HOW TO BECOME A STORM CHASER

How To Become A Storm Chaser

How can I become a storm chaser? That is one of the most frequent questions that we get asked while out on a Storm Chasing Tour, or just out chasing storms in general. And while there are literally thousands of Storm Chasers out on the roads during the storm chasing season at any given time, many if not most started storm chasing or tornado chasing much in the same way. Generally it starts with an intense interest in weather or tornadoes, or even maybe a close call or interaction with severe weather at some point in their lives. Much the the same way owner, Lanny Dean had when he was 7 years old. Some folks then turn that fear into fascination, and then the fascination grows into a deep interest. In turn, the interest turns into knowledge and wanting to learn as much about severe weather, tornadoes and storm chasing. Some go on to college to get a degree or some tun to their local spotter networks and become trained storm spotters through the National Weather Service.These folks however, are not storm chasers, they are Storm Spotters for their local areas via their local NWS offices.      


HOW DO YOU GET STARTED IN STORM CHASING?

I saw my first tornado when I was 7 while on vacation with my family. The fear as described above turned into fascination and it just started then. When I really started storm chasing there weren't many people chasing at that time. This was in 1990 and storm chasing had not gone to the mainstream yet. The movie Twister was not even a concept and it would be another 6 years before it would come out. I had done it as a hobby and anytime a storm would be within 25 miles I would go chase it! I then started going on chases much further away. Each chase I went on was different as each tornado was as well. And eventually I wanted to share what I was seeing and experiencing -  the feelings, the sights, and the sounds of storm chasing. I wanted to share it with the world because to me, there was no better feeling in the world than storm chasing. So I started Extreme Chase Tours in 1999 per time. As they say, the rest is history. 


HOW DO I BECOME A STORM CHASER?

Unfortunately there are no real ways of becoming a storm chaser. There are no schools that offer storm chasing as we know it, and there are no real instruction manuals per se. There are a number of books on the market that may teach you the basic book knowledge of storm structure or what severe weather and storms may look like. One such book is called The Storm Chasing Handbook written by meteorologist and veteran storm chaser, Tim Vasquez. It has a ton of information and graphic context in it and it would be a good place to start for the novice. The direct link to The Storm Chasers Handbook from Amazon can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Chasing-Handbook-Tim-Vasquez/dp/0970684037     


BUT AREN'T THERE SOME KINDS OFSTORM CHASING CLASSES AVAILABLE?

There is no course work you can go and take to become a storm chaser. Most of it is learned by going out and chasing. The local National Weather Service in your area will provide Storm Spotter training sessions usually in the early spring before tornado and severe weather season starts.  These training sessions are usually just a basic presentation of storm spotting and structure and are in no means a way of explaining or learning to chase tornadoes or storm chasing. While these are wonderful events to attend, especially for the novice, there is no storm chasing instructional manual or knowledge given. These events are meant for Storm Spotting.   


SO HOW CAN I START STORM CHASING OR BECOME A STORM CHASER?

We obviously recommend going with a storm chasing and tornado tour company. One that has many years of storm chasing tours experience and has veteran guides who are willing to educate and teach you about storm structure, how to read radar, verbiage and the science behind it all. Your best bet is to go with a smaller storm chasing tour company as they can spend more one on one time with you. This means they are more personal and will be willing to answer any questions you might have and to help guide you to severe weather and tornadoes - all while explaining what is happening so you can understand.  Depending on your interest and desire to learn, we recommend going with a tour company for at east two years. This time frame will allow you to learn and will give you a very good idea if storm chasing is right for you, and if it is, you may want to go to school for meteorology or atmospheric sciences.


ARE THERE JOBS AS A STORM CHASER? 
The short answer is no. There are no formal jobs as a storm chaser. You might be able to join a field campaign study if you decide to go to college for meteorology, or with many years of hard work chasing, you might be able to chase for a local media outlet but the pay is nominal at best.


SO MY BEST BET IS TO GO WITH A STORM CHASING TOUR COMPANY OR WITH SOMEONE WHO IS EXPERIENCED?

