Car built to intercept a tornado

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ARVADA - Images of tornadoes captured by storm chasers often show a funnel of destruction as it rolls towards or through communities.

Sean Casey is trying to take storm chasing one step further. He's trying to get inside of a twister, and it's all for what he calls "the shot."

"We want to get the shot no one has gotten before and that's a tornado coming directly at us and impacting us," said Casey.

9NEWS caught up with Casey last month in Arvada. He was overseeing construction and fine-tuning of the TIV2. The second version of the Tornado Intercept Vehicle weighs 16,500 pounds (by comparison the average SUV or truck weighs around 4,000 pounds), boasts bulletproof windows and a specially designed chassis that will help protect the vehicle and the four passengers it can carry when it tries to penetrate a tornado.

"There are special panels that are driven down to the ground when it's time to intercept. They'll help shield us and probably more importantly prevent the wind from getting underneath the TIV and picking us up," said Casey.

All the protection and preparation for the TIV, which Casey estimates cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to construct, is for an IMAX documentary on severe weather. Casey has been chasing storms for the past six years, trying to capture the shot of a tornado passing over his vehicle. He's been in seven previous tornados, but "the shot" has eluded him.

"Event though we've been in seven tornados with this vehicle (referring to TIV1), those were too weak or they happened at night, there was always something wrong," said Casey.

In pursuit of the "right" tornado, Casey says he needed a more agile vehicle. TIV1 was a two-wheel drive vehicle. TIV2, with a retrofitted super diesel engine from Arvada-based ATS Diesel Performance, is a 10-wheel drive vehicle. Casey says it will help the storm chasing team overcome rough terrain.

"The old vehicle was two-wheel drive, so whenever we went down a dirt road trying to get to a tornado, that thing would get stuck in the mud and we'd be done for the day," Casey said.

For Casey, the images of inside a tornado are the ones he needs to get the necessary funding for the documentary.

"Everyone has seen what a tornado looks like, but not inside. We're trying to take people point blank to where they've never been. Without that shot, it won't sell," said Casey.

So he and his crew have, for the past five years, spent two months on the road eating junk food, driving tens of thousands of miles and trying to get intercept the right twister. Casey's motivation is movie-making.

Joshua Wurman, although just as enthusiastic, is motivated by the scientific aspects to be extracted from Casey's endeavors.

"The goal is to understand the differences between thunderstorms that make strong tornadoes and the ones that don't," said Wurman.

Wurman is a scientist at the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder. He will follow Casey in a separate truck with a mobile Doppler radar system. He will help the TIV2 navigate towards a tornado, and perhaps more importantly, Wurman says, communicate with Casey and crew on when not to head towards one.

Wurman is hoping the TIV2 and its capabilities will help gather data on a tornado's most destructive and least understood zone: the lower 30 feet.

"In order to fill that gap, those really important pieces of the puzzle about what's going on at the lowest level of the tornado, we're using a combination of unmanned pods and the TIV," said Wurman.

He's hoping the TIV and the pods will collect data on wind speeds and details of the destruction the lower zone produces. While many may see the endeavor as a thrill seeking ride, Wurman argues otherwise. He says the risks the team is taking will hopefully one day minimize the ones everyday people may face when a tornado strikes.

"By understanding the strong winds inside the tornado we can learn better how tornadoes do damage, just how strong the winds are in the strongest tornados, how do they relate to the types of damage that occur. We can build better structures in the future so they can better resist tornado damage so that people don't die inside when a tornado hits," said Wurman.

So far this year, nearly 100 people have died in the aftermath of tornadoes. It's the largest number of deaths associated with tornado activity since 1998 when 130 people died, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm chasers began their pursuits in April and plan to be on the road through June. More information on their chasing efforts can be found at http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/storm-chasers.html.