The G.E.T.I.T History

Roughly around October 10th, 2024, I started to be interested in weather like I used to in kindergarten. I studied tornadoes mostly. I decided that I should do one thing that only few achieve. It was a death wish, but I wanted to intercept a tornado in three ways, see one, probe, and be in the inside of the vortex myself.

G.E.T.I.T is formed.

On October 14th, 2024, I made the base of an extraordinary series of probes. It was a rugged cardboard box with makeshift wood tools on it. I called it the G.E.T.I.T probe, it stood for Gust and Extreme Tornado Intercept Tool. I used it for experimental testing, mostly for wind threshold. After a while, I hit it with a sleek red paint coat and bold black lettering. After a week, I decided to tear it apart and leave it to rot in my garage’s toy bin.

November 4th, 2024.

The day was an enhanced risk, with a ten-percent chance for EF2+ tornadoes. Nothing major happened until my school was let out early due to significant storms in Central Oklahoma. We got home, but it already started. Me and my family went to my grandma’s neighborhood, which has a storm shelter. At 3:24, a tornado warning was issued, and everyone scrambled into the shelter. At around 3:40, we got out, and realized nothing happened. I walked towards an open field, looked up, and saw a formidable sight. There was a large multi-vortex tornado moving across the horizon. I snapped a picture of it, and that was the first goal achieved.

Upgrades for G.E.T.I.T.

On February 17th, I upgraded the G.E.T.I.T probe, adding eight spikes, four for main body and four for stability, and a camera. On the next day, a winter storm was on its way, so I set it out, and recorded 26 minutes of footage. I later removed the weak stability spikes and camera cap and made a new lid system.

G.E.T.I.T V2.

After letting G.E.T.I.T rest from the storms, I decided to set it to rest and make a new probe. I built up a new, larger, sturdier, and aerodynamic probe. On March 2nd, I made the G.E.T.I.T.V2, the spikes were also longer, with the old being three inches and the new being four. Eventually, a small cell system rolled around. I got footage of the cells using the old camera from G.E.T.I.T. On March 26th, I gave G.E.T.I.T.V2 and G.E.T.I.T a makeover, adding new decals and putting a mesonet on G.E.T.I.T. During a slight risk day, I set both out for an intercept, but hail damaged both shells and rain caused internal structural damage, leading to both being retired forever.

G.E.T.I.T.3.

I decided to make a completely new base type. Rather than making trapezoid-like box probes, I made one flat 24x24” base made of 1-1.5” thick wood and metal spikes and attachments. The probe has a mesonet, GoPro, and large 8” spikes. I used this probe mainly for regular weather, until the strongest storm I ever encountered came.

May 19th, 2025

The setup throughout all outlooks looked exactly like November 4th, but something unexpected happened the day of the storm. A moderate risk was issued for exactly where I live, 15% chance for tornadoes and 10% chance for EF2+ tornadoes controlling it. At 6:55PM, a tornado touched down west of Stilwell city lake and was headed straight for my town. Thankfully, me and my family were in shelter, but back at my house, G.E.T.I.T.3 was deployed. It was recording the entirety of it. At exactly 7:00PM, the tornado struck Stilwell, causing EF1 damage. The probe recorded the inside of the tornado. The tornado was rated EF1, path length 16.7 miles, and max width 1.25 miles.

The G.E.T.I.T.3 is still in service, but it is only experimental and will eventually be retired someday as well.