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Forbes
18-05-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
The Highs And Lows, The Booms And Busts, Of Storm Chasing
Rare anticyclonic cone tornado near Silverton, Texas, April 24, 2025. With all of the sophisticated cellphone weather apps available these days, storm chasing has become all the rage. Hundreds of hopefuls now hunt Tornado Alley in search of twisters during the peak season, from April through June. The tornadoes come in all sizes and shapes - and of different intensities, from EF-0 being the weakest, to deadly EF-5s. That said, it is more often than not that a tornado is not spotted, a fact storm chasers learn early on. Some get lucky, of course, encountering one in their first few chases. Others don't see anything during their first dozen chases. Mother Nature is unpredictable, fickle, random at best. My own experiences have been mixed. The first time I tried was in 2023 with Raychel Sanner of Tornado Titans. During our three days of chasing in four separate states we saw a number of stunning supercells, the monolithic structures that produce funnels, but no actual tornadoes. Last month, I retuned to try and seal the deal, and was lucky enough to encounter a weak rain-wrapped affair near Joplin, Missouri, with chaser Jeff Anderson, then three amazing photogenic twisters in west Texas with chaser Tom Bovasso. Mission accomplished. Well, sort of. Road construction delayed a Tornado Titans storm chase just outside of Dallas/Fort Worth, May 16, 2025. A colleague of mine, photojournalist Mike Killian, had been in contact with the Storm Of Passion chasing group. They are unique in that they own a Tornado Interceptor Vehicle, the TIV-2, capable of not only finding tornadoes, but getting incredibly close, in some cases actually penetrating the dangerous vortices. There are only two of these tank-like vehicles in existence. The other, called Dominator, is owned by the famous chaser Reed Timmer. Killian was nice enough to introduce me to Ryan Shepard, TIV-2 owner, via a recent conference call to hatch a plan where we would all meet up and chase tornadoes with the objective of potentially getting inside of one. Killian and I have worked on a number of extreme aviation stories together, so he knows my work and I know his. So back to tornado alley I travelled this past week. While waiting in Dallas, I had some free time, so I contacted Sanner who was in town for a documentary about her company being filmed by a crew from Ireland. She had an extra seat in her chase car, and allowed me to tag along on one of her documentary chase days. We met at 10:30 a.m. to set off for the day. The outskirts of DFW looked promising, so we stayed local. Right off, we encountered challenges. The freeways in and around DFW were chock full of unexpected traffic. Once we finally got out of the giant metroplex, more delays ensued, due to road construction. To circumvent the highway traffic, we trued the back roads. That was challenging, too, as they were pothole-strewn, narrow, and, as you might have already guessed, also riddled with construction. Our target supercell was projected to start to fire between 4 and 5 p.m. and we barely made it out to it. Sanner constantly studied her weather models to keep repositioning us in front of the supercell and away from the golf ball-sized hail already falling. Indeed, there were a few times under the wall cloud when enough rotation could have produced a tornado, but it was stubborn. Finally, we encountered so many road delays that the supercell got out ahead of us, and we called it a day. Passion of Storm chaser vehicle TIV-2 out in the field. Sanner, even though she has seen more than 300 tornadoes in her chasing career, was disappointed, mostly because the Irish filmmakers would return to their country without having seen a tornado themselves. They'll use tornado footage Sanner already has in their documentary, but still. My plan now is to meet up with Killian and the TIV-2 folks early this coming week, then head to where the most severe tornadic weather is expected. Hopefully, we will get close to, and perhaps inside of, a funnel on the ground. If we pull it off, what a story it will make. Fingers crossed.
Forbes
27-04-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
A Day Tornado Chasers Will Never Forget - And Neither Will I!
