*New Users. Meet and Greet Area*

[Matt Ashworth]

Hello all! My name is Matt (though most of my friends know me as zenith), I am a severe weather enthusiast and I live in Longmont, Colorado. I've traveled across several Great Plains states during the months of May, June, and July fairly frequently, though I've rarely been in weather strong enough to produce anything more than a torrential downpour. Longmont's not in the best position to experience extreme weather being a mere 5 miles from the Rocky Mountains but I'd love to go out and see some of these destructive storms firsthand. Hopefully I'll get my chance soon!

 

[John Olexa]

Welcome to the board Matt.

 

[fyrfyter]

My name is Aaron and I live in Cincinnati, OH. I am a spotter and not a chaser. I am fairly new to this forum. Mostly, I have read, (for several years) and only started posting recently. I am a Ham Radio operator, a Red Cross volunteer, a Firefighter-Paramedic, and a Skywarn NCO. With my broad scope, I have seen severe weather from before, during and after the storm. I think it provides a unique and interesting view. I like our Spring and Fall severe weather seasons here in the Ohio River Valley. I enjoy winter as well, watching and waiting for the big snowstorm to hit us.

 

[ps.tucker]

Hello everyone. My name is Paul. I'm newly registered after lurking for a while. I'm really exciting about finding this place. It's really great to have a resource like this to learn about storms, forecasting and chasing. I've been passionate about meteorology since I was a child. Tropical storms have been one of my main interests over the last few years; however, I have become interested in visiting Tornado alley to see some severe storms in 2014 and will be trying to learn all I can before I go. I've never had the privilege of living in an area with severe storms close to the scale experienced in the mid-west and south eastern US (I've spent most of my life in Eastern Canada and now Europe) so I have no choice but to come to the storms.
I'm at the point in my life where I will be making a career transition to pursue meteorology and I couldn't be happier with that decision. I look forward to reading, learning, and eventually discussing the weather with all of you.

 

[HoosierWeatherEnthusiast]

Hello everyone! My name is Josh and Im from Greensboro, Indiana. I quite literally found this place just yesterday by accident while doing some searching for the local impact of the '74 outbreak. I decided to sign up and here I am. haha. I am not a storm chaser (currently), but my interest in weather came about in 2002 when an f-2 tornado struck in my county. Since then I have had a slightly unhealthy relationship with weather. It tends to throw hail and tree limbs at me when I try to take a quick video or photo. Someday i hope to have the required things to go storm chasing, and I will not go until then for the simple fact that I do not want to put someone elses life in danger due to my inexperience. In closing, I am excited to be here and to learn what I can from all of you!

 

[rachelgkonkle]

Hello all. I realized I never properly introduced myself! My name is Rachel and I have been a weather enthusiast since April 27, 1984 when a tornado struck my hometown. I live in SE Wisconsin and have been a spotter associated with Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association since 2000, and lurking on various chase sites and forums since 1995. I went on my first storm chase with a tour group last year, and while I saw no tornadoes, I saw some beautiful weather and got some terrific in-field spotter training from the group's guides. My goal every year is to learn something new and improve my spotting skills!

 

[StephenHenry]

Been lurking here for the past year. Guess I should officially say hello. Like a bunch of people, I got my weather interest at an early age. In my case, it was seeing the 1987 Saragosa, TX aftermath at age 5 (our family lived close by). I still vividly remember walking up to a mangled blue pickup and thinking the inside would be full of cats that got blown in by the tornado. Natch. Living in Nashville, TN, I was long haunted by my decision to skip work downtown on April 16, 1998, missing a chance to see the large tornado that hit. It wasn't until a decade later that I finally saw my first tornado, when a weak spin up from tropical storm Fay hit Clemson, SC where I was in grad school. I e-chased for years and years (i.e. staring at GRLevel3), but now that I live in New Mexico I finally have reasonable access to the plains. April 13-14th, 2012 was my first official chase, and I'd never been more nervous. I love editing film, and I'm really passionate about incorporating motion time-lapse into chase videos. Can't wait for 2013 to finally get going for real.

