2006 Storm Chasing & Photography Accounts, Photos and Videos

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

From Dan: How the crime of copyright infringement took $1 million from me and brought down my business.

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. This page is a detailed account of the biggest threat to my photography and video operation that I had to battle daily to just barely survive, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem facing all of my colleagues as well.

2006 was my first full year shooting with a HD video camera, so I focused more on gathering video footage than stills. The Great Plains trip in May was my most organized ever, with a car-full of friends and equipment. Unfortunately, this trip occured during one of the least active spring tornado seasons in decades. We not only saw no tornadoes during the trip, but were stranded by car trouble for days in Bismarck, North Dakota.

After all of that, an unlikely tornado redemption occured in September, when I discovered the full potential of fall season severe weather in the Midwest. I caught the F4 Crosstown, Missouri tornado just across the river in Illinois, keeping 2006 from being a tornado-less year.

View logs by year:

2006 Notable Storms

December 1, 2006
Major ice storm in St. Louis, MO.

September 22, 2006
The last F4 tornado in history - Crosstown, MO.

September 1, 2006
Tropical Storm Ernesto intercept, Carolina Beach, NC.

July 20, 2006
Project to capture lightning striking the Sears Tower, Chicago.

July 4, 2006
Extreme close-ups of lightning at St. Albans, WV.

June 22, 2006
Multi-day lightning show over Pittsburgh, PA.

Storm Chasing Expedition 2006
Our 2006 chase to the Great Plains during peak severe weather season.

April 14, 2006
Severe storms from Ripley to Clarksburg, WV.

February 12, 2006
6" snowfall from Charleston to Fayetteville, WV.

January 18, 2006
Car rollover caught on tape on I-64, Charleston, WV.

January 2, 2006
Lightning from the storm implicated in the Sago coal mine tragedy.

All 2006 Storm Logs (29)

January 2006:

1/2: Winter lightning WV

1/18: Rollover accident WV

February 2006:
2/12: 6" snowfall WV

March 2006:
3/21: Icy Roads WV

April 2006:
4/1: Spring lightning WV
4/2: Tornado bust MO,IL
4/7: Tornado bust TN,AL
4/7: Tornado damage TN
4/14: Severe storms WV
4/17: Tower lightning WV

May 2006:
5/23: Severe storms NE
5/24: Storm bust MO
5/25: Supercella MO
5/26: Lightning IA
5/27: Supercell ND

June 2006:
6/19: Pittsburgh storms PA
6/22: Lightning chase PA,WV
6/28: Lightning chase WV

July 2006:
7/3: Chicago storms IL
7/4: Tower lightning WV
7/14: Close lightning WV
7/20: Chicago storms IL

August 2006:
8/19: Strong gust front WV
8/27: Lightning chase WV

September 2006:
9/1: TS Ernesto NC
9/22: Tornado intercept IL
9/23: Indiana flooding IN

December 2006:
12/1: STL ice storm MO
12/14: Geminid meteors WV

Catch of the Year:

September 22 - Murphysboro, IL: An F4 'wedge' tornado crosses the Mississippi River between Crosstown, Missouri and Murphysboro, IL. This tornado received the last F4 rating in history, as the new EF (enhanced Fujita) scale went into effect in 2007. [ Read more about this event ]