Count | Date | My location | Rating | Summary | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
001 | 1967-04-21 2050Z | Belvidere,IL | F4 | 24 killed (most at Belvidere High School) | First tornado I recall vividly |
002 | 1967-06-11 1820Z | S of Rockford,IL | F1 | Did $4M damage | |
003 | 1975-06-28 | Fargo, ND | F2 | Mile-wide stovepipe tornado over farmland | Tornado NE of Moorhead,MN; viewed from highrise dorm(!) – preceded by monster mammatus field Roger Jensen’s photo of this tornado is in the Grazulis ‘Green Book’ (NOTE: recordmeteo.com shows two tornadoes (F3,F4) at this date/location, Grazulis notes F2 only) |
004 | 1976-08-19 1955Z | Fargo, ND | F1 | Brief, weak tornado to the north | viewed from highrise dorm(!) |
005 | 1976-08-19 2000Z | Fargo, ND | F1 | Brief, weak tornado to the southwest | viewed from highrise dorm(!) |
006 | 1976-08-19 2015Z | Fargo, ND | F2 | Brief, weak tornado to the southwest | viewed from highrise dorm(!) – did $12M damage w/F1s above |
007 | 2001-05-28 | near Perryton, TX | F0? | Chasing w/Stephen Levine | |
008 | 2001-05-30 | Archer City, TX | ? | Chasing w/Stephen Levine | |
009 | 2002-05-04 | Eola, TX | F0 | Brief, weak tornado | First tornado as a ‘tornado tourist’ |
010 | 2002-05-05 | Happy, TX | F2 | 2 killed; many buildings destroyed | My first ‘really good’ tornado video |
011 | 2002-05-07 | Cullison, KS | F2? | _summary_ | First time chase *by* a tornado. YOW! |
012 | 2003-05-08 | Yates Center, KS | F2? | Wedge tornado W. of town | “It’s beautiful!! I Want to marry it!!” |
013 | 2003-05-08 | E of Yates Center, KS | F1? | Narrow rope tornado | Drove along damage path afterwards |
014 | 2003-05-09 | Oklahoma City, OK | F3? | Night tornado slams into OKC | Never seen so many power flashes! |
015 | 2003-05-10 2156Z | Clarence, MO | F0? | Rain-wrapped stovepipe N of US36 | Saw a total of 5 tornadoes in 10 days with Tempest Tours in 2003 |
016 | 2003-05-10 2156Z | Clarence, MO | F0? | Segmented tornado N of US36 | |
017 | 2003-05-10 ~2230Z | Monroe City, MO | F0? | Elephant trunk tornado N of US36 | |
018 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
019 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
020 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
021 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
022 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
023 | 2004-05-10 | Limon, CO | F0? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
024 | 2004-05-12 | Attica, KS | F3? | Chasing w/Scott Weberpal | |
025 | 2006-05-05 | Patricia, TX | ? | Rain-wrapped tornado. Poor visibility for us | Paul Sirvatka & friends caught the cyclonic twin |
028 | 2006-05-05 | Patricia, TX | F0? | Anticyclonic tornado! | (see below) |
027 | 2009-06-09 2359Z | near Dyke, IA | F0 | 2-minute tornado just N of US20 | First ‘catch’ on a rare solo chase. No time to set up video! |
026 | 2011-05-22 | Southwest City, MO | F2? | Large wedge tornado; homes destroyed | Part of the Joplin, MO tornado family |
029 | 2011-05-23 | O’Keene, KS | F0 | Brief, weak touchdown | _remarks_ |
030 | 2011-05-25 | Ellsinore, MO | F1? | Tornado sped NNE across US60 | A rare chase in southeast Missouri pays off for our team. |
031 | 2012-04-27 | near Council Grove, KS | F0 | Weak, brief tornado | Kelly DeLay grabbed great shots of #29 and #30. See the Webby Award-winning Clouds365 Project website for photos of these |
032 | 2012-04-30 | S Wellington, TX | F0 | Weak, brief tornado | Memorable because one of our vans was axle-deep in sand and mud only minutes beforehand. Almost missed this one (or worse)! |
Year: 2013
18 April 2013 – Call to action
Two phones ringing and several alarms (computers and weather radio) are sounding.
Naperville EMA has activated the weather unit, but I’m shaking from head to toe, due to sleep deprivation. Lots of flooding going on in the area! I expect to see dozens of these today:
I needed to get to work before water bars my way!
On the way home, I checked out the flooding about a mile from home
Lisa’s Big, Fat Camera Collection
(No, Jim [Reed] and Bill [Reid — ‘no relation’], I do not plan on dragging all this to Oklahoma for this trip (LOL!) )
11 April 2013 – Soggy times
It’s been raining three days in a row and sometimes heavily:
Finally, northern Illinois is beginning to emerge from the drought.
It’s the perfect weather for contemplation and handling details for my upcoming storm chase trip. During the off-season, I’ve done lots of reading, ingesting books like Tim Vazquez’s “Weather Radar Handbook” (ORANGE BOOK).
In anticipation of chasing for ten days with famed storm photographer Jim Reed, I read “STORM CHASER: A Photographer’s Journey”.
I had intended to go through it over several days, but read through it in a single sitting (unlike the ORANGE BOOK, which I’ve been nibbling at for weeks). I felt it would be beneficial to read Jim’s book to better understand him and his guiding principals of storm photography.
As it turns out, Jim and I have had interesting parallels in our lives:
Jim Reed | Lisa Beal | REMARKS | |
Born | Springfield, Illinois | Rockford, Illinois | Also close to the same age |
Raised in Midwest? | Yup | Yup | _ |
Non-traditional family | Raised by single mom | One of three adopted children. Raised by almost-single mom until 10. (Dad traveled 5-6 days a week.) |
We may have watched the Brady Bunch, but we were not members! |
1st memorable storm | Hurricane Camille (with mom) |
Belvidere, IL tornado (with dad) |
Dominant parent present during first memorable storm experience gave a sense that “everything’s going to be OK” (and it was). |
Moved from Midwest | to West Coast (California) | to East Coast (to New York) | Off to the big city! |
Returned to Midwest | Kansas | Illinois | Returned after college in both cases |
Einstein connection | Ja! | Ja! | God may not play dice with the universe, but he seems to be good at poker. I remember this during storm chases! |
1960s TV connection | Gilligan’s Island | Gilligan’s Island | Theory: the seven characters on Gilligan’s Island represent the Seven Deadly Sins. (What would Dawn Wells think of that?) |
Dedicated chase vehicle | Ford Explorer (as of 2006) |
Chrysler Town&Country (from 2011-date) |
_ |
Seen lots of tornadoes | 40+ | about 30 (I’m re-checking) |
Easily half of those I’ve seen were with Tempest Tours. Saw 6 on 10 May 2004 afternoon near Limon, Colorado. (“Thank you, Dr. Weberpal!”) |
Winter photography experience | First chapter in the book captures this | Several photos from Antarctica used on Oprah for Jerri Nielsen’s appearance. | Jim will be supplying 2013 Tempest Tour 2B guests with signed copies of his book during the tour! |
Camera collection | Nikon-sanctioned photographer | Started with Pentax while working for the Antarctic Program | OK, Nikon! I’m tired of Pentax stuff being ‘niche gear’ that’s both expensive AND hard to find. |
We’ll have plenty to talk about on the trip. I’ll have to remind myself that there will be a dozen people vying for his time, including Jim Reed.
To hear Jim speak about our trip, check out this YouTube video ( 2:14-):
Extended Interview: Jim Reed, extreme weather photographer (KRCG)