casey clocked in speeds between 150 and 175 miles per hour.
In the video, the tornado tears off parts of the vehicle and hunks of debris can be seen colliding with the clear windshield as the winds howl.
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