What Storm Chasers Actually Do

When you consider the dangers involved with storm chasing, you might imagine getting hit by a piece of debris or a flying cow (depending how many movies you've seen). 

In reality, simply being on the road in rainy, stormy weather can be the biggest danger to storm chasers. This danger become a national point in 2022, when three University of Oklahoma students were killed hours after chasing a tornado in Kansas. 

On their drive home, it was still raining, and their vehicle hydroplaned. The car struck a barrier, and was ultimately hit by a semi-truck. 

Greg Tripoli, an atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told his students that they were more likely to get hurt in a car crash than by a tornado. A chaser might be tired from a long drive, or another driver might become distracted by the storm and stop paying attention to nearby traffic.   

The 1996 hit film Twister isn't beloved in the storm chasing world. Some call it an “outrageous fantasy,” complaining the movie doesn't show the legitimate hard work that goes into tracking a storm's path. 

Don Lloyd explained:

Forecasting the chase can take many hours of study and analysis of the atmosphere, surface conditions and satellite images.

While many storm chasers do admit to enjoying the thrill of seeing a tornado in person, for many the appeal goes deeper than that. At age 16, Richard Lewis saw the tragic consequences of a town that didn't get a warning about a tornado. Today, that fuels his passion, he said: 

At the time, they didn’t have a lot of warning, and the sirens didn’t even go off. I knew I wanted to get into this and help the National Weather Service get more timely warnings out.

“Storm chaser” isn't the most profitable career path you can pursue. In fact, many storm chasers don't get paid at all. Martin Lisius, chairman and founder of the Texas Severe Storms Association, explained:

The average salary for chasers is no salary. Most chasers are not paid anything. They have other jobs and chase in their spare time.

Yet, this appears to be a question that's asked a lot, because NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory has added a “Storm Chasers” section to its job page that says: 

In case you were wondering: There is no “Storm Chaser” job description at NSSL. The only time people chase storms for NSSL is when a special project is being run to collect data in the field. These projects are somewhat rare. When a project is running, some of the scientists are asked to donate part of their time to help with data collection during storm intercept operations. Sometimes, employees even donate their own personal time (i.e., unpaid time) to help out.

Chasers can make some money from selling video and photo rights, according to chaser Don Lloyd. 

Storm chasing at night can be a recipe for disaster. There are a few others “rules" that are common in the chasing community, as shared by Wil Foster: 
 

1. Don't listen to music. 
2. Don't use a truck that sits high off the ground. 
3. Chase with someone (at least at first). 
4. Don't trust Twister.

One of the most famous storm chasers was Tim Samaras. A longtime chaser of 20 years, he tragically died, along with his 24-year-old son, Paul, and colleague Carl Young, after the strong winds of a tornado crumpled their car in 2013. 

However, the three men were not simply following this thunderstorm for their own personal enjoyment. Samaras had partnered with researchers who were hoping to gain vital details about the pressure and temperature of tornados - from probes deployed in the heart of a tornado. These tracking devices had to be at the base of the twister because, according to Samaras, “[provide] data about the lowest 10 meters of a tornado, where houses, vehicles, and people are.”

Samaras's work was credited with providing valuable insights for scientists to help them develop better warning systems for storms. 

Storm chasing isn't quite as exciting as what Twister makes it out to be, said chaser Don Lloyd:

That movie was totally unrealistic. It was a fun movie, but storm chasing isn't like that. We aren't reckless, and it's unusual to see even one tornado on a given chase, much less four or five.

Other chasers estimate they see a tornado every five to 10 chases, which makes sense, because tornadoes can form quickly without much notice. 

Storm chasers devote a lot of time to mapping out potential paths, reading weather reports, and double-checking road networks. As chaser Melanie Metz explained, you don't want to be left without options when a twister is heading your way:

There might only be a couple road options, and especially in those cases, it's important to make sure you don't take that road that's going to put you right in the path of that storm.