Martin Lisius is an American filmmaker [1] and storm chaser. [2] [3] He founded StormStock, [4] a weather and climate stock footage collection, in 1993, and Tempest Tours, [5] a storm chasing expedition company, in 2000. In 2018, he produced and directed the short film, Prairie Wind, among the first known 16K resolution videos to exist. [6] In 1993, Lisius founded the Texas Severe Storms Association (TESSA), a non-profit who's mission is "to bring together both professional meteorologists and weather enthusiasts in an attempt to better understand dangerous storms through the collection and diffusion of knowledge." Lisius was a finalist for 2023 Footage Person of the Year, [7] an award presented by FOCAL International. He is an alumnus of the University of Texas at Arlington. [8]
In 1995, Lisius directed "StormWatch," a training video for the National Weather Service used nationwide to train storm spotter groups. Lisius co-produced the video with meteorologists Gary Woodall and Alan Moller. It was produced by the Texas Severe Storms Association with support from the Meadows Foundation of Dallas, Texas.
As TESSA chairman, Lisius co-developed the DFW Tornado Scenario with National Weather Service Ft. Worth meteorologists Alan Moller, Gary Woodall, and Bill Bunting in 2000. Later, North Central Texas Council of Governments analyst Scott Rae created detailed versions of the scenario titled, Tornado Damage Risk Assessment. [9] Their objective was to create scientific scenarios in which major tornadoes tracked through the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex in order to be better prepared for those potentially catastrophic events.
Lisius published a book in 2014 titled, "The Ultimate Severe Weather Safety Guide." [10] In the book, he states his purpose for writing it is to share what he has learned as a storm chaser to help others stay safe when severe weather threatens. Chapters include safety tips for tornadoes, lightning, hurricanes and flash flooding.
In an attempt to demonstrate the danger of flying debris in a tornado, Lisius took some common household objects to the Debris Impact Facility at Texas Tech University in Lubbock to be launched by their pneumatic cannon in 2019. One object, a small handheld camera, became the fastest projectile to be tested at the facility reaching a speed of 264 mph. [11]
In 2023, Lisius wrote and directed the Acura "Storm Chaser" Commercial (Director's Cut), which has won several film awards. [12]
Lisius is listed on the Notable Alumni web page for the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington. [13]
He is sometimes called, "The Storm Whisperer" [14] and occasionally appears in articles about film gear and techniques he uses.
June 8, 1995 Pampa - Hoover, Texas tornadoes, F4-F5. [15]
May 30, 1998 Spencer, South Dakota Tornado, F4. [16]
Hurricane Katrina (Category 5) Mississippi - Louisiana coastal landfall, August 29, 1995.
Hurricane Harvey, Southeast Texas, August 2017. [17] Lisius' aerial footage of Hurricane Harvey appears in his short film, "Buffalo Bayou Rising," an official selection by the 2017 Flying Robot International Film Festival. [18]
Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases storms is known as a storm chaser or simply a chaser.
Tornado Alley is a loosely defined location of the central United States and Canada where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Tornado climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in certain areas and storm chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.
George Kourounis, is a Greek-Canadian adventurer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme weather and worldwide natural disasters. He presents the television series Angry Planet.
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Timothy Patrick Marshall is an American structural and forensic engineer as well as meteorologist, concentrating on damage analysis, particularly that from wind and other weather phenomena. He is also a pioneering storm chaser and was editor of Storm Track magazine.
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Storm spotting is a form of weather spotting in which observers watch for the approach of severe weather, monitor its development and progression, and actively relay their findings to local authorities.
Charles A. Doswell III is an American meteorologist and prolific severe convective storms researcher. Doswell is a seminal contributor, along with Leslie R. Lemon, to the modern conception of the supercell, which was developed originally by Keith Browning. He also has done research on forecasting and forecast verification, especially for severe convective storms, and is an advocate of ingredients-based forecasting.
The Texas Severe Storms Association (TESSA) is a national non-profit organization founded in 1993 by storm chaser and TESSA chairman Martin Lisius. The organization’s mission is to bring together both professional meteorologists and weather enthusiasts in an attempt to better understand dangerous storms through the collection and diffusion of knowledge. Its scope is national but focuses on Texas.
Tony Laubach is an American storm chaser and meteorologist. He has participated in several field research projects and is one of the surviving members of TWISTEX. He has been contracted as a severe weather photojournalist for various major television networks, and has starred in several television shows, including Seasons 3 through 5 of Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel.
Dr. Reed Timmer is an American meteorologist and storm chaser. He is known for starring in the Discovery Channel reality television series Storm Chasers, as well as in the documentary film Tornado Glory and in the series Tornado Chasers. He also worked with Mike Theiss in the reality television series Storms Rising on Disney+.
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This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1995, primarily in the United States. Most tornadoes form in the U.S., although some events may take place internationally. Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes, but by the 1990s, tornado statistics were coming closer to the numbers seen today.
Storm Riders is a reality television series following two meteorologists as they travel across the Great Plains and East Coast of the United States in search of thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other severe weather. Storm Riders was aired on The Weather Channel, and it was included on the channel's Tornado Week programming.
Jonathan M. "Jon" Davies is an American meteorologist, storm chaser, and author. An operational meteorologist, Davies is a weather forecaster and is known for his mesoscale meteorology research related to tornadoes and convective storms. He is a major discoverer of the minisupercell thunderstorm now often referred to as a low-topped supercell, pioneered significant research on tornado environments including on cold-core situations and the importance of low-level buoyancy in some deceptively low-CAPE tornado situations, and produced important case studies.
Alan Roger Moller was an American meteorologist, storm chaser, nature and landscape photographer known for advancing spotter training and bridging operational meteorology with research.
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Tempest Tours, Inc. is a U.S. based tour company. Headquartered in Arlington, Texas, the company takes its guests storm chasing across the Great Plains of the United States and into Canada. During tours, guests have the opportunity to learn from their staff of storm spotters, climatologists, and meteorologists on the intricacies of atmospheric science as they track and photograph storms.