Chasing Destruction

Storm chasers devote their lives and take huge risks just to be there when a massive storm takes over the landscape

The idea that lies behind Extreme Sports has always been that speed, adrenaline and risk-taking are much more important elements that direct competition.

Of all the extreme pastimes that make up the rich web of the X-Games umbrella, ‘Storm Chasing’ holds the distinction of possessing the greatest degree of speed, the greatest risk and, most importantly, the use of the entire geography of a region as a playing field.

Storm Chasing is characterised by a sense of recreational activity. There are, of course, meteorologists and other scientists who make a living out of investigating storm and general weather patterns, but these do not make up the majority of storm chasers.

They are, rather, enthusiasts who tend to pick up some amateur knowledge of weather prediction, and use this to tour the United States’ Tornado Belt, either in teams or alone.

Typically, they will record scientific data and take photographs, but the key to the passion is simply the feeling of being present as Nature wreaks her power upon the earth.

Although largely an American phenomenon, storm chasing is spreading fast — Australia is fast becoming the most exciting storm chasing scene on earth, while the sport is also becoming popular in places as diverse as Israel, Italy, Spain, France,
Belgium, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand.

The growing interest in this sport throughout the world has often been linked to the success of the 1996 film ‘Twister’, directed by Jan de Bont and starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

It won few plaudits for its story of the personal lives of competing storm chasers, but its vision of the impact of a major storm, replete with flying cows and disintegrating houses, captured imaginations.

Since then, the sport has grown exponentially, with scientific advancements and larger numbers of enthusiasts bolstering what has become a significant element of the tourism industry.

Long-term enthusiasts will travel around in groups, monitoring weather reports for themselves, and plotting routes and timing through their own endeavour.

Increasingly, however, tours are being arranged, whereby first-time storm chasers will be taken on specially adapted buses to storm zones.

They typically will have access to the data and radio elements that put storm chasers in control of their activity, but are essentially passive, and in it for the thrills of seeing the storm close up.

The danger inherent in storm chasing is as real as it gets.

Individuals actively chase the agents of destruction that usually warrant evacuation orders, and injury and even death is a frequent occurrence.

As well as the danger of debris flying through the air and swirling around the intrepid chasers, the major flash points are the dangers of driving through difficult conditions while concentrating on several things, and the very real possibility of being hit by lightening.

This danger is just a footnote to the real adrenaline rush of the sport, which is manifested simply in the feeling created by ‘being there’ as a storm breaks.