How did you get interested in Chasing?

[Steve Miller TX]

Originally posted by 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!

Did you also know that Harold Taft was a young, budding meteorologist that participated in making forecasts for the WW2 D-Day invasion? He really pioneered TV meteorology in many ways..especially the serious, no-nonsense professional manner. The day that he died was a pretty sad one for the North Texas area.

I used to have 3 of his hand-drawn maps when I met him in person at the Channel 5 studios back when I was age 12 (about 1977). Those got lost (or stolen) among some other momentos during a move quite awile back. I'd give anything to have them back. The one thing I remember when touring the studios was his small office that had every wall plastered with all sorts of charts....and LOTS of hand analysis! His immense persona on the airwaves is still greatly missed around here. I miss it too. I sometimes wonder if he ever realized just how much of a deep impact he had on a 12 year old boy from Duncanville, TX. ;-) I also wonder if I would be the extreme weather weenie I am nowadays without his influence in my early years.

 

[Ann Money]

How did I get interested in weather and storm chasing. I also grew up watching Harold Taft in Dallas. I credit two people... my dad and my son. My dad in instilling me the thrill of "emergencies", many a night i was awakened to follow a fire truck or police car to some fire or such. To this day I can't see a fire truck without wanting to turn and follow it. Then nine years ago I moved to Shawnee Oklahoma. In October of 98 I was at home and realized the only thing on TV were the weather people of the local stations tracking a severe line of thunderstorms and telling us that we all needed to have safe place to go in our homes. Then Rick Mitchell ( channel 5 meterologist) practically screaming " if you live in Shawnee get in your safe place now!!!!. Well I found a closet jumped in as a tornado passed over my house. That helped get my juices flowing for the weather.

My son, who is all grown up, and has gotten in to chasing has gotten me all jazzed up about it now. I know about CAPES and Lift Indexes and drylines and all kinds of things now. Have purchased the GRLevel3 and read stormtrack addictively now.

So this year bought a good digital camera and made my husband take me out recently to see storm clouds, lighting and wall clouds. ( From a very safe distance.... not too brave yet.) I am loving it and hope only to get braver and wiser in storm chasing.

 

[Marcus Opitz]

I cannot recall the exact year I became facinated with weather. I suppose it was when I started taking flying lessons at age 14. I used to sit on my roof during the spring and summer months, listening to all the local air traffic and weather radio on my scanner. I would gaze at cumulonimbus and towering cumulous till sunset. I was too young to drive so all I could do was watch the storm structure. I guess that is why I am such a storm structure fanatic. :lol:

When I was 15, I used to ride my bike down to the local park to "get a better look" at the storms rolling in. Chasing on your bike... Hows that for a newbie chaser!

At around that age my father let me sneak out of the house in the early morning hours to chase storms in OK with my cousin, my mom was pissed!! :lol: Eventually she got over it and I have been doing it ever since....

Each year (even at 25) I still learn 100% more about severe storms then I did the previous years combined.

 

[Laura Good Buffalo]

I guess I first got interested in weather when I was a kid. I saw my first lightning when I was nine, a week after my dad died, so it kind of stuck with me.then two weeks later we moved from S CA (few storms, at least then) to NE MO ( lots and lots of storms). My mom used to head for the basement and I headed out the front door every time a good storm hit. she thought I had lost my mind. My uncle was with the NOAA, so he was always quizzing me on cloud types and stuff when I was a kid. Now I'm in NW NE (need more storms!!) I don't get to chase much, just do alot of observing from the house, too hard to pack up two toddlers and take with :roll: but it gives me plenty of time to read up on meteorology texts. :wink:

 

[Traci Heath]

I got interested in storms on July 5, 1994. I was camping at Browns Lake in Salix, Ia and a strong storm came in. I have to admit I was getting scared when I saw the clouds stop and then start to spin like smoke coming out of a stack. The lightning started coming straight down. I wanted to leave but my husband (at the time) would not leave. Then we heard the sirens going off in town. We saw two funnel clouds and they looked like they were going to become tornados but they didn't. Then after a little bit we saw a F3 tornado hit a trailor and destroy it and throw the double car garage acrossed I29 and Hyw 75 (the tornado did not cross I29). After that night I couldn't get enough. I now chase with my best friend when we get the chance.

 

[skipper bennett]

After reading previous entries about Harold Taft I am compelled to make a short ( I hope ) entry.

I grew up in North Central Texas and also watched Harold Taft almost daily. During that time my memory of other tv station "weather people" seems to bring up some smiley person sticking these velcro symbol-thingies on weather maps that would glitter and flash in the studio lights - sunny weather, rain, storms etc. . Even as a kid I quickly began to draw a distinction between that fluff and the no nonsense, terse and teaching type forecasts and information that Harold Taft broadcast.

Like Steve, I remember the black and white radar shots that were shown during severe episodes. If you lived around here and storms were coming, Harold was the place you went to first for information...and we trusted him.

