2019 was the last time I went chasing storms and, man, have I been missing it – but now I am finally coming back! The reason for not going in 2020 and 2021 is obvious but this year the timing just wasn’t good. For 11 years, I worked full-time with my own business and had no family. Now, I have pivoted my career into data engineering and machine learning and got employed since January. Suddenly, there are a few new bosses in my life: my work boss and the three bosses at home 🙂 Jokes aside, it gets trickier to leave for 8 days – that’s for sure!
The season of 2023 I will be chasing with Extreme Tornado Tours, which is a tour company I have been wanting to chase with for quite some time. I have bumped into Nick Drieschman a few times on the Plains but it will be a lot of fun to finally chase with him and his crew.
I will be chasing with Tour #2 which is the first time I will be chasing in the beginning of May since 2013. I had my worst chase week in my career during May 1-10th that year and have focused on late May, early June ever since. I will miss chasing in Nebraska and Colorado but I am still hoping to see my first Oklahoma tornado. After 33 tornadoes I still haven’t seen a tornado in Oklahoma!
I am so grateful to finally have a storm chasing trip to look forward to. I have almost forgotten that feeling!
