In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
I have kept a good mileage log for every storm season since 2003. A while ago, I went back and reconstructed a close estimate of the 1993-2002 mileage using old chase reports and Google Maps. Here are the numbers as of today:
Year
Miles
2012
1,716
2011
5,889
2010
11,899
2009
9,897
2008
10,147
2007
16,059
2006
18,927
2005
23,580
2004
22,810
2003
15,322
Year
Miles
2002
5,277
2001
5,373
2000
900
1999
320
1998
280
1997
220
1996
72
1995
65
1994
45
1993
25
Total: 148,823
A few items of note from this data:
The near tripling in miles in 2000 was due to having my first vehicle that I could freely chase with, and 2001 marked the first trip to the Great Plains.
The jump in 2003 was due to starting my business and investing in travel to acquire footage.
The jump in 2004 was due to my efforts in the weather video business 'paying off' and supporting even more travel and observing (hurricane coverage, tornado outbreaks, winter storms, etc).
You can see the state of the video market reflected in my numbers after 2007.
In 2011, I had the lowest mileage since 2002. This was due to an all-time low in video sales, high gas prices, a new full-time job, no Plains trip and most of my chases being 'local' around and close to St. Louis.
This year I should easily cross the 150,000 mile mark given normal observing operations.
My total mileage is roughly equal to the average lifespan of a car, meaning my all-time total storm chasing has cost me a whole extra vehicle in terms of wear and tear. That's in addition to fuel and hotel costs. In other words, had I not been a storm chaser, I would have bought one less vehicle (2) in the period between 2000 and today, instead of 3.
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
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