The Extreme Weather Files

Husband and wife storm chasers, Jeff and Kathy Piotrowski, chase down a Missouri tornado and witness a town's devastation; Meteorologist Mark Robinson is chased by a twister in Nebraska, while a second meteorologist, Jaclyn Whittal, witnesses one of the widest tornadoes ever recorded. Experts describe how tornadoes evolve and change direction, and why early detection systems are critical.

They are strange and rare weather events, but they do happen or are they figments of the imagination? A backpacker hiking in a forest is almost killed by wind and falling trees; an acid rain burst causes an extreme explorer to slowly burn and melt inside an erupting volcano; a bank president in Tornado Alley risks his life for his staff as his bank gets leveled by Twin Tornadoes.

A chilling, and sometimes deadly combination. An arctic blast traps a hydro worker; a pilot is trapped in an intense blizzard in the Antarctica; and after saving trapped drivers, a snow plow operator is stuck overnight on a mountain during a bone-chilling blizzard. Scientists explain cold weather systems, and what causes severe and rapid drops in temperature.

A veteran tornado chaser is stuck on a dead end street with no way out; stuck in their truck, husband and wife storm chasers are almost sucked into the eye of the storm; an extreme explorer experiences a near miss with death as his vehicle gets smashed.

It spreads. It burns. It blows. Fire and wind are a deadly weather combination. A news reporter finds himself surrounded by a wildfire; a photojournalist is caught in a fire to only a week later be stuck in the area's mudslide; an avid kayaking couple are trapped in a lake surrounded by a forest fire.

Hurricanes, wet, wild and deadly. A competitive fisherman is stuck in the middle of a Great Lake during a freak hurricane; a hurricane chaser is saving lives while surviving a storm in the Philippines; an extreme explorer is trapped in an outdoor parking garage during Hurricane Katrina.

What do you do when there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide? An outdoorsman is trapped on a mountain after a disastrous avalanche; in Mexico, a hurricane chaser is trapped under a hotel lobby desk as a typhoon destroys the hotel; a fishing couple is trapped on their boat in the middle of the ocean pounded by waves, outside of Florida.

You're flying high, on a wing and a prayer. When weather affects an airplane, it is one bumpy flight. A flight attendant on his first day on the job experiences three types of turbulence all at the same time; a pilot fears for his life as he travels 500 precarious miles between low clouds and high trees; a flight attendant suffers severe, unforeseen clear turbulence en route to Mexico.