Storm chaser shares stories from the road and why he tracks tornadoes
AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach shares stories about storm chasing and what it's like to come face to face with deadly weather.
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00:00Welcome to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts, I'm your host Jeff Cornish, and whether you
00:16nerd out on it or just want to know more about it, we talk to some of the best minds in meteorology,
00:21space and science to get answers on everything you've wanted to ask, and in today's show
00:26we explore the art of storm chasing, what it's like to come face to face with potentially deadly
00:32weather, the process, the risks and also some of the big benefits. So joining us now is AccuWeather
00:37meteorologist and longtime storm chaser Tony Laubach. Tony, thanks so much for making time
00:41for us today. Jeff, it is my pleasure and I am happy to be nerding out with you today.
00:48Excellent. Well, I love working with you, Tony, and typically you're not in the friendly confines
00:52of your home, but we know that you joined AccuWeather back in June of 2021. Remember one
00:57of your first stories was out in Death Valley and you had the oven mitts on initially as a field
01:02meteorologist and storm chaser, and you've moved through the past three plus years here with a lot
01:08of different exciting stories. So we want to get back to the early days of how all this got started.
01:13So let's get down to it, Tony. When did you first know you wanted to chase tornadoes in severe weather?
01:19Well, I think my parents said I was kind of born with the disease of wanting to be a weather nerd.
01:23I always had an interest in weather growing up, but I was exposed to storm chasing in the early
01:2790s after the Andover, Kansas tornado back in 1991, and they did numerous specials on that event
01:34and was introduced to the concept of storm chasing through all of that. And I really kind of thought,
01:39man, it would be really cool to actually go out and see weather growing up in Ohio. There wasn't
01:44a lot of it to really experience, but when storm chasing kind of came into the picture, I was only
01:5011, so I still had some time before I actually was able to even drive a car, but I finally got
01:55into it in the late 90s and I've been doing it ever since. And when you look at all you've done
02:00being part of research teams, being an on-air meteorologist and also producing and starring
02:04in many storm and weather related series, it seems everything you did early on put you in
02:10Well, I think it's just really the experience and then having such a wide range. You mentioned I
02:15was with research groups. I've done TV. I worked with a tour group for a time being. I've done
02:20just about every possible occupation that can be done in storm chasing and probably one of the few
02:27that actually can say they make a living, a legit living storm chasing. It's been something like
02:34I've been very proud to be doing for the better part of the last two decades, so it is certainly
02:38really, really cool to not only be doing it for you guys here at AccuWeather, but to have
02:43such a wide range of things I've done with it in the past.
02:47And Tony, do you have any idea the number of storms and maybe tornadoes that you have seen and chased?
02:55I couldn't tell you the number of storms. It's been countless.
02:59But tornadoes, I'm over 400 heading into this portion of my career, so about 400 tornadoes
03:06over the course of 20 years. And that's a number that has been adding up more quickly as I've gone
03:12later into my career as it took a long time before I really started accumulating tornadoes
03:16because I was very green and had no idea what I was doing back then.
03:20We certainly do now. And you've gone back and forth in your career,
03:23at times chasing storms with others, and at other times solo. I know that you're often teamed up
03:28in recent years with Ed Grubb. So which do you prefer, solo or chasing with somebody else?
03:36Well, naturally, having somebody with you is always the preference. Not only is it a safer
03:41option for you, but it is something that there's a lot of time on the road and you want good people
03:46with you. And Ed's certainly been a great example of that.
03:50There's a lot of time on the road and you want good people with you. And Ed's certainly one of
03:54the best. He and I have been chasing together for well over 10 years. We started back in the
03:59mid-2000s and I've chased off and on with Twistex. You see him here. We're constantly
04:05working together. And it helps having a chase partner that you have a good chemistry, a good
04:09rapport with. And Ed and I have just, we've gelled since day one. And it's always, always a pleasure
04:16to be out with him. Again, just having the company for the long times on the road is a huge
04:21perk. And again, the safety, having a second set of eyes, there's countless safety reasons for that.
04:26But you know, I listen to eclectic music and sometimes it's nice to be on my own because
04:30that eclectic music can be an earworm for most people if they're stuck in the car with me for a
04:35while. That's pretty good. Sometimes we get a tiny window into that when you send your raw video in.
04:41So let's talk about the process. I've talked to some like yourself who have been chasing
04:45since the 90s and you know, we didn't just have the ability to bring up radar easily on our phone.
04:51Things have changed a ton, made it much more accessible. So how do you start
04:54planning for a storm chase and where do you get your planning information?
