Today we’re going into the comments section to talk about some of the most popular comments (or at least topics) that we see. Simply put, it seems like there are a lot of misconceptions about storm chasing and what it is all about, including how easy it is and how each of us approaches it.…

Tornadoes taking highly deviant turns is not really that unusual, even with large and violent tornadoes. That’s the inspiration behind this video, where I recount our storm chase of the infamous El Reno tornado in 2013 and also talk about how, at least when it comes to the track, it was a perfectly normal type…

We’re starting a new series on Tornado Titans, “Weather Satellite 101”. This series aims to teach you everything we know about satellite imagery, which we’ve been using our entire chase career as one of the biggest weather data sources you can get. Satellite images can clue you in on what is going on in real…

Many people have a love/hate relationship with the dryline on the Southern and Central Plains — UNDERSTANDABLE! This unique boundary is what touches off many/most of the most major tornado outbreaks in that part of the region, and up until this last year, it had been pretty quiet for several years. But the dryline isn’t…

oin Storm Chaser Raychel Sanner as she delves into the captivating world of atmospheric instability. Discover the secrets behind convective available potential energy (CAPE) parameters and other methods of measuring instability, unraveling the mystery of what storm chasers seek in the sky. In this video we break down the different CAPE parameters (SBCAPE, MLCAPE, and…

In this educational video, we delve into the realm of storm chasing and provide five valuable tips for aspiring tornado hunters. Join us as we explore the science behind tornado formation and learn about the indicators and parameters that can aid in identifying potential tornado activity. Through an in-depth analysis of atmospheric conditions and weather…

In this re-release and re-master of our popular Skew-T instructional series, we combine all the videos for your convenience and ease of use. Here are the lessons included: 0:00 – Introduction to Skew-Ts 4:00 – Where We’re Going 7:30 – LCL, LFC, EL Intro 7:50 – LCL 10:42 – LFC 15:09 – EL 16:55 –…

Get ready to uncover the secrets behind tornado formation in this captivating video titled “Boundaries Are Tornado Magnets: Here’s Everything You Need to Know.” Join experienced storm chaser Raychel Sanner as she dives into the fascinating world of boundaries and their impact on tornado potential. In this informative presentation, Raychel sheds light on the significance…

Something that still surprises me to this day is how often people get watches and warnings confused! This…IS NOT GOOD! Tornado watches mean conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form in the next few hours. A warning is literally an alert telling you a tornado is ongoing or imminent. I explain this in a bit…

Satsquatch is one of the best apps for storm chasers on the market today! It features all the mesoanalysis essentials you need and every satellite view you could ever dream of with a customizable drag/pinch/scroll type of map customization to make sure you can see the exact view you want to see. Thanks for reading…

I, like many of you, watched in horror as a supercell rapidly took shape and took aim on Western Mississippi. This tornado was rated an EF-4 and caused devastating human loss of life along its path. But why did it happen? What was so different about the area this tornado formed in versus the other…

Satsquatch is one of the best apps for storm chasers on the market today! It features all the mesoanalysis essentials you need and every satellite view you could ever dream of with a customizable drag/pinch/scroll type of map customization to make sure you can see the exact view you want to see. There is so,…

One of the biggest ‘bad’ storm reporting trends I see are areas of spinning dust under a storm seemingly almost always ending up as a tornado report. This is irrespective of the broader context that said spinning area of dust exists within. If there is an overarching message I’d like this video to get across…

Wow! Last night was awesome. Thank you to everyone who came on, watched, and participated in our discussion! Myself (Raychel) and Eugene had a great time talking storm structure and explaining some of the basics to everyone. This was a great time, with lots of questions answered and lots of great discussion about storms and…

Every new storm chaser will learn some harsh lessons while chasing — that is how you get better! Failing at the start is how we learn our best lessons that turn into successes down the line. I experienced my fair share of hard lessons or important findings so this video is dedicated to past me…

IT IS FINALLY HERE! My guide for beginners to using the very popular weather modeling website Pivotal Weather (you can find it at https://www.pivotalweather.com). While this video is aimed towards beginners, I think there are a lot of small tips for intermediate folks who aren’t quite to the advanced power user stage. I’d certainly recommend…

