This morning, my day started like any other. I climbed out of bed, turned on the computer, walked over to the Kuerig, and started brewing a cup of coffee. I sat down with my coffee, signed on to facebook, and began checking notifications and replying to messages. That's when I opened up a message from a friend, linking me to someone's facebook page. I clicked the link, and sure enough, there was an image of a supercell I shot in 2012, except it was totally oversaturated, contrast pumped up to all hell, and someone else had their name slapped across the bottom of it. They were taking my work, and trying to pass it off as their own!
May 31, 2013 was the only time that I ever thought that I might actually die while chasing storms. An erratically behaving supercell; a violent, rain-wrapped wedge tornado; and a tv weatherman giving citizens the worst possible advice, "This tornado is unsurvivable above ground. If you can't get below ground, you need to drive south"... All the ingredients came together that day resulting in a disaster like which has never been seen in the weather community.
I began chasing thunderstorms in the fall of 2009. Over the course of the last three and a half years, I have seen some amazing phenomenon, but the one that always eluded me was a high contrast, photogenic tornado. Three and a half years, and twenty thousand miles on the road later, I finally found what I had been looking for all this time.
