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Reed was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI, and became interested in extreme weather at a very young age. He was also an avid insect, reptile, and amphibian collector and tree identification enthusiast, but decided to pursue his greatest passion and began studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma in 1998. Reed photographed his first tornado in October 1998, and was addicted to extreme storm chasing ever since. Every spring and summer season, he travels from the Mexican Border to Canada striving to photograph tornadoes from extreme close range (within 1/8 mile), often driving more than 40,000 miles during the spring and summer.
Reed's most memorable storm chasing moments include the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado from an overpass near Moore, OK; the Manchester, SD wedge tornado that passed only a few hundred yards from the vehicle on June 24, 2003; the Ellis Co, OK tornado that ripped trees from the ground 100 yards away; and the half-mile wide monster tornado in Manitoba, Canada on June 23, 2007. Reed also documents hurricanes and blizzards, and hopes to expand to typhoons in Asia, Australian tropical cyclones, and Southern Hemisphere tornadoes in the very near future.
During the last few storm seasons, Reed has been featured on the Storm Chasers series on Discovery Channel, while launching extreme tornado research projects such as the tornado intercept project (with the Storm Research Vehicle - aka the Dominator) and the parachute probe-RC plane project. As seen on Storm Chasers, the TVN team successfully deployed a camera/instrument probe into a fast-moving Kansas twister on May 29, 2008, and intercepted five tornadoes during the 2009 season with the Dominator, measuring over 130 mph wind gusts in two of them and losing the driver's side window inside the Aurora, Nebraska tornado on June 17, 2009. Reed graduated with a Bachelors Degree in meteorology in 2002, Masters in 2005, and will finish his PhD in Meteorology in 2009. He will storm chase until the day he dies!!!
Joel was raised in the heart of tornado alley, Elk City, Oklahoma. Joel witnessed numerous severe storms and several tornadoes in his early childhood years which helped to feed his interests in extreme weather. He even began producing weather "forecasts" as early as the first grade. In 1998 Joel moved to Norman, Oklahoma, to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. While there, his fascination with storms and stormchasing only grew. In 2001 Joel was selected to be on a special episode of Atmospheres (aired on The Weather Channel), in which he explored the various climates of Hawaii alongside Jim Cantore and Mish Michaels. Some of Joel's most notable intercepts include the May 3rd, 1999, F5 Moore, OK twister; the October 9th, 2001 F3 tornado that narrowly missed his hometown of Elk City, OK; and the May 27th, 2001, White Deer, TX tornado. In May 8, 2003 in northern Kansas, Joel was driving his Ford Explorer down a water-covered highway and began hydroplaning at 80 mph. With 5 stormchasers in the vehicle, his car fish-tailed violently and then spun 720 degrees at 80 mph, and Joel safely stabilized the spin without slowing down. Joel has also participated in two hurricane chases, including Hurricane Frances that came into Florida in 2004 and Hurricane Rita which ravaged much of the Louisiana and Texas coasts in 2005. After graduating with his degree in Meteorology in 2002, Joel started a career in Real Estate. He now owns and operates two successful Real Estate companies in the Oklahoma City/Norman area, and is continuing to look for ways to expand his businesses. Being his own boss, Joel is able to schedule most of his work around his stormchase interests, giving him opportunities that he would not have with a normal job. Joel also enjoys basketball, weightlifting, long distance running, and attending OU football and basketball games.
Chris was born and raised in the small town of Greenville, MI, and has always had an immense interest in extreme weather for as long as he can remember. Chris intercepted his first tornado in eastern Wyoming in May 2000, and has been hooked on storm chasing ever since, driving 50,000+ miles every year striving to document as many tornadoes as possible. He also enjoys chasing hurricanes, blizzards, and even grassfires, and plans to continue traveling the world year-round to satisfy his passion for extreme weather. Chris studied Business Management at Central Michigan University until 2002 before moving down to Norman, Oklahoma to pursue storm chasing full-time.
