Chasing the Dragon
Storming the Plains
with Tornado Tim by Craig Terlino
In
the early days of Spring 2004, I found myself driving in slow motion into
the heart of America. I was on my way to the Thunderbird Inn in Liberal,
Kansas after a six-hour drive from Oklahoma City. There, I would meet
renowned tornado chaser, Tornado Tim Baker and embark on an infinite road
trip in pursuit of one of nature’s deadliest creations, Super-cell
thunderstorms and of course, the tornado.
Being a
self-proclaimed journalist is a hard profession. You’ve got to be good at
convincing editors that you are for real and that you can produce a story.
That you can be trusted and maintain a sense of professionalism. I haven’t
succeeded at all of these, but one thing for sure is I will travel to
further extremes than most credible journalists I know.
For as far back as I
remember, I was always fascinated , yet terrified of the intensity of these
storms. Growing up in Southern New England you rarely get any intense
tornadic activity occurring; However, back in 1953 in Worcester, MA, a
killer F5 tornado moved across the central part of the state causing over
$62 million dollars in damage and killing 94 people and injuring thousands
http://www.ci.worcester.ma.us/cco/tornado/index.htm. It was the most
deadliest in New England history and without a doubt, in U.S. History.
My interest in
Tornadoes became so intense that for many years and still now, I dream about
them almost every night. Sometimes the dreams are lucid, sometimes obscure,
other times violent and terrifying. I was familiar with storm chasing. As I
became ravished by tornado dreams and the psychological distress they were
beginning to give me I thought it was due time to come face to face with
this fierce creation.
I was always under
the impression you needed to thoroughly understand meteorology in order to
be out there chasing. Perhaps helpful, but not imperative.
A love of weather,
adventure,strategy, traveling, sleeping in motels, driving 12 hours or more
a day, as well as a love for convenience store sandwiches, bad coffee, and
if your lucky, a $2 win on a $5 scratch ticket, is all you really need to
classify as a storm chaser’s apprentice. Not very glamorous I would agree,
nontheless, in order to make decent time and be slightly out of harms way,
one must make many compromises.
I met Tim at the
Thunderbird Inn sometime around 8pm, he showed me the statistics for the
next day and we agreed to get an early start. We spent the next week
positioning ourselves carefully.
My first Tornado
Season on the road with Tornado Tim was a success. We spent most of our time
chasing through the rolling prairies of Nebraska, Kansas, into Oklahoma and
down into the Texas Panhandle. There, the cold front we had been chasing for
days would finally give way and spawn an ominous black cloud looming over
the city of Wichita Falls, TX with an appetite for destruction.
As the storm began to
intensify we headed east to positon ourselves out of harms way, but it was
difficult since neighboring storms, at this time, were being sucked into the
raging supercell making it one vicious storm. After driving along the edges
of the storm we finally got ahead of the supercell and watched it hover
slowly towards where we were positioned.
In the blink of an
eye, over the horizon, a dark wedge of a cloud lowered itself onto the dry
Texas soil, spitting up debris, and increasing in width. It appeared as an
apparition to me. I knew it was there in form, I knew I was awake, but still
things didn’t calculate right away. Strangely enough, I felt numb to it, but
I knew I had attained a sense of peace. I finally saw that wretched symbol
for all my fears and anxieties barreling out of control in a uniformed chaos
right before me. It was a beautiful moment. I was chasing this storm, not
the other way around. A sense of self-control came back into context.
After an incredible
week of running amok in Tornado Alley and catching a tornado on my first
attempt, Tornado Tim headed back to Colorado to catch up with another
weather system. I headed back to Oklahoma City, spent a Sunday there, lost
my mind, and headed back to the cocktail liberal capital of America,
Cambridge, MA. That tornado season gave way to an all-time record of over
600 tornadoes reported; not counting another 100 tornadoes which spawned in
the state of Florida as a result of the record setting hurricane season.
