The Life of Reed Timmer Storm Chaser and His Reasons for Chasing Storms

On average storm, Chasers travel 500 miles a day Reed Timmer is no average storm chaser. Reed Timmer wakes up around 6:00 am. so that he can see where he is going to target so he can chase. Timmer looks at computer-generated models and looks for certain, key elements that form supercell thunderstorms. Supercell thunderstorms can and do produce tornados, and that’s what Reed Timmer is looking fort Timmer finds these spots and travels to them to find the perfect storm. After Timmer finds his target or targets he corresponds to his partners, Joel Taylor, and Chris Chittick.

They have to figure out a spot to chase and get ready for a big chase day. Around 7:30 am Timmer and his crew leave the hotel they stayed at and go to the target area Most target areas are around 300 miles away so Timmer and the crew have to hurry to get there. They each take turns driving, but usually, Joel drives while Joel drives Timmer can either sleep, or relook over the models, since most of their day is spent on driving, Timmer and his crew eat either fast food, or gas station food Timmer even listed his top ten favorite gas station foods.

Number one was burritos from any Quick Trip in the country, as soon as Timmer and his team get close enough to the target he relooks at the outlooks and makes sure the conditions are still there. He then makes any adjustments to the target area, the team either makes the adjustments which can take them around 50-100 miles in any direction.

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If there aren‘t any changes, Timmer has them go to the target area and the wait for several things, one thing they look for is the NWS (National Weather Service) to issue a watch. If the National Weather Service, in Norman Oklahoma, issues a Tornado Watch then that mean conditions are favorable for tornados- which is what Reed Timmer wants. Timmer then waits for towers, towers are cumulus clouds that build up when the cap (warm air aloft that can prevent thunderstorms from forming) breaks towers can be as tall as 60,000 ft, the higher the cloud tops are the stronger the storms are usually.

If the cap is strong enough, then thunderstorms can’t develop and storm chasing that day was a waste of time. But when the cap breaks, then there is no stopping thunderstorms from developing. When the storms develop it’s a go for Reed Timmer and his team, when multiple storms develop, Timmer and his team look for the storm with the best capability for producing a tornado. Sometime it’s the first storm to pop, and sometimes it’s the closest storm to them, Timmer then chooses the storm that he and his team believe is the one that will produce a tornado. The weather changes, so Timmer and his team must act quick and they must be right because one wrong move can put you 50 miles away from a storm and an hour behind. If Timmer chooses the correct storm he is set up great for what his goal is, Reed Timmer‘s goal is to not record and sell videos of tornados, even though he does sell tornado Videos.

His goal is to get close, but not inside the tornado, to record the vertical winds near a tornado he records that data by shooting probes, which have technology in them that report the winds and directions. The probes have a parachute in them so when launched the storm picks them up, throws them into circulation and the tornado takes them with it. After the tornado dissipates the probes land in an area, where reed and his crew can finally locate them with GPS. The data that gets recorded helps meteorologist predict when and where a tornado can form. With that data, we can have technology that can give us advanced warnings and save lives. That is the reason Reed Timmer goes into storm chasing, and that is why I want to go into meteorology.