Meeting the Storm Chasers
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
On why you should never stop chasing… your heroes
The TV show Storm Chasers told the story of several groups of people who chased tornados, which, like sky diving, is a thing you can do if your life isn’t exciting enough on its own. The show on Discovery seemed at first to be the story of a film maker, Sean Casey, determined to shoot an IMAX film from inside a tornado. He’d built a special tank-like thing with a camera turret to do so. It was called the TIV for Tornado Intercept Vehicle. He was teamed with a group of meteorologists who were trying to create a 3D model of a tornado forming using Doppler radar (the DOW, Doppler on Wheels). They were led by a legit science guy, Josh Wurman. Another group was trying to deploy sensors in the path of tornados. This was the Twistex team. But the show eventually also starred a crazy, energy-drink fueled crew who also had a tornado tank called the Dominator. Reed Timmer was also a young meteorologist but seemed at the time somewhat less serious than Wurman and certainly less well-funded. He was brash, and maybe rash but also quite good at finding tornados. His mantra is a good one: never stop chasing.
Pam and I watched the show in our early days of parenthood and couldn’t get enough of it.
The scientists and filmmakers were doing incredible things and risking their lives to do so. It was clearly an adrenaline rush for Timmer and the Dominator, too. But they were collecting data to help better understand how tornadoes form and how to predict their genesis and paths.
Despite all their knowledge and experience, the Twistex team led by Tim Samaras was killed in the 2013 El Reno, OK tornado. It was the largest tornado ever recorded and its rapid growth proved too much for the team, who weren’t in a particularly armored vehicle.
Casey eventually got his shot and made his IMAX movie, Tornado Alley. The film debuted at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago in 2011. He brought the TIV and Wurman brought the DOW. It was very cool to get to go and see the vehicles and meet the people behind the show.
I followed Reed Timmer on Facebook and hoped eventually that I would get to meet him, too. I never stopped chasing him, you could say. Finally in 2024 he came to town to give a talk at his niece’s high school. Pam was sadly out of town on business but I took two of the kids.
Timmer’s talk was very low-budget. It was just him and a Powerpoint that didn’t always work. He was on the floor. Literally our level. Not on the stage. There was nothing between him and the audience. Timmer said he wasn’t afraid of tornados because they don’t come after you like people or animals. You have to go find them, study them, observe and learn about them and then you get to decide how close you’re comfortable getting to them.
He talked about how it’s tough to earn a living as a self-funded scientist and there’s competition but it’s mostly a friendly community. And he showed lots of insane videos of driving into tornadoes.
I tried to model my Meeting My Heroes toolkit(tm) for my kids. We did our research. We showed up early to get a good seat. I took advantage of the fact that he was hanging out before the show and made an ask (photo and autograph). It wasn’t a big ask and Timmer clearly enjoyed making his fans happy. Afterward we were patient as we awaited our chance to sit in the Dominator itself. I mean, how cool is that? Sometimes you just stand around. Sometimes you get in line as fast as you can. Sometimes both happen.
The kids watched and… didn’t really participate. But at least they humored me. It’s important to me that they see some of this in action. I hope to inspire them to meet their heroes, too. Or at least to have heroes. And to have plans. And to figure out how to make those plans actually happen. All of this has probably come through if you’ve read the 70 or so installments of this newsletter thus far. But it’s time to start saying the things out loud. Because each of my kids is pretty remarkable in their own way and what parent doesn’t want great things for their kids?
For some, that’s chasing storms. For others, chasing heroes, and lessons and most of all stories. Whatever you want to chase, you just have to practice, build muscles (or habits, or routines or rituals and skills) and have a plan to get there. Which brings me, oddly, to a professional trainer, who might be the least likely hero of them all if you’ve ever met me.