I am a firm believer that there are some very essential items that will set my storm chases up for the ultimate success. You will want to make sure you have a reliable car, a good camera and source of data, extra layers, sunscreen, and paper maps. Why this matters: One of the most frequently…

For years, I have tried out and tested many new weather apps both for home and field usage. You could say I’ve developed some strong preferences as to which apps I prefer and which ones I don’t. But in this video, despite any small quibbles I might have otherwise, I reveal my five favorite weather…

What you need to know: There have been a few studies done about the changing frequency of tornadoes and tornado-favorable environments in the country, showing a notable shift to the east for the most active regions. So is tornado alley shifting? A big reason why tornado environments seem to be less common on the Plains,…

Supercells are what storm chasers are after each and every year. Ask any storm chaser what they’re really after out there and it is probably either tornadoes or incredible storm structure — both of those are most common with supercells! These rotating storms pack a punch, creating some of the most dangerous weather on earth…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcATU3Rc8tM Storm chasing is a giant game of chess. There are so many decisions I have to make when it comes to chasing storms to get in good position for photos and videos — from road networks to storm mode to storm speed, goodness me! But what if I told you, that despite all of…

Both October 10 and October 12 saw big severe weather risks introduced over the Great Plains. On both days, the possibility of long-tracked, strong tornadoes was discussed and on both days that threat largely failed to materialize (at least in the highest outlook areas!). What happened? I personally didn’t chase either day — though I…

Just about every chase season, I get to see a supercell do something terrible and miraculous all at once: produce a tornado. The build up to a tornado in most supercells is pretty predictable. How a tornado forms is just incredible to witness. Check out the video we recently posted highlighting four steps of the…

Cameron Nixon is BACK with another mind-blowing talk about how to forecast the chase with skew-Ts and hodographs. This lesson covers a lot of ground and if you are still a novice to skew-Ts and hodographs there are plenty of lessons (linked below) to get you up to speed. Also, this lesson is a prequel…

Did you know that not all tornado watches are made equal? In fact, tornado watches are issued with enhanced products attached to them like probabilities of different severe weather as well as extended information about the threats of the day. In this video, I’ll walk you through tornado watch text and products and explain how…

For wx enthusiasts just getting into the habit of watching severe weather events on radar, discerning a tornadic vs. a non-tornadic circulation on radar can be quite tricky at first. To help you along, we’ll show a few examples from a cyclic tornado producing supercell in the Texas Panhandle from the March 13, 2021 tornado…

Whoa! We got a storm chase in this last weekend so let’s get some new content going shall we? Today we’re breaking down the supercell we saw which produced a few brief tornadoes before it outran us on the sparse Texas Panhandle road network. Our initial view of this storm is more distant, which is…

When it is Prime Time on the Plains, the instability cranks up and the atmosphere’s potential is maxed out. For today’s storm chase case, that was absolutely the case. Today we’re going to Northern Oklahoma on May 25, 2016 — the same day as the Chapman EF4 tornado in Northern Kansas. This secondary target, where…

I’ve been using an app called ‘Satsquatch’ for the past few weeks and I am falling in love with it. I believe this app is the ultimate companion app to a radar app such as RadarScope or RadarOmega for storm chasers. Two reasons why I’m loving this app: 1)The satellite views are really nice. I’ve…

Want to know the apps or websites we use to track down storms? Then this video is absolutely the video for you! There are numerous weather apps on the market, and also numerous weather radar apps. The simple truth is, you might not be using the best app to track weather — but this video…

Chasing at night is REALLY difficult — especially compared to daytime chases. When that night chase happens in November in a low CAPE, high shear environment? Buckle up! The November 16, 2015 Tornado Outbreak across the Texas Panhandle into SW Kansas is one of the most prolific tornado outbreaks of the last decade on the…

Storms are dynamic things! That is one of the most important lessons you can learn about storm observation. This video follows the progress of storms over about 1 hour in Northeast New Mexico. We begin with a supercell that has begun to weaken and end with a developed line of storms. That’s right, we go…

