What can happen if you park under an overpass during a tornado

(NEXSTAR) — With parts of the U.S. facing a risk of severe weather and tornadoes — including some still trying to recover from other recent storms — it’s a good time to revisit storm safety.

If you live in an area known to have tornadoes, knowing your safe spot may be common sense, whether it’s a basement, an interior room on the lowest level of the building, a tornado shelter, or, if those are unavailable, “the nearest ditch, ravine, or culvert.”

But what about when you’re driving, and aren’t near any buildings to hide in?

Your first instinct, especially on a highway, may be to find a bridge or overpass to park under as the storm moves through. While that may sound like a safe space to protect yourself and your car from a storm, experts warn against it for a number of reasons.

Parking there can block traffic, potentially putting yourself and others at risk of collision.

Should a tornado move through the area, parking under an underpass can create an even more serious situation.

As meteorologist Aaron Brackett of Nexstar’s KFOR explains, when winds encounter an overpass, they increase.

“So even if you have a wind in a weaker tornado of 100, 150 miles per hour, you can add 40, 50, 60 miles per hour to that just from being underneath the underpass. So, it’s actually making the tornado you’re in worse,” he says.

In May 1999, many people took cover under an overpass during the deadly F5 Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado — with wind speeds reaching over 300 miles per hour, the highest ever recorded — as it moved through Moore, Oklahoma. Among those was Stuart Earnest, who told KFOR in 2012 that when the tornado hit, “people started getting sucked out from under the bridge.”

He recounted coming down the embankment to help the injured, first encountering a man whose wife had been killed in the tornado. Her body was found days later. Other survivors suffered horrific injuries, according to the National Weather Service.

In addition to vehicles and people being caught up in the wind, parking under an overpass puts you at risk of being hit by flying debris. The bridge may also fail, causing more debris and even the possibility of collapse.

Instead of parking beneath an overpass, experts recommend exiting the highway to find more suitable shelter close by.

“When the traffic is jammed or the tornado is bearing down on you at close range, your only option may be to park safely off the traffic lanes, get out and find a sturdy building for shelter, if possible,” NOAA writes. “If not, lie flat in a low spot, as far from the road as possible (to avoid flying vehicles).”

You cannot outrun a tornado with your vehicle, but you can try to get out of its path if it is far enough away. As NOAA explains, if the tornado is moving to your right, you should move to your left and vice versa “to put more distance between you and its path.”

If the tornado begins to impact your car and you’re unable to escape, experts say to keep your seatbelt on and get as low as possible away from windows and the windshield.

Speaking of windows, if you’re able to shelter in a building, do not open the windows. While it is commonly believed that opening windows during a tornado will reduce damage and “equalize pressure,” NOAA notes doing so is “absolutely useless, a waste of precious time, and can be very dangerous.”

Officials go on to explain that you may be injured while trying to open the windows, and that tornadoes are capable of blasting them open anyway.