As part of the Storm Chasers series on Discovery Channel, Chris intercepted five tornadoes during the 2009 season, measuring a 155.2 mph wind gust with the Dominator inside the Goshen County, Wyoming tornado on June 5, 2009. Chris is also the lead videographer of the TornadoVideos.net team, and is known for maintaining incredibly steady camera shots even when being pelted by 100+ mph winds and hail. Chris will act as tour director for Extreme Tornado Tours.
In addition to storm chasing, Chris enjoys golf, swimming, cooking, and just being outdoors.
Matt is a young blossoming storm chaser for the Tornadovideos.net team. Matt’s passion for weather is undeniably intense, and he has already filmed extreme weather footage in his young storm chasing career. Raised in the small western Oklahoma town of Weatherford, Matt was introduced to a variety of extreme weather events. As a young child he was very fearful of storms, and wanted them to stay as far away from him as possible. He grew up though major weather events such as the devastating May 3rd, 1999 tornado outbreak, or the massive ice storm of Jan 2002, that wrecked havoc on western Oklahoma and wiped the power out of western Oklahoma for 10 days. Events such as these turned Matt's fear into fascination of the power weather have on earth. Matt is now a Senior Meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, and will graduate in December 2008. After graduation, Matt hopes to help warn and get information to the public by continuing to chase tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards.
Matt chases as the Stream1 team for Tornadovideos.net along with his chase partners: Curtis McDonald, Daniel Betten, and Matt Van Every.
Matt was born and raised in Lewisville, TX and became interested in extreme weather at the ripe age of eight when his family was hit by a violent tornado in the Texas panhandle while on the way home from a family vacation in Colorado. He remembers witnessing intense damage and destruction including part of the roof missing off the hotel, all the water sucked out of the hotel swimming pool with the sign laying in it, and 3 trains mangled at a station across the street. Since that day all he as ever wanted to do was study and witness extreme weather. Matt is interested in and chases tornadoes, hail, lighting, flooding, ice/snow storms, and hurricanes. He is also very interested in research, and has designed and developed a high-resolution and accurate network of automated instruments on the University of Oklahoma’s Kessler Farm Field Laboratory in Washington, OK. Matt currently has to complete one more semester at the University of Oklahoma in order to obtain his Bachelors Degree in meteorology with 2 minors: math and hydrology. He is a proud Eagle Scout and a NOAA National Earnest F. Holling Scholar. He has worked with the National Severe Storms Laboratory and currently is a student volunteer at the Norman, OK Weather Forecast Office where he routinely assists with severe weather and the issuing of products. Additional interests include a good workout, mechanics, electronics, and pretty much anything that is outdoors or involves working with his hands. Matt will also be contributing to the TVN blog on a daily basis.
Curtis McDonald was born and raised 40 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri and now resides in Norman Oklahoma where he is working on his degree from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. During Curtis’s early years severe thunderstorms frighten him, however things drastically changed around the age of six when he became increasingly fascinated by all forms of weather including snowstorms, ice storms, flooding, and thunderstorms. Curtis remembers waiting up all night for the first snowflakes to fall on an approaching winter storm, watching continuous news coverage of the Great Flood of 1993 and convincing his mom to drive around in a thunderstorm well before he had his driver’s license. All these things and more shows Curtis’s passion for all kinds of extreme weather. In the fall of 2005 Curtis moved to Oklahoma to pursue his dream of becoming a meteorologist. Here is where he became very passionate in storm chasing and plans on chasing all kinds of extreme weather for the rest of his life. Curtis is the fearless driver of the TVN Stream 1 team, specializing in driving over large downed trees and navigating through seemingly impassable mud roads.
Daniel was born and raised in Dallas, Texas where from an early age he was always fascinated by the weather. He would stay up all night waiting for snow to fall, which it never would, and watching electrical storms move through. Daniel’s interest in weather, however, was not just limited to snow and lightning but he was also glued to the TV whenever hurricane coverage or severe weather outbreaks in North Texas were occurring. Watching the movie Twister and watching coverage of the F3 tornado that hit Fort Worth in 1998 focused his weather interests on tornadoes. He participated in the International Science Fair in 2002 as his love of weather related research began to grow.