 

[Rysh3362]

I am new to this forum as well. Facinated with weather since I was young. Turned 50 in 2012 and decided to go Storm Chasing. What a rush. I'm hooked. Hope to learn a bit more about chasing and storms within this forum.

 

[wpattie]

Hey everyone. My name is Will and am new to all this. I have always found my self going towards weather as people are trying to get out. Ever since I was a kid and all the other kids would run inside, I would be the one peeking around the house to get a better look. lol Anyways, I live just north of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. Being central Canada we see it all from droughts, to flooding, tornado's and of course... Snow! I have some shots of a blizzard that moved through this last winter. But it was night, so they aren't the best.

I have an interesting chase vehicle. Its a 1993 Subaru GT Limited imported from Japan. Its AWD, decent on gas considering its 320hp. I have added two 100watt driving lights with plans to add two more and a full push bar with skid pans. I have added a few extra cig plugs. I have a laptop mount, but it is for a left hand drive, so I have to modify it to fit a right hand drive.

I have a good ACER quad core 2.8ghz laptop with mobile wifi, but my Samsung S3 will do most of the work. If any one knows of good apps for weather tracking that is Canada friendly,please let me know!

I plan on using my S3 and GoPro 3 Black Edition this summer for videos and pictures, probably a point and shoot and see how it goes and maybe add something more next summer.

I am a automotive electronics specialist, so if anyone ever has questions about wiring up equipment, let me know and I can try my best to help you out.

 

[joebruyneel]

Dear Stormtrack Comm.,

Just wanted to at least get my first post. I have been self studying and educating since I have been very young. I am now 28. I consider myself an educated amateur. I have moved to Columbia, MO. in the past year and have had more resources to meteorology than ever before. If there is anyone near by that would like to discuss certain forecasting methods and such, I would love to talk to you! I am all about learning more and want to know more about the science and groundwork that comes with atmospheric studies. I have registered interest to Penn. State and possible Mizzou since it is just down the block. Hope I can meet some amazing people and learn from everyone!!

Joe Bruyneel

 

[Dave C]

Hi there. I'm Dave C. I'm in the Denver, Colorado area, and am an electronics engineer by day. Been chasing for a couple years, and I'm a skywarn spotter in my area. I've been reading threads here for a while. There is some amazing knowledge and talent on this board, and a fun community. I'm really looking forward to discussions with some of you, and learning what I can from each of you. Maybe I'll see some of you out there!

 

[Linda Y]

Hi folks, I've lurked around here a bit but now that I'm officially registered, just a quick hello and intro. I've always been interested in weather, including a fear and fascination for tornadoes. Never actually seen one, although a town where I lived when I was a kid was hit one night, I remember there was some damage at my school and around town but nothing too major. I also remember reading a book about the Xenia tornado many years ago, which made a big impression on me. Being a Texan I remember very well some of the biggies here like Wichita Falls 1979, Saragosa 1987, Jarrell 1997. I don't really have any aspirations to be a chaser, but definitely enjoy tornado documentaries, books, and information from all the knowledgeable folks posting here. I doubt if I'll be posting much myself, but thanks to all for this great forum!

 

[Keely Connolly]

Hey everyone! My name is Keely Connolly, and I am a student living in Wichita, KS. I have been fascinated by severe weather my whole life, and have been studying it for almost 6 years. I had working on my Atmospheric Science degree , which i really hope to complete in 3 years or so. I took time off from school due to a busy schedule with my modeling agency in New York, but I no longer modeling full time, the reason being that I am currently in recovery from a 7 year battle with Anorexia Nervosa (6 months of recovery and still going strong!), which was so severe that i had to be hospitalized in long term treatment centers 3 times over the course of 4 years. Due to the incredibly high expenses of treatment, i couldn't afford to return to a 4 year university, so I went back to school for Cosmetology which Is what I am currently studying. I still continue to chase though, and will have my Meteorology degree done as soon as possible.

