Storm chasers seek wild winds

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

While most travelers wish for fair skies while vacationing, the worse the weather the better for Brian McNoldy.

For his May vacation, he will join 10 other lovers of wild weather to chase severe storms across the Midwest.

"Once we get out there, we try to get in the worst weather we can," said McNoldy, who lives by the belief that "behind every silver lining is a dark cloud."

A research associate at Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, whose work focuses on tropical cyclones, McNoldy was one of the founding members of the nonprofit Multi-community Environmental Storm Observatory.

MESO grew out of a 1998 gathering of eight weather enthusiasts who knew each other through the Internet but had never met in person. They converged on St. Louis to indulge their passion for chasing severe storms to witness what the group's web site (http://mcwar.org/) describes as "nature's grandest show."

"When we got home, we realized there was something more than a summer vacation fling," McNoldy said. "We realized the public did not know what severe storm warnings were. A lot of people were not informed what to do when something occurs."

MESO's mission is to remedy that dearth of information by strengthening severe-weather warning and emergency preparedness efforts through educational, scientific and civic projects. "There's no reason to be afraid," said McNoldy. "The more you know, the safer you'll be."

Now, MESO has evolved into what its web site contends is "one of the of the most highly regarded severe weather organizations in the United States" with highly trained volunteers specializing in forecasting, emergency management, photography, videography, electronics, computers, Internet communications and teaching.

The educational component is perhaps the key one because students are receptive "sponges" who soak up the information and disseminate it to adults, according to McNoldy, who makes periodic presentations to classes of students.

He was one of those children particularly smitten by severe weather for as long as he can remember. "While other kids are scared and hiding under the bed, I had to be yanked away from the window," he recalled.

That passion continued even as he earned his undergraduate degree in physics and astrophysics followed by a graduate degree in atmospheric sciences five years ago. "What I do with severe weather is a hobby, but it's a pretty hard-core hobby," said McNoldy.

This year the group will travel at its own expense to Kansas City to follow the extreme weather wherever it takes them. "We never know," said McNoldy.

In previous seasons, they have traveled as much as 6,000 miles during the two-week sojourn. Sometimes they've driven all through the night and once traveled almost 24 hours from South Dakota to Kansas.

Given the forecasting prowess of the MESO crew, "We're usually where the action is," McNoldy said. Occasionally they've gotten a little too close, one time finding themselves a quarter mile from a tornado and another day getting pelted with large hail.

But beyond the admitted "thrill ride," McNoldy said the MESO acts responsibly in keeping with its scientific and educational mission. He said the crew avoids the dangerous driving often demonstrated by the growing ranks of amateur voyeurs that have earned them a bad reputation. And, he said, MESO is welcomed for the assistance emergency medical technicians on the team can provide to those injured by storms.

MESO made a giant leap this year with a $10,000 sponsorship from an online gambling operation in exchange for plastering its logo on one of the chase vehicles.