TornadoVideos.net

Reed was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI, and became interested in extreme weather at a very young age. He was also an avid insect, reptile, and amphibian collector and tree identification enthusiast, but decided to pursue his greatest passion and began studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma in 1998. Reed photographed his first tornado in October 1998, and was addicted to extreme storm chasing ever since. Every spring and summer season, he travels from the Mexican Border to Canada striving to photograph tornadoes from extreme close range (within 1/8 mile), often driving more than 40,000 miles during the spring and summer. His infamous reputation was achieved when he videotaped an F5 tornado from underneath an overpass on May 3, 1999 while it was bearing down on his location. Reed has more recently become interested in hurricane chasing as well, and documented Hurricane Katrina from "ground zero" in the fall 2005 with Simon Brewer (Stormgasm), lost Simon's car to a 20 foot storm surge, and had to hitch-hike back to Oklahoma. Notable tornado intercepts include the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado in Moore, OK; the Manchester, SD wedge on June 24, 2003; the May 4, 2003 tornado outbreak in southeast KS; and sustaining a direct hit from an F0 tornado in southern Minnesota. Reed has made several television appearances to share his storm chasing escapades, including CNN with Wolf Blitzer and Paula Zahn, Good Morning America with Dianne Sawyer, the Leeza Gibbons Show, Real TV, and World's Most Amazing Videos. Reed graduated with a Bachelors Degree in meteorology in 2002, Masters in 2005, and is currently working towards his PhD in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests lie mainly in the field of applied climatology, focusing on energy consumption/temperature connections, and minimizing weather-related risk in the agribusiness sector. Additional interests include oboe performance, weight-lifting, basketball, golf, and hockey. Reed will chase storms until the day he dies!

Joel was raised in the heart of tornado alley, Elk City, Oklahoma. Joel witnessed numerous severe storms and several tornadoes in his early childhood years which helped to feed his interests in extreme weather. He even began producing weather "forecasts" as early as the first grade. In 1998 Joel moved to Norman, Oklahoma, to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. While there, his fascination with storms and stormchasing only grew. In 2001 Joel was selected to be on a special episode of Atmospheres (aired on The Weather Channel), in which he explored the various climates of Hawaii alongside Jim Cantore and Mish Michaels. Some of Joel's most notable intercepts include the May 3rd, 1999, F5 Moore, OK twister; the October 9th, 2001 F3 tornado that narrowly missed his hometown of Elk City, OK; and the May 27th, 2001, White Deer, TX tornado. In May 8, 2003 in northern Kansas, Joel was driving his Ford Explorer down a water-covered highway and began hydroplaning at 80 mph. With 5 stormchasers in the vehicle, his car fish-tailed violently and then spun 720 degrees at 80 mph, and Joel safely stabilized the spin without slowing down. Joel has also participated in two hurricane chases, including Hurricane Frances that came into Florida in 2004 and Hurricane Rita which ravaged much of the Louisiana and Texas coasts in 2005. After graduating with his degree in Meteorology in 2002, Joel started a career in Real Estate. He now owns and operates two successful Real Estate companies in the Oklahoma City/Norman area, and is continuing to look for ways to expand his businesses. Being his own boss, Joel is able to schedule most of his work around his stormchase interests, giving him opportunities that he would not have with a normal job. Joel also enjoys basketball, weightlifting, long distance running, and attending OU football and basketball games.

Chris was born and raised in the small town of Greenville, MI, and has always had an immense interest in extreme weather for as long as he can remember. Chris intercepted his first tornado in eastern Wyoming in May 2000, and has been hooked on storm chasing ever since, driving 50,000+ miles every year striving to document as many tornadoes as possible. He also enjoys chasing hurricanes, blizzards, and even grassfires, and plans to continue traveling the world year-round to satisfy his passion for extreme weather. Chris studied Business Management at Central Michigan University until 2002 before moving down to Norman, Oklahoma to pursue storm chasing full-time. He will act as the business manager of Extreme Tornado Tours in addition to serving as a tour guide and driver, and will definitely put his extreme weather driving experience to good use! In addition to storm chasing, Chris enjoys golf, swimming, cooking, and just being outdoors.