I started storm chasing with Aaron Blaser, and when he moved to Texas, I joined up with Brett Hudson.
I am very fortunate to have Aaron as a mentor, he has taught me some incredibly valuable lessons in the field, and I have a lot of respect for him as a meteorlologist and as a friend.
I am always working on furthering my knowledge of severe weather, and am excited to learn from everyone here, i hope to continue chasing for a long time to come!

Sorry that was so long winded, but I guess it gives you guys a little background on this "New kid in school" , and I hope to make a lot of new friends and connections while learning as much as possible from the chasing community!

 

[NancyM]

Hi -

Like many here, I developed an interest in weather, and specifically tornadoes, as a result of too-close-for-comfort experiences while growing up in Kansas. Well, I guess one person's too-close-for-comfort situation is another person's exciting experience.

One of my earliest memories is the 1957 Ruskin Heights F5 tornado that hit the Kansas City area. I was five years old and we were about 10 miles north of the path of the tornado, but I heard a scary story or two and we had some light weight debris (underwear, kid's pj's) in our yard. It made a big impression.

It seems like we had a couple of tornado warnings a week during peak tornado season which always kept me on edge. In April 1966 there was an F3 in Johnson County, KS. I saw that one as we were going to a lower level in my school. It didn't do very much damage & disappeared about a mile away from my school. From the angle that we saw it, it looked white and is sometimes referred to as the White Tornado.

Six months later, we moved to St. Louis. In January 1967, an F4 passed about .5 mile from my house. My dad saw it out the front door in a flash of light. There was no warning. My next door neighbor walked down to see what had happened - we'd been hearing emergency vehicles coming in & out of the neighborhood, on & on. She came back hysterical. I don't know what she saw, but a little girl was killed down there.

I don't have any plans to storm chase, but I love watching local weather when there are storms & tornadoes in the area. I've read a bit here & there, spent too much time hunting for interesting tidbits on the internet, and hope to learn something of substance on this forum.

Yikes. Sorry this is so long.

 

[MrWatts]

Greetings all! My name is Mitch Watts, I'm 29 and I lived in Moore, OK and currently residing in Mustang, OK. I'm a photographer hobbyist and, I think it could go without saying, a severe weather enthusiast. I've always enjoyed the summer storms growing up in rural Oklahoma City but it wasn't until the May 3rd 1999 tornado that I actually got to see the beautiful monsters in person and I've been fascinated since. I had always talked about how I would like to chase; and one day last year I got a push from a friend, who was also interested in chasing, to attended a local storm spotter training class in Norman. Through talking to local connections I started getting accustomed to using the spc and weather.gov resources as well as twisterdata, reading blogs and eventually buying and watching the Storm Analysis 101.

May 19th I went out to Alva, OK to chase in my target area which took me on into SE Kansas/NE Oklahoma; I captured some beautiful shots, but never got a tornado. The following day on May 20th I was at work when my house was struck by the Newcastle/Moore tornado. I found it ironic that what I was chasing for hundreds of miles away just a day prior was not literally knocking on my door. My next chase day was on May 31st with some meteorologist acquaintances; which didn't go as planned, but could have been much worse.

I have a friend and co-worker who also chases with me on occasion. We work for a software company which develops public safety software for numerous agencies throughout the U.S. Our full-time jobs did keep us "arm-chair chasing" more than I would have like this year, but with it being my first year I still took every "active" day seriously studying maps of potential target locations and watching them and understanding radar. Next year I plan to have more time set aside for doing more active chasing and will also have more resources in our chase vehicle.

The experience of losing my house as actually fueled my desire to chase and learn more about the storms, forecasting and hopefully become a asset to the chasing community instead of a hindrance. Despite me not having a degree or attending college for meteorology and atmospheric science, it's still a passion that I want to see where it takes me. Everyday I try to make it a point to learn something new and interesting about storm structure, forecasting and photography. I'm always looking to expand upon knowledge and welcome any information or criticism.