05:01Well, one of the perks to working at AccuWeather is you've got some of the best brains in the
05:05business that you can kind of pick on. And of course, you know, being able to save chase for
05:1020 years, you start to recognize certain patterns that stand out above the others. And I think one
05:14of the things I've gotten better at over the years are choosing the days not to chase because
05:19you look at a pattern and say, you know, this is not going to pan out the way that the forecast
05:23models indicate. So you look at a lot of long range, a lot of big scope patterns, synoptic
05:30scale patterns. These are the larger patterns that move across the country and you pick out,
05:34okay, this looks like a pattern that's favorable for severe weather. And as you start getting
05:37closer to the days of, you can start to hone in on certain areas that have, you know, fronts or
05:43boundaries in play, wind shifts, you know, where the moisture is pooling, all sorts of things that
05:48we look at as meteorologists to say, this is an area that we're going to go to. And of course,
05:52that's gotten so much easier now than it was back in the day. You know, when I started in the late
05:56nineties, I was analyzing paper maps and drawing with colored pencils to identify these features.
06:01Now we have computer models that almost can tell you within a couple hours, this is where you need
06:06to be if you want to go see storms. Antonio, you're very transparent about your plan of action
06:11and sometimes that does change. So we know that flexibility and a key to success being a storm
06:16chaser is adaptability. So how easy is it to get information in the field to make some of these
06:21snap decisions? It's amazing how easy it is to get information in the field. Like you mentioned,
06:29our cell phones are basically computers in our pocket and we have access to so many apps
06:34and have that weather data that's constantly streaming to us. In a way, it's a double-edged
06:39sword because sometimes there's paralysis by analysis is what we used to say in Twistax,
06:43where you look at too many things and then you start to second guess where you're going and what
06:49you're doing. And it's very easy to get to a place where you're supposed to be sometimes hours early.
06:55Then you start looking at data, you start second guessing, and all of a sudden you're driving in
06:59circles in the middle of Kansas. And then you might end up leaving a place that ultimately
07:03you would go back to. So having data is a huge thing, especially when you're in an active chase,
07:08having that radar available to you in the moment to know what's going on. But sometimes having too
07:13much data can be a little bit too much of a good thing. Antonio, I want to get to our first viewer
07:18question. This one comes from James in Arkansas. James writes, what is the biggest tornado you've
07:24personally seen? Well, James, that is an easy and unfortunately a tragic answer. The biggest
07:33tornado I've ever seen was back on May 31st, 2013. The El Reno, Oklahoma tornado was actually
07:40the largest tornado ever recorded, so easily the largest tornado I've ever seen. That tornado was
07:462.6 miles wide and unfortunately resulted in the fatality of three close friends and fellow chasers
07:52of mine on that particular day. But that day was a day unlike any other and will certainly,
07:59hopefully, be the biggest tornado that ever occurs. Again, two and a half miles is unprecedented
08:05for any tornado. So, you know, obviously it's easy to say that's the biggest one I've seen
08:10because it's the biggest one that's ever been recorded. And we noticed that some of the footage
08:14from earlier in this episode here just a few minutes ago we showed you was actually from
08:18Tim's camera there. And I know that had to be a very difficult thing for you, Tony, losing some
08:22good friends through that process. But in a little bit, we're going to talk about some of the
08:27positives that come and the value behind some who do risk their lives in some cases to provide
08:34some of this intel from the ground that you can't get from the radar. Well, Tony, we do have a few
08:38extra questions here. Storm chasing dates back to the 1950s, we believe, but it seems that media
08:43attention over the decades and also the ease of radar on your phone, plus some of the shows that
08:49you and others have been part of, increased the popularity. Some through the 70s and 80s, but then
08:54more recently, movies like Twister in the 90s got a huge explosion in interest. So that combined
08:59with some of the shows of more recent decades, is that good or bad for the art of science and
09:04storm chasing? It's a mixed bag, I think, like with the data. Sometimes it's too much of a good
09:12thing. There are a lot of people that have certainly, like I told you, I was exposed to
09:16storm chasing through a special back in the early days. And as social media has gotten more rampant,
09:20obviously the exposure to storm chasing has certainly exploded, not just with the movies,
09:25but with social media. It's changed a lot in the 20 years I've been, because normally your only
09:31exposure was TV. And now, like you said, we've got data on our phones, we've got that constant
09:35feed of information, and we've got that constant exposure to storm chasing. It's great because
09:40there are a lot of new, inventive, creative, scientific people that are entering the field
09:45and looking at ways to look at storms that we, as older generations, had never thought of and
09:49certainly didn't have the technology to do. But at the same time, you get in places like central
09:54Oklahoma on a holiday weekend in the middle of May, there's too much traffic on a one-lane,
09:59you know, two-lane highway. It makes it very dangerous to navigate some of these storms. So
10:03sometimes there are too many people out there, and, you know, that's just one of the changes
10:08we've had to make as storm chasers. And we sometimes see the icons indicating the location
10:13of various chasers. And again, chaser convergence, I guess, is the phrase that's sometimes used.
10:19Many traffic jams out there in the middle of seemingly nowhere, very low population areas.
10:24Well, Tony, we're going to be talking more with you coming up. We do appreciate your time here.
10:28But coming up later in the show and weather-wise, we're going to test knowledge, you, the viewer,
10:32your knowledge of tornadoes and some of the numbers and information may make your head spin.
10:38And coming up next, we're going to talk more with our AccuWeather storm chaser extraordinaire,
10:42Tony Laubach, with a look at the scientific benefits and life safety benefits of storm
10:46chasing and ask the question, how close is too close? That and more when Ask the Experts continues.
11:04Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your host, Jeff Cornish. And in today's show,
11:09we've been talking about storm chasing with one of the best AccuWeather field meteorologists and
11:14longtime storm chaser, Tony Laubach. Tony, let's talk about the science of storm chasing.
11:19What important information comes from the storm chasing community as the weather enterprise is
11:25adapting to severe weather? And when we're seeing severe weather, we're tracking things on radar.
11:29You have a better understanding of storms and impact when you see them up close.
11:36Yeah, I think one of the more important things that storm chasers provide is ground verification,
11:40real time reports, all the data that you receive, radar data, satellite data,
11:45all that is delayed in real time. What isn't delayed is our eyes in the field. We're able to
11:50say this is what's happening right now. This is what is going on. And when you broaden that out a
11:56little bit, when you don't look at just the current, but what we've been able to do scientifically,
12:00you know, we talk about one of the big things is increasing warning time and lead time.
12:04We're providing that verification. And we've been doing that for the better part of years.
12:09That is one thing that's never changed is real time benefits of it. But then you look at some
12:13of the stuff that you're seeing here on your screen, the scientific instruments. You know,
12:16I was with the TWISTEX research team for the better part of five years. And one of our
12:21duties, one of our jobs, we were trying to identify what happens when tornado genesis
12:26occurs. When we talk about tornadoes actually forming, we are measuring the RFD, the rear flank
12:32downdraft of a storm. And we were trying to determine getting our instrumentation in there
12:37as close as we possibly could so we could take measurements of that RFD as it's wrapping around
12:43the tornado and taking those measurements of temperature, the wind speeds, and how everything
12:47changes as a tornado is forming. That was one of my primary missions there with TWISTEX was
12:52get my storm chase vehicle as close as safety permitted to tornadoes. And you've been showing
12:59us some of the footage with specific research. For the day-to-day storm chase where you may not
13:03necessarily be kind of aggregating that kind of information, what are you relying on? I've seen a
13:07lot of computers obviously in your vehicle. Are you dialed in through a satellite connection or
13:14how are you looking at this information? How are you connected?
13:19Good old cell phone day, Jeff. That has certainly been something that has improved dramatically
13:24over the years. Back when we started in the early 2000s, cell phones were just getting started. I
13:29remember when certain companies were finally allowing us the opportunity to get cell phone
13:34data on major highways. That was such a big deal for us. Now with multiple phones, we have
13:40multiple data cards in the car. We are essentially connected non-stop. We're able to stream video
13:45now, live video back to the AccuWeather Network. The National Weather Service is able to keep tabs
13:50on us through GPS tracking. All that information is available in real time thanks to mainly cell
13:56phone data. Satellite data is certainly something that we are utilizing as well. We've got new
14:02technologies that allow us to link to satellites which allow us connection in areas where cell
14:07phone service is pretty sparse. We do run into those holes sometimes in the middle of Tornado
14:11Alley. I saw on some of the footage here also you had a map book there. It looked like some
14:15MapQuest instructions from one city to the next that you may have pre-planned. It's amazing how
14:20much has changed here with cell phone data. Tony, how about your vehicle? Are you using your
14:26own vehicle to chase or a specifically designed vehicle? I don't drive a tank. I don't
14:34think those are very practical. I actually drive just a normal all-wheel drive vehicle out when
14:38I'm storm chasing. I prefer to chase in my own vehicle because it's set up in a way that
14:44I'm comfortable with. I think one of the important things with having your own vehicle is
14:50as opposed to renting a car or using another vehicle, I know the maintenance. I know what is
14:55good with my vehicle. I change the tires regularly, change the wipers regularly, make sure all the
14:58headlights are working. I'm comfortable with how it drives. I understand how it handles in certain
15:03conditions. In my vehicle, having good tires allows me to take roads that kind of keep me
15:08out of crowds or allow me to get closer or allow me better intercept opportunities. So very important
15:14for me to have my own vehicle and I've gone through many of them. I believe seven in the
15:19course of my storm chasing career, many of them minivans, but the all-wheel drives are certainly
15:23helpful for not only mud roads but out here in Colorado where the hail can sometimes accumulate
15:28as deep as snow. Antonio, we have a viewer question here. This one is in video form from
15:33Tyler in Pennsylvania. So Tyler, what would you like to ask the experts? Question for you,
15:39what is your most memorable chase?