Jason is from Grand Rapids, MI, but currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama. He is really not into extreme weather but enjoys seeing the images and video the team is able to capture. Jason develops all the systems that the TV.net team uses which mainly include the web site and the GPS tracking software that the team uses when in the field. Jason and Reed actually went to school together until they graduated high school, at which point they did not speak for several years. They reconnected in early 2006 to stand the TV.net site up to what it is today and together have some big plans for enhancements in the coming months. Jason also develops web applications for a company full time in Birmingham while doing other development consulting on the side.

Originally from western Maryland, Heidi has first-hand experience with a wide range of extreme weather: crippling snowstorms in the Appalachians, monsoon season in Arizona, and more recently, tornados and catastrophic flooding in Arkansas. As a high school student, Heidi used GOES satellite imagery for local forecasts and maintained a web-based remote weather station for Bob Ryan at NBC4 TV in Washington, DC. She also hosted a delegation from Polish National Television, demonstrating the cutting-edge technology in her school's weather lab. That same passion for helping others develop weather interests continues in her role of website moderation at TVN. In addition, Heidi is a regular photography contributor for KAIT-8 (ABC), Jonesboro. Her first tornado was the historic February 5th, 2008, 123-mile "groundscrubber" that devastated 7 counties in the Arkansas Ozarks. She not only witnessed the monster EF-4 tornado during lightning flashes as it ravaged properties near her home, but also reported live from the damage path for KAIT shortly after the tornado had passed, as she and her husband attempted to reach neighbors whose homes had been destroyed. She has subsequently helped organize TV coverage and ongoing relief efforts in her area. Outside of her weather & photography interests, Heidi is a writer, has traveled extensively in the US & Canada, is an avid wildlife enthusiast and birder (having observed over 550 species in North America), and has been a state park naturalist. She enjoys exotic foods, gardening, sports, classical & world music, playing mandolin & violin and spending time with her husband and their ultra-cool Australian shepherd. Heidi makes no secret of the fact that she is not fond of armadillos.

Matt is a young blossoming storm chaser for the Tornadovideos.net team. Matt’s passion for weather is undeniably intense, and he has already filmed extreme weather footage in his young storm chasing career. Raised in the small western Oklahoma town of Weatherford, Matt was introduced to a variety of extreme weather events. As a young child he was very fearful of storms, and wanted them to stay as far away from him as possible. He grew up though major weather events such as the devastating May 3rd, 1999 tornado outbreak, or the massive ice storm of Jan 2002, that wrecked havoc on western Oklahoma and wiped the power out of western Oklahoma for 10 days. Events such as these turned Matt’s fear into fascination of the power weather have on earth. Matt is now a Senior Meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, and will graduate in December 2008. After graduation, Matt hopes to help warn and get information to the public by continuing to chase tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards.

Matt chases as the “Stream1” team for Tornadovideos.net along with his chase partners: Curtis McDonald, Daniel Betten, and Matt Van Every.

Matt was born and raised in Lewisville, TX and became interested in extreme weather at the ripe age of eight when his family was hit by a violent tornado in the Texas panhandle while on the way home from a family vacation in Colorado. He remembers witnessing intense damage and destruction including part of the roof missing off the hotel, all the water sucked out of the hotel swimming pool with the sign laying in it, and 3 trains mangled at a station across the street. Since that day all he as ever wanted to do was study and witness extreme weather. Matt is interested in and chases tornadoes, hail, lighting, flooding, ice/snow storms, and hurricanes. He is also very interested in research, and has designed and developed a high-resolution and accurate network of automated instruments on the University of Oklahoma’s Kessler Farm Field Laboratory in Washington, OK. Matt currently has to complete one more semester at the University of Oklahoma in order to obtain his Bachelors Degree in meteorology with 2 minors: math and hydrology. He is a proud Eagle Scout and a NOAA National Earnest F. Holling Scholar. He has worked with the National Severe Storms Laboratory and currently is a student volunteer at the Norman, OK Weather Forecast Office where he routinely assists with severe weather and the issuing of products. Additional interests include a good workout, mechanics, electronics, and pretty much anything that is outdoors or involves working with his hands. Matt will also be contributing to the TVN blog on a daily basis.

