Chasing Tornadoes in the Midwest with Project ROTATE

Major: Earth and Ocean Sciences (B.S.)
Extracurricular: photography, reading, watching movies
Home: Broughton, Scotland

In Maiana’s Words:

May 12th. Day One and we set off in search of storms. Beyond the sunny, blue sky, high towers of clouds indicated the development of severe thunderstorms. Soon passing underneath one, I watched as a tornado dropped to the ground — my first. Contrary to my expectations, it seemed so peaceful and motionless, but others, later, did prove my expectations correct, rotating furiously. Several hours later we called it a day, having viewed 10 tornadoes and gathered data, including dual-doppler, on many of them.

This was the start of two months working with the Doppler on Wheels (DOWs) mobile radars for Project ROTATE (Radar Observations of Tornadoes and Thunderstorms Experiment) — organized and led by Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research. Fascinated by tornadoes since childhood I grew up watching documentaries on these phenomena, many in which Josh was featured, so I finally decided to contact him. The result: my summer 2004 position as driver of the SCOUT support vehicle on ROTATE-2004, a position that enabled our team to get very close to the action area for better video, or to gather data such as temperature and pressure. Here I got great views of the storms, sometimes being as close as half a mile away from a tornado. Seeing the intense motion and rotation going on in the funnel and on the ground was incredible; however, conducting damage surveys post-tornado always brought home how much damage these phenomena can cause.

Although based in Norman, Oklahoma, we drove over 10,000 miles this summer in search of tornadoes. I learned a lot, and quickly. From sitting on the side of the road as a hail core passed over us, to driving through severe wind and rain to get away from the action area, I learned how to anticipate which part of the storm the tornadoes would develop in. I discovered that although these storms are very unpredictable, scientists actually know more about them than I had expected. Of course many times they were also proven wrong, which only indicates the need for such continued tornado research.

For a another look at tornado chasing, I highly recommend the new IMAX movie, Forces of Nature. Josh Wurman and Project ROTATE are featured in this production, which gives an indication of what the project is trying to achieve. It also shows what it was like to work with Josh, and gives an idea of the fun that goes on, as well as spectacular footage of these incredible storms and what it was like to chase them.