Under the guidance of meteorology professor David Call, the team set out to forecast severe weather and experience the conditions first hand.
“These were the first tornadoes I had ever seen,” said Adam Burniston, a senior meteorology major in the storm chasing class. “There was so much adrenaline and excitement about it because it was an unimaginable experience. It was amazing seeing what nature can unleash in person.”
Ball State’s immersive learning initiative allows interdisciplinary student teams to work with faculty in high-impact learning environments to face real-world topics and situations. Unique projects like the storm chasing program help students to gain hands-on knowledge in a particular field while having a positive impact on the university and community.
Burniston had never chased a storm before this summer. The class had been in his sights since entering the university, and once the group made it into Colorado, the tornado sightings turned into a “once in a lifetime” learning experience.
The team was able to see the cell of the storm rotating, and tornadoes quickly touched down in the base of the storm, Call said.
“This was really one of the most amazing trips this class has ever had,” Call said. “It takes so much luck to see a pattern like this, and the kids really did a great job at identifying the right structure to chase.”
The summer course started with several on-campus class meetings to learn the basics of the storms. Within a few days, the students set out on the road, covering almost 8,000 miles during their 10 days tracking weather.
The students had assignments that required either navigating their location, planning out daily routes or finding the “most ‘chaseable’” weather patterns, Call said.
“I was impressed with how much the students grew on this trip,” Call said. “Our classroom is very different, and it’s a great opportunity for students to see the storms with their own eyes rather than on a radar screen.”
The storm chasing class first started in 1999. One of the original students in the course, John Dissauer, is now a meteorologist at CBS 4 in Indianapolis. He helped put everything together to get the class out on its first trip.
“We went up and down The Plains — this was really one of the starting points for the meteorology program at Ball State,” Dissauer said.
Dissauer has always had a passion for storm chasing, and the opportunity to turn the adrenaline ride into an educational experience was eye-opening for him.
“A radar isn’t as good as a set of eyes, and being able to see what’s happening in real time is a great advantage to have,” Dissauer said.
With nearly two decades of storm-chasing knowledge, Dissauer emphasized the importance of storm safety for both the public and for chasers.
“I always chase with the slogan, ‘I want to chase tomorrow,’” Dissauer said. “The more you can see in an educational setting, the better prepared you’re going to be to help and protect others from dangerous weather.”
Call and his students take a similar approach while chasing storms — they know being as close as possible isn’t always the safest place to be.
“You can learn a lot about weather being five or 10 miles away,” Call said. “This chasing trip is intended to teach students how to approach weather safely, but also with a keen eye for what they’re looking at.”
Burniston said he feels that the trip did just that.
“I feel that this experience has made me a better forecaster and given me more insight about weather,” he said. “Around here [in Muncie], we often don't get the same types of storms we saw on the trip, but learning about these storms actually out on the field is something you can never learn in a textbook.”
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