Right now Daniel lives in Norman, Oklahoma works as an undergraduate research assistant with the University of Oklahoma. He has participated in two field projects with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, helping run the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research & Teaching Radar (SMARTR) and driving mobile Mesonet vehicles. He also went to Costa Rica last summer to help run the radar in a project that was coordinated by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) for three weeks. Daniel plans on graduating in December with a bachelor in Meteorology and minors in math and hydrology before he enters graduate school at OU. He is currently working on a dual-doppler analysis of the May 29th 2004 Geary, OK tornadic supercell that will be presented at the Severe Local Storms conference in October. In his spare time he enjoys chasing with Stream 1 and provides an endless amount of quotes that are not soon forgotten. He also enjoys working out and playing a variety of sports and keeping up with his fantasy sports teams.
Dick was born near South Padre Island, TX and not having spent a full month alive, had his house destroyed by Hurricane Allen in Brownsville, TX . Allen, a Category 3 hurricane as it made landfall, recorded a 899 mb low pressure in the Yucatan, reached Category 5 hurricane status 3 times, and as it reached the western gulf, set the record for it, with a minimum pressure drop of 909 mb! After moving to Garden City, KS when he was 8, it wouldn't take him long before his next encounter would occur with Mother Nature's most violent; when his family outran an elephant trunk tornado bearing down on the south side of town. Growing up and always wanting to chase and to learn more, Dick and his friend Derek Shaffer took off after a storm just east of Lawrence, KS on May 4th, 2003 and ended up observing a deadly F-4 tornado which ripped through the northern KC metro area. Ever since that day, he has been hooked and obsessed in learning everything there is to know about supercells: their behavior, and the environments from which they are created in.
On the night of May 4th, 2007, Dick witnessed the birth of the 'Greensburg supercell' as it quickly matured into one of the most violent, cyclic supercells ever recorded; which unfortunately destroyed 95% of the town of Greensburg, Kansas and took the lives of 13 people. Dick, Darin and Derek were some of the first to enter Greensburg after the tornado hit, and stayed in the town for several hours trying to help in any way that they could, despite being in shock and the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Dick describes that night as one that is very difficult to put into words, but introduced a harsh truth to face and grim reminder of what this hobby is very capable of, and sparked him to join others in spreading better awareness of severe weather safety. He has done countless interviews with all sorts of media and has prepared articles for various newspapers and magazines, in hopes to possibly prepare those, in the field, for traumatic, catastrophic natural disasters - before, during and most importantly...with dealing with the aftermath. Constantly thinking about that night and the well-being of the Greensburg residents, Dick took it upon himself to organize a charity event selling the 'Storms of 2007' DVD, and with the help of many other (hundreds) storm chasers (including TVN who donated a major chunk and produced a chapter), have raised and donated over $10,000 - every penny going directly to the Greensburg residents. (Greensburg Greentown) Dick currently attends FHSU and is a few semesters away from completing a bachelor's degree in GIS (Geographical Information Systems). In his spare time, he likes to shoot photography, spending time with his girlfriend, Devin and her family. Dick also lives for watching KU/Texas sports manhandle OU in every sport imaginable. He would rather be thrown from a runaway train, into a cage full of starved lions dressed up in a wildebeest suit, than cheer for the Oklahoma Sooners.
Darin was introduced to extreme weather at the age of 6 on April 26, 1991(the day of the Andover, KS tornado) when he stood in his family's driveway and watched an F2 tornado pass within a mile of his family's home near Rossville, KS. He still remembers his dad telling him that seeing the tornado at that distance would probably be a once in a lifetime experience and to this day, Darin strives to prove him wrong every chance that he gets! That experience, combined with spending many days working on his grandpa's farm, gave him gave him a strong appreciation severe weather and how it affects people's lives.
