According to storm chaser Tim Samaras, the eye of a tornado actually smells quite lovely. Samaras says that those who've survived cyclones frequently report experiencing a sweet scent of freshly-cut grass, waterfalls, or raw earth after a storm (via a 2013 report by National Geographic). This makes sense when you think about what the cyclone's been digesting. According to Samaras, tornadoes still chewing on the wreckage of a house might smell less pleasant than spring lilies: for example, they might smell like natural gas.
In "The Smell of Tornadoes" (via Weatherwise, posted at Taylor & Francis Online), Howard G. Altschule and Dr. Bernard Vonnegut speculate tornadoes might smell like sulfur or a freshly-lit match. In 1917, Alfred Wegener claimed that the tornado he encountered didn't smell lovely at all, but rather reeked with a swamp-like odor. In 1928, Will Keller of Greensburg, Kansas claimed to have stood directly beneath a tornado funnel as it passed over (and through) his home. In a 1930 interview about the rare experience, Keller told Time: "There was a strong gassy odor and it seemed that I could not breathe. A screaming, hissing sound came directly from the end of the funnel."
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