visualization questions

hello!

i would like to ask you, how you would do the visual part of the windtunnel (animated clouds or something like that) in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfDr9eD7wKY, at about 0:55, where the player moves along.

i tried different things:
-particleEffect, that moves along a motionpath.
-create many planes with different textures on it, and animate them along motionpath
-export geometry with the shape of the motionpath and animate texture on it

none of these options give me satisfying results, because:
-particles when emitted, don’t follow the path (they move in whatever direction is set in particleeffect description)
-creating many planes and animate each of them is overkill i think
-animated textures on curved surfaces look weird

if you have any ideas/solutions for me, please let me know

greets