Darin started chasing at the age of 18 and has logged tens of thousands of miles in the years that he has been chasing storms and would like to add some miles in the future towards intercepting a hurricane. He thankfully has quick reflexes as he was almost punched by a woman when he ran into the middle of a road to warn her to not drive into a ¾ mile wide tornado during the night of March 12, 2006.the same night he and Dick were hit by a tornado in their least favorite chasing state of Missouri. Darin also witnessed the Greensburg, KS tornado and was reporting live for a TV station in Wichita, KS as the huge tornado hit the town. He enjoys all aspects of chasing but tornadoes are his bread and butter. He navigates among other things for stream 2 and contrary to what Dick will say at times, is amazing at it, and you can be sure he has made the right decision when the words "trust me", come out of his mouth. Darin currently works for a wind energy company and in his spare time he enjoys photography, fishing, website design, and doing analysis of historical tornadoes. He bleeds Crimson and Blue as a diehard Kansas Jayhawk fan and loves to see KU destroy every other school, especially the Missouri Tigers.
Don experienced his first tornado outbreak at only 3 weeks old when the infamous “Red River Outbreak†occurred in 1979, ravaging northwest Texas and southwest Oklahoma and tearing a path of destruction through the city of Wichita Falls. Fortunately his family was not severely impacted, although debris from one of the tornadoes was deposited in their yard, causing quite a mess. Although he moved to Georgia a few years later, most of Don's earliest memories involve Oklahoma's extreme weather in some form—be it snow, ice, tornadoes, or extreme heat.
Georgia's weather was much more moderate than Oklahoma's, yet Don's fascination with the weather continued to grow. By the age of 11 he began keeping a daily weather log of various meteorological variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and barometric pressure. Combined with his love of mathematics, this led Don to develop a detailed local climatology using various weather statistics commonly calculated by the National Weather Service. Due to the lack of radar data access at the time, he also became skilled at forecasting the short-term evolution of the region's summertime “popcorn†thunderstorms by closely observing the sky. In 1997 Don moved back to Oklahoma to pursue a degree in Meteorology, where he began storm chasing in 1999. Since then he has completed both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the field and also witnessed many significant tornado events, including the historic Greensburg, KS, EF-5. He is currently collaborating with John Esterheld to finalize publication of their research paper “Discriminating between Tornadic and Non-Tornadic Supercells: A New Hodograph Techniqueâ€, and is also spearheading work on their next research topic. When not obsessing over the weather, Don enjoys an eclectic assortment of activities, including softball, photography, and ballroom dancing with Nicole.
Nicole grew up in Blue Springs, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, where severe weather is considered part of normal warm season life. As a child, she was terrified of tornadoes until a local weatherman came to her elementary school and explained how he got over his fear by learning about severe weather. She immediately headed to the local library and thus began her lifelong obsession with meteorology. While it's possible that there were tornadoes near her house as a child, the first tornado she recalls seeing was on her street in Livermore, California, where her family moved for one year (November 1997- November 1998). It was a weak tornado and everyone came outside to watch it--there was nowhere to run, since the houses were poorly constructed. Driven by a desire to learn more about weather, Nicole earned a Bachelor's degree in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and a Master's degree in Atmospheric Science at North Carolina State University. While on the way to OU for one fall semester, Nicole and her family saw numerous dust devils and a few landspouts in northern Oklahoma. When one weak landspout was about to cross the highway in front of her, Nicole slowed down slightly so that she could drive through it, thus earning her place in the "Zero-meter Club." Since then, she has become more cautious about tornadoes and is now the official "Safety Engineer" of Stream Three (which means that she keeps an eye out for other possible lowerings, especially those nearby; reminds her storm-hypnotized team that it's time to drive out of harm's way; and encourages all team members to get their First Aid and CPR training). When Nicole is not trying to keep Stream 3 from being killed, she enjoys photographing cloud structures, architecture, and flowers in macro; working on digital art/graphics; filming both severe weather and everyday life; designing jewelry (she creates the jewelry available in the online store); teaching meteorology and weather safety to the public; gardening; ballroom dancing; and spending time with her husband, Don.