Photogenic anticyclonic cone tornado near Silverton, Texas, April 24, 2025. Tim Bovasso It's one thing to see a photo of a tornado, yet another to encounter one up close. I grew up in the northeastern part of the U.S. It's rare for twisters to touch down there. The big worry for northerners is hurricanes, the remnants of which often travel up the coast from the south. These remnants can, and do, do damage, even as far up as New York, and I can only imagine what folks in Florida must deal with on a regular basis. Perhaps it's that absence of tornadoes that first fueled my interest in them. I'm also an extreme nature buff, having traveled to Nazare, Portugal, to experience 60-foot waves on a jet ski, helicoptered over the active Hawaiian volcano Kilauea to see molten lava, cross-country skied to the geographic South Pole, and more. So when I discovered that organized storm groups in the southern and midwestern states chase tornadoes, I was intrigued. In 2023, I joined Raychel Sanner of Tornado Titans for a tour. Over three days in mid-June, we hunted for the elusive beasts in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado. While we saw a number of stunning motherships and super cells, the structures that produce twisters, we never saw the real thing. At the time, I made a mental note to return to try and seal the deal. Last week, I flew to Dallas, Texas, to join up with Tim Bovasso and Jeff Anderson, veteran storm chasers, to give it another go. First, Anderson took me up near Joplin, Missouri, on a promising day, and we managed to see two rain-wrapped tornadoes, the second of which was fairly weak but trapped us in it (yikes). Both were interesting experiences (story below), but still nothing photogenic had presented itself. Rain-wrapped storms tend to hide their funnels. My main goal, of course, was to see and photograph a classic tornado, one you might see in the popular 'Twister' movies. The forecast for the following few days looked decent again, but this time for West Texas. So early on the morning of April 24, we made our way from Dallas to Silverton. During the six-hour drive, I had a chance to chat with Bovasso. I learned a lot, most of which I will put in a separate interview story. But what stood out most is Bovasso's cautioning on how rare it is to see a tornado period, especially a photogenic one, so not to get my hopes up too high. A large stovepipe tornado under a massive super cell near Matador, Texas, April 24, 2025. Tim Bovasso We positioned ourselves near a developing wall cloud at the bottom of a super cell. That's the dark area most likely to produce a twister. Then it was a waiting game, frustrating at times. Bovasso and Anderson kept getting excited, then shaking their heads in despair, as they watched the wall cloud and the weather apps on their cell phones. It really was hurry up and wait. After about an hour, the decision was made to reposition ourselves southeast of the super cell to continue to have the best views. As we packed up our cameras and headed south on Highway 207, Bovasso glanced back in the scant hope that our abandoned cell would produce a tornado. And, surprisingly it began to! Anderson immediately turned the car around, and, as we headed back north, a tiny dark nub at the back of our wall cloud began to drop slowly. 'Tornado, tornado,' Bovasso yelled out. As the vortex snaked further toward the ground, I couldn't believe what was unfolding. There was no sound, no rain, and no hail as was with the rain-wrapped tornadoes we had witnessed a few days earlier, just a regal white cone forming majestically against the sky. We finally stopped the car and got out, furiously snapping photos. As quickly as it had appeared, the funnel weakened and evaporated into a thinning rope, then disappeared altogether. Poof. The whole life of the thing was about six minutes. But what a six minutes! The experience reminded me of my encounters with the elusive Northern Lights in Iceland and Alaska. Here one minute, gone the next. We chased the super cell southeast and continue to watch it, from farther away this time. And, just as with the first twister, a small nub started dropping and circulating from the wall cloud, but was shaped more like a stout stovepipe. Bovasso said that, while not as pretty as our first tornado, it was more powerful, probably classified as 'strong' by the weather services. A massive and rare wedge tornado near Matador, Texas, April 24, 2025. Jim Clash As we watched it grow, it quickly spread out at its base, eventually morphing into a massive wedge tornado, estimated at over a quarter-mile in width. (A wedge tornado is wider than it is tall.) The structure is rare and serious, Bovasso said. We tracked it until it became rain-wrapped. After that, we photographed some spectacular lightning, but really were downright giddy. We had seen three photogenic twisters in one day - a anticyclonic laminar cone, a stovepipe and a wedge. Even Bovasso, who has witnessed more than 100 tornadoes, was ecstatic, saying the day had been one of the best in his decades of chasing. If anybody wants to see Mother Nature in its most raw but beautiful form, find a storm chasing group. There are plenty online. Some charge money, others, like Bovasso, do it for passion and to see the looks on folks' faces when they experience a tornado for the first time. But do your diligence first. The right guide can keep you safe, but also suss-out the best areas to find tornadoes. High season is April through mid-June.
