About Me
I’ve been involved in Storm Chasing since April of 2011 when I took my first Skywarn class as a Volunteer Firefighter that was hosted by KARK 4 news out of Little Rock AR, and the National Weather Service, but have been a weather geek ever since high school.
I started out just taking photographs and a few videos here and there. As a Firefighter and first responder I was quickly thrown into the aftermath of severe weather, thats when I really started getting into storm chasing, or what I would rather call going to a good spot to get pictures and video.
After a few years in the Hot Springs, AR area I moved into tornado alley in the fall of 2014 to Tulsa, OK where storm chasing for me really became something I loved to do. Joey Pisani found me Via facebook and invited me to be part of EWV where I have been ever since.
Every chance “and day off work” to chase a good storm was taken. I’ve chased all over Oklahoma and most of Arkansas, down to Texas and into Kansas. But it was Tulsa that got me the experience that is unforgettable: that first tornado.
I knew for days prior that there was going to be a good chance for severe weather during the last few days of March 2016, and on March 30th it happened.
I had been watching a couple of storms forming to the east of Tulsa that quickly intensified into severe thunderstorms. I grabbed my chase partner, my uncle, from his house and started heading for an intercept of the storm which was now tornado warned and sitting to the north of Tulsa International Airport. We headed north to try and make an intercept but instead found a high vantage point where I captured some of the most amazing photographs I have still to this day ever taken. You could see the entire mesocyclone and funnel forming eventually into a tornado. After staring in awe for a bit, we continued north underneath the meso and closer to where the wall cloud and tornado were. We came to a very odd “for Oklahoma” winding road, and then from around the corner there it was: my first tornado…I watched in awe as it moved to the east and dissipated into nothing. It was amazing to see and an experience of a lifetime.
Mother Nature is amazing and never disappoints, even on chases that some would call “failures” she would gift us with an amazing sunset, or incredible lightning storm to make the trip worth it. Being part of EWV makes it even better with the help of GPS tracking and live radar analysis. It makes chasing easier and safer, along with the added company of the radar techs, and other team members who make the long trips a lot of fun!. See you guys out there!
