How did you get interested in Chasing?

[Joe Nield]

I have a story not unlike that of most meteorologists with a severe weather obsession, but with a funny twist. Two tornadoes touched down just across a small field from our car in Illinois as we were returning from a trip to Minnesota when I was about five years old. Fortunately, they moved away from us. As soon as we got back, I was in the library. I think I've read every weather-related book in the Plainfield Public Library collection. The problem with this is that I read so much about how destructive and dangerous weather could be, that I developed a tornado phobia. If it was cloudy and breezy, I was sure a tornado was about to come kill us all. The word "overcast" became the bane of my existence for a couple of years.

This is how ridiculous it was: if you remember, shortly before the tornado scene in "The Wizard of Oz," there is a shot showing crepuscular rays shining down through the clouds. Well, my young mind being what it was, I made the connection and soon came to be unnerved by even those as well, as I was sure that they were a sign of imminent tornadogenesis.

When I was about 7, my parents had had enough and took me to see a counselor. To this day I don't know how it worked, but it did. We talked about tornadoes maybe once or twice, and spent the rest of the time just chatting and playing games. After this, while I still held a healthy respect for the power of tornadoes, their possibility no longer controlled my life. I became nearly obsessed by severe weather. However, after a while, I was no longer content to merely read about them. I simply had to see them for myself. My failure to do so for several years, even though I was not seriously chasing at the time, was nothing short of frustrating.

That's what made last season so sweet.

Through all of it, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have parlayed an early obsession for severe weather into a love of all things weather, and the greatest career I could have asked for.

 

[CLong]

omygosh, good question

I was born a month before the Waco, TX Tornado of 1953. (gives away my age-LOL) I think I had those details so embedded into my head, by the time we moved west, I was always looking up into the clouds. The first time I saw hail, I was 12, and it was in Denver, CO. I thought, this is it!!! Since then, I've lived in tornado alley, most of my life. I will never leave, because I don't have to go much farther than my back yard, to watch a good supercell or yellow rotating cloud, gives me chills thinking about it. This week, we were in a flash flood. (McCook, NE) More rain, than I've seen in years. There were so many storms here, I surely hope....one of you good folks were here to enjoy them. Keep looking up! 8) Clong

 

[Dennis Gulley]

Mine was born out of fear. I never had any bad weather experiences as a child but I was terrified of tornados. This proberly came from some of the scary black and white pictures that I would look at in the encylopedias we had at the local and school libraries. I remember once that they had a show on tv called the life of the tornado and told my parents that I was going to be brave and watch it. I didnt get past the beginning credits before I took off running, crying and hiding under the covers of my bed totally petrified of what I had just seen.
Now I basicly have no fear but its more of an obsession now. I love severe weather and I feel the need to be close to it. It took me a while to realize that severe weather was not going to come to me so I would have to go out and seek it myself. After my first tornado during the Hallam storm last year I am now helplessly "hooked" (get it? haha). Ive now seen 7 tornados since May 22 04.

Happy and safe hunting to all.

Dennis

 

[Melissa Moon]

Well, growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, my dad used to always take me to the top of the hill when we'd have a storm approaching from the southwest, and there were a few times where we'd see funnels and even a few tornados. That was pretty cool, especially since I was only a young child.

I always wanted to go out and drive to them when I was young, but I never could because my parents were pretty strict, and wouldn't let me do anything out of the way (save going to the top of the hill to see what I could see) because they though I'd crash the car or something. Didn't actually get to go chasing until I moved out from home to go to OU, and suddenly I was surrounded by many others with the same desire to chase as myself. I'm still weary of taking my own car out since it really belongs to my parents and they're really anal about the possibility of a hailstone knocking out a window or two (considering we had one of our older cars beaten up in the 1995 hailstorm).

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Originally posted by Skip Talbot
TWISTER! Ever since I saw that movie I wanted to be a professional chaser... :roll:

TWISTER born here whether I like it or not. :wink: I had no clue people actually chased. So TWISTER was a cracked door for me so I opened it and dove right on in.

I'm not going to say it started back when I was a child because as a child I was scared of storms and wanted nothing to do with them. Thunder sent me to the closet. As a teen I had nothing but legs and a** on the brain. But as time had it’s way with me, I grew up and Twister the movie came along and saved me from the retched, filthy, and sinful life I was leading and I slowly became engulfed into more normal and excepted way of life and weather and storm chasing became apart of it.

