Latest news with #OTUS
Forbes
23-07-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
OTUS Drones Are The Next Big Thing In Storm Chasing, Just Ask The Tuckers
The OTUS Project group via drone approaching a multi-vortex tornado near Parmelee, South Dakota, ... More July 20, 2025. The tornado season in the southwestern U.S. typically runs from late March to mid-June. But as June morphs into July, tornado alley tends to meander up into the midwestern plains, particularly the northern part. Earlier this year, I spent time storm-chasing in Texas, encountering half-a-dozen twisters with Tim Bovasso, Jeff Anderson and Chris Coach. Along the way, I also met a unique chaser group called the OTUS - Observation Of Tornadoes By UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Systems - project. They seek out tornadoes, then actually fly special drones into the funnels to gather valuable information regarding near-ground wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, humidity and the like. I was so intrigued by OTUS' science work that I profiled the group last month (link below) with the idea that I might tag along next year to watch them in action. Lo and behold, they decided to give chasing one more go this year, in the midwest, so I met them in Omaha, Nebraska, this past weekend to chase for a few days. OTUS team member Louis Tucker prepares his special drone to fly into a tornado, South Dakota, July ... More 22, 2025. The first day, Sunday, according to weather models had the lowest odds of producing a tornado - zero - while Monday and Tuesday looked substantially better. Sunday, however, was eventually upgraded to 2%, later to 5%. Armed with drones and a rental car, our group set out toward South Dakota in the morning to intercept one of two promising supercells projected to initiate later in the afternoon. Louis Tucker, the pilot, readied his drone in the car while younger brother Nelson, closely monitored the weather and directed father Louis Sr., a former Navy Seal, to maneuver various back roads to position ourselves for the best potential intercepts. It was a family affair, if you will. Two other OTUS members, due to previous commitments, couldn't be there - Erik Fox and Tanner Beard. Once a decision had been reached as to which supercell to chase, we hightailed it to the desired location, just outside of Parmelee, South Dakota, to be close enough to deploy the drone if a tornado were imminent, basically a 5-mile radius. As we watched the wall cloud at the base of the supercell form, tension within the group mounted. Everything has to be perfectly right for a tornado to drop, and you never know. Sometimes you're absolutely sure - and poof, nothing. Other times you are taken completely by surprise. Louis (left) and Nelson Tucker at work identifying the best locales to chase twisters, South Dakota, ... More July 2025. The more we watched, the better we thought our chances were. Suddenly a small bowl of dancing dust appeared on the ground, then began to rise and tighten up. We had ourselves a tornado, a multi-vorticed one at that! Louis immediately deployed the drone, sending it at over 100 mph toward the thing which was probably three miles away. En route, though, there was a slight glitch, and Louis had to return it to base before penetrating the core. That said, he captured some stunning images of the tornado as it was forming, and valuable meteorological data as well, to be analyzed later this summer. Louis Tucker of OTUS flies his drone toward a supercell in Minnesota, July 22, 2025. The next two days, which were supposed to have the highest tornado probabilities, were total busts. We traversed South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and even Minnesota scouring, putting in more than 1,500 miles in the process, to no avail. The only reassuring news was that no tornadoes were reported on those days, so it wasn't us at fault. In fact, the Sunday tornado we had found was the only one reported that day. These folks know their stuff. The extra time did give OTUS a chance to locate a precious drone worth a few thousand dollars that had been lost a month back. We also got to see and photograph some majestic supercells. So next spring it is. I'm hoping we can get close enough to some big twisters so Louis can fly us inside with his drones, allowing both scientists and the public alike to see things nobody has ever seen, or measured. Spectacular mothership structure in South Dakota, July 20, 2025. Make no mistake: What these OTUS guys are doing is pure exploration, not simply walking in the footsteps of others as is the case with the insane and dangerous overcrowding on Mt. Everest. Pay attention. You will hear more about OTUS again, I can assure you, and not just from me.
Forbes
28-06-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
OTUS Project Collects Critical Surface Wind Data Inside Of Tornadoes
Footage filmed by an OTUS drone as it nears the cone of a tornado near Arnett, Oklahoma, May 18, 2025. Photo courtesy of OTUS As any seasoned storm chaser or meteorologist will tell you, the business of predicting tornadoes, while better than in the past, is still largely hit or miss. Supercells, the massive cloud structures that produce twisters, can have all of the traditional weather ingredients required to drop a tornado, but it doesn't happen. At other times, conditions may be less than perfect, and a tornado will suddenly appear. This anomaly, of course, makes it difficult to, in a timely manner, send tornado warnings out to alert the public as to when to shelter. Part of the problem, says Louis Tucker, a recent business/engineering graduate of Virginia Tech, is that tornadic winds close to the ground are difficult to measure, and therefore aren't fully understood. Radar can measure fairly accurately wind speed and direction higher up, say, above 200 hundred feet. But that doesn't tell the story of what's going on at the surface, the area of a tornado that's most damaging to humans and their dwellings. What to do? With brother Nelson, Louis devised a system whereby special drones with three-dimensional wind sensors can be flown near, or even into, the cones of tornadoes to take such critical measurements close to the ground. Louis Tucker piloting his OTUS drone near Higgins, Oklahoma, May 18, 2025. Courtesy of OTUS Louis is a crack drone racer. He won the National Collegiate Drone Racing Championship in 2023. Brother Nelson is a tornado fanatic studying meteorology at Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who can recite the history of epic twisters going all the way back to the early 1900s - the locations of, and the damage they've done. Put the two siblings together and voila, you have OTUS, Observation Of Tornadoes By UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Systems. With the help of veteran storm chaser Erik Fox, and aerospace engineer Tanner Beard, OTUS was born in 2024. The group chased with their special drones for two weeks last May with the goal of intercepting a twister or two to prove their concept, and to secure funding. They did penetrate a twister in Duke, Oklahoma, gathering valuable data, and, as a result score some initial public funding. But recent budget cuts to NOAA and government weather services took away most of that. Undaunted, this past spring the group found and penetrated a half-dozen tornadoes. One, the Spiritwood, North Dakota, wedge earlier this month, was rated at least EF-3 (ratings go from EF-o to EF-5), quite a monster. Speaking of ratings, another benefit to Tucker's research is to help revamp the controversial EF system. Today, a rating is based on damage a tornado does versus its actual wind speeds. So you can have a violent tornado rated less than it should be just because it travels through a non-populated area - and vice versa. The ability to measure surface wind speeds will help with that. The OTUS team (L-R): Erik Fox, Louis Tucker, Tanner Beard, Nelson Tucker. Courtesy of OTUS Tucker estimates that his group has put more than $25,000 of their own money into OTUS. A documentary filmed this past spring, produced by Paradigm Films, is in the works and due out next year. And a detailed report on OTUS surface wind data gathered this year, now being calculated and reviewed, will be out this summer. Hopefully, the report and documentary will help attract more private and public funding, Tucker says. By the way, the video footage OTUS has amassed from near and inside of funnels is stunning (links below), something never seen before. As such, we're going to keep an eye on Tucker and his crew, perhaps even chase with them for an immersive experience. So stay tuned. This is Part 1 of a multi-part series.
NBC News
22-05-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
Drone intercepts Oklahoma tornado
A drone captured new video of the vortex of an Oklahoma tornado. According to the drone storm-chasing project, "OTUS", this is a perspective no one has seen before. Louis Tucker, the drone's pilot, spoke with NBC News' Gadi Schwartz about the data it is collecting and the future of storm-chasing. May 22, 2025
