On April 4th, 2023, Tanner Charles found himself trapped inside a violently swirling column of air – and wondering if he’d finally bitten off more than he could chew.
A passionate storm chaser – where tourists actively head towards rather than away from Mother Nature’s fiercest twisters, the 32-year-old had packed his camera and followed a fast-brewing tornado to rural farmland near Lewistown in Illinois,
Following the minute-by-minute action on his social media accounts, @tannercharleschasing on Instagram and Tanner Charles on YouTube, were thousands of gripped followers, who’ve become as hooked on watching the American’s content as he is on chasing down crazy weather phenomena.
Charles usually observes from a slight distance but, on this occasion, he found himself facing down the eye of the storm, after his car became trapped by fallen power lines.
Terrifyingly, he and his friends were forced to watch as the twister edged ever closer to them, with no way out.
‘We were ahead of the tornado by a mile-and-a-half when the storm brought down a section of the power lines just where we were,’ he tells the Daily Mail.
‘It was four poles that all went down and we were in the middle of that, which is super unfortunate. The storm came down on top of us – we were stuck.’
He explains the group had taken a ‘calculated risk’ by crossing the path of the storm…but found they hopes of an escape to a safer easterly route scuppered when the lines fell.
The self-confessed adrenaline-junkie describes how sparks were flying on either side of the car as the storm, by then 90 seconds away, carved a path in their direction.
Storm chaser Tanner Charles regularly ventures after the latest freak weather to hit the US and has seen plenty of storms and tornadoes
*Full video on YouTube* 5 months ago my friends & I were impacted by damaging inflow winds ahead of the Lewistown, IL EF3 that brought down the powerlines & trapped us in the path of the tornado, where we were then directly hit – So thankful to be alive (1/16) #tornado #ilwx pic.twitter.com/PmrzLNyVKx
— Tanner Charles 🌪 (@TannerCharlesMN) October 2, 2023
Nearly three years ago, on April 4th 2023, the American found himself inside of a tornado in Lewistown, Illinois after his car became trapped by felled power lines
When the tornado eventually hit, it brought unimaginable chaos – breaking the car’s windows.
‘We sat there, we had to wait. The trail came, it started hitting us. We put our heads down and the back windows literally exploded,’ Charles recalls.
‘Then all the wind whipped through and it felt like we were in a tin can and there was a bunch of people firing BB guns everywhere all around us. It was crazy.’
Despite flirting with death, the storm chaser says he remained relatively calm throughout. A devout Christian, before the tornado hit Charles says he asked for protection.
‘I felt this peace come inside of me, so I was chilling. I just felt so much peace and I was like, “Oh, I feel like we’re going to be okay”,’ he says.
He adds, ‘When the trail started hitting us at the height of it, I got a vision of angels holding the car down and after that I was like, “Oh, we’re chilling” even though this is insane.
‘Then everything calms down, I look, everyone seems to be okay and fine and it’s like a movie.’
But the chaos wasn’t over. After the storm seemed to subside, the car was shoved into a ditch by a giant steel grain bin that had rolled and hit the vehicle.
Charles went through a ‘mix of emotions’ during the bizarre incident and recalls, ‘Even though I had this peace, this stillness, I still was freaking out but also not, I felt like we were going to be safe but the intensity of the moment was still pretty insane.’
In the path of the storm, Tanner and his friends had to sit and watch as the tornado hurled towards them. Pictured: A twister in Texas
Thankfully, everyone in the car was unharmed despite the car being hit at full pelt by the storm. Pictured: A thunderstorm in Nebraska
He admits he even cried afterwards and his group felt ‘shaken up’ – but says it was a ‘miracle’ they all came out uninjured.
‘Looking back, the tornado is a high-end EF3, almost EF4, and EF2s can pick up vehicles and roll them. So a high-end EF3 can pick up vehicles and toss them a couple 100 yards,’ he explains.
Tanner (pictured) has been curious about tornadoes since he was a child
‘The fact we were an open farmland, so there’s nothing impeding the winds from hitting us at full strength, and we were hit broadside. We had the full force of the wind hitting the car.’
Tornados are rated on their wind speeds and damage in the Enhanced Fujita Scale, or the EF Scale. It ranges from EF 0 (low) to EF 5, the National Weather Service explains.
Charles continues, ‘Then on top of that, we were hit on the southeast side of the tornado, which is the most powerful part of the tornado.’
He puts their survival down to his faith.
‘There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have been tossed and thrown, we should be dead or at least severely injured, but nothing happened. So I don’t know, I 100% believe it’s God.’
Despite witnessing a range of powerful tornados first-hand, after 16 years of storm chasing Tanner has never been injured from his high-octane adventures.
His interest in storms and freaky weather occurrences started when he was a child, he says, saying he was curious about anything from storms to clouds and further delved into his growing passion by watching shows and documentaries recorded on his grandparents’ television.
At 15 years old, his father took him on his first storm chase and he recalls watching in awe as a ‘rotating wall cloud came across’.
During the adventure, they stumbled upon the Storm Chasers TV show in action and followed the crew to witness a ‘brief touchdown tornado’ which left Tanner ‘hooked’ with the hobby.
Nowadays, storm chasing is Tanner’s full-time gig and he often shares his adventures on social media.
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