Mick

 

[brody_clifton]

My interest began after the evening of March 28, 1984 when one of the tornadoes from the Carolinas outbreak , an F4, tore through two small towns 10 miles northwest of where I grew up. We drove around the next day looking at some of the damage - large pecan trees twisted and snapped, brick homes leveled, and a pickup truck lodged about 15 feet up a debarked tree. I was eight then.
In 1996 I began researching the mechanics of severe storms and forecasting, and chased my first storm that summer. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was an online storm chasing website I had found and joined up with, CASI (Central Atlantic Storms Investigators) that introduced pursuing a storm in a vehicle. Since then I have done so each season.
To this day, I am still seeking my first view of the 'needle in a haystack'. 2005 is my first season armed with the power of a laptop, WxWorx, and GPS/mapping software. This has allowed me to have some limited success already this season seeing some funnels and several rotating walls, and I think it will not be much longer before I see a twister for the first time, either on the east coast or on the central/northern plains during vacation in a couple of weeks.

 

[Bryce Stone]

May 3rd, 1999 started it for me. Interestingly enough, I had no idea about what was going on just 80 miles or so west of me until later that evening when I went home and turned on the news.

It's hard to imagine a life like that now . . . not knowing what the weather is doing. I still wish every now and then that I had started chasing on May 2nd, 1999. I missed what was probably the biggest weather event of my lifetime, and it was right in my own backyard.

 

[Kem Poyner]

How did I get interested in chasing?

Have you seen the movie "Powder". It is about a kid that attracts lightining. I really think I am a living tornado magnet. I have been in 3 tornados in my life. I don't mean that a tornado passed a mile from my house or one went near my school, I mean IN a tornado.
When I was 5 years old living in Northeast Iowa, a tornado picked up the mobilehome my family lived in while we were eating supper. Smashed our trailer into a thousand pieces! We were all injured with my Mom being the worst. It was very terrifying. A few years later I was obsessed with tornados. I could not learn enough. I own every book and dowloaded every paper on the net I could find about the subject. I have been formally chasing for 12 years, but started climbing up on the roof during storms now for 40 years!
The last tornado I was "in" was three years ago while chasing in the Texas panhandle at night. I'm the guy who had the 100 yard wide tornado pass directly over him while holding on to a pipe along side the Lela overpass.( I did keep the video camera rolling!) I figure when I leave this earth for good, it will be at the hands of a tornado. Kem Poyner

 

[Blake Michaleski]

I'd say hurricane andrew got me interested in meteorology and forecasting. After I started going to school at ULM I met Scott Blair, He showed me his website and I was rather intrigued. So he let me come along with him on some chases during the semester. I actually saw my first tornado with him only about an hour and a half south of Monroe. In the first year of chasing I learned alot about mesoscale and synoptic meteorology and has since driven a passion for mesoscale phenomena in me. I still love Hurricanes and intercepting them but nothing compares to standing on teh side of a dirt road looking out across the caprock at a monster supercell. I also fully believe that chasing has benefited me in my professional career as I feel that having to forecast on my own to get me to where the storms will initiate has made me a better over all forecaster. of course i stil gotta finish these last two calculus classes first. :roll:

 

[David Douglas]

1982.

I got my ham radio license when I was 15. I used to monitor the 146.94 repeater in Fort Worth, with Alan Moller giving updates on the repeater, Ed Eddins (WB5FPI), K5KJ, and a host of others during every severe weather event. Before I could drive, I hooked up with another ham/spotter (Gerald Handley, WA5DBY now W5DBY) and went on a spot/chase down in Cleburne. He had a van without any insulation and we got in a big hailstorm. It was Loud! I was hooked!

The crazy thing was when I was 16, my mom used to let me take my 1977 Toyota up into Oklahoma to chase. I can't believe she let me do that!

David Douglas
Austin, TX

 

[Blake Michaleski]

K5KJ

That's Sam Barricklow. That's probably one of the most famous chaser callsigns :wink:

 

[David Douglas]

Ah, yes. When I was typing I could remember his callsign but not his name for some reason! Oh well, I must have killed those brain cells.

