How did you get interested in Chasing?

[Nick Parker]

I have always been interested in stroms. Being a youngster and going through a derecho didn't help the situation. 8) But, it really got serious about chasing during May 2003. That whole week I spent running around trying to get a good shot of a tornado around here. Then the evening of the 6th rolled around. Let's just say I didn't have to go anywhere to chase this time. That ole F-4 came to me. Ripped the roof off the house, leveled the barn, and "pancaked" my truck. The news networks all said it was headed north of us. (Nice try.) So this really pushed me to become involved in a public level to help this "surprise" from happening again. Joining SKYWARN gave me contacts to get ahold of and provide real-time information. So far, i've got some good photos of supercell's but nothing major. Im kindly in the same area as George Tincher, long rolling hills and such. It makes it a tad tricky to find a good, open spot. But, im ready for this Spring, especially May...So bring em' ON!

 

[Tony Laubach]

April 26, 1991 - Andover, Kansas

Watching the unfold on The Weather Channel was incredible! That's probably where the chasing seed was planted for me! I've always had a fascination with weather, and particularly severe weather. That stemmed back to when I was 5ish and I was in the car in a parking lot when a HUGE storm rolled through. The car was shaking and my brother was screaming in the seat next to me. I remember that storm like it was yesterday.. that's where the severe weather seed was drilled. Chasing itself, Andover.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Ever since i was a little Kid i would always watch thunderstorms roll by. Lightning always fascinated me and well look at me now i take pictures of it, hehe. The clouds motions has as well captivated me. Another thing that got me was even though i may live in such a flat area the clouds that roared upward have always been my mountains. Kinda reminds me of when i visted Colorado for all those relatives weddings when i was younger. My aunt has a large large family. Tony you might know where Loveland is. thast where she lives


Hey Nick Parker is that a D8 CAT you got in that Pic. ive operated a D8R but not in cab. sorry for the off topic just was curious

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

My dad has always been interested in storm chasing and tornadoes in general. He was a county storm spotter at the young age of 18. One of his best friends is also the chief meteorologist at the public radio/tv station here at the U of I (in the weather office where I now work ) I made my interest in storms apparent early on, so I always had those two supplying me with plenty of tornado video. I would always be quite jealous when my dad would leave to go chasing with the atmos-sciences chase group here, but would love to hear his stories when he came back.

So, I've really been interested in tornadoes since I learned to talk and walk. If I had to pick an event that really shot me into obsession mode, It'd be the April 19 1996 tornado outbreak here in Illinois. Watching an F3 tornado scoot through my hometown one nite, a mere mile from my backyard was an amazing experience. Thankfully no one was injured.

 

[David Wolfson]

My interest in weather, especially of the severe kind, dates from when my parents stood me up on the toilet seat so I could see out the window what's now known to be the meso of the supercell that produced the Worcester tornado of 1953 come over our house south of Boston. We went out later and collected bits and pieces of Worcester that dropped into the backyard. By the next year when hurricanes Carol and Edna hit I was hooked.

 

[Nick Parker]

Yea Kurt, it sure is...D8T to be specific.

Mods: Sorry for off topic..just replying

 

[Perry Williams]

What got me interested in chasing?...

The same two events which got me interested (fascinated; crazed; infatuated; etc) with severe storms and tornadoes in general...

1) experiencing/ surviving a pre-dawn tornado which badly damaged my family's suburban Atlanta, Georgia home when I was twelve...

2) the April 3, 1974 superoutbreak.....which happened only two weeks later...


Those were the sparks that set my severe storm interest ablaze...

 

[Joe Zemek]

I had always liked storms, but had a strong fear of lightning due to a childhood almost-hit. Got over that after amazingly not being hit by close and intense lightning during a fast T-storm at Garden of the Gods (think iron-rich red rock area).

The IMAX chaser film got me interested in chasing. And yes, Twister did its part to keep me interested. I took time to self-educate and was totally hooked when I saw a beautiful HP meso on my second-ever chase day. I Love Nebraska...

 

[charlie roswell]

I was always afraid of storms as a young kid.

Two things I think helped to gradually turn that fear to interest.

1. When I was only 9 a tornado passed a few miles south of my house. I remember standing outside and watching the amazing lightning display, then finding out later there had been a tornado. On the bus ride to school the next day (first day of class I believe) we drove through the damage path of the F3. I was amazed.

