Tornadoes as seen by storm-chasers. (Photos courtesy Chris Curtis)
By Brett Wittenberg
The van barreled down I-44, its occupants’ excitement reaching a fever pitch. The chase that had started that morning in Oklahoma had traveled a serpentine route across much of Kansas, and by the time they crossed the Missouri border, the chasers had almost caught up with their prey—a giant tornado.
One of the “storm chasers” in the van was Concord resident Chris Curtis, who will give a talk about his experiences on Monday, February 25 at 12:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall.
On that day in May 2011, Curtis and his team could tell by radar that their prize was only a few blocks to their north, but in the limited visibility of the accompanying rainstorm, they had yet to actually see the Class EF5 multiple-vortex tornado. But the radar clearly showed a huge tornado with a cloud of swirling debris, and it looked like it had stopped on top of Joplin, Missouri.
When the storm chasers pulled into Joplin, the tornado had been through just minutes earlier, and they were greeted with the sight of the resulting wreckage and chaos. Curtis ran through the torrential rain to help the drivers of several damaged vehicles. One pickup truck nearby was smoking and its driver had a gash in his head, he recalled.
The Joplin tornado—the nation’s deadliest since 1947—killed 158 people and injured more than 1,100. The insurance payout, which is expected to be the biggest in Missouri state history, should lend a helping hand of around $2.2 billion to the ongoing rebuilding process.
Curtis has lived in Concord and run the locally famous West Concord Five and Ten for 25 years. If you’ve been into the store for batteries or stickers or a spatula or gum, you may have met Chris and never known that the friendly proprietor was one of the excitable storm chasers you’ve seen on TV. But he is, and his fascination with weather of a certain magnitude began early.
“I was a freshman in high school for the Blizzard of ’78,” he recalled. “We had no school for three weeks. It was glorious—until they mailed us homework,” he added with a laugh.
Storm-chasing has changed a lot since Curtis first got involved. “My first year out was ’04 and we actually had a paper atlas. And we would drive into a town and park in the library parking lot because hopefully they would have a Wi-Fi signal, and then we could get some fresh data. From there on, it was look at the sky and follow the road signs,” he said.
From those brave and humble beginnings, the pursuit has become much more technologically sophisticated. “Nowadays we have GPS and we have live radar, and we have Wi-Fi in the van, so we know exactly where a tornado has been, what direction it’s going, and what speed. We even know how big the hail is liable to be, because we can measure the amount of moisture at different levels of the atmosphere, and we know what the uptake rate is within the storm structure,” Curtis said.
Curtis and other storm chasers now play a crucial role in saving lives. “By being eyes and ears on the ground, we help the National Weather Service get out warnings much more quickly than they could before,” he said. This is particularly important because in many parts of the country where tornadoes pose the greatest risk, population density is light and the defense of an entire town against a disaster can fall on the shoulders of a few.
Tornado-chasing, Chris says, is about conquering fear by understanding and respecting the weather pattern. In the fictional movie Twister, an EF-5 tornado (the strongest ranking on the Enhanced Fujita scale) was referred to as “the finger of God.” An EF5 tornado can cause complete destruction of all standing structures it encounters, let alone smaller objects like vans. But with the proper equipment, tornadoes can be monitored, tracked, and even approached in relative safety by storm-chasers, Curtis said.
“There’s adrenaline, but fear is the unknown,” he said—seeing a tornado without the benefit of radar and other meteorological tools is the real fear. “It’s like Godzilla. You don’t know where it’s going to step, but you don’t want to be wherever that footfall is… but if you know where the tornado is and where it’s going, then there’s no fear anymore. Take the fear out of the equation and it’s just an extraordinary experience.”
The February 25 event is sponsored by the Lincoln Council on Aging. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch (the COA will provide beverages and dessert) and stay for a Q&A and discussion.
Wittenberg is a resident of Lexington, Mass.