About Me

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Like many meteorologists/storm chasers, my passion for the weather began at a very young age. As an infant in the late 1980's I was entranced by a tornado damaged forest at the Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley, MN. This tornado became the focal point of my early weather interests and I spent hours drawing pictures of the tornado and plots of its track. In the mid-1990's my interests shifted to floods, spurred by the flood of 1993 on the Mississippi River and the Red River flood of 1997. In 1996, I began tracking Atlantic and Eastern Pacific hurricanes, and for the next seven years assembled binders which contained advisories, newspaper articles, and reports on each storm.

The July 1, 1997 Twin Cities Superstorm undoubtedly sparked my love for severe weather and tornadoes. The green skies, hail, and 100mph straight-line winds brought on a rush unlike any other. My storm chasing career began less than a year later after I got my first point and shoot camera and the old family VHS camcorder. Storm chases in my junior high years consisted of videotaping storms from my front porch or biking to a nearby field to witness an approaching system. In August of 2001 I began experimenting with lightning photography and within a year my lightning photos began appearing in various publications and websites.

Beginning in 2004 I began to upgrade my weather equipment in order to capture the perfect storm. My VHS camcorder and SLR film camera, once the backbone of my photography arsenal, seceded to a new wave of digital equipment. My current equipment that I use in the field can be found on my Weather Equipment page. Despite finally obtaining a car in 2005, I did not head out on any road chases due to work and a lack of money (college savings + equipment upgrade = sit and home and watch storms on radar). My first road chase finally came in late May of 2006, but ended in a bust. After graduating from high school in 2005, I entered the University of North Dakota's Atmospheric Sciences program.

College was a wonderful experience where I truly matured into a professional meteorologist and storm chaser. I worked for the college television station, Studio One, as a member of the weather team. I was also a member of the local student AMS chapter and volunteered at the Grand Forks NWS office. I won the department's freshman, junior, and senior of the year awards, the K. Vic Ooyama AMS scholarship in early 2008, and had the privilege to work at the NWS in Duluth, MN, researching severe weather climatology for their CWA as part of the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship program in the summer of 2008. The 2007 storm season witnessed numerous storm intercepts, including one storm that produced the most amazing lightning display I have ever seen/photographed and another supercell that produced an EF4 tornado in Northwood, ND.

I graduated from UND in May of 2009 and was hired as an intern meteorologist at the NWS in Anchorage, AK in early November 2009. My duties at the Anchorage office included launching weather balloons (photo on left), taking climate observations, monitoring equipment (radars, weather radio, etc), and helping with the forecast wherever possible. At the end of March 2011, I transferred to the Des Moines, Iowa NWS office. Twenty-four years, eleven cameras, and hundreds of storms later, the passion lives on.

Other Things About Me: Besides the weather, I am also an avid Great Lakes boatwatcher. If I am not in the field chasing storms, I will be up in Duluth, MN or anywhere else on the lakes watching boats (aka "lakers"). My boatwatching and weather interests both developed in the early 1990's and have co-existed ever since. Of course, this means that the wreck of the laker Edmund Fitzgerald taps into both of my passions! As you may of guessed by now, photography is also a staple of my life. The art of capturing a moment in time on film or video, even after 15 years, never gets old. Photography acts as my journal, telling the story of my life. I enjoy working with all sorts of cameras both old and new, but I have a soft spot for older cameras. The saying "they don't make them like they used to" rings true for many types of cameras. My other hobbies include: camping, canoeing, fishing, biking, and working with computers.

About Northland Weather Central

On March 23, 2006, I launched Northland Weather Central, a simple website designed to host a few of my best weather photos. In the five years since then, it has blossomed into a respected weather website that now hosts thousands of my photos and videos, contains my storm chase journals, and has helped numerous people looking for weather information.     The site has two purposes: to showcase my best weather photos and videos and to serve as a reference source for various weather materials. As far as copyrights go for my personal material posted here (photos and videos), I'm not too picky as to who uses them. I do ask that if you plan to use them for any purpose other than personal that you send me an email describing what the photo is being used for.     Thanks for visiting! The site is always being updated, so check back for new additions and updates. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about me, the weather, photography, or this site.   Additional Web Site Support: Microsoft Office Live- Domain Support Photobucket- Photo Hosting Flickr- Photo Hosting RSS Rapid Feeds- RSS Support StatCounter- Visitation Stats