Weather hasn't always been a passion of mine - in fact, I used to be absolutely terrified of thunderstorms as a child. Through living in a severe weather prone area, and through watching Ryan Hall Y'all's live severe weather coverage, I've discovered a passion and beauty within these destructive forces of nature. I am a certified Weather Spotter with the National Weather Service, and routinely storm chase in my local area any time there's a risk of severe weather, in attempts to be able to help those on initial impact.

Here, you'll be able to view some of my photography of the storms I've chased, and hopefully at some point in the future, I can upload the footage as well!

How Do I Stay Weather Aware?

If you're not a weather nerd, you might not really know what's going on in your area's day to day. If you have cable, you might even watch your local weatherman! Nevertheless, there's a few things I would suggest in preparing yourself to be weather aware.

1. Bookmark the Storm Prediction Center website.

If you're based in the United States (which is really the only place I know weather information about) I highly recommend bookmarking the front page for the Storm Prediction Center. Based on their Convective Outlooks you can easily tell if your area is in line for some thunderstorms or other severe weather!

2. Bookmark the National Hurricane Center

You can probably skip this step if you live in the Plains, but if you live close to any coast of the United States, you should also bookmark the National Hurricane Center's front page. This page will tell you if there are any current tropical systems that the NHC is keeping an eye on, and can even give you a five-day outlook based on the most likely hurricane models!

3. Download a Radar App for your phone

There's a thousand free radar apps out there, but if you need a suggestion, I personally love Radar Omega. I use it myself in storm chasing, and it's a simple one-time purchase! I'm not sponsored (although I wouldn't mind a little cash, RO), it just happens to be the radar app I trust the most.