My fascination with
thunderstorms began as I grew up in Southern California
with a strong interest in meteorology. Then as a teenager
visiting a Virginia farm, I watched an incredible summer
lightning display and got hooked on severe thunderstorms.
My interest grew in the early 1980s, when I lived in Fort
Worth. In those days, storm chasing was a tough hobby
because of the shortage of easily accessible data. During
two springs, I lucked into a handful of severe storms (
read my comments about renowned weatherman Harold Taft
), but moving back to California to pursue a career
kept me from more storm chasing for many years.
Finally, thanks to the forecasting tools provided by the
Internet, as well as a very understanding wife, I
discovered the potential for storm chasing in 1995. After
two seasons of virtual chases (predicting storm locations
based on morning data), my first actual trip was in 1997
(16 days). Work requirements reduced my storm chasing to
12 days in both 1998 and 1999, and then only 8 days in
2000. But changes to my work situation finally allowed
numerous storm chase opportunities in spring 2001.
|
