ChaseTeam BA captures Pocahontas County twister

While northeast Iowa residents were seeking shelter from the Tuesday, April 12, tornadoes, a storm chase team from Montgomery County, ChaseTeam BA, was in the midst of the chaos taking photos and videos of the storms.
ChaseTeam BA, comprised of Bruce Gruber and Adam Wainright, have been storm chasing together since 2013. However, both of them have been fascinated with severe weather since they were very young.
It was after his grandparent’s home was hit by a Page County tornado in 1979, but Wainright became interested in tornadoes, while Gruber said as a kid instead of watching cartoons, he’d watch The Weather Channel.
After initially meeting one another, the two began communicating back and forth about the weather and storms. Soon, they were chasing storms together.
“It is nice, and much more safe, to have someone with you,” said Wainright. “I can focus on driving and the map and Bruce can focus on the radar, Facebook, and video.”
The two have chased storms both locally, as with the March 5 severe weather in western Iowa, and as far away as Arkansas and western Nebraska.
As for the storms last week, Wainright and Gruber said with both of them having the day off, they were planning on storm chasing, but didn’t know exactly where until earlier that day.
“Every couple hours when a new forecast would come out we’d text one another about where we should go,” Wainright said.
When the more elevated risk was targeted for northwestern Iowa Tuesday midmorning, they lnew where they’d be heading.
“Between looking at the Storm Prediction Center outlook, storm chaser convergence, where the dry line is, that tells you where the moisture is not going to go, dewpoint numbers, where the front is coming in, where the sun has been heating up the atmosphere, and the weather service radar,” Wainright explained, but in the end, it boils down to luck.
“There were six tornadic cells in the area that day and we happened to choose the right one,” Gruber said.
“It’s hard to determine which cell you’re going to stick with, and then stick with it, and then find out the other one produced a tornado and this one didn’t,” Wainright said.  “We saw rotation in the clouds; we saw rotation on the radar and we knew it had the ingredients to pop out at any time. They put out a tornado warning for it and I wanted to stay where we were because I wanted to see it come down. Bruce wanted to get to the east of it and then turn around in order to see it the whole time. We headed east about five miles and it popped down behind us and we were able to get the footage.”
Wainright and Gruber, who both have EMS backgrounds, said there is a lot of experience and knowledge that comes into play when chasing in order to keep them safe.
“We certainly don’t put ourselves in harm’s way,” said Wainright.
He explained not only does a storm chase have to be aware of where a tornado might be, but also be thoughtful about hail, heavy rain, lightning and strong wind.
“Obviously we aren’t in it for the money, it’s a hobby, but we also hope to educate others,” Wainright said.

The Red Oak Express

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P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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