Bio

You're probably wondering why in the world would someone want to chase storms and tornadoes?  Growing up, I’ve always had an interest in meteorology, especially tornadoes and hurricanes.  I used to watch The Weather Channel almost every day enjoying all the weather shown on there and of course, the movie Twister, which is my favorite natural disaster movie.

 

Several years ago, I started researching storm chasing tours.  I was quite fascinated that something like that exists.  I stumbled across a company called Extreme Tornado Tours.  They sparked my interest the most upon doing some research.  After seeing their incredible photos, videos, and reading about them, I decided to contact them to get some information.  

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Fast forward to 2018, I went on my first storm chasing tour with Extreme Tornado Tours.  I’ll never forget on orientation night, reading what looked like a death waiver.  It was just a liability waiver.  I questioned myself why I was doing this, but it all went away when we got into the van and had our first dinner as a group.  Each day the tour went on, the weather got more intense.  On day 3, we saw an EF3 tornado in Tescott, Kansas.  On my first storm chasing trip, I saw what I’ve always wanted to see my whole life.  Thankfully, it only did minimal damage due to it being out in the middle of a field.  We did end up seeing many different cloud structures and supercell storms throughout the tour.  Toward the end of the trip, we got to visit the Twister Museum in Wakita, Oklahoma where they filmed a scene in the movie Twister. It was super exciting coming back home telling everyone about my adventure with most people saying how crazy I was for going, in a joking way of course.

 

I ended up going storm chasing with Extreme Tornado Tours again in 2020.  We only had one day of severe weather.  Even though the weather was nice, we did a lot of sightseeing in Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota.  We ended up going to Garden of the Gods, Deadwood, SD, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Devil’s Tower.  It was the best, most relaxing vacation I've ever been on.

 

In 2021, I went storm chasing for my third time.  I decided to try out another company, Silver Lining Tours.  I got to see my second tornado near Plainview, Texas.  The tornado was weak but looked incredible. We saw some amazing supercell structures during this trip and a huge display of Mammatus clouds, which are clouds associated with a supercell that looks like bubbles in the sky.

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Why do I continue to chase storms now?  Well, I enjoy the artwork displayed by our Creator in the skies and I enjoy the flat landscape of the Midwest.  After growing up in the Piedmont of Virginia, it's good to be able to see a different landscape.  Going on these tours allows me to meet other people from around the country and the world that share a similar interest.  I continue to keep in touch with friends that I’ve met on my first tour.

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As long as $$$ permits, I will continue doing this and post the best photos.  All my photos are unedited and there are no filters or effects applied to them so that the natural beauty of the skies is captured.