Chasing a tornado is one thing. It’s a whole different matter if a tornado is heading toward your home. How do you deal with the threat? And exactly what happens if the tornado actually hits? A new NOAA-funded study will spend the next two years delving into those questions. The project is bringing together damage experts, meteorologists, and social scientists to find out how people behave when they’re at home during an imminent tornado threat, and what they see, hear and feel when a tornado actually strikes. “Tornado season really has become year-round. We don’t really stand down,” says Laura Myers, director of the Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama’s College of Engineering.