Storm Chasing HUMMER H3T Joins Largest Tornado Study in History

If you’ve ever seen the movie Twister, you’re familiar with the idea storm chasing and dropping specially designed weather devices called ‘pods’ in the direct path of a tornado. Because of its unique capabilities a HUMMER H3T was selected to join this year’s VORTEX2 storm-chasing mission, which has been billed the largest tornado study in history.

While conducting weather experiments the HUMMER H3T will likely encounter heavy rain, hail, and possible flooding and washouts. Here are some of the reasons the H3T was selected:

“First, the vertical-oriented windshield is much less susceptible to large hail penetration than other vehicles, and the small side glass area makes the glass stronger to resist dust and debris. The high ground clearance of the H3T and other features allow it to ford a 24-inch flood, and wide sipping of the P265/65R18 tires available in the ZM6 Adventure Package help keep the vehicle from hydroplaning. This package also includes front and rear locking hubs when the four-wheel-drive system is in low range, which gives the H3T the option of navigating very bad roads during pod placement and retrieval.”

“We can send the Hummer into places where we haven’t sent our other probe vehicles before,” said Dr. Joshua Wurman, a long-time tornado researcher and head of the Center for Severe Weather Research.

Automotive journalist Phil Berg will be supervising the build of the specialized HUMMER H3T and will be bringing us daily blog posts, photos and more information via hummerstormchaser.com. Real-time updates from chases will also be on Twitter @H3TStormchaser.

We’re hoping the crew comes to North Texas where we’ll be able to see this storm-chasing H3T in action!