Tornadovideos.net has grown immensely over the 10 years since I first contacted Reed with questions about chasing and weather in general and I'm proud I've promoted his business on this site from those early days.
You won't find a more professional and dedicated storm chaser anywhere. With the addition of three chase teams, live tracker and video footage, inclusion with Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers series and live streaming to his website/forum there's no reason not to get on board with TV.NET
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Reed Timmer - EXTREME METEOROLOGIST AND STORM CHASER
Age: 27
Stormchasing Since: 1997
# of Tornadoes Seen: 215
# of Hurricanes Seen: 6
Closest distance from a tornado: 0 meters
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. His infamous reputation was achieved when he videotaped an F5 tornado from underneath an overpass on May 3, 1999 while it was bearing down on his location. Reed has more recently become interested in hurricane chasing as well, and documented Hurricane Katrina from "ground zero" in the fall 2005 with Simon Brewer (Stormgasm), lost Simon's car to a 20 foot storm surge, and had to hitch-hike back to Oklahoma. Notable tornado intercepts include the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado in Moore, OK; the Manchester, SD wedge on June 24, 2003; the May 4, 2003 tornado outbreak in southeast KS; and sustaining a direct hit from an F0 tornado in southern Minnesota. Reed has made several television appearances to share his storm chasing escapades, including CNN with Wolf Blitzer and Paula Zahn, Good Morning America with Dianne Sawyer, the Leeza Gibbons Show, Real TV, and World's Most Amazing Videos.
Reed graduated with a Bachelors Degree in meteorology in 2002, Masters in 2005, and is currently working towards his PhD in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests lie mainly in the field of applied climatology, focusing on energy consumption/temperature connections, and minimizing weather-related risk in the agribusiness sector. Additional interests include oboe performance, weight-lifting, basketball, golf, and hockey. Reed will chase storms until the day he dies!
CHRIS CHITTICK - PHOTO STILLS, PROBE DEPLOYMENT
Title: Storm Chaser
Age: 28
Stormchasing Since: 2000
# of Tornadoes Seen: N/A
# of Hurricanes Seen: 0
Closest distance from a tornado: N/A
DAVE HOLDER - DOMINATOR DRIVER
Title: StormchaserAge: 26
Stormchasing Since:
# of Tornadoes Seen: 47
# of Hurricanes Seen: 0
Closest distance from a tornado: 0 meters
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.
Make sure you mention StormscapesDarwin.com when you order your website!
Brand new!
Friends Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor are Tornado Alley storm chasers from TornadoVideos.net and have joined forces with The Discovery Channel in association with Sean Casey, owner of the TIV and Dr Josh Wurman's DOW vehicle to chase tornadoes and supercells. A brand new series titled 'Storm Chasers' is about to be aired in the USA and won't be long until it is aired in Australia and worldwide. The Discovery Channel link is below and there's outstanding info on tornadoes and even a chase game!
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/storm-chasers.html
You can find out updated news and photos of what Reed is up to here also, here's some photos of Tornadovideos.net's brand new chase vehicle undergoing some additions.
Text and photos courtesy of Reed Timmer.
New release! 2008 Extreme Tornado footage - over 90 minutes of action from the best!
TVN Storm Research Vehicle (SRV, or affectionately "The Dominator")
The Storm Research Vehicle (SRV), a.k.a. The Dominator, is the ultimate storm chasing machine. The SRV was modified from last season's chase vehicle (2007 Chevy Tahoe) beginning in January 2009 with bulletproof sheet metal and transparent Lexan armor for protection against flying debris near tornadoes, as well as an external roll cage and NASCAR-style safety harnesses for the unlikely event of a vehicle roll. The SRV will allow TornadoVideos.net to safely collect ground-breaking scientific data very close to strong tornadoes where few dare to venture. The goal of TornadoVideos.net is not to drive into a tornado, but to collect scientific data and high resolution video very near to the tornado core flow where the strongest winds reside. The severe weather research tools deployed by the SRV are a roof-mounted single-beam radar (Close-Range Vertical Radar - CLOVER), wind monitor on the roof, and last year's 300 lb tornado probe, which will be used to measure the intense horizontal and vertical winds inside and immediately around the tornado core flow. A roof-mounted High Definition camera enclosed in a bullet-proof Lexan bubble will capture HD video of the fine-scale structure inside tornadoes, which can be aimed and focused from within the cockpit. In the event of winds exceeding 100 mph, the SRV has the ability to drop the entire armored frame to the ground with the flip of a switch though a state-of-the-art hydraulics system. When lowered to the ground, a rubber sheath around the base of the aerodynamic armor will prevent wind from flowing under the vehicle and causing a vehicle roll while collecting valuable data. The ideal storm chase scenario for the TornadoVideos.net team would be to drive the SRV into the path of a strong slow-moving tornado, deploy the tornado probe in the path, then drive to the anticipated edge of the tornado core flow and drop the frame to the ground while recording vertical tornadic winds with CLOVER and horizontal winds with roof-mounted wind monitor and tornado probe.
