While most people run from storms, a team of Ball State students found
themselves chasing the most severe storms in the nation this summer.
Geography professor David Arnold and fifteen students just spent a month on the annual storm-chasing trip. The trip is a four-week field study that requires students to travel to the Great Plains in search of severe weather.
Ball State has offered the summer program for the past six years and offers class credit to those who enroll. Through the program, students have the opportunity to use skills they learn in the classroom to forecast weather and chase storms.
Junior Jenny Cook, a meteorology and telecommunications major, was among the group of storm chasers that said this trip was a valuable experience.
"We all wanted to get out of the classroom and try something new," Cook said. "By going on this trip, we had the opportunity to see with our own eyes what we have been studying in our textbooks."
With their own eyes, students on this year's storm chasing team experienced something rare that past participants did not. On May 24, the group witnessed eleven tornadoes in less than two hours.
"The chance of even seeing a tornado is very rare," Arnold said. "I
have never seen anything like that before in my 23 years of storm chasing."
Students that attended the trip last summer were excited to hear about this year's outcome.
Senior telecommunications major Carrie Haisley said this trip was a
very memorable one.
"I remember getting out of the car and yelling, 'Tornado!' with more
excitement than I have ever displayed in my life," Haisley said. "The time
that I saw 11 tornados in a single day will always stick with me. This was a
once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Not only did they chase down tornados, they also weathered
hail, high winds, sand storms, and other types of severe weather.
"Sometimes people tend to focus a lot on chasing tornados," geography graduate student Nathan Hitchens said,"But a lot of the experience is found through all the different types of storms."
After four weeks of tracking down severe storms and crossing Tornado Alley,
the students can now take home with them experiences they had while looking Mother Nature in the eye.
"I will probably chase storms for the rest of my life," Haisley said. "This is my true passion."
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