Mr Twister
Chaser For Life
An Interview With Top Storm Chaser Eric Treece
Tornado shot by Eric Treece on 6/20/2011 near Bradshaw Nebraska
Give us a brief back round on yourself and your chase career?
I have always been interested in severe weather in some fashion. When I was a kid I grew up in SE Michigan and remember the Super Outbreak in 1974 like it was yesterday. We were not really effected by it, but I do remember some really wicked storms that came through during that event. I still remember the shade of green the sky was as the storms were approaching my grandmothers house that day.
I moved to Colorado in 1999 and had mistakenly taken I-70 instead of I-76 out of Denver. Wanting to get back to I-80 I took the back roads tour of NW Kansas and thats when I had my moment of Zen as I looked around and thought "WOW! You can see FOREVER here! NOW I know why you can chase storms here!!" And from that moment on I have devoted a huge portion of my life to storm chasing.
Where does this love for weather come from?
I'm not sure. When I was a kid I was TERRIFIED of even thunder and lightning. When the tornado sirens would go off I would be almost in a panic. Somewhere between adolescence and High School, that fear became more of a curiosity. I was the guy standing in the middle of the street watching the storms come in and studying the sky while his mom yelled at him to get the heck inside the house. By the time I was in college I was a total weather geek.
How did you get into storm chasing?
I saw the movie Twister and it was ALL over!! No, JUST kidding!! In 1993 I was at home watching the 1 Tornado Awareness show that the local news channel put out every spring in the hopes I would get to see new tornado video. Anyone that is my age or older knows back even then, there wasn't much to be had outside of "Tornadoes The Entity!!" on a VHS or you just happened to catch a brief glimps of tornado footage on the news. Anyway, during this show (the local station also partnered with a station in Dallas) they took a tv crew out chasing with a couple of guys by the name of Tim Marshall and Carson Eads. My interest peaked! I had NO idea people actually went out and chased these things!! Sure enough on this chase they scored numerous tornadoes!! Thats when I decided that sooner or later I was going to chase. I took Skywarn classes and read anything I could get ahold of to learn more about it and storms in general. I never really gave chasing much thought living in Michigan because the terrain there sucks, but that all changed that day in Kansas in 1999.
When/where was your first chase?
May 17, 2000. The Brady, NE tornado day. I started out ahead of the dryline near Goodland, KS. I had nothing more than visual clues and Skywarn training to go on and a mapping software program on my laptop. The Skywarn training really started to put everything in perspective as far as what you were actually seeing in the sky unfold before you. I didn't get the Brady tornado, but I was actually quite thrilled just to be within 45 miles of something like that. I was happy I saw storms and that the Skywarn classes I took to help fuel the fire to chase paid off. It was game on from that day forward.
Where/when was your favorite chase?
There are so many that stand out, but this is a no brainer. May 10, 2004. 30 minutes from home right here in Colorado. The Elbert County Outbreak. A slight risk, 2% Tornado risk kind of day that paid off with a slow moving, cyclical tornado producing supercell that dropped one tornado after another.........and there were only a handful of chasers that were there to experience that. It was awesome!!
What is your most important piece of equipment while chasing?
This may seem to be a little odd, but IMO, a reliable vehicle. It ALL starts with a vehicle. If you don't have that, you aren't chasing much!
What is the most dangerous situation you have been in?
I really have to think about that. I try to avoid putting myself there if at all possible. I think I am going to go with May 23, 2008 and Quinter Tornado #1. Storm motion was insanely fast, the visibility sucked from the haze and humidity. The sirens were going off in Quinter. DOWs were there. The TIV was there. The radio was blaring out reports of a large tornado south of town. TIV took off west on I-70, so we drove over to the helo pad at the airport there. You couldn't see much from the haze. I had Griffin Mclaughlin with me and it was his 2nd chase, first chase was the tornadofest the day before, and we struggle to see anything. Then I see this guy (Chris Hayes) jump out of a Red Dodge truck on the shoulder of I-70 and walk around the front and start snapping pictures. So I reposition my truck on the helo pad and there it was coming out of the haze.....big wedge tornado coming right at us. It was more than a few miles south of us, so I did get some video of it. I had turned my truck around and positioned us in a manner we could bolt if we had to. As everyone knows now it disippated prior to reaching I-70, but the new meso was forming to our immediate west, so we shot south to get out of the way if it made a hard right.