The rest of the year
went fast like ashes being sucked into a vacuum, and upon me once again was
yet another tornado season. I contacted Tornado Tim in late February of 2005
to confirm another chase. He agreed and we planned a later chase. This time
I would meet Tim in peak season during late May. I decided to bring
companionship along since last years trip got a bit lonely. I brought my
long time city slicking friend, Joshua. Like myself, he enjoyed traveling
and craved a good adventure. Joshua may not be a journalist but he has the
blood to be one. I guess if he wasn’t overdosing on Coca Cola, Pizza and
nicotine (the breakfast of champions) most of the time he may be in tune
with his less destructive side. But this isn’t a moral lesson nor is it a
lecture on good hygiene, this was simply my decision to take along a human
pack of cigarettes.
Back to the chase.
We flew into Denver
International Airport and met up with Tim and his chase team which consisted
of his daughter, Krystallin, and a dancer from the low-lands of Kansas City
named, Adam. Joshua and I didn’t make it on the road until about 1pm since
we had to deal with some lost luggage problems. Joshua’s luggage got lost
back in Boston somehow. It really outraged me to find out that we were
waiting all day, almost jeopardizing the chase, for a duffle bag of dirty
whites and soiled blue jeans with a couple of mix matched socks.
“Did he smoke the
missing pairs of socks?”, I wondered.
Disclosure
on Lightning
No way around it,
Lightning is insanely dangerous and incredibly unpredictable. In the chasing
field it is feared more than anything, I believe. The chances of being
struck are greater than being swept up from the ground and sent to Oz by a
tornado, if your lucky. I have come too close with this deadly element to
know that in terms of safety, it is your very first concern. It will strike
you dead in the blink of an eye. It will fuse your keys to you leg through
your pants. It will, when lightning strikes close enough, blow you back
100ft or more. It accompanies that tornadic zone that every chaser longs to
be near. Since the most dangerous place to be during a severe thunderstorm
is an automobile (hydroplaning, grapefruit size hail, damaging winds, and
lightning striking anything in it’s path such as trees, telephone poles,
etc.) it is not recommended that anyone loads the pick-up truck with their
buddies and parade up and down the flooded interstate. However, if you think
that’s an intelligent thing to do, well....
After we drove
through two hail storms, survived 100mph straight line winds and debris, and
came damn close to getting pummeled by numerous bolts of lightning, we
finally caught up with Tim and his team waiting patiently for us in Limon,
Colorado. We chased our way into Goodland, Kansas after punching through the
core of one of the deadliest thunderstorms I have ever been in. At one
point, due to heavy winds and torrential downpour, the visibility was zero.
It was as if we parked our car right under a waterfall. If that wasn’t
pressing enough, my rental car was pummeled by hail stones the size of
grapefruit. From inside the car it sounded as if we were trying to drive
through machine gun fire. Just when Joshua and I thought we were out of the
clear, a heinous bolt of lightning struck the telephone pole above us right
as we passed under it sending sparks down on the roof of the rental car.
At this point, it was
evident that I had to just keep up with Tim at all costs so he could get us
to safety. And he did, we made it safe and sound to Goodland, KS where we
met up with some other renowned storm chasers and whooped it up a bit before
we settled for the night. Overall, the days activity did produce some
spectacular storms and a few funnel clouds eager to touch the ground.
It wasn’t until our 3rd
day of the chase where we found ourselves south of Grenville, New Mexico,
sandwiched in between the Capulin Volcanoes, where we learned that our
Kansas City dancer companion was mortified of heights as we reached one of
the Capulin volcanic rims; heights, mind you, not tornadoes; But, that is
another story.
More important, this
same location is where we witnessed three short-lived tornadoes spiraling
down from a quick building thunderstorm. It’s pretty remarkable to be in the
middle of nowhere with a 2 percent chance of tornadic activity and actually
bare witness to three quick, yet large tornadoes. This amazes me about
Tornado Tim, his accuracy without having a dependency on lots of on-hand
technological devices. He doesn’t bog himself down with gadgets and clutter.
