Apparently, all i need is TIV inside a tornado to make me feel better. Seriously, people need to watch Stormchasers. (Sundays 10 EST Discovery Channel) Last night's was intense.

The first thing never developed; just a lot of hail. The next day, Arkansas apparently looked promising, but Josh, the leader of the research team, was reluctant to go that way, because of the trees. The DOW's (Dopplar On Wheels) radar can't penetrate buildings or trees, & that is the thing that gives them a lot of their information. Nevertheless, they go "where no sane research team has ever gone before" & head to Arkansas, as does Reed Timmer & his guys from TornadoVideos.net.

Now, before this, the TIV2 (Tornado Intercept Vehicle; god these names are awesome) had broken down. Again. (One of its axels broke once, then they lost a tire... etc., etc.) But this time, it wasn't a quick fix. So they had to leave it in a hangar somewhere with a note scrawled on it. (So watching some bloopers on Discovery is even more hilarious. Sean Casey, the guy who built & needs the TIV, is reciting a poem about how one day, TIV2, "you won't make me feel blue.") The whole idea of the TIV is, obviously, to intercept a tornado. Sean is making an IMAX film & needs that shot, of being literally inside the tornado. So the TIV2 was built to withstand extremely high winds, to be mobile, & to be tough. But it keeps breaking down.

So they bring back the old TIV with a montage set to The Flight of the Valkyries. Priceless.

The thing is this, though: TIV2 was supposed to be an update. TIV1 could only withstand winds of something like 140 mph, it gets stuck in the mud, & apparently, its claws, which are supposed to dig into the ground to keep from rolling or being picked up, are trouble sometimes, according to Discovery's site. But TIV1 has 5 years under its belt, & wasn't breaking down, so they needed it. They welded a probe on top of it at a gas station (yeah, seriously) in Arkansas & learned that there were massive, destructive tornadoes in the area they had just left that morning.

After beating their heads against things, they moved out & headed toward Stuttgart; Reeve, meanwhile, headed to England, where he got stuff sooner. Sean was all, "I wanted to go there!" but things in Stuttgart picked up soon enough. Of course, the trees meant the DOW couldn't scan, & night was falling, so if there was a tornado nearby, they wouldn't know. It's increasingly dangerous. They finally find an open area for the DOW, & it scans around, & guess what.

There is something like an EF3 tornado right behind them.

They, essentially, run away as fast as they can. They can't see the thing, because it's nighttime now, so they just keep going, hoping to outrun it or something. Then they get a call over the walkie from their medic, the last in line of their mile-long train: "Medic is caught in the tornado. Taking shelter in a car wash."

Yeah, holy shit.

For some reason, Josh tells someone to tell TIV to intercept. This makes no sense because, seeing as it's night, Sean can't film. You kind of need light for filming. Meanwhile, Reed's group is racing towards Stuttgart. The tornado has sustained winds of something like 200 mph now, winds TIV1 can't withstand. "We're running," Sean said to the camera, "and proud of it!"

I have no idea how the TIV got to where it was; all i remember is people saying something about an intercept & Sean going, "Follow the DOW, just follow the DOW." Because all of a sudden, they're driving off the road & someone's going, "Deploy claws! Deploy claws!" and they send over the walkie, "TIV is in the tornado."

They weren't in the heart of it, but they had intercepted the tornado. Everyone got lucky when it went off in a different direction, leaving everyone unharmed, & meaning that TIV had got some data via the welded-on-at-the-last-minute probe on its back. (TIV2 has the instruments built in, but TIV1 never did.) They found the devastation afterwards, & helped the people while also doing damage surveying.

It was intense, & next week's looks good, too. It is the only good thing about Sundays, & i'll miss it when this season's over... Agghhh, i wanna storm chase...

Here's the first part of, apparently, the third episode. Think the one before the last, so it features TIV2 & drama:

Also: The Sketchbook Project. It sounds pretty brilliant, & it's only $18. It pays for the sketchbook, sending it, & having it be on the tour. And if you send a self-addressed sketchbook with it when you send it to them, they'll send it back to you, if you want. : )

Also, i was thinking again about making a "zine." But it would have to have people contributing, because one-person zines don't sit well with me.

8:11 a.m. | November 10, 2008

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