Storm chasing

Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage.

While witnessing a tornado is the single biggest objective for most chasers, many chase thunderstorms and delight in viewing cumulonimbus and related cloud structures, watching a barrage of hail and lightning, and seeing what skyscapes unfold.

[4] These can include the beauty of the views afforded by the sky and land, the mystery of not knowing precisely what will unfold, the journey to an undetermined destination on the open road, intangible experiences such as feeling one with a much larger and more powerful natural world,[5] the challenge of correctly forecasting and intercepting storms with optimal vantage points,[6] and pure thrill seeking.

In 1972, the University of Oklahoma (OU) in cooperation with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) began the Tornado Intercept Project, with the first outing taking place on 19 April of that year.

Storm chasing then reached popular culture in three major spurts: in 1978 with the broadcast of an episode of the television program In Search of...; in 1985 with a documentary on the PBS series Nova; and in May 1996 with the theatrical release of Twister, a Hollywood blockbuster which provided an action-packed but heavily fictionalized glimpse of the hobby.

Downtime can consist of sitting under sun-baked skies for hours, playing pickup sports, evaluating data, or visiting landmarks while awaiting convective initiation.

Only a handful of chasers decide to chase in Dixie Alley, an area of the Southern United States in which trees and road networks heavily obscure the storms and often large tornadoes.

Most chasing is accomplished by driving a motor vehicle of any make or model, whether it be a sedan, van, pickup truck, or SUV, however, a few individuals occasionally fly planes and television stations in some markets use helicopters.

Not only are the most intense supercells common here, but due to the moisture profile of the atmosphere the storms tend to be more visible than locations farther east where there are also frequent severe thunderstorms.

[3] Advancing technology since the mid-2000s led to chasers more commonly targeting less amenable areas (i.e. hilly or forested) that were previously eschewed when continuous wide visibility was critical.

A handful of individuals are also known to be chasing in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Argentina, South Africa, Bangladesh, and New Zealand; although many people trek to the Great Plains of North America from these and other countries around the world (especially from the UK).

Adding still more to this hazard are the multiple distractions which can compete for a chaser's attention, such as driving, communicating with chase partners and others with a phone and/or radio, navigating, watching the sky, checking weather data, and shooting photos or video.

[32] A wrong-way driver resulted in a head-on collision that killed Andy Gabrielson who was on the Turner Turnpike (I-44) near Sapulpa, Oklahoma, returning to Luverne, Minnesota, from a chase in 2012.

[33][34][35] On 31 May 2013, an extreme event led to the first known chaser deaths inflicted directly by weather when the widest tornado ever recorded struck near El Reno, Oklahoma.

Engineer Tim Samaras, his photographer son Paul, and meteorologist Carl Young were killed on a rural road by the tornado while doing in situ probe and infrasonic field research.

In an exceptional combination of events, the already large and rain-obscured yet partially translucent tornado swiftly swelled to 2.6 mi (4.2 km) wide as it simultaneously changed direction and accelerated.

[38] While chasing severe storms, a vehicle driven by Randall Yarnall for Kelley Williamson, who were contracting for The Weather Channel (TWC) as stars of their own show, Storm Wranglers, ran a stop sign while northbound on Farm to Market Road 1081 and struck a vehicle driven by Corbin Lee Jaeger going west on Farm to Market Road 2794 in West Texas in 2017.

In April three OU meteorology students, Drake Brooks, Nicholas Nair, and Gavin Short, died after hydroplaning on I-35 in Oklahoma while returning from a chase[43] and in May, Martha Llanos Rodriguez, a storm chasing meteorologist from Mexico City was killed and three meteorologist colleagues were injured (two Chileans sustained non-life-threatening injuries and the other, Bradford Barrett, an American stationed in Chile, sustained life-threatening injuries) when they stopped for downed power lines on I-90 in southwestern Minnesota and their vehicle was hit by a semi-trailer truck.

With the swift development of solid state technology, television sets for example could be installed with ease in most vehicles allowing storm chasers to actively view local TV stations.

The preferred atlases due to great detail in rural areas are the "Roads of..." series originally by Shearer Publishing, which first included Texas but expanded to other states such as Oklahoma and Colorado.

2001 marked the next great technological leap for storm chasers as the first Wi-Fi units began to emerge offering wireless broadband service in many cases for free.

Unlike preexisting cellular based services there was no risk of dead spots, and that meant that even in the most remote areas storm chasers still had a live data feed.

It is not uncommon that chasers travel in small groups of cars, and they may use CB radio (declining in use) or inexpensive GMRS / FRS hand-held transceivers for inter-vehicle communication.

More commonly, many chasers are also ham radio operators and use the 2 meters VHF and, less often, 70 cm UHF bands to communicate between vehicles or with Skywarn / Canwarn spotter networks.

Social networking services largely (but not completely) replace forums and email lists, which complemented and eventually supplanted Stormtrack magazine, for conversing about and sharing images of storms.

This live imagery is frequently used by the media, as well as NWS meteorologists, emergency managers, and the general public for direct ground truth information, and it promotes video sales opportunities for chasers.

Late in the 2000s HD video began to overtake SD (which had been NTSC in North America) in usage as prices came down and performance increased (initially there were low-light and sporadic aliasing problems due to chip and sensor limitations).

Usage of DSLR for video capture, called HDSLR, is common, although HD camcorders remain popular due to their greater functionality (many chasers still shoot both).

[63] Edwards and Rich Thompson, among others, also expressed concern about pernicious effects of media profiteering[64] with Matt Crowther, among others, agreeing in principle but viewing sales as not inherently corrupting.

[70] The El Reno Tornado Environment Display (TED) was created to show a synchronized view of the submitted video footage overlaying radar images of the storm with various chasers' positions.