Dave, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, has been fascinated by weather for as long as he can remember. As a young kid, he would surreptitiously sneak out of bed to watch the weather segment on the local evening news. One of his earliest tornado memories was forged one such night in late July 1987 when WFIE TV's legendary "Weather Lady", Marcia Yockey, regaled her viewers with footage of the infamous "Black Friday" Edmonton, Alberta F4 tornado, which had torn through the northern Canadian Prairies earlier that day. He was awestruck. From that moment on, severe and unusual weather would be his obsession. Drawn to Oklahoma in 1997 by the opportunity to study at the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and Oklahoma's reputation as being at the heart of Tornado Alley, Dave had his first chasing success during the mega tornado outbreak of May 3, 1999. Mesmerized by the sight of the Chickasha, OK tornado that evening, he absent-mindedly left his car's parking brake set while trying to escape from the tornado's path. The brake-hindered, pedal-to-the-metal 10 MPH "getaway" that ensued, with the tornado quickly closing in on his location, was an exhilarating way to experience and document his first tornado! Prior to his graduation from the OU School of Meteorology in 2002, Dave started working full-time with the Oklahoma Mesonet at University of Oklahoma. His position at the Mesonet, a dense network of instrumented weather and climate observation stations, allowed him to blend his passions -- meteorology and technology. He currently specializes in communication networks, the acquisition of meteorological observations and data, and infrastructure systems administration. When not driving thousands of miles in pursuit of interesting and wild weather, Dave enjoys spending his free time focusing on nature photography, seeing new and unique places, exploring desolate landscapes by foot, tinkering with gadgets and gizmos, and just being outdoors.
John Esterheld was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area where he became highly interested in snowstorms. Driven by his passion for snowstorms, John went on to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma where he earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Meteorology. While studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, John developed an interest in severe thunderstorms. He began storm chasing after three years in Oklahoma and has continued storm chasing ever since. In addition to storm chasing, John has done quite a bit of research on severe weather with a focus on tornadic environments. John worked with Donald Giuliano on identifying environments capable of producing significant tornadoes and they have a publication pending on this very topic. Currently, John resides in Oklahoma City and storm chases whenever the opportunity is there. He has witnessed many significant tornadoes including recent ones such as the Greensburg, Kansas EF5 on May 4, 2007 and the Quinter, Kansas EF4 on May 22, 2008. In addition to severe weather research, John also has great interest in climatological research. John’s primary focus in climatological research is to find ways to improve forecasting of monthly-to-seasonal forecasts of temperature and precipitation.
Oliver, a.k.a. Klipsi, was born in Boston, MA by a French mother and Swiss dad, but moved back to Europe at age 1 and grew up in Switzerland. Klipsi graduated from a Swiss high school with a diploma equivalent to French baccalaureat, with emphasis on science and languages, and graduated cum laude from Lausanne Hotel Management School. He has substantial driving experience, having worked for an exotic car rental and limousine service companies for the past 23 years with a professional Swiss limo and minibus license, and has had substantial experience transporting celebrity and VIP clients. Klipsi has been chasing tornadoes with several tour companies since 2000 and his combined driving and storm chasing experience is second to none, which helps maintain a high level of safety during our tours. Being fluent in Swiss-German dialect, German, French, and English, as well as some Italian, Klipsi is a unique asset for our European guests, who can learn the science of storm chasing in their primary language!
Klipsi is a world traveler and word-renown solar eclipse observer, and has ventured around the globe to all continents to observe, film, photograph and/or webcast 25 solar eclipses since 1994, including icebreaker cruise-expeditions to Antarctica and the North Pole. Other astronomical observations include Leonid meteor storms in Thailand, and the extremely rare simultaneous occultation of Venus and Jupiter by the Moon from Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Klipsi will be a guide on all Southern and Northern Plains tours!
