Ryan Shepard: The Thrills, Science And Dangers Of Tornado Chasing

Forbes

2 days ago

Getting uncomfortably close to a tornadic supercell, Colorado, May 2025.
As I've written before, storm chasing is all the rage. Like the long lines on Mt. Everest now, hundreds of amateurs have saturated the community, what with advanced weather apps available on cellphones. Many of these amateurs haven't a clue as to what they're doing. They get in the way of serious chasers who do it for science to better understand how tornadoes form and act, and therefore are able to alert the public earlier to save lives.
Ryan Shepard, 39 and founder of Storm Of Passion, is one such chaser. Along with his tank-like Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV-2), one of only two in the world, and his extensive knowledge of meteorology, he is able to drive into the funnels of twisters and take critical measurements. Following are edited excerpts from a recent conversation.
Jim Clash: Why is it so important to penetrate a tornado?
Ryan Shepard: The weather models are getting better, but radar can't see what's happening with winds at the surface. Going into, or getting as close to a tornado as possible to take measurements, helps us understand this critical surface component to improve models and get better warnings out to the public. We can do that in the TIV.
Clash: Have the recent budget cuts to NOAA, NSF and other weather services impacted your ability to predict storms?
Shepard: They have. Tornado warnings have been delayed or even missed. People in that area cite short staffing as part of the problem. The other thing that will play out longer-term is replacement and refurbishment of radar equipment, weather balloons and the like.
Storm Of Passion founder Ryan Shepard in his TIV-2, May 2025.
Clash: I'm guessing research has been impacted, too?
Shepard: Yes, funding has been cut hugely for new research grants. I see less equipment out there and more amateur storm chasers. When I started doing this 18 years ago, Vortex 2 had a $9-million NSF grant supporting 90 vehicles. Now there are maybe three or four. Now ninety may be a bit much, but only four? There is probably some happy medium in-between we could live with. With our TIV research, though, we can hopefully fill in some of that gap.
Clash: The TIV has bulletproof windows and armor plating, plus the ability to lower its chassis and deploy anchor legs into the ground.
Shepard: Yeah, that's to keep the wind from lifting the vehicle and to protect from debris moving in excess of 200 mph. Even small debris at that speed is like a bullet. Then there's hail, which can be bigger than a softball and stops conventional chasers from getting close. We need that protection to collect our wind data so close to the funnel, or even within it.
Clash: Ever had any close calls in your multiple years of chasing?
Shepard: It was the end of May 2019 in eastern Kansas. I was guiding for a commercial touring company, and was not in the TIV. We had four passenger vans driving close to a particularly significant supercell. We were heading south to get in front of it again.
Storm Of Passion's TIV-2 tornado intercept vehicle, May 2025.
It was extremely full of rain, rain-wrapped actually, and that made it impossible to see into it. A second tornado was hiding in that rain downdraft, rated EF-2, not too strong but didn't appear on radar until it was over top of us. The tornado knocked two of our vans off of the road. One rolled three or four times in a field, the other flipped upside-down in a ditch. Thankfully, we only had minor injuries, except one person who suffered a broken vertebrae and had to be airlifted to Kansas City for surgery.
We had never seen anything like that before. It scared me even though I was in one of the two vans that stayed upright. I was worried for the others in the tipped vans. Had we been in the TIV, it would have been fine.
Clash: What's the difference between adventure and exploration?
Shepard: Exploration is discovering something, gathering new data. With adventure, you're just trying to get an experience, walk in someone else's footsteps, like on Mt. Everest today.