I started storm chasing in 1956 from my home in Bismarck, North Dakota, as a 17 year old just out of high school.
My earliest tools were the teletype machine, wet-Faxed weather maps, the family car radio, and a Road Atlas. When the local TV weatherman said tomorrow might be stormy, if I wasn’t in school or working at a summer job, the next morning I was at the “Weather Bureau” on the second floor of the Bismarck Airport. I would be balancing a clipboard with a blank surface map (hand-drawn with reporting stations over a five state area) on a corner of that machine, copying each line as it rapidly typed --pressure, wind direction and speed, temperature and dew points. I had to work fast during the first 15 minutes to get as complete a map as possible before one of the staff walked over to tear it off and plot his own map. Then, I had to be patient, mentally counting the miles yet to drive to where storms were most likely, before I was again given that precious piece of paper --to complete the map and get on the road!
I believe that upper air weather maps were based largely on radiosonde balloons. They were certainly not very detailed, and were usually 2 hours old by the time the Fax machine scrolled them out. Then, being a wet production process, they had to be hung up on peg boards for 20 minutes to dry before being spread out on a large plotting table. Then one of the staff would sit down with his *crayons* and mark out the highs, lows and fronts for easy reference. Yes, high-tech crayons “back in the day,“ before satellites, cell phones, and laptops. All the maps were hand drawn in Washington. Yes, the only things automated were the Fax machine, teletype, and pencil sharpener.
I made careful notes at the end of each day as to where the storms were in relation to my early, rudimentary forecasts. Since upper level maps were so infrequent and on a very broad scale, the hourly surface data was all that I had which was timely and detailed. After many years, several boxes of discarded maps, and dozens of forecasting techniques, I finally began to identify morning patterns that suggested where afternoon storms might be found. It was entirely based on pattern recognition --not any formulaic or computational system. I still use it today, along with other data.
The radio was occasionally helpful but not a major player. My earliest surviving roadmap is a 1960 Rand McNally Road Atlas, “with complete list of Howard Johnsons Restaurants and Motor Lodges.” My first motion picture device was a spring-wound 8mm Kodak Reliant movie camera. I could actually film almost 5 minutes of storm action (after several re-winds), before having to add a new spool of film.
While I missed many tornadoes, things seem to balance out. The ones that I caught were great emotional highs, and I remember each one to this day. It was a real roller coaster ride, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. That it wasn’t easy set a high price on what was sought. Frequent misses led to a deeper appreciation for the beauty and history of the plains and the evening skies, the auroras, and the Milky Way. I now feel a part of all that --- tornadoes, Lewis and Clark, wagon trains, the Mormon Trail, Pony Express, Custer, tornadoes… A varied and rich experience after 58 years.
