An online group of storm chasers is changing the way Michiganders get information during severe weather events.
While many people across Michigan turn to more traditional news outlets to get updates, nearly half a million Facebook followers get their forecasts from the Michigan Storm Chasers.
“I've been chasing storms since 2015 I've seen over 30 tornadoes,' vice president of the organization Chandler Bos told WKAR. "I've gone out and seen tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma, multiple states out on the plains, and other ones here in the Midwest,” he said.
Bos said the storm chaser group started in 2022 as a way to bring the thrill of the storm chasing profession to the state. But a year later that mission changed.
On August 24, 2023, Michigan was slammed with seven tornadoes, leaving close to half a million people without power in the southern region of the state.
“One was around the Williamson area in, kind of the Lansing area there, and we were live tracking those tornadoes as they went down I-96 and impacted some of the communities there,” he said.
At one point, the National Weather Service reported an EF-2 tornado had begun developing over northeast Ingham County. It eventually weakened, tracking 12 miles before dissipating in Livingston County. The storm resulted in one fatality.
Bos said that experience brought forth a new calling for the team, one rooted in service and care for the community. Their forecasts and live streams were no longer just entertainment.
“It opened up the door to a completely new sector of coverage that we hadn't even really thought about doing truthfully, and once we saw that people really loved it and appreciated the coverage, we knew that in addition to providing that live storm chasing that we set out initially to do, we also had to provide this service for people,” he said.
Before storms hit, Bos said with forecasting, the team can usually tell a few days in advance and when they do, it’s all hands-on deck.
A meteorologist jumps on their livestream to track the storm in real time; others keep an eye on the group’s social media pages. Bos and a teammate hit the road, capturing any action on the ground. All the while, they’re in touch with a wider network of storm chasers across the state, sharing intel and keeping each other in the loop.
“If the severe weather threat is large enough, then what we will do is we will actually launch a weather balloon from somewhere in the state where the threat is going to be the highest," Bos said. "Once we do that weather balloon launch, we'll send that data out to the National Weather Service offices that it's relevant to, the broadcast meteorologists who are kind of in that area [and] anyone who can benefit from that data.”
He said the team uses several different radar sources and camera setups in their vehicles to get footage back to what he calls the command center.
Asked if Bos considers himself an adrenaline junkie, he said there’s some truth to that but when out in the field, it’s best to stay alert.
“I think that when you see movies like 'Twister' and 'Twisters', that the adrenaline part, you know, it makes for great screen time, right? So don't get me wrong, when you're very close to a tornado, there is a lot of adrenaline that's going through you, but the most important thing is making sure that you have a cool, calm and level head, so that way, in the event something does happen, you haven't lost situational awareness,” he said.
While heading into severe, and often dangerous, weather isn’t the apex of what the storm chasers do, caring for others in the aftermath is. Bos said the team regularly stays late into night after storm hits in case anyone needs help with damage.
The storm chasers have partners from around the state, Bos said, who can help individuals navigate home repairs.
“If we can be, you know, an advocate for our viewers. You know, have making sure that people can trust us and know that we are going to take care of them after a storm hits, and provide them with the correct next steps. It's just so important, and it's one of the motivators that we use every day, because we care about everybody that that's really what it comes down to.”
The team is working on setting up a network of cameras, to expand their coverage. Bos said it will give them live views from around the state.
Until then, they’ll keep heading into the storms.
