Many people ask me, “Where can I learn how to chase storms?” It’s a great question, but if you look online, you won’t find a clear, straightforward answer. Most aspiring storm chasers have to piece together information from various sources and learn through trial and error in the field. While that hands-on approach can be rewarding, it often leads to mistakes—missing tornadoes or even getting into dangerous situations.

To help you get started more effectively, I’ve put together a simple plan to become a skilled tornado chaser as quickly as possible. Here are the three key steps:

• Build your knowledge and skills
• Prepare for the chase
• Start chasing storms

Before we dig into the details, let’s talk about why learning by trial and error can hold you back—and even put you in danger. 

(Stay tuned for a big announcement at the end of this newsletter!)

The Pitfalls of Learning to Chase Storms by Trial and Error

I grew up in the Twister era of storm chasers, and I’ll be honest—it lit...

2024 Tornado Bonanza Continues

June 2024

Happy June!  I hope your May was as good as mine.

I just returned from a highly successful storm chase vacation. Amazingly, we tracked 9 tornadoes in just three days.  And most of those came from the amazing Windthorst, Texas tornadic storm on May 25th.  It had one of the best combinations of tornado and supercell structure that I've ever witnessed:

And, as amazing as that storm was, there were even more stunning storms before we arrived.  And arguably, the most violent of these was the wedge tornado that hit Greenfield, Iowa on May 21st.

GREENFIELD, IOWA EF4

This storm truly was one for the ages. In progress for nearly an hour, this intense tornado hit the small town of Greenfield near the end of its path.  The Doppler on Wheels, which were collecting data during the tornado, measured winds of at least 250 mph in the funnel:

Very prelim analysis of DOW data show
>250 mph peak winds, possibly high as 290, at 44 m (144 ft) above g

...

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog. Periodically, I will be posting about weather events I find interesting.  I'll also be adding chaser-relevant bits I learn from science articles.  Hope you enjoy!

Basic Meteorology for Storm Chasers

I recorded a new version of the beginner's meteorology presentation I gave at NSCS.  In it, I cover:

• Surface maps
• Upper air maps
• Skew-T Log-p charts
• Hodographs

You can find it on Youtube here.

And if you find it useful, please like and subscribe!  I'll be posting more content like this soon.

Storm Mergers

Also, I've been reading quite a bit of research on storm mergers and their relationship to tornadogenesis.  It turns out that mergers matter -- a lot.

Did you know that 50% of tornadoes form within a few minutes of a merger?  This is not an accident. It turns that mergers are important because they increase stretching. 

(Y'all remember the ice skater analogy, right?  Spin and stretch!)

Also, it turns out that a lot of merging cells...