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Spring officially starts on Thursday and with it comes the growing threat for severe weather season.Watch video of this storyJust in time, the Iowa Storm Chasing Network unveiled its storm chase vehicle.Standing out from the crowd in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Des Moines was what looked like a cross between a tank and the Batmobile.Brennan Jontz, 20, and Dan Auel, 20, built the steel beast. It's designed to keep them safe when they chase tornadoes.It's designed to withstand whatever Mother Nature throws at them.They call the vehicle Dorothy, and plan to drive her into the storm with meteorology student Zach Sharpe navigating by radar in the backseat."Once you get in a tornado, all you see is debris flying around so the main goal is to get close, get slow motion video of the tornado, slow it down and analyze the data," said Sharpe.Cameras will capture all angles of a twister to reveal an inside look while also live-streaming video to the world.Dorothy started out like any other Ford commercial van, but the crew cut off the top and then started adding sheets of steel."The exterior is coated with Linex -- rubberized coating an eighth inch of that will stop a 9mm bullet," said Brennan Jontz.Dorothy also has half-inch poly windows that are military grade.Flaps lower to keep the wind from getting under and lifting her up off the ground, and to protect the tires -- they hope."We haven't tested it yet to see what its limitations are. The goal is we wouldn't be picked up and we're safe in this thing," said Zach Sharpe.Riding in the parade Monday was one thing, but facing Mother Nature's fury is another."At first, there would be some nerves going close to the storm, but I think we'd be all right," said Sharpe.The team said they trust Dorothy. Now all they're waiting for is the first big storm to chase.