He sets the standard for the day checking in and out of public libraries
when possible to stay up to date with various radars and reports. Tornado
Tim is man of pure instinct. Reading the clouds and atmosphere comes
natural. Either I have lucked out twice in a row or when it comes to
navigating the perfect storm, Tornado Tim has a firm handle on his craft,
even if the day holds a 2 percent statistic for tornadoes.
In between all these
tornado experiences, I got to see middle America in the most exhilarating
way; chasing tornadoes. I got to see the people and their way of life. We
may live within the same land mass, but we live in slightly different
cultural settings based on our geographical needs. As a city boy, I realized
that I don’t need the city to survive, I just depend on it. I got to see
some of the most amazing sunsets and cloud formations as storms still
persevered into the distance and as night began to unfold, still emitting
non-stop flashes of lightning coloring up the night sky. In just two chases,
I covered so much territory in search of these magnificent storms such as
Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.
I just loved being
out in that part of America. The history, the feeling, the landscape, and
all the other elements really come together. You really feel like your in
America.
At the end of our
chase Tornado Tim and his team headed back to Denver since Adam was catching
a late flight back to Kansas City. Having a few days until we departed,
Joshua and myself decided to make our way up towards the Aspen area and down
to Four Corners and eventually back over to Denver.
“Do you think they
sell cheap cigarettes at the Indian reservations?” Joshua asked.
To our surprise the
next day as we headed back to Denver through the town of Aurora, we were met
by a menacing sky. The reality of this situation was that there was no storm
chaser to hide behind. We were on our own. I could sense that we didn’t
really confide in one another in terms of being able to navigate our way
around the storm. We truly felt like we were caught in the cross-fire.
“Hell, man, look like
we need to just go through it” I said.
Joshua lit up a
cigarette and remained silent for most of the drive through the storm. He
was hoping, like I was, that we get out of it without any implications.
From my experience
with Tim I have learned how to read the clouds a bit, and more important
understand the ever-changing mechanics of a supercell. It was refreshing to
know that I actually had gained some confidence since this storm brought new
meaning to the phrase, “the sky is falling.
I pulled over and
started filming what appeared to be a funnel cloud. Within seconds it was
evident that this storm was ferocious. We were kind of embedded in a
mountainous area and I thought it would be smart not to head off the road we
were on. Luckily we missed being caught with our pants down and made it to
Denver safely. When we arrived at our motel room we saw on the news that a
tornado did in fact touch down in Aurora, perhaps that very same cloud that
put us on edge.
Another year has
blown by and I still have the itch to see more and be a part of this storm
chasing culture. The mystery of heading back out there is compelling to me.
It’s a journey into the unknown, but it’s the closest thing to God I can
perceive of. It’s about getting close to Mother Nature. It’s about respect.
It’s a very humbling feeling being right below the ominous maw of a
pulsating black cloud. It may not be for all. There are harsh realities
attached that not even I have been faced with; potential injury, emotional
distress, panic, even death isn’t far-fetched. What may seem as a thrill to
us is a horror for others who lie in a tornadoes wake.
I highly recommend
storm chasing if your serious about it. It’s a way to redeem a sense of
living and excitement. We get very complacent in our lives and ignore the
essence of what reality really is. Maybe your not into taking risks. If
that’s the case maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. You should be more
compelled by the nature of storm chasing not the consequences. I think
moving confidently and positively into this field assures you a certain
amount of safety right from the get go. With a good amount of reading,
consulting, and responsibility on the matter, you should be off to a safe
start. I don’t recommend going alone the first few times.
“Would you go again?”
I asked Joshua.
“Of course, but it
does have it’s moments where you feel like your not chasing anything. I’d be
a bit spooked doing this all the time. Like I’m playing with fire, you
know?. It would only be a matter of time before you met your match, right?.”
Joshua explained.
“Hey man, can you stop
at the next store so I can pick up some smokes?”
-Craig Terlino