Funerals sometimes have a way of spotlighting the regard and honor people associate with a public person. Two funerals in North Central Texas stand out in my memory where men were eulogized on a live broadcast over local media and recognized for their profeciency but mostly for their character and what they held was true................Tom Landry and Harold Taft. Peace upon him.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Figure I'd mention just for a bit on how I got started. I started three years ago. I'm kind of big into photography, and was interested in trying to take lighting shots. The problem was back then I lived in the mountains west of Denver, and I rarely saw a storm much less where it was producing lighting reliably enough to capture it. So, I decided to go find a storm out on the plains. Basically my first time was a complete failure. However, as I gained knowledge I became better and better at finding storms. Although I have been able to take lighting shots I've never been really successful to the degree I like. The reason I chase today is because I like watching their power and seeing the severe weather events unfold. I'm still interested with the photography of the storms and trying new techniques at capturing their power.

 

[SteveCarter]

For me, growing up in NW Illinois, the storms could get pretty intense. I remember when I was around 8, we had a tornado close by, and all people talked about was the tornado for DAYS. It was exciting listening to their stories. By the time I was 12, I remember getting so excited over a mere t-storm WATCH, I called people out of the phonebook to tell them there was a watch!! Most people thanked me! lol I've always been into nature, animals, etc, but storm chasing has only become a reality in the past 5 years, as it REALLY takes the money and time. Storms are something that we have NO control over, and I find the unpredictability arousing and invigorating. Gosh, starting to sound like a prelude to some kind of flick I wouldn't let my kids watch! lol

 

[Jason McIntosh]

I first became interested in weather when I was about 7 years old. I was at a local Cub Scout outing in a park. Our scout leader learned of bad weather heading our way. The next thing I knew we were all evacuating the park. At that moment a kid in my group pointed to the sky and yelled "Tornado!" There it was; my first look at what I would be chasing the rest of my life. I still remember how quite everything was. The kids, adults, cars, birds, and the wind. Everyone just watched in awe as the tornado crossed the field in front of us. I guess it was a good mile away. I will always remember that day.

 

[Carla Bisby]

I've loved storms ever since I was a kid and would go outside to take pics of the sky and clouds. My dad was a weatherman in the Army so maybe it was inherited.

 

[Gaetan Cormier]

I've been doing amateur astronomy since 1985. First thing I learned in astronomy is to learn the type of clouds that announces bad or good weather, since clear skies are needed for astronomy.. Well anyway.. I always had a good interest in weather, but astronomy was my favorite pass time...

On the night of July 4th to 5th of 1999 a Derecho swept my area causing a microburst that gave damage to a whole bunch of buildings around where I lived, at first I even tought that a tornado passed in the neibourghood. Anyway, that event got me hooked on meteorology and in the summer of 2000 I began chasing the few storms we get here in around Montreal, Quebec. Since then, I barey touched my telescope since clear skies are not that frequent here... Meteorology is a better hobby for me.

So that's my story :wink:

 

[Angie Norris]

Charles, great thread!
I really don't know exactly where my interest in severe weather started. As a kid, I grew up in a rural area of east TN, so tornadoes weren't a part of our weather experience. When storms would come through during the day, my mom would frantically go through the house unplugging everything electrical. I would either be out in the yard or going from window to window trying to see what all the fuss was about. At night, she would make my dad drive us around until the storms were over. I was supposed to be asleep in the back seat...however...I'd usually be making comments about the lightning show. One storm in particular from my childhood years stands out. It was close to Christmas, and had been one of those evilly warm days when as a kid you know there's not a snowball's chance that you will get to throw snowballs for Christmas. That night, there must have been a big cold front passing because there was thunder, there was lightning, there was wind, there was hail, and it sounded like the house was going to come apart. That was probably the best storm I experienced as a kid. After that, I started reading everything I could find about the weather. Tornadoes were fascinating...pictures of the black spiralling clouds would keep me entertained for hours, and newspaper or television reports would bring everything to a halt.
As a nursing student, I was on the disaster team, and we were activated the night of the Superoutbreak. There was an F1 that took out a small trailer park north of Knoxville, killing a set of month old twins. Here I was, doing field triage in the damage path of a tornado, and almost hoping another one would come through so I could see it.
Many years later, we had an outbreak in the middle of February in middle and east TN. An F3 missed my subdivision by about 500 feet straight up and I was outside watching it. I didn't know there was a tornado out there...I just went outside because the "thunder" sounded funny. Three weeks later, the "Superstorm" dropped 2 feet of snow in my yard and I saw (heard?) thundersnow for the first time. Ok, I finally got the hint...and started seriously studying weather, particularly the severe variety, and like my son says, I've not been "right" since. (He says he can't decide whether I'm obsessed or possessed).
My first chase was a squall line on March 8, 1995 (yep, I'm pre-Twister), my first season in the Plains was 2001, first tornado on vid was November 10, 2002, and first Plains tornado was May 22, 2004 in Nebraska.
It took a while, but I'm finally where I was meant to be.
Angie

 

[Jay McCoy]

I could have sworn I posted in this thread a long time ago but guess not.