YES! Storm chasing can be dangerous or even deadly to those who are untrained. Period. Never go chasing on your own, start with a tour company as outlined above and then transition from there if you would like. Don’t go chasing unless you have knowledge of storm structure and interaction. Currently there are about 12 legitimate storm chasing tours and tornado tours vacation companies in the industry right now. So choose wisely and make sure you do your homework about the tour company you decide to go with. How many years have they been chasing or how long have they been in business? What is their safety record? Do they take precautions to keep you safe at all times? Have hey seen tornadoes? Do they have REAL tornado pictures and videos on their website? Are they reputable? Insured? These are just a few questions to start with to help you get on your way to becoming a Storm Chaser.  

2017 Storm Chasing Tours

Storm Chasing Tour guests from this season, Lori, taking a "Tornado selfie" during the beginning stages of the  Bennington, KS/ Chapman, KS EF-4 Tornado. This tornado was on the ground for over 90 minutes and our chase tour chased it most of it's life cycle. If you are interested in possibly taking a "Tornado selfie" like this during our 2017 Storm Chasing Tours, head on over to our website and check our 2017 tour dates out. Oh and as far as the weather -  it's HOT.   

www.extremechasetours.com

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EXTREME CHASE TOURS SCHEDULE 2013

Well after much media interviews from live reports with Fox Business to many, many print, neswpapers and radio interviews, we had a strong interest to get our 2013 storm chasing tour schedule up and on the website. So, as of last night, I have posted the schedule and we already have had many people booking their seats! You can fnd the schedule onling at the link below:

https://www.extremechasetours.com/Schedule.html

I also plan on posting some video from some of the tours as a promotional trailer before we really get into the production work......very exciting times for ECT!

All of us at ECT would like to thank all of our guests for a great 2012 season and thank all of those who will be returning for the 2013 season! Right now we have only a few more tours and it looks like we will be playing north to see any real action to due this death ridge we will be under.

By the way, if you have ever been interested in going on a real storm chasing tour that is the most personal tour period, now is the time to book before all seats are filled up.

You can find more out on our website at:

www.extremechasetours.com

Extreme Chase Tours 2012

There has been much talk about all the "new" storm chasing tour companies popping up this year so we wanted to blog about this subject with the hopes that we will be able to enlighten a few of our readers. With the 2012 storm chasing tours season just right around the corner, have you ever had a thought about going on a storm chasing vacation? This is the perfect time to pick your summer vacation....why not go on a storm chasing adventure tour? With the growing number of

"storm chasing tour companies" out there, I know it can seem very hard to decide which one's are real storm tour operators and which company is right for you. This can sometimes hamper your decision to go at all! No freat folks.....we are the real deal and provide 6, 10 and 15 day tours as well as custom type tours for those that are interested in going on the adventure of a lifetime!

We let our success rate record of over 400 REAL tornadoes speak for itself as well as our experience. Our staff has over 100 years total experience in severe weather and we have THE BEST SEVERE WEATHER EXPERTS, meteorologists and guides. You will not find photo shopped tornado pictures on our website, you will not find false claims by anyone with Extreme Chase Tours, you will not find a company that has just started, we will not allow you to become a number and not a name with us, you will not be thrown into a 15 seat passager van that is packed full and kept dehydrated!

What you will find with us is that we are the most personal tour company on the market. And no matter what other tour companies claim - WE (Extreme Chase Tours) have the highest success rate of ANY storm chasing tour company. You will get real one on one interaction with our guides, drivers and owners as well as an opportunity to truly learn about the weather. We we the first tour company to offer Severe Weather Photography Tours, which are ideal if you are needing or wanting to add to you portfolio! Our lead guide, Chad Berryhill is a professional photographer himself and has seen over 25 tornadoes! Owner, Lanny Dean, is an award winning photographer who has also been nominated for an Emmy for his weather reporting and photography. Lanny has been offering tours part time since 1999 and finally went full time in 2008, taking thousands of people from across the world to see severe weather and tornadoes. He has personally seen/filmed 297 tornadoes and 11 major hurricanes to date. Jeff Smith has seen/filmed 38 tornadoes and Eric Duncan has seen/filmed over 70 tornadoes to date.

