Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history 01 March 2010 by Will Gray
5 JUNE 2009. It s mid-afternoon and I am sitting with a group of researchers in a dusty parking lot in north-west Nebraska. There s a growing buzz of excitement as equipment is checked one last time and then we set off. Finally, we are about to catch a glimpse of what we have been hunting for weeks: a tornado.

I have joined the biggest tornado hunt in history. The two-year, $12 million project, called Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment, or VORTEX2, began on 10 May with the aim of recording, for the first time, the entire life cycle of a tornado. A team of more than 100 researchers has assembled an unprecedented variety of instruments which it hopes will force tornadoes to give up their secrets. Until today, though, things had not gone to plan.

Please click for more from New Scientist