Curtis McDonald was born and raised 40 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri and now resides in Norman Oklahoma where he is working on his degree from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. During Curtis’s early years severe thunderstorms frighten him, however things drastically changed around the age of six when he became increasingly fascinated by all forms of weather including snowstorms, ice storms, flooding, and thunderstorms. Curtis remembers waiting up all night for the first snowflakes to fall on an approaching winter storm, watching continuous news coverage of the Great Flood of 1993 and convincing his mom to drive around in a thunderstorm well before he had his driver’s license. All these things and more shows Curtis’s passion for all kinds of extreme weather. In the fall of 2005 Curtis moved to Oklahoma to pursue his dream of becoming a meteorologist. Here is where he became very passionate in storm chasing and plans on chasing all kinds of extreme weather for the rest of his life. Curtis is the fearless driver of the TVN Stream 1 team, specializing in driving over large downed trees and navigating through seemingly impassable mud roads.

Daniel was born and raised in Dallas, Texas where from an early age he was always fascinated by the weather. He would stay up all night waiting for snow to fall, which it never would, and watching electrical storms move through. Daniel’s interest in weather, however, was not just limited to snow and lightning but he was also glued to the TV whenever hurricane coverage or severe weather outbreaks in North Texas were occurring. Watching the movie Twister and watching coverage of the F3 tornado that hit Fort Worth in 1998 focused his weather interests on tornadoes. He participated in the International Science Fair in 2002 as his love of weather related research began to grow.

Right now Daniel lives in Norman, Oklahoma works as an undergraduate research assistant with the University of Oklahoma. He has participated in two field projects with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, helping run the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research & Teaching Radar (SMARTR) and driving mobile Mesonet vehicles. He also went to Costa Rica last summer to help run the radar in a project that was coordinated by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) for three weeks. Daniel plans on graduating in December with a bachelor in Meteorology and minors in math and hydrology before he enters graduate school at OU. He is currently working on a dual-doppler analysis of the May 29th 2004 Geary, OK tornadic supercell that will be presented at the Severe Local Storms conference in October.

In his spare time he enjoys chasing with Stream 1 and provides an endless amount of quotes that are not soon forgotten. He also enjoys working out and playing a variety of sports and keeping up with his fantasy sports teams.

Dick was born near South Padre Island, TX and not having spent a full month alive, had his house destroyed by Hurricane Allen in Brownsville, TX . Allen, a Category 3 hurricane as it made landfall, recorded a 899 mb low pressure in the Yucatan, reached Category 5 hurricane status 3 times, and as it reached the western gulf, set the record for it, with a minimum pressure drop of 909 mb! After moving to Garden City, KS when he was 8, it wouldn't take him long before his next encounter would occur with Mother Nature's most violent; when his family outran an elephant trunk tornado bearing down on the south side of town. Growing up and always wanting to chase and to learn more, Dick and his friend Derek Shaffer took off after a storm just east of Lawrence, KS on May 4th, 2003 and ended up observing a deadly F-4 tornado which ripped through the northern KC metro area. Ever since that day, he has been hooked and obsessed in learning everything there is to know about supercells: their behavior, and the environments from which they are created in.

On the night of May 4th, 2007, Dick witnessed the birth of the 'Greensburg supercell' as it quickly matured into one of the most violent, cyclic supercells ever recorded; which unfortunately destroyed 95% of the town of Greensburg, Kansas and took the lives of 13 people. Dick, Darin and Derek were some of the first to enter Greensburg after the tornado hit, and stayed in the town for several hours trying to help in any way that they could, despite being in shock and the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Dick describes that night as one that is very difficult to put into words, but introduced a harsh truth to face and grim reminder of what this hobby is very capable of, and sparked him to join others in spreading better awareness of severe weather safety. He has done countless interviews with all sorts of media and has prepared articles for various newspapers and magazines, in hopes to possibly prepare those, in the field, for traumatic, catastrophic natural disasters - before, during and most importantly...with dealing with the aftermath. Constantly thinking about that night and the well-being of the Greensburg residents, Dick took it upon himself to organize a charity event selling the 'Storms of 2007' DVD, and with the help of many other (hundreds) storm chasers (including TVN who donated a major chunk and produced a chapter), have raised and donated over $10,000 - every penny going directly to the Greensburg residents. (Greensburg Greentown)

Dick currently attends FHSU and is a few semesters away from completing a bachelor's degree in GIS (Geographical Information Systems). In his spare time, he likes to shoot photography, spending time with his girlfriend, Devin and her family. Dick also lives for watching KU/Texas sports manhandle OU in every sport imaginable. He would rather be thrown from a runaway train, into a cage full of starved lions dressed up in a wildebeest suit, than cheer for the Oklahoma Sooners.