Watch the story that KAKE TV in Wichita, KS did on us in in 2010 below:

We are real, we have the experience,we have the knowledge and you simply not find another tour company that will spend more one on one quality time with you than we do!

Come see why we were voted Storm Chasers Of The Year in 2005 and 2007 and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime! To find out more or to book your tour please follow the link below or you can call us directly. All contact information is listed on our website:

www.extremechasetours.com

We look forward to helping you to live your dream!

Our Friend Andy...

It is with a very heavy heart that I post this blog....As many already know, my friend and a true friend to so many, Mr. Andy Gabrielson of FindTheTornado.com has passed away. He was killed Friday in a car accident just south of me on I-44 near Sapupla, OK.

I am at a true loss for words....right now we are praying for his family, daughter and his friends.

Mike Scantlin, Dick M. Kory Hartman, Reed Timmer and crew, and so mnay others....he brought the chasing community together like no other....you all are in my thoughts.

Andy, I will miss our talks buddy. I will miss those late night phone calls but most of all I will miss your laughter....."Wedges bra, wedges"

Been A While....

Looks like it has been a bit since my last blog and with much happening I figured what the heck....I can't sleep so I might as well post on the blog. So currently the reason I cannot sleep is because I broke my leg in 3 places and chipped it as well. This accident happened about almost a week and a half ago, and was caused by nothing more than a trip on some cables but it has certainly caused some major pain! You can see exactly where all three breaks are at in the X-Ray below, and of course, the resulting full cast. Not Fun times at all.




I am just thankful that it did not happen in the middle of May during chase season! Hopefully it heals very soon and the pain stops so I can get back in the tree stand doing some hunting. Looks like bow season will be a short one for me due to the injury.

Nothing to really report on the weather as of yet.....although it does look like the November 5-7Th time frame we could see some severe, that is if the models are to believed this far out. I am always very skeptical when using certain models this time of the year. Experience has taught me that some models do not do well during this time of year VS other models, especially with moisture return. So for now I will only mention the possibility of some weather during that time frame. Per the GFS 00z for oz Sunday (graphic below) it is painting a pretty decent area of low pressure and some decent moisture return through the central and southern plains. Not real sure I am good with this as I just do not think we will see those kind of dew point returns. But anything is likely and it is a 7 days out....something to keep an eye on for sure though.







With a broken leg I have not had a chance to really do anything except take some pics here and there....nothing real fancy or great but decent fall colors starting here in Oklahoma as can be seen below:





I plan on posting more pics as I get time and hopefully better pictures as well.

Chase Tour hit by tornado, South Dakota mess up, Josh Wurman, Sean Casey's ignorant ways and more!

Looks like I have not updated my blog in some time......no real excuses except that I have been very busy with the tours and trying to put family time in between chasing/tours. We have had one heck of a year already with filming somwhere around 20 tornadoes thus far and the tours have been good. Finally got a chance to meet Mr. Jason Boggs back on the 22 of April during the Allanreed TX event and what a great time we had! Thanks to him for shooting some of those great pics!
It has been a crazy season for some, most particularly those who almost got eaten by the tornadoes in south Dakota. Many of those chasers I know personally and would consider them friends, others I would not. But friends or not, I understand how they made the mistake because I have done the very same thing. Much respect should go out to those that were honest about the situation and what exactly happened. It no doubt would have been much easier to tell a different story.
Now on to other issues......

A chase tour took a direct hit from a tornado back on the 10th of May with some of their guests getting cut up and injured. Not much to say about it that I have not already said on Storm Track. feel free to look that thread up for more of my thoughts on the matter.

Josh Wurman, you remind me of that spoiled little kid who when they do not get their way, cry and piss and moan until they do. You complain about other chasers who chase for money or glory and not science but yet it was you who ran with Discovery the 3 years prior to the start of V2. I am more than aware of the contracts you held with Discovery and it would be a safe statement to say that you gained greatly financially off of those shows. In the past I held your opinion very highly but as of late you seem to do nothing more for me than make me want to bend you over and spank you as if you were a little child. Get over yourself already and grow up.