Dave Holder, 26 years of age and born in England, is one of the most passionate storm chasers in the country. Now living in Norman, Oklahoma, he is working on his degree from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
Dave moved to the Philadelphia area when he was a small child, and it was here where his passion for weather blossomed. As a kid, he would stay up until early morning hours watching the Weather Channel. Weather became an obsession, watching the local radar continuously when storms were around. In addition to thunderstorms, winter weather events became highlights of Dave's early life. The Storm of the Century in 1993 marked a deep impression upon Dave's psyche. A carefree and often spontaneous individual, Dave coupled his love of weather with his love of geography and travel. By the time he turned 23 years old, he had visited every state in the country. His love for long road trips produced 8 coast to coast drives and other countless hours in the car from the Mexican border to the Canadian Rockies. Now with his trademark red Hyundai, Dave has storm chased from Texas north to the Canadian Prairies. He has been featured live on local television stations in Minneapolis and has appeared on National Canadian Radio outlets. Some of Dave's other interests are poker and playing football and basketball. He plans to obtain a motorcycle license and a pilot's license in the not-too-distant future. Dave would like nothing more than to make a living traveling and chasing weather events.
In the mid 1980s, David began actively chasing storms as a young adult, only vaguely aware at that time that there were others out there like him who pursued storms across the Plains. In those days he would chase storms as much as he possibly could, mostly around the Lubbock and Texas South Plains area, gradually going just a little farther each time. Detailed weather information to the everyday person wasn't as readily available at that time, like it is now via the internet. You actually had to visit a National Weather Service office to get information. In the early 90s David moved south to the Midland/Odessa, TX area. While living there, he joined the local SKYWARN storm spotter group. This turned out to give David more of a sense of purpose in his storm chasing activities. It was during this time he became a licensed ham radio operator as well. As time went on, David extended his chasing range more and more as the seasons progressed, chasing storms across several states, experiencing all sorts of interesting weather; often threatening, always beautiful and interesting. David is passionate about chasing storms, constantly striving for personal excellence in it. It didn't take him long to realize that if he wanted to be able to chase whenever he wanted, working a regular 9 to 5 type job wasn't going to cut it. Mother Nature's schedule is often not our own. As a result he eventually became involved in the media aspects of weather. In 1999, David moved back to the Lubbock area and shortly thereafter created Dryline Media and Dryline Hosting, offering a tailored web hosting option for storm chasers. Today, Dryline Hosting is the premier storm chaser web host, but it has become more than that and now hosts various businesses and other interests too; it’s growing daily! David has been fortunate to have had opportunities to license video of crazy weather to various news media outlets. He has had video packages seen on all major networks, many local TV stations, including one company in the UK, and various programs seen on National Geographic, The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel, as well as on several of the Storm Stories programs on The Weather Channel. In 2005, David teamed up with the Lubbock, TX NBC affiliate, NewsChannel 11 as their First Alert Storm Chaser. This coincided with a particularly active year in the area for tornadoes so everyone involved was extremely happy with how well things worked out. David still chases for NewsChannel 11 when in the Lubbock area. David also served a long term in the past as a moderator, and later as the Technical Administrator of StormTrack and also handles the online promotions of the National Storm Chaser Convention in Denver, Colorado. As you can see, storm chasing has been a big part of David’s life, and is very much a part of who he is as a person. He expects he will probably being doing this as long as he can still drive. While David is not a formally schooled meteorologist, over the years he has continued to study severe weather and severe weather forecasting and has learned much. He often spends winters brushing up on forecasting and reading up on the latest thinking in severe weather research.
