Terrifying Video Shows Tornado Fling Van on Chinese Highway

Dramatic dashcam and surveillance footage captured the moment a weak tornado violently tossed a van on a highway in Haining, in China's Zhejiang Province, on July 19, 2026. The video, shared amid heavy rain and strong winds, shows the vehicle briefly lifted and thrown as the twister tore across the roadway. Surveillance footage from the scene confirmed that two people inside the van suffered injuries during the incident, though further details on the severity of their conditions have not been released.

A local tornado enthusiast who reviewed the footage classified the twister as likely non-supercellular, suggesting it formed from an ordinary thunderstorm rather than a more organized, rotating supercell system, which tend to produce the most destructive tornadoes. However, the classification has not gone unchallenged, with another storm chaser responding to question that assessment, reflecting the genuine uncertainty that often surrounds rapid, small-scale tornado events until formal meteorological review can take place. Weak, brief-lived tornadoes of this kind are difficult to classify from video alone, particularly when official radar and damage-survey data are not yet publicly available.

The incident adds to a string of severe tornado and storm events reported across eastern and central China this summer, a period that has already seen deadly tornadoes and flooding tied to overlapping typhoon activity in other provinces. While this particular tornado appears to have been comparatively weak, the footage of the van being thrown underscores how even lower-intensity tornadoes can pose serious risks to motorists caught on exposed highways during sudden severe weather. Local authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the classification or cause of the storm system involved.