One of the most violent tornado seasons in history kept Reed Timmer busy during the spring.
Timmer, one of the stars of the Discovery Channel reality series “Storm Chasers,” spoke about his career in chasing tornadoes Monday to USD 257 fifth-graders. On hand were Timmer and fellow storm chasers Dick McGowen and Chad Cowen.
Timmer is a meteorologist who films the twisters for his website, tornadovideos.net.
He explained how a chaser serves as the eyes for the National Weather Service, which relies on weather radar and eyewitness accounts to provide tornado and severe storm warnings to the public.
Timmer spoke about how advances in technology have aided forecasters in recent years.
For example, the 2007 tornado that devastated Greensburg.
Although the storm was at night, thus making it hard to see and considerably more dangerous, forecasters were able to provide a 45-minute warning in advance of the twister’s arrival, Timmer said, saving countless lives in the process.
Timmer showed several clips of him and others as they encountered several tornadoes up close.
But the star of the show most likely was Timmer’s Dominator 2, a 2011 GMC Yukon outfitted with extra layers of armor and vinyl covering to allow the storm chasers to get even closer to some tornadoes.
The vehicle is outfitted with an assortment of weather gadgets, including a series of tubes used to propel weather sensors into the air — and ideally directly into a tornado.
The Dominator 2 was parked at Jefferson Elementary School Monday where the students were able to look inside and touch the vehicle.
Timmer’s appearance was made possible because one of his crew members, McGowen, is long-time friends with Iola firefighter and fellow storm-chasing enthusiast Eric B’Hymer.
They were en route to Wichita and had time for a brief stop in Iola.
As an aside, “Storm Chasers” had its season premiere Sunday evening.
Storm footage is filmed from April through June and edited for telecasts in the fall, Timmer said.
RIDING THE STORM OUT
