My First Storm

I remember it just like it was yesterday. It was the summer before my freshman year in high school. I had gone through my morning routine of working out and showering, and had just sat down in front of the T.V. to check out the day's news and weather reports. Truth be told, I was more interested in the weather than the news. A year before I had become obsessed with hurricanes and tornadoes. The weather report for the day was calling for an unusual storm outbreak in northern Texas, close to the Texas/Oklahoma border. This immdiately got my attention. How awesome would it be to chase this storm? I knew there were people out there that did it, but I had never had the pleasure. Luckily, I had a couple of friends that were juniors in high school (which meant they were licensed drivers) and they just happened to be as obsessed with storms as I was. They also had never chased one. It seemed to me like it was time to call them up and formulate a plan.

The phone rang and rang. I was about to give up and dial the next number when I heard a very groggy Jason on the other end of the line.

"Damn Sean, don't you know it's summer time? I didn't want to be disturbed until at least 2:00PM!" I sat there listening while the almighty Sean ranted. Finally, after about ten minutes of this he asked what I wanted.

"What I want is a lot, but what I will settle for is a ride to the Texas/Oklahoma border." Sean started laughing

"What do you need a ride up there for? Are you running from the law?"

"No, I got wind of some pretty intense storm outbreaks up there today and thought maybe you and Chris would want to chase one. Who knows? Maybe we'll se a tornado!"

The other end of the line was quiet for a second. Then Sean responded. "Let me get a shower and get dressed. Call Chris and tell him I'm picking you guys up at your house in an hour."

"That's excellent news my man! This is going to be awesome!"

An hour later Sean showed up as promised. We all piled into his Jeep and headed north. The first three hours of the ride were pretty uneventful. The sun was out and the skies were clear. You would never guess that there could be severe weather anywhere near us. That's also the beauty of Texas weather. It is very unpredictable. We stopped for gas, bathroom breaks and junk foor in Denton. Chris tuned into the local radio station as we were pulling out. It was happening. Tornado watches and warnings were going up all over northern Texas and the southern part of Oklahoma.

"We should get an idea of which way the storm is actually moving and go from there."

Sean and I agreed with Chris on this point. We had studied these patterns long enough to know that you have to be south of a storm to see a tornado, if it produces one. Luckily we weren't the only people in the world who chased these things. There must have been a hundred cars all full of amateur chasers alone. Then there were also the caravans of professional chasers. I decided that we should follow the seasoned pros, since that would no doubt put us in the best position to see some action. I mean, wasn't that what we had come for?

We followed a group called Team Twister into Oklahoma. We were just south of Norman when we saw it. There was a dark black wall cloud to the west of us and it seemed to be tracking northeast. We all stopped on the side of a country road so we could get out and get a good look at it. It was magnificant! The clouds were so dark and gothic looking. Lightning bolts zipped across the sky and a loud rumble of thunder followed. It must have gone on for two whole minutes before it got silent. We noticed Team Twister getting back into their vehicles, so we followed suit. We trucked on for another ten miles and stopped again. Only this time it wasn't just so we could look at a wall cloud. Sitting just to the northwest of us, in all its glory, was a tornado. It was so amazing! It had to have been a half mile wide at the base. The color of it was dark brown and black, no doubt because of the debris and earth that it was carrying. It also smelled of earth. I could almost taste the dirt in my mouth.

Everyone around us was going crazy with excitement. Of course we were too. None of us had a video camera, but as luck would have it, we did have camersa phones. We recorded as much of the event as possible. We would later return home and upload it to our computers for a better look. One of the guys from Team Twister, I think his name was Josh, walked over to us and asked if we were insane.

"That was easily and F3 rope back there! You guys could have gotten yourselves killed chasing that thing!"

I quickly explained that the only reason we pursued it was because we were following professional chasers. He smiled and said, "I guess it's probably not all that bad. I did the exact same thing when I started chasing."

We talked for a littlw while longer as we admired the countryside. Then we packed up and started our trip back to Texas. We had been on the road back home for about an hour when Jason piped up and said, "I have to hand it to you Sean. You really know how to spice up a summer day!"

Yes I did. And I was thinking to myself, "yeah and there will be many more to come, because I am going to be a professional storm chaser one day."