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Monday, March 24, 2008 4:07 PM CDT
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Amazing race
By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com
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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Friends don't expect to see slides from Disney World when they go to Patti Volpert's house to hear about her vacation.

Her images are straight out of the Hollywood blockbuster, "Twister"-- without the flying cows.

Volpert, 57, travels from her home in Illinois to spend at least two weeks each summer in Tornado Alley with Cloud 9 Tours, the oldest tour company catering to amateur storm chasers like Volpert.

She has a special subscription service to watch Doppler radar on her laptop while experienced guides from Cloud 9 steer their vehicles ever closer to twisters tearing up the earth. They get close, mighty close sometimes. Volpert told how the "rope" from a tornado passed right over their van once and crashed down in the field just 50 feet away.

No clips of that one -- her camera ran out of film just as it happened. But you'll see plenty of close-ups of the more than two dozen tornadoes Volpert has photographed and filmed since she took up storm chasing five years ago.

"It's the storm itself that's so fascinating," she said.

Volpert said storm chasing has a humanitarian side. Storm chasers constantly relay information to the National Weather Service so people in the path of a tornado can be warned in time.

"Hopefully, they can save lives," she said.

The NWS observed Severe Weather Awareness Week in Illinois from March 2 to 8.

Volpert, who works in the records division of the Lincolnshire Police Department just north of Chicago, got hooked on violent storms as a kid growing up in Lake County. She remembers when she was 8 years old and watched a violent storm system pass over her house after it spawned a tornado in nearby McHenry.

After her son grew up, Volpert looked for something adventurous to do. She saw several shows on the Weather Channel depicting storm chasers. Online research led her to Charles Edwards, 43, a meteorologist and community relations specialist with FEMA who started Cloud 9 Tours in 1996.

His interest in storms dates to his childhood in Galveston, Texas that was destroyed by a hurricane in 1900. Ironically, he never saw a tornado after he joined a club of storm chasers at Texas A&M University until a twister nearly crashed an end-of-the-semester party he hosted at his apartment. The funnel touched down on the outskirts of town.

"It was a fairly big one. It lasted 20 minutes or so," he said.

One was enough. Edwards was "hooked." His word choice was no accident.

"I couldn't shake it. It's an addiction," he admitted.

His only aim when he launched the Oklahoma-based Cloud 9 Tours was to take one or two people along to help pay for gasoline and lodging. Today, he and three other guides lead three two-week tours each year that attract 15-20 people every time. Amateur storm chasers arrive from as far away as Australia and England just for the chance to see a tornado up close and personal.

Others come right from Tornado Alley and tornado-prone states like Illinois. Though they live in the windy corridor that stretches from the southwest to northeast across the United States, most have only seen a tornado on the 10 o'clock news or the front page of the local newspaper.

"It's the fascination with the unknown," Edwards said. "They are actually fairly rare instances. Even people who live in Oklahoma go their entire lives without seeing one."

He's seen "hundreds" of tornadoes since that first one.

"I've lost count," he said.

The chase has another exciting aspect for Edwards. His job is to go online each night to study forecasts and maps to predict where the next tornado outbreak might be. The group wakes each morning, grabs a quick breakfast and starts driving. Sometimes, they travel hundreds of miles to get to a spot on a map before a tornado does. Cloud 9 Tours average 6,000 miles every two weeks.

"Part of the thrill is actually forecasting it and going out there and seeing the forecast become reality," Edwards said. "Pretty big adrenaline rush when you get close to a tornado."

Edwards is good at what he does, sometimes almost too good. Once, when he was helping a Hollywood film crew capture tornado footage, a twister dropped down and destroyed a barn just a tenth of a mile away.

Volpert recalled a day on her first tour when 10 tornadoes popped down from the clouds over Kansas in a 2½-hour period.

"They were dropping right and left. It was phenomenal," she said.

Volpert saw 13 twisters that trip. But high wind isn't the only danger. To get into position, the group sometimes must cross through the most violent parts of the thunderstorms that spawn the tornadoes. Volpert described how they got hit by hail the size of softballs once.

"We lost four out of five windshields," she said.

At other times, Volpert said, there's a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. They park at truck stops and play Frisbee or shoot Gummy Bears at one another with slingshots while others look at maps and laptops to watch storms develop and guess where they might head.

"Each and every one is different," Volpert said. "Sometimes you just watch them build. It's a clear blue sky and 90 degrees out, then you'll see the cumulous clouds build. Then, it's the adrenaline rush of the chase. Sometimes, the wind is horrendous. Other times, it's so calm. A tornado can be a quarter of a mile away and the wind is perfectly still where you are. There are birds chirping in the field between you and it."

Don't be misled. A storm's fury is evident both as it occurs and in the devastation it leaves in its path. Volpert described how her tour group drove into Hallam, Neb., after a tornado outbreak May 22, 2004. The F4 twister that leveled the small town was one of nature's largest funnels and was one of 56 twisters that day, mostly in Iowa and Nebraska. One death occurred and $175 million in property was destroyed.

"We came through and filmed some of the devastation," Volpert said. "It is a life-changing experience. You see the power of it, and you understand what those people have gone through -- you see their faces. Your heart just goes out to them. ...People think, 'Why are you doing this? Do you like seeing devastation?' No. Whether we film them or not, tornadoes are still going to cause devastation. I'd rather see one hit a field and film it for 20 minutes than see it hit a house."



If you go:



Odds of seeing a twister: Experienced storm chaser and meteorologist Charles Edwards estimated guests of Cloud 9 Tours have a 75 percent chance of seeing a twister during a two-week outing. But he warns no guarantees are given.

What to take: Groups move constantly; pack lightly. Guests get one soft-covered suitcase and one carry-on. Bring clothing suitable for cool weather. Don't forget laptop computers and cameras.

Lodging: Motels are provided.

Food: Meals are on the run and at your own cost.

Schedule: Cloud 9 offers three tours. All begin in May. Spots are often available up to the last moment.

Cost: $2,700.

Danger: There is some, mostly due to many miles logged on roads that are often wet and populated by drivers looking at storms and not watching out. Each tour can cover 6,000 miles.

Tours: Visit Cloud 9 Tours at www.cloud9tours.com. Call (405) 323 1145 or email cedwards@cloud9tours.com

For more information on tornadoes: Visit NOAA Storm Prediction Center at www.spc.noaa.gov

Take a look
A tornado was on the ground as seen from Woodford County Road 1625 East, North East of Eureka in this July 13th, 2004 file photo. (Pantagraph file photo/STEVE SMEDLEY)
Storm chasers spend hours watching the sky waiting to get up close and personal with a tornado. (For the Pantagraph/Patti Volpert)
Above Top: Lightning can be another hazard facing stormchasers. Middle: Hail like this sometimes accompanies thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes. Bottom: Tornadoes aren't the only sights storm chasers see. They also get a glimpse of extraordinary rainbows like this. (For the Pantagraph/Patti Volpert)
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