U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife were moved into an armoured vehicle on their ranch Friday after a tornado warning was issued for central Texas.

The vehicle was driven to a tornado shelter located on the ranch, but George and Laura Bush never went inside, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.

They waited out the storm in the vehicle with their two dogs, Stanzel said.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 2:30 p.m. CST after a severe thunderstorm was reported 21 kilometres south of Clifton, Texas, and moving northeast.

Clifton is 32 kilometres northwest of Crawford, where the Bush ranch is located.

Stanzel said he did not know how long the Bushes and their dogs, Miss Beazley and Barney, had to stay in the vehicle, but it was not "terribly long."

The rush to the tornado shelter interrupted Bush's day at the
ranch where he cleared some cedar and was kept abreast of plans to execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq.