I took my first storm-chasing trip as part of an assignment for the Block News Alliance during the summer of 1998. I was to photograph a group of people who met over the Internet and were going chasing in the Great Plains together without ever meeting, before the trip, in person. I became aware of this group by posting a message on the storm chasers bulletin board. We all met up in Columbia, Missouri, and the chase was on. We had one day of excitement and nine days of blue skies. March 24, 1998 proved to be an eventful evening after another day of just waiting around. The night broke out into a set of storms that spawned over twenty tornadoes across Oklahoma and Kansas. After this night, I was hooked. I went on to become a founding member of MESO (Multi-Community Environmental Storm Observatory). Since our formation, we have been on one chase as a group, as well as many individual chases - at least as many as Mother Nature will provide us. Click below to see photos from our adventures in the Great Plains.

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