What is all that stuff on top of your car?
Who do you work for?
Why do you chase here?
When do you chase storms?
Do you chase Tornadoes or Hurricanes?
How many Tornadoes have you seen?
What does your license plate say?
Have more questions? Email me!
What is all that stuff on top of your car?
The equipment you see on the roof of my car may look very strange to you. It is a more familiar sight on storm chaser vehicles in the Great Plains. The equipment consists of a Davis Instruments Complete Weather Station and some antennas. The weather station has instruments that measure Wind speed(Anemometer), Wind Direction(Wind Vane), Temperature(Thermometer), Humidity(Hygrometer), Pressure(Barometer), and Precipitation(Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge). The antennas that are on the roof are used for Ham Radio, NOAA Weather Radio, CB Radio, and Cellular communications.Who do you work for?
I do not exactly “work” for anybody. I am a freelance photographer and videographer of mostly severe weather. However I am a volunteer Skywarn Spotter for the National Weather Service. I provide weather measurements to the NWS for the purpose of verifying or indicating severe storms.Why do you chase here?
I officially began my chase hobby in Norman, Oklahoma when I went to the University of Oklahoma to study meteorology. It was a popular hobby among students there and for good reason considering the weather there can be some of the most severe on the planet. However I am from Florence, SC and this is where I currently reside. Oklahoma is a little far to travel at the drop of a hat when severe weather is forecast for that area. But you would be surprised at how much severe weather SC gets. It’s nowhere near the severity that happens in Tornado Alley but nonetheless it can still be quite impressive. I have witnessed numerous times golf ball size hail, very frequent (and CLOSE) lightning strikes, and damaging winds all in Northeast South Carolina. I don’t have to chase a tornado in order to be a storm chaser but that would definitely be a bonus to see.When do you chase storms?
I chase severe storms when they are forecast or are occurring within the area. “The area” is usually about a 40 mile radius from base point. How far I travel away from home to see storms depends on how severe they are expected to be. If the storm prediction center issues a moderate risk of severe storms in North Carolina, I will probably stretch outside of my normal area to go have a look.Do you chase Tornadoes or Hurricanes?
Both. I call myself a “storm chaser” because it is a general term for what I do. I do seek all types of storms. Severe thunderstorms, tropical storms, even strong winter storms. However, sometimes I even seek the types that are not threatening such as rainbows, sunsets, virga. Any phenomena that the sky can produce that could be seen as something beautiful or impressive, I take notice to and may go out of my way to get a better view of it and possibly photograph it.How many Tornadoes have you seen?
This is never an easy question for any storm chaser to answer. It’s not because we don’t keep count, although many don’t. It’s because knowing for sure that what we may have seen was a tornado or not is at times questionable. Tornadoes can be illusive things, occurring at night, in bad lighting, wrapped in rain, obscured by trees or structures, so many of them can be very difficult to see clearly. In order for us to officially call it a tornado it must be a rapidly rotating column of air associated with a thunderstorm in contact with the ground. The funnel itself does not have to be witnessed touching the ground (example here), but a debris cloud underneath the funnel is indication that the tornado is in fact “on the ground” (example here). To answer the question to the best of my ability I would say that I have seen between 40 and 50 tornadoes throughout my life (not including waterspouts). The discrepancy is there to account for the questionable tornadoes that I have seen. Am I sure it was on the ground? Am I sure that what I saw when the lightning flashed was a tornado and not just a funnel cloud? So you see it’s not easy for us to just throw up a hard number and for it to be accurate.What does your license plate say?
I sometimes get a kick out of looking in my rearview mirror at stoplights to watch the person behind me puzzled trying to figure out what it says. But if you’ve come all the way to my website because it’s just baffling you then I will be happy to answer. “I_NDSKY” stands for “Eye in the sky”. Say it like “Eye indee sky” and it should make sense.