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| My first out of town chase, and my first lightning shot. |
I want to feel the way the air feels before big severe weather outbreaks. Warm, humid spring and summer days. Where that eerie stillness lingers into the afternoon. The kind of feeling old folks call "tornado weather".
I remember when I was younger setting up my little weather station in the back yard in anticipation of thunderstorms. Then I'd go inside to my forecasting center (The Weather Channel) and begin drawing out my maps. Storms would begin to fire, and I would track them on a piece of construction paper, hoping they would come our way. I would hang my "analysis" and printed radar loops on a bulletin board, so I could track the storms movement.Come late afternoon, warnings would be issued, and I'd be outside with my dad, filming the approaching storm from the garage with my dad's giant VHS camcorder, and my Field Guide to North American Weather in hand. Although most of the storms weren't anything that special, a few do stick out in my memory.
That may be the reason I'm a storm chaser. Something about it takes me back to the glory days of my youth. I may be a little taller now, but I'm still the same little kid inside. My appreciation for the weather hasn't changed.
In a few months, gulf moisture will raid the southern plains, and once again, the kid inside of me can come out to play.
Donovan Gruner
:)
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