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.
The second Plains expedition of the season took place from April 24-28 across Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma. This was one of the best trips of my career in terms of video and photography captures, solidly in my top 5. With a total of 11 tornadoes, the trip ranks second only to my third 2016 expedition in the number of tornadoes observed. April 26 nearly tied my single-day tornado record with 10 observed during the outbreak, almost matching the Dodge City, Kansas chase on May 24, 2016 by only 1. I had three career close intercepts with strong and audible tornadoes, and witnessed four separate EF3 tornadoes. Then on April 27, a prolific upward lightning event occurred in Oklahoma City during which I captured dozens of stills, 4K videos and 1,502fps high speed video captures.
There is not much downtime after Trip #2! In fact, a trip-worthy system is moving through the Plains now producing two quality tornado days, but I elected to sit it out to preserve PTO days for a potentially busy May - which is indeed starting out active. Trip #3 may begin Sunday as yet another big system is forecast to move into the Great Plains. This one has all the hallmarks of another big tornado outbreak on Monday - with a negatively-tilted upper trough, deep moisture and a sharp dryline from Nebraska down through Kansas. This may be followed by another couple of days of tornado potential as a strong upper-level jet remains overtop of deep moisture in Oklahoma and Texas. Right now, my confidence is high (and increasing) on 2024 Great Plains trip #3 starting this Sunday.
GFS 500mb forecast for Monday evening, May 5
After this next system exits, models show the potential for the Plains and Midwest to have an extended quiet period for a week or more - so trip probabilities after the 10th will reflect that.
2024 Plains Chase Expeditions - Probabilities as of May 1
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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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