If you are, like us, traditionally a storm chaser of the lower plains and southeast US — the High Plains are oftentimes a bit of an afterthought in your seasonal plans. But they shouldn’t be. From a growing library of experience, the High Plains may be amongst the most magical places to chase storms if…

To a beginning storm observer, wall clouds and shelf clouds (and more broadly inflow vs. outflow features) — can be confusing. Both of these storm features look to hang down from storms and oftentimes they can be mistook for one another. However, these two could not be more different. Shelf clouds are products of storm…

Hey we’re back! Today we have a new feature we are debuting, storm education in 360-degree views! If you’ve watched our storm anatomy diagarms, this is a similar format to that, but obviously different in its own ways. Eventually the goal is to build out a whole suite of educational videos in VR to enhance…

This video is meant to be an introductory lesson for those folks just starting to chase and those who traditionally chase the more traditional lower plains of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, etc. Chasing in the high plains is a different experience which requires less overall on the parameters to have success. Additionally, there are unique strategic…

The 2020 storm season is fast approaching! With that realization means its time to finish out my gear purchases ahead of 2020. This video serves as an overview of Sanner’s gear and some of the thought processes behind why they’re using each piece. And for your shopping list, here’s links to a lot of what’s…

Filters Hi everyone, we’re back with another camera tip. Today’s video is two easy to obtain and universal pieces of gear that will change your storm photos and videos for the better. Both of these are easy to obtain and will offer a quick and easy improvement to your photos and videos this season. The…

Sometimes in storm chasing, there are multiple targets to choose from. This can create opportunity or anguish for storm chasers as they try to ascertain which target is for them. May 29, 2018 was a great example of this, with a outflow boundary as one target and the dryline as another (there was a third…

This lesson is built off of the groundwork of other lessons in Titan U, so before we get to what we’re covering in this one, we want to make sure you have the links you need in case this video is running out and ahead of you. First, the Intro to Skew-Ts lessons can be…

For our second ever video of this type, we’re taking a look at a day that would challenge any chaser to pick out the right target. This is another Slight risk/2% tornado risk with the dryline in the Texas Panhandle being outlined for a supercell risk. However, because some might call us renegades, we opted…

Sometimes in storm chasing, you want to be a little closer. And sometimes you find yourself just slightly out of position due to roads or some other unfortunate factor. In any case, knowing how a supercell looks from every side will aid you in diagnosing storm features and what your next move is. In this…

No matter if you are just starting out or if you are a long-time veteran of taking photos — you are probably glued to the meter that’s typically at the bottom-center of your camera’s display screen. Hey, this thing was pretty good to get some aspects of exposure right, but its not the best tool…

Here’s a new experiment for our channel and I hope we can continue to evolve and develop this content type. Today, we’re doing a start-to-finish storm chase case with some thoughts on forecasting, strategy, and storm anatomy throughout. The hope is these become an all-encompassing source of learning as we move forward. So with this…

Hey do you want to know one little secret to improving your storm compositions? What if I told you that so long as you are able to walk, better compositions are within your grasp? This video shows you a very simple tip that will improve your compositions to make for more pleasing photos and videos….

A lot of photographers and videographers overlook a very simple trick with their cameras to create a much more simplified workflow. This trick is using your camera’s custom functions to create a streamlined shooting experience with presets dialed in. Here’s how I set mine up for filming storms… Our camera tips are meant to improve…

When you take a look at a strengthening supercell from a bit of a distance, you definitely need to be looking at its visual cues. In this storm anatomy guide, we’re talking about some of the visual cues to look for when the storm is a bit of a distance away. Definitely, when storms are…

Let’s face it, a lot of us don’t live on the Plains and our time to spend out in the heart of Tornado Alley is limited. And for too many of us, that time is also quite inflexible with plans needing to be made weeks or months in advance. Others of us are a bit…

