Your First Storm Chase

So you’re eager to go on a storm chase. You know the joys of storm chasing, the hassles of storm chasing, and when and where to chase. You understand the dangers of storm chasing and how to avoid them. And now you’ve decided to chase. So you ask yourself, where do I begin?

You will NOT begin by going out chasing on your own. It would be like going out to the savannah and searching for lions, zebras and hyenas. You don’t know where to go looking for the storms, you don’t know how to tell if a particular storm is likely to produce a tornado, you don’t know the safe location from which to view a tornado, you don’t know how to avoid the hail core…

Start by going out with experienced chasers, people who have several years’ history of chasing storms. Make sure you’ve known them during that time period, or know of them through research on the web, to weed out the ones who make exaggerated claims. Storm chasing can get very macho and very competitive, so you can expect people to embellish their achievements.

By far your best chance of chasing with highly experienced storm chasers is through a tour company. That’s right, a tour company. People who don’t know about them tend to be surprised that there are actual tours for seeing severe storms. I highly recommend this way to start your storm chasing activities.

I have used Silver Lining Tours, co-owned by chaser Roger Hill. Since this post is targeted at my friends that want to know how best to get into storm chasing, I would be doing them a disservice to NOT mention my own experience with SLT. Quite simply, SLT is a tour company I can’t recommend enough. Roger Hill is the one of the best storm chasers that I know. The other co-owner of SLT is David Gold, who is an excellent long-range forecaster.

SLT has no idea I am making this post. I will receive no money or perk of any kind for this endorsement. They probably won’t even read this. I am simply recommending to my friends how best to chase storms.

There are other tour companies out there, of course. I have no experience with any other tour company, nor do I intend to use them. If you are considering a tour company different from SLT, I have heard from a chasing veteran that if you don’t go with SLT (for whatever reason), then Cloud Nine and Tempest are the ones to go with.

Tours go out on a fixed schedule, allowing you to plan your vacation in advance. There is usually a fixed cost for the tour, including hotel accommodations. SLT insists on a Comfort Inn level of accommodations (unless circumstances dictate otherwise, and they never have for me). Meals and transportation to and from the host city (the city where the tour begins and ends) are not included in the admission (though part of the admission is the transportation while on the tour). The cost for the tour is steep—usually $350 to $450 per day, which, again, includes hotels, for a minimum of 6 days.

SLT will say that the odds of seeing a tornado on fixed-date tours are 50%. Of course, SLT is doing some expectation setting here. I’m sure their success rate has been much higher than this, but the sample size is small, and every year is different. In 2010, every tour saw a tornado, but I think that was the only year that happened. It is rare, but some tours won’t even get to see a single severe storm, let alone a tornado. I think a tour in 2009 suffered from this, but I’m not completely sure. If SLT reads this, they can set me straight, about this or anything I say here, and I will change the info here.

If you’re interested in eventually chasing on your own (which includes doing your own weather forecasting, having a laptop in your vehicle running radar, gps, and satellite maps, installing special equipment including satellite receivers and weather radios, etc.), then plan to spend as much time with your tour guide as he/she will give you, asking questions about everything they are doing. Buy books on weather forecasting. My wife even bought a thermodynamics text.

I have been on three storm chases, and next week will be my fourth. Being honest with myself, I know I am not ready to chase on my own. Yet.

So that’s my advice on starting out storm chasing. Some people go once and get the bug out of their system. Some never lose the bug (like me). Either way, an initial storm chase can be the vacation of a lifetime.