There are certain slightly mad people that possess an odd habit of driving toward tornadoes rather than away from them. They’re called “storm chasers.” Despite the fact that Mother Nature sometimes feels the necessity to reign down terror from the skies above in the form of swirling vortexes of death, these people actually seek them out and capture them on film.
Until today, I thought that the only way I would ever experience one of their insane little road trips was if they tied me up and brought me along as some some sort of sacrifice to Poseidon. However, thanks to one particularly forward-thinking storm chaser I can now experience the rush of tangoing with the elements without ever getting out of bed. And so can you.
The video in question depicts a simply massive tornado near Wray, Colorado. The footage was captured with a 360fly camera that had clearly been mounted onto the roof of whatever super-truck this particular pack of storm hunters uses (which I can only assume has been nicknamed something like “the cyclone”).
This palm-sweat inducing production was posted on YouTube which is making every effort to lead the pack in terms of 360 videos. If you really want to increase your immersion a bit farther, watch the video inside of your HMD of choice while sitting in front of an industrial-strength fan. Or watch it while riding on the top of a moving vehicle – whichever you prefer.
Youtube previously rose to its juggernaut status on the strength of user generated videos and getting up close and personal with something like this – a massive tornado – spells excitement for the future of VR content creation. If more footage like this continues to show up, history may be repeating itself for the streaming site very soon. I just hope I’m ready to handle it.
