Rough weather can make any trip through the countryside an unpleasant experience. But what do you do when you’re out for a drive and have an unexpected encounter with a tornado?

Last week, a twister barreled through western Germany, and two drivers were caught in the terrifying tower of spinning dirt and debris. As seen in video of the event, both cars slowly pulled to a stop and rode out the winds. In this instance, the drivers likely did the right thing, given the deceptively low intensity of the storm, according to National Geographic Explorer and meteorologist Anton Seimon.

“At the time of the vehicle encounter seen in the video, the tornado, although visually very impressive, was very