2. Twister. Just the idea of chasing storms.

 

[Aric Cylkowski]

I was about four when I gained a heavy interest in the weather, after I got to spend a few nights in the basement with my mom telling me to get under the desk and that a tornado was probably on its way. After that, I wanted to get a good idea of what a tornado was so I would know why I should be hiding out in the basement.

By the time I was seven, I had received a videotape on tornadoes made by The Weather Channel (which included chase footage from various sources) from my grandparents for my birthday. I've been told I watched the tape so much, I wore it out. The chase footage captivated me, and from that point on I knew I had to become a storm chaser. By 9, I was a SKYWARN spotter, undertaking various local chases with little success (funnel clouds or rotating wall clouds) until I was 17.

 

[Travis Livengood]

Interest in weather came from having my elementary school nearly hit. I remember trying to get away from the class and look out the window and see what was going on.

Chasing? I don't know, I guess just getting tired of waiting for storms to come to me...I seem to be a little more portable than they are. So now I go to them.

 

[Angie K Holliday]

I've been interested in storms since I was a little kid. As a little kid, I got scared by storms a few times, especially when the wind really picked up, and I still get somewhat nervous when the wind picks up.

When it was time to go to college, I had to pick between astronomy and meteorology to pick where I wanted to go. I decided to pursue astronomy first, but didn't finish my degree. A couple years later I worked it out to go back to college and get a degree in meteorology, which was easy to do since I already had taken all the math and physics I needed. I breezed through the classes, cause I knew most of the stuff already from my reading weather books since grade school. In 3rd grade I did a paper on tornadoes, wish I knew where that was!!!

I didn't know much about chasing till Twister, and haven't been on a real tornado chase yet. I have chased some severe storms, but don't have much to show for it. I also ran from a tornado one day when I wasn't expecting to see one and got scared!

I really got scared when I was in the middle of a major storm that went through Iowa City in June of 1998. We had a derecho come through. They issued a tornado warning for where I lived, and as I was getting ready to go see what was up, the wind hit. We had straight line wind at my apartment for about 20 minutes. I never got to go look outside, as the wind was so strong I thought the windows would get blown out. Turns out the wind was about 80 mph where I was, and there was a report of 123 mph not too far from where I lived, and the town that my brother lived in. After that we had torrential rain, that flooded my street. Saw some nice mammatus after the storms were moving out. I guess that really got my interest back into weather.

Looking forward to learning enough about chasing to go someday.

 

[Sarah Berling]

I'm into this for the babes. Nothing attracts chicks like a Skywarn bumper sticker and a ham radio.

Lol. The kind of babes you want to attract would be interested in the skywarm bumper sticker and the ham radio.

I was originally interested in geophysics, volcanology in particular. Somehow, that evolved to meteorology (which I suppose isn't so strange as they're both geosciences). I'm going to try to major in both in college next year. But I'd have to say that, like Shane, it was the lack of tornadoes that drove me to this insanity. Before this last month, I had never seen a supercell. Yes, I'd seen towering Cu and thunderstorms but not a supercell. It was amazing and incredible and very, very addictive.

Sarah

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I've been a weather nut since I was pretty little. When I was 10 or so I had a pretty good collection of books about tornadoes and I'd scoured the library clean on the subject. I wanted to be a storm chaser way back then. Of course, those days I thought that there was an actual "job" that involved storm chasing. Living in Des Moines and then later Sioux City Iowa meant that there was plenty of storms to see each year. (I was lucky enough to be out of town when the twister went through Sioux City and took out the powerplant!)

Interestingly enough, when I was maybe 12 or 13, my dad got me a subscription for a year or so to the old paper-based Stormtrack. I probably still have a few issues floating around in a trunk in my parent's basement.

Storm chasing is one of the more joyous things I do. Even when I bust I have a good time. To some extent, I chase for the excitement, but there is a lot more to it than that. Storms are incredibly beautiful to me. I get a real zen moment as I approach a large thunderhead.

 

[Scott Olson]

I grew up really near the ocean on the central coast of California. For the most part our weather was very dull. But when I did see a thunderstorm I was amazed and would just totally absorb it. Six years ago I took a trip for the first time across the rockies into the Great Plains for a job working for the Governor of Indiana. This coincided with an active system moving through. Each day I witnessed amazing things that I could have never imagined existed living in CA. A tornadic supercell by Denver and a beautiful single cell in Aurora, NE.

-Scott.