Reed Timmer, the internet’s top tornado chaser, takes KC audience inside the storm
As the howling tornado bore down, Reed Timmer abandoned a tiny, soft-topped vehicle and sought shelter with a group underneath an overpass.
This was early on in his storm-chasing career, in 1999, before the news that it can actually be more dangerous to be underneath an overpass during a tornado, he said. It was a bright idea.
At the last moment, the twister took a turn and missed him and the others. He was covered in mud but was safe. The tornado would be classified at the top of the Fujita Scale — an F5 — with gusts of more than 200 mph.
“I never really felt in danger,” he said Thursday in Kansas City, recalling the chase. “I just felt in awe at it.”
He became obsessed with tornadoes and kept chasing. His notoriety grew through the Discovery Channel show “Storm Chasers.” He gained celebrity online.
Today, Timmer is the internet’s preeminent storm chaser, having amassed an audience of 2.9 million Facebook followers, 1.4 million YouTube subscribers and 1 million Instagram followers. He’s well-known for driving straight into the path of tornadoes in his distinctive tank-like Dominator vehicles to gather weather data and thrill fans. During livestreams of Timmer’s tornado chases, large audiences swell and follow along in the hunt from the safety of home.
Kansas City was the first stop in Timmer’s “Dominate the Storm” speaking tour, which will run through this fall. Thursday night, he regaled a large crowd at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with stories of tornado chases, close scrapes, the destruction he’s witnessed, his complicated relationship with rental vehicles, and his beloved dog Gizmo.
“I love storm chasing,” he told The Star. “I love weather, the science of meteorology. I’ve been a science nerd since I was really little. Weather and storm chasing was always my passion, so I have a life dedicated to storm chasing and better understanding tornadoes, launching sensors into tornadoes as well, streaming it live. I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life.”
Throughout his presentation, Timmer offered up dramatic videos from inside storms, showing flying debris carried by screaming winds as he and other observers holler in joy and terror. Here, one chase in Texas, there, another in North Dakota. Was that a flying cow?
The Dominator 3, at its base a Ford F-350, features an armored shell and skirting designed to keep winds from lifting the vehicle; strong windows, equipment for tracking weather data and a hydraulic spike system used to anchor the vehicle to the ground. A next-generation vehicle designed to withstand the winds of the strongest tornadoes is in the works.
“The noise is insane, it’s like a low rumble and a high-pitched noise at the same time,” Timmer said of the tornado experience inside the Dominator 3. “The vehicle’s bouncing up and down, you can feel the lift as the wind is going up and over the Dominator. It is a pretty terrifying and intimidating experience, but it’s over fast. The tornado usually blows by you in less than a second.”
Outside the performing arts center, youths hopped up in the Dominator 3’s driver’s seat, and fans took pictures with the vehicle, a celebrity in its own right. Timmer drew excited fans, too.
Angie Sinnes, of Springfield, began following him early in his career.
“He’s just always been an inspiration for me,” she said.
“I just love watching him do this stuff,” said Spencer Blackwood, of Stover. “It’s fun to watch him. He gets incredible footage and teaches people. I love it.”
At the end of Timmer’s presentation, one 8-year-old fan wanted to know what advice he had for people who were afraid of storms.
“The more that you understand about storms and severe weather, the less you fear them and the more you get excited when there are storms around,” he said. “I think the key is just try to learn about them. But don’t feel bad if you’re afraid, I was scared to death of storms when I was really little. I’m even still afraid of tornadoes.”
