When he was young, Brock Clay was petrified of bad weather.

As he got older, Clay’s fear turned to a fascination, and he was certainly fascinated Tuesday afternoon when he spotted an apparent tornado several miles away from his house in Moscow, near the Lauderdale County and Kemper County line.

Both counties were under a tornado warning thanks to a storm system that moved through Mississippi Tuesday, and when the warning for his area was issued, Clay and his wife, Cissy, did what they usually do during a warning.

“We both have a tendency to go outside and see what’s going on,” Clay said.

Outdoors, they spotted a funnel cloud he estimated to be 3 miles north of his residence. Since it didn’t appear to be heading in their direction, Clay momentarily stood in awe before pulling out his phone to record the apparent tornado. That video eventually got shared by media outlets.

“It was kind of awesome,” Clay said. “It wasn’t really anything spectacular, we were just standing there watching it.”

It wasn’t the first time Clay had seen a tornado in person, as he spotted one while he was a student in Starkville. Clay said he had a cell phone back then, but it didn’t have a camera, so there was no way to record it like he was able to do with Tuesday’s funnel cloud. Tuesday’s storm was also in view much longer than the one he saw in Starkville.

“I did see one a long time ago, but it wasn’t that long a period of time where I got to watch it,” Clay recalled.

During the warning, Clay said he received numerous text messages from people concerned about his and Cissy’s safety, since the radar-indicated tornado appeared to be heading in their direction. After his video made the rounds on social media, his phone blew up even more.

“People were texting me as I was recording it because they know where I live and were asking if we were OK and if there was any damage,” Clay said. “Then lots of people texted and called through the course of the night.”

Seeing his video shared made Clay grateful he was able to capture one of nature’s fiercest spectacles and show others what he and his wife witnessed safely from a distance.

“It was really cool, “Clay said. “I was very honored.”