Storm chasing is a great way to learn about our earth around us. While terrifying to be right in the path of a tornado, it’s still the most common storm chasing. So why do we storm chase well, science. Storm chasing can show us the many parts of a storm that we would otherwise not be able to collect. This research can allow us to better understand storms such as tornadoes, we can learn patterns and how they behave, we can also find ways to possibly lower chances of bad tornadoes or even just prevent them.
Different ways of collecting this science can range all around. Basic strategies such as pictures are the beginning you follow a storm and get good close up photos, now obviously that doesn’t mean run next to a tornado but as close as you can safely get. Another way is probes. Some storm chasers use probes to get up close and personal without having the danger of death. Many probes must be placed in the tornado’s path then the tornado lifts the probe and the probe does the rest. The probe takes in science such as wind speed, direction of the wind, humidity, temperature, and barometric pressure or in a simple term it’s just the air pressure.
If you want to become one here’s what you need. A vehicle of some sort but trucks are most popular, a laptop to allow you to do many thing such as take notes on your finds, mobile internet such as a generator and a router in your car but preferably not cellular because the storms can start to make you signal worse and that the last thing you want to happen. Storm chasers make from 32 to 43 USD per hour. Becoming a storm chaser requires a degree in meteorology. And if you don’t feel like doing it as your career of choice you can easily just do it for a hobby many people do.
Some crazy tools in storm chasing can be so simple but yet so useful such as anchoring spikes. They are strong drills that pull your vehicle into the ground holding it in place so you can get closer to the tornado, but you can’t move with them deployed. Another crazy tool is a vehicle and if very famous it’s called the Dominator, it costs 750,000 dollars but has many great things such as its bullet proof armor and it can keep stationary within 100 ft of a tornado most cars would be scrap at that distance and it can withstand 200 mph wind (321 kph). The Dominator 3 has a missile launcher that was modified to shoot probes, it also has many other great aspects to it such as its built in barometer, thermometer, hygrometer,high res anemometer, and dew point sensors. The Dominator 3 is a very popular storm chasing vehicle unfortunately while the Dominator 3 could survive a tornado it apparently couldn’t withstand a deer impact because it stopped being used after a collision with a deer and it got a radiator leak, and brake failure.
