I returned to my lovely Texas about 4 years ago. I was driving with my oldest adult daughter one day through the beautiful countryside of Palestine TX when we looked over to the row of huge tall pine trees along the highway and we observed high in a few trees there was a mobile home stuck up in the trees!! Not your average sight.
We both looked at each other with “What in the world?”’ and “How did that get there!?”, then we realized Oh, it must have been picked up in a tornado and dropped in the trees!, a good reminder of the kind of weather we have in this part of Texas!
Every Texan has some kind of weather story. Some even have tragic stories. This last year was a doozy! I have never experienced so many tornadoes, side winds that were the size of category 3 hurricane winds, hail the size of softballs with some hitting an all new measurement, hail the size of CD disks!!
This was all reported during this season in 2024. I have never been in a tornado. I have been close to some and hid in the bathroom with a mattress over the kids in the bathtub. This we were told to do, as a precaution.
Our house here in the Piney woods of northeast Texas was hit by lightning twice, with one bolt traveling through the roof out a TV cable that hit our wash machine and started a fire. This scared our dryer so much it has never run the same ever since , seems to groan alot it was very traumatizing.
After experiencing a lot of severe weather warnings coming across my phone’s Weather Channel app, I realized we are so far east that we get our weather information from the Shreveport LA weather radar. I also started realizing since I work from home and use a computer that when lightning hits it can travel thru and zap headsets, internet and kitchen appliances! I decided I wanted to know where I can go to actually see what weather is happening around me.
And this is when I stumbled upon the Texas Storm Chasers!
One of my most favorite movies is 1996 Twister. I loved the movie and have watched it many times. I did not know though, that there are real true to life guys that are the real storm chasers. One day during a bout of severe weather in Northeast Tx, since I do not watch cable TV anymore I was looking on Youtube and I saw Storm Chasers Live. It was amazing these two guys were in their car. The camera was mounted to the front of the car and you were sitting right there and chasing a tornado, live! I soon realized they were doing the same things as in the movie, they had special weather equipment and the goal was to get close enough to put out the circular discs and have the tornado pick it up and then they can record data! This was now my new hobby, watching the live storm chasers!
There is a storm chaser named Reed Timmer and he has a special storm chaser car called The Dominator 3, this car is made with special features and clamps that can keep the car on the ground so no wind can pick it up and it has special windows etc, it can go through a tornado. I watched one time he and his companions set it down right in the path of an oncoming twister and he filmed it all live, during this particular tornado the windows did blow out and they all got cuts on their faces. He has now I believe perfected this on the Dominator 3. Reed is a bonafide meteorologist and has a PHD.
Here he shows his special storm chaser vehicle.
This is footage from the recent storms” Gorilla hail to 5 inches in diameter reported north of Levelland, Texas just shreds rental vehicle”
This is from his Dominator 3 chasing and intercepting one of our recent tornadoes in Texas! He is fearless and who needs to watch a simulated Hollywood movie when you have Reed Timmer and his crew!
Then for just the best overall weather prediction and the big picture I found Ryan Hall Y’all. He has a Youtube show and he has a team of fellow storm chasers but he covers all the states in Tornado Alley. Many a night I had Ryan on my phone as he was live streaming a severe weather outbreak. Ryan is also a bonafide meteorologist. I have learned now what a tornado looks like on radar, what a bow echo is, what a tornado debris field looks like and what factors are involved in how and when a tornado forms.
He also has a whole first responder charity that when they come into a place right after a tornado they are boots on the ground, they call it the Ya’ll Squad. They not only are trained storm chasers and first responders but they will also set up and start making meals and help people immediately with things they need.
I like Ryan because if there is any type of serious weather he will be on it and live streaming. These storm chasers/weather men really save lives and they will sometimes keep the live stream going for up to 12 hours. You will know what areas are under warnings and watches and where the tornados are and where they are going. I watched one time where he was covering tornado outbreaks in 4 different states! He also has storm chasers with their live feeds reporting first hand of where a tornado is. Sometimes the weather station has not even issued a warning but the storm chasers report first as they are right on the scene. I always feel bad when you know their backsides must be sore and they probably need to go to the bathroom and eat but they are dedicated souls!
There is a local weather show on Youtube as well. It is called The Texas Weather Roundup with Baldy and Chief David Reimer and if you live in TX or are ever wondering what is happening when the sky turns black and there’s a big black wall that comes across the sky, or if all of a sudden the wind is still and there is an eerie green tint all around.
It’s time to check on Youtube, get the Storm Chaser App on your phone, because the weather can change on a dime in this part of the world and it is not called tornado alley for nothing. We can get not only tornados but a line of super cell storms can produce straight line winds that are sometimes more dangerous than an actual tornado.
Just last week I watched with David as a series of straight line storms formed a Derecho that hit the downtown Houston metro with 120 mile an hour winds or like a category 3 hurricane!
David lives in TX and this is Texas weather only. I learned that Texas is so big that the state is divided into geographical areas that produce their own type of weather.
There is the Big Country, Hill Country, Permian Basin, North Texas, the Panhandle, the Brazos Valley, the Ark- La- Tex, The Golden Triangle, Edwards plateau , coastal bend, Concho valley, piney woods of Tx, Texhoma, Big Bend etc.
So Texas is a great state, and like many Texans will tell you, if you don’t like the weather wait a few days and it will change!
So now we are looking at another Texas summer. They say this year is gonna be hot! We never really stop having severe weather though. I always say you may be having a bad day when you see the dominator driving in your town! Time to check the weather!!