Sean Casey, your just ignorant. It is really simple actually....great video of you passing cars in a no passing zone, up hills with no way to tell if someone is coming or not and I really don't care if your "front" vehicle is in constant contact with you or not. One day you are going to get someone killed or yourself killed....I think old Uncle Chuck has a nice catch phrase for this.....Darwinism

Now thats off my chest....I fianlly got a chance to put some video together of the Hennessey tornado (see below) This was a very cool event for us becuase we were able to help one of our guests see his first tornado and becuase we didn't get caught up in any of the chaser convergence and stupid actions like I have mentioned above. Thanks to Mr. Chad Berryhill and Jill Gilardi for an amzing trip and running the tour...you guys did a heck of a job!
Looks like I have to make a trip to Boston early next week and I plan on taking the D90 and see what kind of pictures I can get. Should I get some nice ones I will try to post them here when I get back.

hmmmm.... Storm Chasers????

Decided to sit down and actually watch Storm Chasers last night and I thought a few comments and thoughts were in order.
Very interesting to see some of the storms and structure from April not to mention some great video. Was great to see more of Tony L. interacting and in front of the camera. I met Tony for the first time in 2006 in Denver and then again last year at the "Steve Miller OK party". I have certainly seen him many times on the road chasing and in my opinion what you see is what you get. He is a top notch guy with a passion for chasing.
I really enjoyed seeing him doing his thing in the heat of the battle and playing the game. Tim also did a great job, as always, and is someone who I respect very much.
I also thought that Brandon Ivy and Matt H. did a wonderful forecasting job despite not being able to check a battery before a chase. lol

Of course, a show is done by editing and can go many different ways depending on how you edit the video. One way for a docu-drama/reality type show such as Storm Chasers to go is to create "issues" between certain characters. Theses "issues" are usually done to keep the audience on the edge of their seat in hopes that they will not change the channel.
Some of the "issues" that a network/production company can and will use can be anything from "he said, she said" to actual verbal abuse from one character towards another.

No doubt Discovery used these "issues" with the situation between Sean and Reed regarding the TIV and the "Big Red Shoe"
Admittedly, and as I have said before and took much heat for, there is no doubt that one resembles the other. I think it would be safe to say that one is a direct copy of the other, at least in the reason for building it, which in some circles would/could be considered stealing.
Am I suggesting that Reed Timmer stole the idea to build "The Big Red Shoe" directly from Sean Casey??? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...........

The answer is hell yes he did. Much the same as stealing the idea of a probe coming from Tim S not to mention the RC plane idea being stolen from Verne Carlson.

There is no question that the word stealing brings thoughts of a really bad person to mind, this however is not one of those times, and the reason why or difference you ask? Well, before you come to tar and feather me or bring Doswells Spanish inquisition to hunt me down let me explain.........It is a fact of life that the wheel was invented once...everybody else just "refined" it. A simple fact when looking at Goodyear....they made it better.
In my opinion Reed took an idea that Sean had, worked angle and simply made it better.
There is certainly nothing wrong with taking an idea and making it better and then capitalizing on that idea financially or otherwise. It is actually how most business work and how most "new" products are built.
It is not a bad thing per say and although at times it may seem somewhat unethical, it's just the way the world works.

On a different note, it was interesting to see some "issues" between Joel and Reed start to show.
Again, it is hard to tell how much was acting for the camera and how much is real and unfortunately the viewers may never really know, especially if they are not involved in or with the chase community.

All in all not a bad couple of shows IMO.

!Chaser Get Together!