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Don experienced his first tornado outbreak at only 3 weeks old when the infamous “Red River Outbreak” occurred in 1979, ravaging northwest Texas and southwest Oklahoma and tearing a path of destruction through the city of Wichita Falls. Fortunately his family was not severely impacted, although debris from one of the tornadoes was deposited in their yard, causing quite a mess. Although he moved to Georgia a few years later, most of Don's earliest memories involve Oklahoma's extreme weather in some form—be it snow, ice, tornadoes, or extreme heat.

Georgia's weather was much more moderate than Oklahoma's, yet Don's fascination with the weather continued to grow. By the age of 11 he began keeping a daily weather log of various meteorological variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and barometric pressure. Combined with his love of mathematics, this led Don to develop a detailed local climatology using various weather statistics commonly calculated by the National Weather Service. Due to the lack of radar data access at the time, he also became skilled at forecasting the short-term evolution of the region's summertime “popcorn” thunderstorms by closely observing the sky.

In 1997 Don moved back to Oklahoma to pursue a degree in Meteorology, where he began storm chasing in 1999. Since then he has completed both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the field and also witnessed many significant tornado events, including the historic Greensburg, KS, EF-5. He is currently collaborating with John Esterheld to finalize publication of their research paper “Discriminating between Tornadic and Non-Tornadic Supercells: A New Hodograph Technique”, and is also spearheading work on their next research topic. When not obsessing over the weather, Don enjoys an eclectic assortment of activities, including softball, photography, and ballroom dancing with Nicole.

Nicole grew up in Blue Springs, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, where severe weather is considered part of normal warm season life. As a child, she was terrified of tornadoes until a local weatherman came to her elementary school and explained how he got over his fear by learning about severe weather. She immediately headed to the local library and thus began her lifelong obsession with meteorology. While it's possible that there were tornadoes near her house as a child, the first tornado she recalls seeing was on her street in Livermore, California, where her family moved for one year (November 1997- November 1998). It was a weak tornado and everyone came outside to watch it--there was nowhere to run, since the houses were poorly constructed. Driven by a desire to learn more about weather, Nicole earned a Bachelor's degree in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and a Master's degree in Atmospheric Science at North Carolina State University. While on the way to OU for one fall semester, Nicole and her family saw numerous dust devils and a few landspouts in northern Oklahoma. When one weak landspout was about to cross the highway in front of her, Nicole slowed down slightly so that she could drive through it, thus earning her place in the "Zero-meter Club." Since then, she has become more cautious about tornadoes and is now the official "Safety Engineer" of Stream Three (which means that she keeps an eye out for other possible lowerings, especially those nearby; reminds her storm-hypnotized team that it's time to drive out of harm's way; and encourages all team members to get their First Aid and CPR training). When Nicole is not trying to keep Stream 3 from being killed, she enjoys photographing cloud structures, architecture, and flowers in macro; working on digital art/graphics; filming both severe weather and everyday life; designing jewelry (she creates the jewelry available in the online store); teaching meteorology and weather safety to the public; gardening; ballroom dancing; and spending time with her husband, Don.