15:46That's a loaded question. I'm going to go back recently here back to 2023. I'm going to take
15:50you out about two hours from where I lived at the time in northeastern Colorado where I saw a total
15:56of 19 tornadoes on that day, including multiple instances of several tornadoes. And then we talk
16:04about going back even further. We're going to go back to 2004 where we saw 15 tornadoes in
16:11southern Kansas. This was my first big storm chase. This was the first one, kind of my breakout chase
16:19if you will, where I was actually solo. I was not in caravan with anybody and we saw, like I said,
16:2415 over a dozen tornadoes on multiple supercells across south central Kansas. And one of the more
16:29historical outbreaks that we saw in the early 2000s that included this incredible sequence of
16:35tornadoes here near Conway Springs, watching this one just kind of magically appear on the horizon.
16:40And now I'm going to go back over, I guess we're going to fast forward to 2023. Again, that
16:46northeast Colorado chase was certainly my most recent memorable one. And Jeff, you'll remember
16:51this one because this one we put on the AccuWeather network here. These incredible
16:55tornadoes in northeast Colorado. Twins. And again, one of the perks in this particular event,
17:00other than power lines coming down there on the road, this was out in the middle of nowhere
17:04in eastern Colorado. One of the better places to chase in the country because there's not a lot
17:09out there. We saw multiple tornadoes. This multi-vortex tornado, this one we put live on
17:13the AccuWeather network as well, was just an incredible day. The most tornadoes I've ever
17:17seen in a single day. And it moved into the number one spot in my chase career in terms
17:22of my favorite chases. Well, Tony, there's nothing quite like covering live tornadoes on
17:26the air with you. I love working with you and it's so exciting when you have the live footage
17:30and we get to present it live together on the air. And this does wrap up our question and answer
17:35segment. So we want to thank AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach
17:39for joining us. Tony, thanks again so much. My pleasure, Jeff. Well, good stuff. And coming up,
17:46weather by the numbers, things you need to know about tornadoes. We're going to put your tornado
17:50knowledge to the test next. Stay with us. Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your
18:07host, Jeff Cornish. It's time for weather wise in a segment we call weather by the numbers.
18:12Today, we look at tornadoes and some surprising statistics. Our first number, 1,200. 1,200.
18:19That's the average number of tornadoes in the United States in a typical year. So according to
18:24NOAA, the U.S. leads with the most tornado activity of any country. Our neighbor to the north, Canada,
18:30also sees quite a few there in the prairie provinces. Our next number, 2.6. That's 2.6
18:37miles. And that's the widest tornado recorded. It happened in El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st of 2013.
18:45It was a tragic tornado and did claim the lives of a few storm chasers. It beat the and broke the
18:51previous record for widest tornado, which tracked at 2.5 miles across in Howland, Nebraska back in
18:582004. And our last number is 6. That's the number of continents where tornadoes have been observed.
19:05That means there's only one continent where a tornado has not officially been recorded.
19:10And as you might suspect, that's in Antarctica. So twisters generally need a moist, warm climate
19:15to form, which is not likely in the cold and the dryness of the South Pole. And
19:20while no one has ever seen one there, that doesn't necessarily mean that a tornado is
19:24impossible in Antarctica. So thanks so much for joining us here on AccuWeather's Ask the Experts.
19:30I'm Jeff Cornish. And don't forget, when you have a question about weather, space, or science,
19:35you can write us or send us a video question at asktheexperts at accuweather.com. You can also
19:41call us at 888-566-6606. Have a great one!