"FindTheTornado" - Andy Gabrielson

Storm Chaser - Andy Gabrielson

Founder of "FindTheTornado". Born on February 19, 1987, I grew up in Luverne, MN on the family farm. I have daughter who was born on November 19, 2008 and am very happy! I have relocated to Oklahoma City, OK for spring storms however I will go back to the family farm during the summer months as the storm pattern changes, eventually returning to Oklahoma in the fall for some fall action!

I have storm chased since 2003 but my passion for weather extended long before that, dating all the way back to 1993 when my dad (Greg) and myself witnessed a tornado roughly 2 miles west of our home. Since then I have had a passion to learn more, study, and document the weather. Which leads me to where I am for 2009 with live streaming video coming to my site from SevereStudios.com where I am an associate chaser and greatly value that opportunity. During my life I have witnessed over 100 tornadoes and have chased in 22 states and covered over 180,000 miles.

I have captured some of the most extreme tornado footage in the past few seasons and it has been a pleasure meeting some of the best people in the world while doing so. I have stock footage in full HD quality, I have an arsenal of HD cameras including the HC-7, HVR-V1U, and FX-7... My footage has been shown world wide on several occasions, March 8th Hammon, OK, August 7th Wilkin County MN to name a couple of those. I have been interviewed by Anderson Cooper, Reynolds Wolf, Jim Cantore, and so many others! FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, The Today Show, TWC, and multiple local networks, it's incredible to be able to talk with some of the most talented and professional news anchors in the country on a variety of shows, I am truly honored to have the opportunities I have had and do not regret anything. 2010 has been great and I am looking forward to an even more exciting 2011 just up the road. Thank you so much for those of you who have followed along for the ride of twitter/facebook/or right here at FindTheTornado.com

Some of my past work and life experience includes graduating from high school in 2005 from Southwest Minnesota Christian High School in Edgerton, MN. I have worked and helped on the family farm for many years and plan to continue to work in the ag related field for some time. I also worked a part time job as an on-air talent at the radio station here in Luverne in 2006. Outside of Storm Chasing I am attending college for a major in business. I plan to continue my education after that by attending more advanced schooling for media or agriculture. Making a career out of storm chasing has been a challenge however things are going along fairly well and the business training has helped alot along with support from my family and friends. Thanks everyone!

Thank you for taking time to learn more about myself, below is some of the friends who I have met through the storm chasing community. They are independendent and represent themselves. FindTheTornado (AGP LLC assumes no employment or responsibility for the above or below individuals actions. The only member fully representing to Find The Tornado is (Andy Gabrielson). Thanks again and hope you enjoy the other things that are offered here at Find The Tornado.com. FindTheTornado, TornadoChat are represented by A. G. Productions LLC.

Independent Storm Chasers

Storm Chaser - Tim Purington...

I was born and raised in the Twin Cities. Growing up in Minnesota gives you the opportunity to experience almost every weather condition possible. From tornadoes to blizzards.

I saw my first tornado when I was fifteen years old in Garrison, MN. From then on, I have kept an eye on the sky. I started chasing storms in 1992. I figured since I was already following the severe weather, why not help the public. I attended my first Skywarn class in 2002 and became a trained spotter for the National Weather Service. I continue to go to training classes yearly.

I currently live in Hammond, WI with my loving wife and two boys. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with FindTheTornado and SevereStudios and hope to capture some incredible video as the storm seasons unfold.

Storm Chaser - James Skivers...

In the blizzard of February of 1980, James Skivers was born in Kansas City, Mo. Raised on a farm in Tonganoxie, Ks where he lived until age 6, awareness of severe weather was distilled into him, even at this very young age. Throughout his life, he rcalls his family’s farmhouse being struck by lightning and burnt to the ground, as well as frequent visits to the tornado shelter with his family, without incident.

By age 17, James had attended his first NWS held Spotter-Talk in Kansas City, Ks. He had already decided that he was interested in storm chasing for the purposes of serving warnings to the public.

James achieved this by learning to read the sky while receiving radar updates from his friends via cell phone throughout high school. Upon graduation from Shawnee Mission Public schools, he had already landed a full-time job as a Systems Analyst in the school districts IT dept., making him the youngest district employee in SMSD history.It was during this time he was able to take his studies of severe weather seriously by attending yearly spotter talks, as well as self-study.

During his 20’s, he became a father of a beautiful daughter who now shares the same niche for severe weather as he.  On May, 4th 2003, he witnessed his first tornados during the tornado outbreak of Kansas City. He carries a Certificate of Participation from the “Advanced Spotter 1 – Introduction to Radar and Its Applications”, a class held by Leslie Lemon, the godfather of the WSR-88D radar network widely used by the National Weather Service. He is also certified as an emergency first responder through the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) backed by FEMA and the Olathe, Ks Fire Department. James also carries a Ham Radio license for the purposes of providing warnings to emergency management as well as relaying the ground truth to the NWS.

