Storm Chaser Trails Texas Tornado

A storm chaser in Texas captured on video the moment a tornado crossed the road in front of him on March 21.

Mike Prendergast, a self-confessed “lover of extreme weather,” recorded an Instagram Live post as he tracked the tornado on State Highway 95, outside Taylor, Texas.

The storm system had moved east on Tuesday, media reported, with more than one million people in Texas and Louisiana still under tornado watches. More than 47,000 Texans were left with power after Monday’s tornadoes in the state. Credit: Mike Prendergast via Storyful

Video transcript

- I can see the movement right in front of us. - That's it, right in front of us. - Yeah. Sorry for the-- - Uh, doesn't look good over to the side there. - OK. [RUMBLING] Dude, I can see the side of it right here, look. - Yep, that's it. - Right over there. - That's it. Right-- dude, it is right stinking there. I wonder if I could-- oh, my god. Look at that. Look at that. - I got it. I got it. - All right. All right, so if you guys are watching, we literally have a tornado right out our window. There's a-- there-- there-- there you go. There's the side of it. Look at that. Look at that. Holy cow. Is that-- oh, wait a minute. [LAUGHS] Is that just the rain? - Yeah, that's just rain. - OK, that's just the rain. - It crossed right over in front of us. - It's just the rain. - There it is. - It looked impr-- oh, there it is right there. Yeah, there you go. There it is. Oh, wind's blowing big-time. All right, we're-- that is some intense rain, man. I'm going to-- all right, so where is a-- where's an east route for me from here? - Uh-- we're going to have to-- we're going to have to go-- - That's the tornado, guys, right there. - Wow. Wow. - Can you see it over there still? - It's right here. - What, what? - You can't see it. - No, it's all rain wrapped. My glasses are soaked. Oh, there's power lines down, we just went through. I didn't even see that to-- oh, look at the debris right here. - Oh, man. - Storm damage. Storm damage, big-time. Look at the trailer. Oh, no. - Oh, wow. Oh, no. - Wow, so hit this-- - Storage. - --this storage facility and this house over here too. - This house-- oh, man, are there any people in there? - I don't know. The house is not-- the house is not destroyed. - Oh. - So-- this is where it crossed. Is it-- can you tell-- still tell if it's on the ground? - I can't, no. It's completely wrapped in rain. - All right, so that-- that was a tornado crossing the road in front of us. I got my lives-- my Instagram live going. And now it's lost in rain. We cannot see it. It's back over there somewhere. But we just passed across the damage path.