Dave, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, has been fascinated by weather for as long as he can remember. As a young kid, he would surreptitiously sneak out of bed to watch the weather segment on the local evening news. One of his earliest tornado memories was forged one such night in late July 1987 when WFIE TV's legendary "Weather Lady", Marcia Yockey, regaled her viewers with footage of the infamous "Black Friday" Edmonton, Alberta F4 tornado, which had torn through the northern Canadian Prairies earlier that day. He was awestruck. From that moment on, severe and unusual weather would be his obsession. Drawn to Oklahoma in 1997 by the opportunity to study at the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and Oklahoma's reputation as being at the heart of Tornado Alley, Dave had his first chasing success during the mega tornado outbreak of May 3, 1999. Mesmerized by the sight of the Chickasha, OK tornado that evening, he absent-mindedly left his car's parking brake set while trying to escape from the tornado's path. The brake-hindered, pedal-to-the-metal 10 MPH "getaway" that ensued, with the tornado quickly closing in on his location, was an exhilarating way to experience and document his first tornado! Prior to his graduation from the OU School of Meteorology in 2002, Dave started working full-time with the Oklahoma Mesonet at University of Oklahoma. His position at the Mesonet, a dense network of instrumented weather and climate observation stations, allowed him to blend his passions -- meteorology and technology. He currently specializes in communication networks, the acquisition of meteorological observations and data, and infrastructure systems administration. When not driving thousands of miles in pursuit of interesting and wild weather, Dave enjoys spending his free time focusing on nature photography, seeing new and unique places, exploring desolate landscapes by foot, tinkering with gadgets and gizmos, and just being outdoors.

John Esterheld was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area where he became highly interested in snowstorms. Driven by his passion for snowstorms, John went on to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma where he earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Meteorology. While studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, John developed an interest in severe thunderstorms. He began storm chasing after three years in Oklahoma and has continued storm chasing ever since. In addition to storm chasing, John has done quite a bit of research on severe weather with a focus on tornadic environments. John worked with Donald Giuliano on identifying environments capable of producing significant tornadoes and they have a publication pending on this very topic. Currently, John resides in Oklahoma City and storm chases whenever the opportunity is there. He has witnessed many significant tornadoes including recent ones such as the Greensburg, Kansas EF5 on May 4, 2007 and the Quinter, Kansas EF4 on May 22, 2008. In addition to severe weather research, John also has great interest in climatological research. John’s primary focus in climatological research is to find ways to improve forecasting of monthly-to-seasonal forecasts of temperature and precipitation.

John was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, where encounters with Hurricanes Gloria and Bob stoked his enthusiasm for weather phenomena at an early age. With encouragement from his high school physics teacher, he began studying Astronomy and Physics at Boston University. After several semesters, he realized that his passion for the atmosphere couldn't be sated, and switched to a track which included studying physical geography. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Astronomy and Geography, with a minor in Physics, he moved to Norman, Oklahoma, to pursue a Master's degree in Meteorology. While attending OU he participated in the Thunderstorm Electrification and Lightning Experiment (TELEX) in 2003 and 2004, where as a member of the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Thunderstorm Electrification Group, he honed his skills at thunderstorm forecasting and nowcasting. John also sharpened his severe weather driving skills by driving an eighteen-foot Uhaul truck to and through supercells, multicell clusters, and mesoscale convective systems. For several years John served as the Assistant Site Scientist for the Southern Great Plains facility of the Department of Energy-funded Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program. In this capacity he served as a forecaster for several field experiments, most notably the Cloud-Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC), for which he provided afternoon nowcasting and long-term outlooks for six airplanes and a helicopter.

John looks forward to the opportunity to put his skills and experience to use as a member of the TornadoVideos.net and Extreme Tornado Tours team. In his spare time, John enjoys playing the guitar, poker, camping, weightlifting, red wine, and following his beloved Red Sox.

Dave Holder, 26 years of age and born in England, is one of the most passionate storm chasers in the country. Now living in Norman, Oklahoma, he is working on his degree from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.

Dave moved to the Philadelphia area when he was a small child, and it was here where his passion for weather blossomed. As a kid, he would stay up until early morning hours watching the Weather Channel. Weather became an obsession, watching the local radar continuously when storms were around. In addition to thunderstorms, winter weather events became highlights of Dave’s early life. The Storm of the Century in 1993 marked a deep impression upon Dave’s psyche.

A carefree and often spontaneous individual, Dave coupled his love of weather with his love of geography and travel. By the time he turned 23 years old, he had visited every state in the country. His love for long road trips produced 8 coast to coast drives and other countless hours in the car from the Mexican border to the Canadian Rockies.

Now with his trademark red Hyundai, Dave has storm chased from Texas north to the Canadian Prairies. He has been featured live on local television stations in Minneapolis and has appeared on National Canadian Radio outlets.

Some of Dave’s other interests are poker and playing football and basketball. He plans to obtain a motorcycle license and a pilot’s license in the not-too-distant future.

Dave would like nothing more than to make a living traveling and chasing weather events.