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Right now...
I'm 18 right now and I am a freshman in college this year. I
played football at my high school for 2 years. I like to lift weights, hang out with my friends, and just do whatever. I get
pretty good grades, maintaining a B average. I'm at Anoka-Ramsey Community College just getting my generals done before
I transfer to a four year university. I originally wanted to go for meteorology but I am reconsidering it after realizing
the amount of math/science in addition to the concepts of meteorology plus a grim job market for those seeking a job in meteorology.
So, if that doesnt work out im planning on majoring in geography although not sure exactly what i would want to do with that. Anyways,
I just enjoy chasing and whatever mother nature can throw at me.
My storm chasing career
I started chasing back in 2006. The first chase of my career came on Memorial
Day when my mom and I headed up to Lake Mille Lacs. Not an outstanding setup, but I really wanted to get out for the first
time and had the chance, so I did. My next chase didnt come until August 5th when I tagged along with a real chaser, Rich
Gudmenson. Headed up to Fargo around 2:00, caught a suprise wall cloud with some unexpected storms, then had to head down
to Aberdeen to try to intercept a cell there. Didnt see much more after that wall cloud besides some cool structure but even
still it was probably my best (and most fun) chase to date. The following week on Aug. 12th we headed up to the same area
which is when i got my first bust under my belt. My second year chasing in 2007 started off quick with what looked like a
setup on March 25th, ended up with just a wall cloud and a really poorly organized storm. Again, I had to wait till August
before my next chase. Aug. 11th came and in the morning hours everything looked like we would be chasing, but by about noon
things didnt look so good. We decided to hold off on chasing and just wait for another but around 2:00 the SPC suprised both
Rich and me with issuing an MD for the southern half of Minnesota. At 3:00 we met up and headed down to Mankota to get in
position. Around 5:00 storms fired about 50 miles west of where we live, and now we were 40-50 miles out of position. We catch
up to the storm which had meso markers on it, but again just another really unorganized storm. On August 13th I got my
first successful lightning pictures with a squall line that came through at about 4:00 in the morning. Little did i know that
just 12 hours later i would be chasing again. Once again, kind of a spur of the moment chase. With Rich unable to chase, I
went on my first solo chase, targeting northwest of St. Cloud. Waited up there until 5:00 or 6:00 when a storm finally
fired about 50-60 miles north of me. Deciding not to chase it and hope something better happens closer to me I just wait and
take some pictures of the storm's awesome strucure. By 7:00 I realized nothing was going to happen and with sunset only about
1 1/2 hour I head for home. All in all not bad, but I did miss the Aug. 24th, 2006 Nicollet tornadoes because of work. So
2 years, 6 chases, over 2000 miles, and no tornadoes I unpatiently await chase season 2008.
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