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.
One exit west of New Baden on I-64 is a small, relatively new, state-of-the-art airport called MidAmerica. It was built in 1998 partly to relieve congestion at Lambert Field (St. Louis' main airport), a vision that was never realized. MidAmerica's 10,000-foot runway/taxiways are connected to and used by next-door Scott Air Force Base. Other than the military traffic and currently one commercial cargo flight per week, the airport has no scheduled flights - and is not served by any passenger carrier.
I drove over this afternoon to check it out. The doors are open and a few cars are in the parking lot, but I saw no one else inside the terminal. Pretty unusual to have an airport all to yourself.
MidAmerica has been sharply criticized as a waste of taxpayer dollars (here is an NBC Nightly News report to that tune). It seems though that it could be a convenient place to base a low-cost airline. Its lights are always on and doors open, so I guess they're not giving up on trying to make that happen.
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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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