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.
Last week, I had scheduled this Tuesday off of work due to a potential storm chase in Missouri and Illinois, after a setup for possible supercells was advertised by models several days in advance. About all this event really had going for it was the low-level wind profile, a little instability and decent lapse rates, and that's about it. But, it was close enough that I was planning to chase it nonetheless. As the event drew closer, the setup became even less favorable, with most upper support remaining to the north, the instability axis staying very narrow and most of all, daytime initiation of storms was increasingly in question due to weak convergence along the cold front. Tuesday morning, when all models showed a complete lack of storms firing before sunset (and those that might fire after dark would remain weak and short lived) I decided to call it a bust, before even leaving home.
The chase setup completely tanking was a good thing: Union Pacific's steam locomotive #844 was making another rare (once every year or so) visit to the St. Louis area Tuesday afternoon, pulling a special train called "The Shiloh Limited" to Marion, Arkansas. The last car of the train was carrying Civil War-era cannons. For me, watching mainline steam in action is equal to a decent storm chase. So even though the storm event busted, I still had a good day. I shot mostly video, but took a few stills at the St. Louis location (below). The train overnighted in downtown St. Louis, and on Wednesday morning, I got up early to catch it departing and heading south along the river in Illinois.
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From Dan: Please Read
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