What do your wife/friends/family think about you doing this?
My girlfriend wants to chase with me every chance she gets. I am hoping that somewhere she begins to understand what is going on and starts chasing on her own when I am at work on occasion. My friends pretty much all accept that is a part of who I am and that if plans are made during chase season, they are likely to be cancelled because I will chase. There is no doubt that chasing has had some downsides to it in my personal life, but as they say everything happens for a reason and chasing will always be in my blood. You can either accept that about me, or not. If not, the choice is pretty much yours if you want to be in my life or not. Chasing will always win. I could be an alcoholic or a drug addict. No. I chase storms.
What is the most frustrating aspect of chasing?
Will the CAPE be enough to overcome the CAP. You could probably gamble in Vegas and have better odds of winning than on some of those big CAP days. You aren't going to win every time you go out. And you surely aren't going to win if you stay at home. It sucks driving home with a blue sky bust. It sucks even more when you see the tornado video/pictures everyone that gambled and won got because you didn't think the CAP was going to break. Take that from experience..........
Do you have a day job? If so, does it hinder your chasing?
I would say my job helps my chasing addiction more than hindering it. I am the Captain of a Great Lakes iron ore ship. I get almost 2 months off during the peak of Tornado season, so that is a HUGE perk! It also pays well, which helps with gas and all of the gadgets I use for chasing. It does have its downside too and all I can say is it really sucks when you are on a ship in the middle of Lake Michigan and your target verifies and you are watching a live tornado on TWC, AKA Aprl 14, 2012. Yeah, that sucked!
What lessons have you learned from storm chasing that bring you back to other aspects of your life?
Chasing has given me more of a social life that carries though during the off season with many other Colorado chasers. It took me more than a few years to open up because I am a pretty shy person in general. We are a pretty tight group for the most part in this state.
What advise would you give to a new stormchaser?
Learn as much as you can about storms, structure, behavior, etc before you even think about jumping into a car and chasing them. You don't go out on a Grizzly expedition without knowing something about the animal you are hunting. Storm chasing is the "Ultimate Big Game Hunt" and you better know a lot about that animal. It is a very unforgiving animal if you think you are safe and you driving into a hail core. Ask the people that chase. Most chasers these days are more than happy to answer a few questions and give some advice about chasing if you take the time to write them and ask. That was one of the things when I first started chasing that disappointed me the most. I emailed a couple of high profile chasers back in the day for advise and never receieved a response from any of them. If someone takes the time to email me about chasing I more than likely will respond. It may not be right away, but I will get to it. We all have started out as "noobs" at sometime. Know everything you can about storms before you chase. No two storms behave the same.
How do you think the 2013 chase season will turn out?
Honestly I am not overly optimistic about 2013. Something needs to change drastically with the moisture needs of the plains. Last year was a hard luck year for many. High storm bases during peak season and lack of dew points were tough enough coupled with the drought. But the lack of 500mb jet on potential chase setups was really the icing on the cake for making it hard luck IMO. With the lack of moisture I think even if the Gulf moisture makes its way north, evapotransporation will decrease available moisture because everything is so dry. On a normal year, I think you could always count on a degree or two increase from evapotransporation. I tend to use what happens in the mountains too during the winter months as a gauge as to what the storm chase season will be like. The more snow fall in the mountains, the better chase season will be. I tell myself that the more snow that falls during the winter months will influence the temperature of the upper atmosphere.....that it will be cooler than if there wasn't snow in the mountains, therefore increasing CAPE later in the season because there is still snow melting/evaporating in the mountains. I know, it sounds totally absurd and crazy, but I have a LOT of time on the boat and these are the conversations I have with myself. Don't judge me! LOL The 500mb winds are yet to be seen, but I think this year will be an early year like last year with a couple good chases in March and April perhaps and then Canada will have another banner year for tornadoes.
Will you ever stop chasing?
Nope!
Where can we find your pictures and video?
https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoStormchaser
www.coloradostormchaser.com
