Chaser Profiles

John Lavin

As is the case for many people who get interested in weather, there’s certain childhood memories of weather that stick with you. For me it was the winter of 1989 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was on this “lucky” day that the city of Jacksonville received a rare “white Christmas.” Naturally the entire city shut down with only 2 inches of snow (it was Florida after all…) and the power at my house was out nearly the entire day. I also remember vividly watching The Weather Channel endlessly to get the latest updates on approaching Hurricanes (RIP John Hope) and tracking them myself on paper Hurricane trackers.

After several years of growing up in Florida, our family ended up moving to Lincoln, Nebraska. As you might imagine violent weather become much more common. On one night the National Weather Service issued a Tornado watch over the radio. I was so terrified that I ran into the basement crying (that wasn’t a typo..it really was a watch..) Sometime later on a late spring afternoon, just outside my window was a weak funnel cloud. Although I was scared like a little baby, I couldn’t stop watching it outside the window. This is something that has stayed true my entire life. I cannot and will not ever stop looking at the weather. Whether it be outside the window, the 500 mb vorticity chart, the latest sounding, or video taping an approaching tornado, the weather will always be around me.

While living in Nebraska, this is also where I met Andrew Stevens. He also shared an interest in weather and I recall both of us staying up till sunrise watching the Weather Channel (yes true story…) Sadly my family had to move again this time to Wichita, Kansas. I have now lived in Kansas since I was 12 years old. I am now a Senior at the University of Kansas where I’m about to receive my BS in Atmospheric Science.

Andrew Stevens

I’ve loved weather since I was very young, so I’ve always had a love for it. My Mom wanted to get into meteorology when she was younger, so I was raised by someone with the same passion I learned to grow. Growing up in Nebraska, we would always have the TV on the weather channel, wondering what the week to come was going to be like. I would also watch as many tornado videos as I could, and find books and eventually the internet to find out more and more on storms and tornadoes.

It was when I was about 8 years old that my passion really grew, I was on a road trip with my parents out to western Nebraska to visit my aunt. I was sitting in back, and outside was some pretty severe weather. I remember seeing some pretty interesting skies above, but what I remembered most was a funnel just starting to drop down off to my right. I had a camera sitting to my left as I watched it for a moment, but insted of grabbing that camera and getting a picture of it, I got scared and jumped up into the front middle seat with my parents. I was young so you can’t really blame me for that. It would of been awesome to see that picture and show it as I tell this story about my past. It is that moment that now drives me and my passion for weather to show you more pictures and videos of future tornadoes I will encounter.
So that moment long ago is where my true passion for weather and storm chasing comes from. For years since then I dreamed of storm chasing and wanting to do it. I’ve prepared myself as much as I possibly could up until last year when I finally had close to a full season of chasing. I chased all of May 09, and we know how great that was, and missed all of June 09. I still have a lot to learn, and I continue to study as much as possible to continue my growth and knowledge into meteorology.

My first and only tornado from last year, my first experience that gave me a huge rush, taught me a lot more that I could only get from having the actual experience. It even taught me to keep recording no matter what, because on my best view of that Kirksville tornado, I thought I stopped recording for a minute when I was about to get out of the car when really I didnt stop recording. So when I got out of the car, I pushed the record button, when really it stopped it as it was still recording from before. Bah!

I still got pretty good video of the tornado, not the best first time around, and Missouri roads didnt help me out to much with that either. However, that video was used on Discovery’s Storm Chasers. So that was a nice accomplishment.

At 24 years old, I’m still a young chaser, but fueled by love and passion for weather. Weather is my life! Storm chasing is my true love! From here on, there will never be a time where I won’t be out storm chasing during the best time of year.

My goals for 2011

* I want at least 6 successful chases/tornadoes.
* Take a large amount of quality still pictures and capture as much quality video as possible.
* Become well connected with other chasers.