:: Storm Chasing History

Storm Chasing has been around for a long time. No one knows for sure when or who the first chasers were but in the mid 1950's Roger Jensen and David Hoadley began documenting their chases. They have often been considered the first true Storm Chasers in the history of the profession. Jensen was known for being the first known person to actively photograph storms beginning in 1953. Hoadley was credited with using data from local weather station offices to systematically help him locate and chase storms. Hoadley started a magazine called Storm Track which is no longer in production as of 2002. Also around that time Neil Ward was leading the research effort of storm chasing. Ward used Oklahoma State Police to help him study storms. Ward's work helped pioneer modern storm spotting.

:: A day in the life of a Chaser

The typical day in a chasers life is waking up early and checking the models to see where would be the best target area to chase in for the day. Chasers often drive thousands of miles in order to witness a storm that is generally short lived and often does not produce Tornadoes or anything real exciting during the life of the severe thunderstorms. It is not anything unusual for a storm chaser to end up with nothing for weeks at a time. There are all kinds of Storm Chasers' out there from people with degrees in meteorology to just people that have little to no experience and might have read a book about storms. Many Storm Chasers' spend a lot of time forecasting storms so they know what the atmospheric conditions are going to be for the day or even a week. There are a lot of different types of equipment out there to help people in their chasing endeavors just depends on how much you are willing to spend on the equipment. There are also Storm Chasing Tours out there that are normally guided by very experienced people like Roger Hill.