And You Thought Your Doctoral Research Was Rough

Writing in Wired Science, Reed Timmer describes driving into a tornado west of Aurora, Neb., in June to collect data for his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

Mr. Timmer, who records dispatches for the Discovery Channel’s Stormchasers series, drives a specially designed vehicle he calls the Dominator (above), a Chevy Tahoe equipped with bulletproof Lexan windows, a roll cage, and an armor exterior. The shell has a rubber sheath beneath it and can quickly be dropped to the ground to prevent wind from getting underneath and flipping the vehicle.

A Stormchaser video of his encounter with a tornado near Kirksville, Mo., can be seen on YouTube.