David Douglas
Austin, TX

 

[Steve Miller TX]

Great thread! I've lived in Texas all of my life (born in Morton). Severe weather is a way of life here. I've always had a deep fascination for weather of all sorts, but severe thunderstorms were my favorite. At age 5 or 6, a tornado glanced our trailer park and rocked our trailer severely ripping off the awning and causing some localized damage. As I got older, I vividly remember the skies turning dark and ominous like I was transported to another world.

Growing up around DFW, Harold Taft was THE world's greatest weatherman. I can still see the old black and white radar screen pop up after the large red letter graphic that said "Weather Bulletin" flashed across the screen interrupting whatever TV show was on. He would come on in his very concerened and stern grandfatherly voice and point out the storms on radar and talk about folks taking cover. It was the first time I ever saw a hook echo. The whole experience was like some big civil defense reaction to an invading enemy. ;-)

I grew up with Harold Taft because back in those days, there was no Weather Channel. He had an excellent ability to forecast Texas weather better than anybody else (just ask any of the old timer locals and farmers around these parts who still remember him). He was discussing mesoscale stuff before I even think they had a word for it. He was a great teacher too and I learned a tremendous amount of meteorology just by watching his weather casts.

Anyway, I installed my first weather station on the roof by age 12 and started keeping detailed daily records almost hourly. I had a mail subscription from the Government Printing Office to get the weekly archive of surface and upper air weather maps which I would spend hours comparing with the records I had kept. I had a big Texas road map on my wall and would plot severe weather watches using pins and string then track the storms using nothing but NOAA Weather Radio....no radar or internet back then. ;-) My mom would have to threaten and coerce me into getting off the roof where I would watch storms roll in. I'm lucky I didn't get stroked by a CG.

I actually chased (sort of) on my dirt bike a small, weak tornado/funnel that tracked through southern Duncanville when I was about 12 or 13. I was so excited that I didn't sleep for a couple of days. LOL!! I remember the LONG trek back and got home very late to one very pissed of mom. ;-)

After that, things just evolved and finally in 1997, I had the money and resources (including internet) to start seriously chasing and have been ever since when I was able to. I hope and pray that one day they make some sort of modified wheel chair type of vehicle so I can still go chasing when I'm 80 years old.

 

[David Douglas]

I watched Harold Taft too! He was my childhood hero

Did you know that he played trumpet in the civic orchestra in Fort Worth? He used to practice at the KXAS studios in his off time. I actually have one of his hand drawn weather maps (4'x4') that he used on air. It's framed on my wall in my office!

 

[Paul Stofer]

Thats a great topic, Charles. I guess it all started when I was a kid as well. Storms didn't scare me in general, but the lightning sure did. Living in Dallas, the lightning can get very crazy; however, those who live here know spring can get annoying sometimes as we live in the "North Texas Curse". Thats why we venture far away!

Around the age of 12 I began to watch storms on TV and go outside to observe them and compare them to what was being shown on the radar. I quickly got over my fear of lightning and grew a fascination. Whenever storms rolled in, I would be the first one in the family to turn on the weather channel and then run outside to watch the storms move in. I began searching the internet for weather related essays, reading lots of books and watching lots of videos.

One afternoon I was online and I actually ran into a METR student at the University of Oklahoma who is now probably my best friend who has since graduated the program. My METR friend, pretty much became my weather mentor. He was very patient with me and he showed me the science behind weather and storm chasing. He also taught me about mobile data gathering and how all the instruments and sensors worked. I learned much from this individual, I have no idea where I would be, chase-wise, if he hadn't had been there.

Then Twister came out, which even though it was a far fetched hollywood movie, it still fed my interest. I finally got my dad involved in my weather hobbies. He is a great guy. Before I got my driver license he would drive me to go to the NOAA open houses and help stir my interest, as well as cart me around to observe severe weather in the area.

Finally, I turned 16 and applied what I had learned from my METR friend on mobile atmospheric observing and storm chasing, and I assembled a Mobile Mesonet for the vehicle. I began chasing in 2001 and have been chasing ever since. After I graduated from High School I took some Meteorology courses in College. Now that the 2005 Storm Season is over, I am looking forward to the hurricane season. I will be moving to Oklahoma in 3 months to continue to pursue my interest. Thats just my little entry in this thread, but I'm glad I could share my upbringing into this wonderful hobby...