I got interested in wx at a very young age. I grew up around wx. my dad was a t.v. met for KFDA and then KAMR (both in Amarillo) for 30 years. I remember watching him prepare his big wx board with sticky symbols such as a sun or cloud and watching him draw his fronts with a big magic marker. We used to sit out on the porch when he wasnt working and watch the lightning.

My 1st chase was in 1985. I wasnt old enough to drive yet (15yr old) but my best friend was so I made him drive me. Didnt catch a tornado that day but saw some great storms.

The 1st tornado I caught chasing was on May 7th 1986 near Canadian, Texas. it was a beautiful dark stovepipe. I wish I had a video camera at the time but being 16 and camcorders being new and expensive I only got to watch it. I do believe Gene Moore caught some great shots of it. I will have to search and see if I can find a link to posts.

I have been chasing now for 20 years without missing a spring and still get excited when I am loading up for the day. On big events I cant even sleep the night before.Maybe thats why I still do it.

 

[Bobby Prentice]

One of the most common questions I am asked is "Why did you become a meteorologist and/or storm chaser?" I was born in Alva, Oklahoma but grew up in Norman, Oklahoma in the shadow of the "Golf Ball" (the original research Doppler radar at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). Norman lies within the heart of "Chase Alley" and my parents sent my sister and me to storm shelter many times. I have always been fascinated by storms.

The turning point was a June evening back in the late '70s. I was about 10 years old. My aunt and uncle were playing cards with my parents at our home in northwest Norman. A supercell thunderstorm formed in Kingfisher County and moved slowly south-southeast across the western side of Oklahoma City toward Norman.

I remember seeing the first tornado warnings on television and then going out to our backyard to watch the storm approach. The evening was breezy and the air was muggy with a sense of excitement in the air. Initially, the storm was too far away to see. However, as it approached an incredible spectacle unfolded.

I went to our back patio door to warn everybody about the impending storm. They gave me the normal "yea- yea, sure-sure," until I opened the curtains to reveal a storm which resembled the Mother Ship from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Their jaw dropped and that's when they began to pay attention.

From that point on I've been hooked. I never even knew there was such a thing as storm chasing until I watched the NOVA "Tornado!" episode on PBS while I was attending Norman High School in 1985. That program was responsible for the development of many new storm chasers. I wasn't even able to go storm chasing until I was a freshman at the The University of Oklahoma in Spring of 1987. Unfortunately, 1987 and 1988 were two of the worst years in history for storm chasers. I didn't chase much and I didn't see much. However, things got more interesting the next year.

In 1989, I worked at NSSL during the Initial Operations Testing and Evaluations phase of the WSR-88D Doppler Weather Radar. My job was as a radio communicator between NSSL nowcasters in Norman and storm chase crews out in the field. I didn't get to chase much, but my knowledge of storms grew exponentially through interaction with my co-workers. Project members included Don Burgess, Gene Rhoden, Roger Edwards, Rich Thompson, Dave Gold, Greg Stumpf, Brian Curran, Gary Skaggs, Bill Conway and Arthur Witt. It wasn't until 1990 that I experienced routine storm chase success.

Today I continue to study, chase and photograph storms. It is one thing to study weather in a textbook or on a computer. But, many meteorologists are simply lost when it comes to real atmosphere. They don't even know how to do something as basic as "read the sky." There is no substitute for the real thing.

I love virtually every aspect of storm chasing: Utilizing meteorology skills to make the forecast; the excitement and anticipation of the chase; the "Route 66" experience of the open highway; the ambiance of a big sky on the Great Plains; the history of the people on the Great Plains; meeting friends I only see once a year at an intersection in the middle of nowhere; the sport of trying to predict how the storms will evolve; and the awesome power, beauty, and ambiance of storms.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Originally posted by cedwards
Here is one that I always get. How did you get interested in chasing?

A tornado took my swing set in Knox City, Tx when I was three. When 13 I moved to the country in Tx where I could watch storms and began taking an interest in nature and would regularly take outtings to go watch inbound weather systems. Later on in life as an adult living in Colorado there was a Tornado warning issued for my county but the clouds only looked like gray. I was curious and had heard of a few people chasing storms years ago. I had also considered the idea of driving to storms years before to try and quench my thirst for storms which just couldn't be met by waiting to develop and pass over where lived. I decided to 'chase' after the warning based on information given in the warning to see what I could see. All I had was a paper map. I don't think I initially even had a NOAA radio. I had no clue of storm structure, or any knowledge of severe meteorology but I did love watching storms.

I didn't catch a tornado the first time out, I think I saw a funnel though. I believe I caught a tornado on my 3rd trip in the local area northeast of Colorado Springs, CO.