What are the risks involved in chasing storms?
While storm chasing is not the dangerous activity it is often portrayed to be, there are some risks that a chaser must be aware of and prepare for: • Driving – You will hear me repeat this again and again on this site – the most dangerous part of storm chasing is not the storms – it’s being the road! It may surprise you to hear that in my 15 years of storm chasing, the closest calls I’ve had were never storm-related, but always driving-related. I can’t think of one time that a tornado, flood, hurricane or lightning strike made me genuinely fear for my safety – but like all of us, I have plenty of stories about near-misses on the road. The risks from driving always far exceed the risks from the skies – not only for storm chasers but for every driver out on the roads. In fact, someone who commutes in their car for more than 10 miles every day has a higher risk of getting hurt than I do during all of the storm chasing expeditions I embark on every year around the USA. The multitasking, hi