As tornadoes swept through the Oklahoma City area on Friday evening, storm chasers in cars tracked their movements, relaying updates and video to a number of news outlets.
But getting close to violent storms is inherently risky, and the storm chasers with The Weather Channel Tornado Hunt Team had a very close call. According to The Weather Channel's website:
Meteorologist Mike Bettes was chasing the monster rain-wrapped tornado near El Reno, Okla. when he says the storm picked up the heavy chase SUV and threw it an estimated 200 yards.
The team all had their seat belts on and survived with minor injuries.
Seth Decker, a storm chaser with TVN Weather took a photo that shows how far off the road the Tornado Hunt vehicle was thrown:
Storm chaser Sean Schofer also tweeted a photo of the wrecked SUV:
As HuffPost's Timothy Stenovec and Molly O'Toole reported after the Moore, Okla. tornado, extreme weather can lead both professional and amateur storm chasers to take risks. National Weather Service's Mark Fox told them at the time, "The guys on TV make it look really easy, and in reality, it's not. It takes a lot of training, it takes a lot of experience, and not a whole lot of people really put that time in, and they tend to go after the storms. It gets some people in trouble sometimes."