The hodograph is a super important tool for storm chasers to master because it can anticipate storm mode and…yes, how they’re going to look and behave. In our first ever guest lesson on Titan U, guest star Cameron Nixon (https://twitter.com/cameronjnixon) takes you through the hodograph and what it looks like to use them to gauge…

Gene is a very pragmatic person with his design of his chase vehicle. Call it an old pilots instinct, but Gene has a pretty simple setup so he can focus on the storms in front of him. In the front is a regular ham radio, a laptop, and a dash cam for streaming of some…

The pattern was terrible at the beginning of April in 2018 so that allowed for us to record another vlog. Here’s Sanner talking about their camera gear as we moved into the early parts of the Spring doldrums (which sometimes does happen with a chase season). Let’s unpack the 2018 camera bag! The highlights of…

This was a fun vlog to put together where Sanner talked the first storm chase chances of 2018 but also they talked about a very important tool: the HREF. The HREF is largely under-utilized by chasers in favor of the HRRR, but the HREF actually includes the HRRR and other high res models, giving you…

Every summer in the desert southwest of the United States, a familiar pattern emerges and storms roam the desert landscapes. This pattern is known as the monsoon pattern. While this pattern isn’t as violent as the spring supercells on the Plains or as active as its namesake from India — the southwest monsoons are an…

Tornadoes are the ultimate catch for storm chasers and the ultimate piece of any severe weather season. But they’re rare — which is another thing all to itself. If you are in the midst of a developing tornadoes, here are some things we look for to indicate a storm is about to produce a tornado…

Hey there fellow storm lovers! Today we’re excited to get our first photo tip type video out to you all, today’s subject is simply “Five Tips to Get Good Foregrounds for Storm Shots”. As with all of our tips (unless otherwise noted) these can be considered universal to photographers and videographers alike! So what makes…

Today’s storm diagram deals with what happens when two storms get together — aka when a supercell interacts with another storm. This storm is from June 1, 2019 just west of Roswell, New Mexico. The situation is as follows: a storm to the south has thrown outflow northwards towards our supercell. I am making sure…

This long-form course is all about weather models and the different types of weather models. This course covers what each different model type does and what they’re best for when forecasting. If you haven’t done so, be sure to check out our introductory course to weather models, The Hitchhikers Guide to Weather Models. When it…

Our 10 favorite graphics for forecasting supercells and tornadoes is the closest we can get to actually giving a morning routine walkthrough when it comes to forecasting severe weather. This almost 13 minute video will walk through all 10, what to look for, and how we use them to forecast supercells and tornadoes.

Hodographs are one of the most misunderstood features in storm chasing — here’s a primer on how to understand them.

Supercells are always producing lowerings and ‘hang-me-downs’ — but how do you know when these features are actually threatening?

This supercell certainly looks pretty in Western Okalhoma — but what in the world is it actually up to? Let’s take a look.

This supercell in far NW Oklahoma certainly looks interesting — but is this thing actually a threat to produce a tornado? Let’s take a look!

Hey, no one likes being miles from a supercell, but in this case it pays off as we diagram the pieces and look at the storm’s big picture.

This supercell looks like its ready to invade the planet. But let’s diagram it to ensure we’re all going to be safe.

This supercell from May 29, 2018 means serious business and could produce a tornado at any moment. Let’s break down what to look for as it takes the next move up.

This sky looks mean with lots of low hanging clouds around. But, here’s how to discern if it means business or not.

Aliens? Surface of the ground? Hail? How about…none of the above (except maybe aliens). The answer actually lies within a simple trick of light. Storm clouds are inherently blue and sunlight tends to be orange or red — put those two colors together and you end up with green of some sort. So not magic….

When it comes to how to read weather radar and the basics — there aren’t a lot of different ways to approach it. In this video, we take a look at Weather Radar and how to best use it as a storm chaser.

When it comes to how to read weather radar and the basics — there aren’t a lot of different ways to approach it. In this video, we take a look at Weather Radar and how to best use it as a storm chaser.

When it comes to how to read weather radar and the basics — there aren’t a lot of different ways to approach it. In this video, we take a look at Weather Radar and how to best use it as a storm chaser.