When he is not spending time with family or out documenting weather, James enjoys off-road

For more information about James visit his website at Severe Studios Kansas City

 Storm Chaser - Will Wilkens

Will's passion for weather has been part of his life since childhood. He began tracking storms and collecting various rain and temperature data after watching L.A. televison meteorologist Dr George Fischbeck give a demonstration with a coffee can, ruler, and hardware store thermometer. He was hooked ever since.

Growing up in Southern California has its unique challenges with weather, but El Nino, Monsoons, and Santa Ana Winds provide exciting times when they occur. Every aspect of weather including watching lightning from storms looming over the nearby mountains and desert during monsoon season, to the torrential downpours of El Nino, to the howling 100mph Santa Ana Winds has fascinated him. Will took his love for weather to the next level and began storm chasing as soon as he was able to drive, not realizing at the time that storm chasing would evolve to the phenomenon it is today. To Will, storm chasing just meant getting right into the weather wherever it is instead of waiting at home for it. It was perfect!

Over the years, Will has experienced countless significant weather events around California, including funnel clouds and waterspouts. During the summer, he spends nearly every available free time during monsoon events chasing severe weather across the mountains and deserts of Southern California and Arizona. He is completely obsessed with lightning, and will pull all-nighters watching, photographing, and videographing lightning. During the spring season, Will travels to the Great Plains chasing severe weather and has intercepted tornadoes in Kansas and Nebraska.

In 2009 he joined the Severe Studios storm chase team, providing live video streams and content for various local and national television networks. He continues to stream through Severe Studios providing year-round coverage of significant weather throughout the Southwest, and severe weather in the Great Plains during Spring.

Will is NWS and Skywarn spotter trained through the San Diego office of the National Weather Service.

Will's love for weather and nature photography translates into enjoying just about all aspects of the outdoors, spending the rest of his non-weather free time hiking, camping, and fishing. He currently lives in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, and is employed as a manager in the Information Technology field.

For more information about Will, please visit his website at Southwest Sky

Storm Chaser - Steve Worthington

I have had a passion for severe weather most of my life. Severe weather is one of those things that when you think you figured it out, it changes on you. That is what has kept the passion burning inside me to keep chasing. I am more of a tornado chaser then a severe weather chaser.  I live in the heart of tornado alley (Kansas) so I get a chance to chase tornados at the drop of a hat.  My storm chasing started as a young boy looking out the basement window as the tornado sirens went off weekly during the spring storm season.

When I was old enough to drive I started driving out in to the country to see if I could get a look at a tornado. I have seen and videoed many tornados over the years. I`m more of an old school chaser as when I started we didn`t have laptops with radar or cell phones. With the advancement of laptops it has made chasing to where we can now chase storms in many different states.  I am a custom car/boat builder and a racer in many different motor sports ranging from drag boats, drag cars, monster trucks, dirt track racing to motocross. My passion has always been trying to figure out how things work. Between racing and storm chasing I try to run a plumbing business to pay the bills.

For more information about Steve visit his website at Extreme Storm Chasers

Storm Chaser - Pat Darrow

I have been interested in severe weather most of my life. Born in California, I was fascinated by the winds and monsoonal weather experienced by the west coast. I remember being in class one day, in Petaluma. A storm came in off the Pacific and the winds from that storm snapped power poles and trees. Power was out at the school but that didn’t matter – I stood outside and watched the damage unfold. After moving to the mountains of Colorado, flash flooding and blizzards were the game. I used to spend the better part of nights cleaning out floodways and ditches in the middle of the most lightning-intensive storms I have ever seen. I won't even mention the blizzards I dealt with.

The people below have not yet submitted a bio for the about us...

Gary Christensen - Salt Lake City, UT (Web Design and Management)
Steve Hilmer - San Diego, CA (Merchandise & TornadoChat Admin)

Corey Johnson - Luverne, MN (Chase Partner) 

Keith Strang - Grand Forks, ND (Independent Storm Chaser)
 

FindTheTornado (AGP LLC assumes no employment or responsibility for the above or below individuals actions. The only member fully representing to Find The Tornado is (Andy Gabrielson). Thanks again and hope you enjoy the other things that are offered here at Find The Tornado.com. FindTheTornado, TornadoChat are represented by A. G. Productions LLC.  Tornado. They are responsible for their own actions, and their opinions and actions are not an official statement