BIG CHASER GET TOGEHTER IN CATOOSA OK, SAT. JAN.31!!!!
Everybody is welcome from chasers to spotters.
All chasers are invited! The meeting will be in the Catoosa Community Center. Catoosa is a suburb just northeast of Tulsa, along Highway 66. The address is 105 E Oak, Catoosa OK. Info on the Community Center can be found here. I have been asked to give a presentation called "Greensburg Tragedy, How do Chasers Prepare?" and will talk about the psychological aspects of being first on scene of a disaster, and also will speak about night chasing/spotting and the inherent dangers. Channel 2 Storm Chasers Jeff Smith will introduce Mission of Compassion, a ministry that goes into an affected area after a natural disaster and delivers relief supplies, water, food, and a little love. We will have a projector complete with a sound system, so please bring your chaser video to share! If anyone has a topic that they would like to talk about, please PM me. (I hear rumors of a chaser car show)...We will order pizza in the afternoon. Everyone will just pitch in on the pizza costs. I estimate no more than $10.00 per person should buy food. The cost of the Community Center has been provided graciously by the Catoosa Emergency Management.This meeting will be informative for all and also FUN!! We all need a little SDS relief about this time of year, so everyone c'mon out & have a little fun.

Would love to see everyone out there!!!!!!!!

Obama, Storm Chasers and chasing storms midweek

The election is just about in its 11 hour and as I have said before it is really the lessor of two evils.
Steve Miller has a very interesting post on his blog with a few points about Obama which I really liked so I thought I would include them here. Please keep in mind, I am a democrate, not a republican but I will not vote for Obama and if you were smart you would not either and her are a few reasons why:

If you have no aspirations to ever be anything more than what you are right now, vote for Obama.
If you think slow-ass government should be in charge of keeping you healthy, vote Obama
If you don't think you will ever own a small business and like being the "worker bee", vote Obama
If you have gone to school for years and years to be where you are today and don't mind that extra $7500 (if you make 250K+) being taken out of your check and redistributed to those who refuse to work for their living, vote Obama
Want your Social Security tax increased or extended? Vote Obama
If you want to leave Iraq high and dry after rocking their world as they knew it, vote Obama (think New Orleans, post Katrina - Gov't assistance will just up and leave)
Someone breaks into your home and threatens your family and you shoot them - you go to jail under Obama's plan. There is no self defense allowed, vote ObamaLast: Do you really think someone who has never authored a Bill in Senate qualifies to be the leader of the free world?

On to other things, The third episode of Storm Chasers aired last night and to my surprise, I was pretty pleased with the show. Of course there was still the stupid love/hate thing between Josh and Sawn which I just do not understand why they feel the need to try to push the drama....seems to me that we been there and done that way too many times. For the most part though, it was a pretty good show.....I actually loved how Reed and company seem to take the lead from Josh.
I personally respect Josh and all his work but I think he is a pompass jerk who is full of himself, so for me, it was nice to see a possible change in leadership!?!???

Cant wait till next sunday to see what happens next.

Looks like we could have a shot at some severe weather the middle of this week, posted below is the 60 hour 850mb run as well as tempature and dew point and EHI run that I pulled off of Reeds site http://www.twisterdata.com/ Looks like there could be a chance at a few supercells and then a strong squall line should sweep across the area. Will be keeping an eye on this system and will post more as it comes closer

DISCOVERY STORM CHASERS

Well the first episode was shown tonight and my thoughts are the same as they were last year.....this show SUCKS! Let me make it very clear right now, there are a few that I really like on the show...Reed Timmer and company did a wonderful job as expected, infact, Reed WAS THE SHOW!
After being lucky enough to be in Tornado Hunters, I know what it is like trying to deal with ill informed and sometimes very stupid producers. Both Randy and I were put into situations when we did the show, but we held onto our guns as far as how the show should go and how the truth should be told, not only about the video but our story as well.
This was certainly not the case with this years Storm Chasers or even the last few years.
The first episode itself basically had the same "flavor" as in years past with all the same stupid ideas all over again, "non truthful" video (out of order), bad story line and what was/is Sean Casey thinking? I will refrain from telling the story from near Glenn Elder this year Sean!
As far as I am concerned, the best thing Discovery did for this "show" was bring in a real chaser and Reed and company were the highlight of the night for sure.