Verne has been a regular video contributor to various weather conferences around the country including the National Storm Chasers Convention and Severe Local Storms Conferences. Verne's tornado video has been shown on The Weather Channel, Inside Edition, internationally in Japan and on KMGH Denver’s 7. Verne's tornado video was shown at the IMAX theater in Denver at the Denver’s 7 Big Weather Show in Oct 2006. Verne is skywarned trained. He has the amateur radio call sign KB0ZCQ. Every year Verne drives a little farther and chases a little longer outside of the traditional May to June severe weather season. Verne has captured Tornadoes on video in almost every month of the year. On the road he has mobile doppler radar on his laptop as well as cell phone connection to the latest weather data to find the strongest storms. The Carlson’s were part of Tim Samaras’/NatGeo/Dr. Bruce Lees’ TWISTEX project for 2008 and were tasked with developing and piloting an RC aircraft to drop weather measurement packages into severe thunderstorms. For 2008 Verne conceived of and built Radio Control aircraft specifically for the purpose of obtaining never before seen video and photographs of a tornado intercept from the air! For 2009 the Carlson’s will be using RC Helicopters and aircraft to live stream video and photograph storm damage and features from various altitudes at www.tornadovideos.net. Verne’s passion for severe weather has transferred to his two son’s Michael and Eric who join him every year for a dedicated 4 weeks of storm chasing in the heartland of America as well as big days in the plains. Verne is so passionate about storm chasing that he recently purchased homes in Amarillo, TX and in Russell, KS just to use as bases for storm chasing! You can check out his video and photographs at his web site at http://www.stormchaserco.com and you can also go to his storm chaser blog at http://www.stormchaserco.blogspot.com
In addition to storm chasing, Randy likes sky diving, scuba diving and filming wildfires. He is an EMT and fire instructor as well as a wildland firefighter. Randy has a loving and devoted wife who he claims to be one of the best cooks in the world!
Jans’ research interest’s lie within the Weather & Society*Integrated Studies movement, a grassroots effort to promote the integration of social science into meteorological research and practice. His current research focuses on the perception, training, communication, and information between the weather science community and first responders in extreme weather disasters. Direct field experiences of working with fire fighters, law enforcement, and paramedics in ‘disaster weather’ situations (most recent being Greensburg, KS & Hurricane Ike) have lead to the development of a weather training curriculum covering weather processes, interpretation, and decision-making directed toward emergency responders. Jans started chasing in the late 90's and has since had several videos and photographs published in both print and television media. Jans relocated to Austin, TX in late 2008 after finishing graduate school to continue his research. He is a co-founder of National Storm Research & Training Institute and curriculum designer of their online and in classroom training courses. Jans works closely with the storm chasing community to incorporate best practices and real life field examples to educate and better prepare first responders to deal with natural disasters large and small.
Dennis' involvement and fascination with severe weather dates back to the mid 1970's when several deadly tornadoes struck areas of Birmingham, Alabama and across the Southeast over the period of just a few years. It was during a Search and Rescue Operation on April 4, 1977 in an area known as Smithfield (section of Birmingham) that Dennis had the lifelong desire to know more about severe weather firmly instilled in him. He found and rescued a child, approximately one month old, from among the rubble where a tornado had just hit minutes before. This young infant had a splinter of wood embedded in one eye and Dennis took the child to the arriving fire and medical personnnel and continued his efforts to help others injured in the area. The utter destruction and loss of life was tremendous in just this one neighborhood where over 20 were killed and over 150 injured. Over the course of the next 30 + years, Dennis has continually been involved in all phases of severe weather and its aftermaths. He was in law enforcement in various areas of Florida and was there through 4 hurricanes and several tornadoes, including Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Today, Dennis is the Chairman and Executive Director of Alert 1 Weather, Inc , a Non-Profit Organization. He devotes all his time to documenting all forms of severe weather events, performing research and studies, and providing Humanitarian Disaster Relief to those in need. In addition to helping those in need, he hopes that some of his work and involvement may provide the necessary advance warnings to help save lives and through his research, he may help provide answers to better understand the science of severe weather. http://www.alert1weather.org/           
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Re:About Us
Sep 19 2009 23:27:18 Man! I see everyone comes from an NBC Station, Heidi from NBC 4 I think it was, David From NBC 11, lol now I'll add myself for NBC 24! I guess NBC just rules! lol -Brandon
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