Storms of the Great Plains: May 25th 2012 Gorham, KS Tornado

[Terrence Cook]

Walt VanRheen and myself have been working for several years to create a documentary television series that focuses on the accurate portrayal of storm chasing. We have been very fortunate to work with several chasers familiar to Stormtrack including Greg McLaughlin, Justin Teague, Casey Zandbergen, Kholby Martin, Jesse Risley, Derek Weston and many others who's passion and dedication has made this project become a reality. We have attempted several different formulas of editing to keep the viewers interest in a story which portrays the entire life cycle of an individual Supercell thunderstorm and for this reason we have been hesitant to post much of our work so far. However 2013 was the tipping point for us through media captured combined with live storm chaser narrative, the link below represents a chase from May 25, 2012 in Gorham, Kansas however you can expect several more from 2013 in the coming months as we lead up to the 2014 chase season.

One last note is that I have taken as many precautions to create a product that the storm chaser community can be proud of and reference as an authentic example of storm chasing while trying my best to keep it limited in it's technical sense for a more general viewing audience.

Watch video >

I invite all comments and criticism.

 

[Christophe Asselin]

Obviously, I can only support your work, as we have the same will to make an authentic chasing product while being appealing to a broad audience. In that way, I found this episode very well put together, very realistic and I liked the accuracy of the way the story is told. Your explanations in front of the camera are very interesting as well. It's just too bad we can't hear you very well sometimes, because of the music a bit too loud or the wind blowing into the microphone. But I know this is really hard to get a good sound with this constant annoying inflow, haha.
Anyway, this supercell was very nice, and what a pretty tornado! Can't wait to see what you did in 2013!

Good luck getting it on TV!

 

[Skip Talbot]

Love the work that you guys put into this, Terrence. The shots are beautiful and the chasing is presented in a very realistic, non-hyped fashion. I'm glad Caleb and I got to be a part of this episode. Maybe this year we'll actually be able to snag a tube from the air, but the aerial shots of structure and chasers worked really well in this episode even without the tornado I think.

 

[Terrence Cook]

Thanks for the feedback Christophe and Skip. As for the aerial usage it was a privilege to use it in the episode and really helps add interest to a long drawn-out day and made it very fun to edit as well. Certainly hope to have an opportunity to work with you more in the future as your mission is one of stunning proportions and its only a matter of time before you gentleman succeed!

We will be releasing the Rozel, KS chase as our next episode and hope to have it out around the time of ChaserCon...

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

Great job and look forward to the next episode.

 

[Timothy Finn]

I only saw the promo, but it looks incredible.

I too have wanted to do something similar, but from my position as newb chaser, and having to learn all this stuff along the way.

Tim

 

[Damon Lewis]

Very nice.
Looks like a series I would really enjoy watching.

Well done!

 

[Paul Knightley]

Really enjoyed that - much more like the experience that most of us have as chasers, I think. It brought back memories of our chase that day - very similar, actually...at sunset we were the only ones in the patch we were in looking at the tornado. It was calm, thunder growling, tornado forming, and no-one else about - amazing.

 

[joel ewing]

I think you guys have done a beautiful job with every aspect of this. It was a pleasure to watch. I believe the banter amongst the fellow chasers most closely mimics the way things often are out in the field. In order to be 100% accurate, I hope you can film an episode where some harsh words of disagreement are spoken between a couple of the guys....maybe even spilling over to some beans or potatoes being heatedly flung at each other later at a mom-and-pop diner.
The only criticism I have.....and really it's not a criticism but an observation, what is it in your product that will separate it from any of the other chaser shows that have preceeded it?

 

[Timothy Finn]

Finally got to see the entire episode.

I really enjoyed it, and think it was better than another storm chasing series by one that shant be named, but I bet you can guess of whom I may be speaking.

Tim

 

[Terrence Cook]

Really appreciate the feedback gentleman, this was a unique test in the sense that its kind of a boring day. While the material is pretty good the storms fired early and the day was quite drawn out. By T-time our GoPro batteries were dying and we were worn out, of course that wall cloud at the end brought us all back to life!

Joel, while I do agree about throwing beans at each other over a forecast breakfast or celebratory dinner it is one of our major goals to avoid the bickering and unnecessary drama that the Discovery channel series focused so heavily upon. It is the storm as the main character and our chasers acting only as narrators or hosts that separates us from any other production to previously air, although "Rendezvous in Tornado Alley" by Christophe Asselin is an impressive production that continues to impress me!

It is our hope to release the Rozel, KS episode around the beginning of March and I very much look forward to sharing it with you fine cloud enthusiasts!

 

[joel ewing]

Best of luck with your endeavor, and if all future episodes are as classy as this one was, I think you'll quickly gain a very healthy audience. This is the type of series we needed a few years ago...right out of the gate.

 

[damian butt photography]

I am very new to the chasing scene and only having done one trip to chase in the states so far but from my time spent there i really found this to be a really accurate account of how a chase really is. Really well put together and really enjoyed the storms as the main character and not all the other drama that you normally see on other programs. Well done to all involved

 

[Greg McLaughlin]

I showed the episode last night during a presentation I gave to a meteorology class at Tulsa Community College. The episode was well-received by the class. Terrence, I am really excited about the coming episodes. Having seen the unfinished version of Rozel while in Denver for Chasercon, I believe you guys will be very pleased at how this show is going to progress. I am also looking forward to seeing what you (Terrence) do with our El Reno chase. Derek has great footage of the beginning of this tornado and Terrence (as always) shot great b-roll of us as we witnessed the beginning of a historic and tragic event. Thank you all for your kind words.