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
Storm Chasers Encounter Damaging Tornadoes, Find Themselves In One
Rain-wrapped tornadic system crossing Highway 49 near Joplin, Missouri, April 20, 2025. It's one thing to see a tornado, quite another to be inside of it. This past weekend, I was lucky enough (gulp) to do both. In June 2023, I took my first shot at storm chasing with Raychel Sanner, founder of Tornado Titans. Over the course of three days, we crisscrossed four states - Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico - in search of the powerful vortices. Although we saw some amazing super-cells, the colorful atomic bomb-type atmospheric structures that spawn tornadoes, no clear example of a photogenic twister presented itself. I was a little disappointed, of course. In 2019, I had been on a C-130 research flight with the U.S. Air Force 'Hurricane Hunters' directly through the center of Dorian, the Category 5 monster that destroyed much of the Bahamas. But I still had not had experienced the tornado aspect of Mother Nature up-close-and-personal. A tornado warning is issued when there is a high probability of a tornado forming or one is already on the ground. This alert was issued near Joplin, Missouri, April 20, 2025. Beginning in April, tornado season typically ramps up in the southeastern and midwestern parts of the U.S., lasting into June. Storm chasers from all parts of the country converge during this time to find and record their encounters with tornadoes. Some chasers are in it purely for sport, others for scientific research - still others to aid persons who may be negatively impacted by the storms. Our small group was hopeful that some tornadoes would pop up on an advancing cold front stretching from Texas to Iowa. Early on the morning of April 20, we made the long trek up, by car, to Joplin, Missouri, where significant storms were predicted to fire later that afternoon. Once we hit Joplin, Jeff Anderson, a chaser since 2016, studied the latest weather apps. The models are quite accurate now, which has attracted hoards of the newcomers to the specialized hobby. In fact, storm chasing is all the rage now. Anderson showed me a map on his phone with dozens of red dots indicating positions of other storm chasers that day. Tornadic weather in an area near Joplin, Missouri, April 2025. Soon enough, an emergency warning flashed across the screens of our cell phones. Anderson immediately sprang into action. His app told him that a newly formed tornado was making its way toward Missouri Highway 49, not far from us, and moving at 60 mph, fast for a twister. We made a b-line to the anticipated interception point. Just before entering Barton County, we pulled off to the side of the highway to watch the storm cross in front of us. Because the tornado was rain-wrapped, it was difficult to see the vortex, buried within a larger storm structure. But the wind and rain, with surprising violence, began to rock our vehicle. It was good we had stopped when we did, Anderson said. Heading further into the thing could have toppled the vehicle and sent us rolling down the embankment. After the pass, a second twister suddenly popped up on Anderson's app. It was less than 10 miles away, and immediately we went for it. Anderson ultimately positioned us on a small paved road near a farmhouse with a mile of empty, flat field before us. Tornado winds in excess of 100 mph drive rain across a farmer's field near Joplin, Missouri, April 20, 2025. As we waited, the wind picked up again, this time more quickly. Anderson became concerned. The tornado had suddenly taken an expected right turn and was headed directly toward us. There was nothing we could do at that point. For aerodynamic reasons, we positioned the vehicle so that the front was facing into the wind, and then braced for impact. It was intense, let me tell you, and certainly got my attention. After four interminable minutes of roaring, shaking and shuddering, the thing had had its way with us. The well-known chaser Reed Timmer drove by in his 'Dominator' TIV (Tornado Interceptor Vehicle) just as the wind was subsiding. A giant tree in front of the farmhouse behind us had fallen, and the occupant was already out surveying the damage. We asked if he was okay. He gave a thumbs-up. Following an encounter with a small tornado, a fallen tree lays in a farmer's yard near Joplin, Missouri, April 20, 2025. What had happened with this second tornado? Why had we been inside instead of on the periphery as with the first one? Rain-wrapped tornadoes are especially tricky because often you can't see them with your eyes, and therefore they can sneak up. Sure, weather charts can delineate in real time their movements, and their strength, but losing the actual sight ability makes for more uncertainty. If one suddenly changes direction, and sometimes they do, it's harder to pick up on it and react. Luckily for us it wasn't a bigger tornado - an EF-3 or more - or things may have played out differently. A fuzzy silhouette of Reed Timmer's Dominator Tornado Interceptor Vehicle (TIV) passing our group near Joplin, Missouri, April 20, 2025. Later this week, we plan to do more chasing, this time with the hope of seeing a photogenic vortex from a safer distance, something still on my bucket list. Being inside of a tornado, while thrilling and interesting, is not something I want to try again. Better to observe raw nature, however compelling, from afar. Less sweat in the palms of one's hands.