From the NWS Glossary: Updraft – A small-scale current of rising air. If the air is sufficiently moist, then the moisture condenses to become a cumulus cloud or an individual tower of a towering cumulus or Cb. Downdraft – A small-scale column of air that rapidly sinks toward the ground, usually accompanied by precipitation as…

The flanking line is common in supercell thunderstorms. The flanking line is a line of cumulus or towering cumulus clouds connected to the parent updraft and extending outwards.

The rear flank downdraft (RFD) is a key ingredient in tornado formation in supercell thunderstorms. The RFD is a region of air (usually dry) subsiding on the back side of a mesocyclone that then wraps around the mesocyclone. It is often visible as a clear slot wrapping around the wall cloud.

Check out this definition from the NWS Glossary: A localized, persistent, often abrupt lowering from a rain-free base. Wall clouds can range from a fraction of a mile up to nearly five miles in diameter, and normally are found on the south or southwest (inflow) side of the thunderstorm. When seen from within several miles,…

Shelf clouds are usually associated with the leading edge of storm outflow — this is usually a sign of a line of storms or an HP supercell. Often, rising motion is seen at the front of the shelf, with the underbelly of the shelf being quite turbulent.

Anvils are the flat, spreading top of a cumulonimbus cloud. Thunderstorm anvils may spread hundreds of miles downwind from the thunderstorm itself. Sometimes, they may even spread upwind.

You don’t need radar to know how a storm is doing. Typically, a storm will give a pretty sure sign as to how strong or how weak it is by its visual cues.

How tornadoes form is one o the biggest questions facing atmospheric scientists today. However, we do know a lot of the ‘whys’ of tornado formation. Most tornadoes form from what we call supercell thunderstorms. These storms have a rotating updraft known as a mesocyclone, which creates the processes necessary for tornado formation.

This breakdown is of a supercell thunderstorm in Texas on 4/22/15.

A distant look at a supercell taking shape in Texas on 4/16/16.

This diagram is of a high based supercell from April 2016.

Check out this diagram of a powerful supercell from May of 2016.

Not all tornadoes originate from a mesocyclone or even a supercell. One type of non-supercell tornado is a land spout. Landspout tornadoes occur as the parent storm cloud is in its growth stage with the spin originating in the boundary layer of the storm.

You can tell how likely a storm may be to produce tornadoes by the height of its cloud base. Generally a storm with lower cloud bases will pose a greater tornado risk than a storm with higher cloud bases.

Most funnel clouds should be watched very carefully for the potential of a tornado.

Mammatus clouds are certainly pretty, but what do they signify in thunderstorms?

The answer: well basically everywhere but it depends on the time of year for the ‘normal’ peak of severe weather season.

A look at how tornadoes move across the prairie.

A look at some of the ingredients you need to see tornadoes form.

A look at how tornadoes form — or at least as much info on that subject in 1:22 that we could fit!

A look at the top weather killers in the U.S.

A look at what ingredients are needed for storms to form.

A look at supercells, how they form, and what their picces are.

A look at squall lines and what to look for in terms of severe weather threats from them.

When does severe weather season peak in the U.S.?

A look at the EF scale to measure tornado intensity.

When it comes to warm fronts there’s a real love/hate relationship storm chasers possess with them. On one hand, some incredible cyclic tornado machines have occurred on them — on the other they can be quite fickle when it comes to getting the right ingredients to come together. Let’s learn about them! Why Warm Fronts…

When it comes to storm chasing, dry lines may be the bread and butter of targeting — but triple points are oftentimes the bullseye that demands attention. This region is also often an overlooked target for new storm chasers. Don’t ignore it. The triple point is usually where the dryline meets a warm front or…

To put all the other videos in this series into practice, let’s go through a same storm chase forecast to see all the pieces we’ve talked about put into practice.

Making a successful storm chase forecast and getting the best storm chasing targeting involves a lot of work. Severe storms need lift, ample wind shear and ample instability to sustain themselves. Hence, a lot of the work in forecasting storms hinges on these three ingredients. These main ingredients make up the fundamental elements you always…