"Storm Chasers" (Seasons 1, 2 & 3) Quiz

Answer: Rear Flank Downdraft

The rear flank downdraft (RFD) is a mixture of wind and rain wrapping around the outside of a tornado. Sometimes it can be more damaging than the tornado itself! Several times throughout the series the storm chasers get hit by these violent gusts of wind and rain, making driving and visibility poor.

Answer: Timmer

Reed Timmer lives in Norman, Oklahoma. He storm chases for a living, selling his coverage of tornadoes to local news stations and also selling merchandise from his online store (www.tornadovideos.net). He's been interested in storms from a young age and doesn't miss an opportunity to chase. Reed has focused not only on coverage of tornadoes, but on the science of them and has invested in a plane that deploys probes and a radar.

Answer: I-Max film

Sean Casey is working on an I-Max film which is going to be called "Tornado Alley". Sean's I-Max camera has a high definition, wide angle lens which allows for great tornado footage. I-Max films are known for their superb quality and 3D graphics and can be seen in numerous I-Max cinemas accross America and other countries. Sean struggles to get his footage of a tornado impacting him throughout seasons 1 & 2 of "Storm Chasers" but he finally succeeds in season 3 with a fantastic tornado intercept.

Answer: False

Reed calls his vehicle the "TVN Dominator" or "Dominator" for short. It's a modified sports utility vehicle with bullet proof armour and glass to protect them from flying debris in and around a tornado. It also has the ability to drop down to the ground, creating a seal, helping prevent the tornado from flipping it over.

Answer: Enhanced Fujita scale

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale is a system used the measure the size and wind speed of a tornado by examining the damage it leaves. There are 6 categories on the EF scale, these are: EF0 65-85mph winds, EF1 86-110mph winds, EF2 111-135mph winds, EF3 136-165mph winds, EF4 166-200mph winds and EF5 200+mph winds.

Answer: Turtle probes

Tim Samaras is an engineer when he's not storm chasing and he used his skills to invent the Turtle probe. The Turtle probe is designed to be placed on the ground in the path of a tornado and record various readings including barometric pressure, wind speeds, temperature and 360 degree high definition video.

It takes great courage and skill to deploy these Turtle probes in the path of a tornado and Tim and his team often get a little closer than they'd like!

Answer: Josh Wurman

Sean Casey sometimes chases with Josh Wurman, a scientist who specialises in the art of reading weather, including tornadoes. Josh created the "Doppler on Wheels" radar and the Vortex 2 project. Vortex 2 involves using a crew of over 40 vehicles, including the doppler radar, to track down tornadoes and gather as much data as he can from them.

He hopes to use this data to help better understand why tornadoes form, improve the forecasting of them and ultimately save lives.

Answer: California

California is on the western edge of the USA and is therefore not in tornado alley, which is positioned along the north central, central and south central states. Just because California is not in tornado alley, it doesn't mean they don't get tornadoes! In fact California gets, on average, a few touch downs a year and although they are much weaker tornadoes (EF0 & EF1's) than you might find in tornado alley, the reality is they can still cause damage to trees, powerlines and homes.

Answer: Chris

Chris Chittick was born in Greenville and has been storm chasing since 2000. He has seen over 42 tornadoes and has even been inside one in the Dominator that clocked 155.2mph winds (EF3)! On the TVN team Chris videos the storms and tornadoes and also collects large hail stones for the Boeing project, so they can investigate the effect of hail stones on aeroplanes.

Answer: Scud

Scud is often mistaken for wall clouds because they hang below the thunderstorm's cloud base and can have a good amount of rotation. They are formed as cool air draws up warm surface air and condenses. Scud can at times rise and condense further to create a wall cloud, which is what storm chasers look for because most tornadoes form here.