My name is Mikey Gribble and I am 26 years old. I was born and raised in
Wichita, Kansas. I have one sister and one brother. I just got a yellow lab
puppy named Duck on 12/12/07. I am a huge dog lover and he is like my
child. This is the first dog I've ever had, but I've always been really close and
involved with my parents dogs. My parents got the runt out of the same litter
of pups that I got Duck from, so he has a great playmate to grow up with.
More pictures of the pups can be found here.
I have always been passionate about severe weather, but I didn't start storm
chasing until 2002. I still remember my first chase very well. I don't know why
chasing storms had never crossed my mind before 2002, but it didn't. In May
of 2002 I was watching coverage of a tornado warning for Kingman county,
Kansas and all of a sudden the idea of chasing dawned on me. I realized that
instead of watching tv, Kingman was only 30 miles away, so I could drive
there and watch it in person. I had no idea what I was doing back then, but
that was the beginning of my passion in life. I immediately started studying
meteorology. I didn't know anybody who was into chasing or meteorology, so
I had to learn everything on my own. As a result, I had a big learning curve
with chasing and didn't get a tornado until my third year. I think getting
skunked those first two years was probably the best thing that could have
happened to me because it drove me to work even harder at studying
meteorology and improving my forecasting. The college I attended (Wichita
State) didn't have a meteorology program (I majored in Political Science), so I
took the only class they offered which was intro. to meteorology. After that
class I did an independent study course on mesoscale meteorolgy with
meteorologist Dave Schafer. That was as much as I could do through my
college, so after that I studied on my own. I had some problems with
ordering books online because I wouldn't know what I was getting since I
couldn't flip through them, so I drove down to the University of Oklahoma
bookstore and stocked up on meteorology books. I have built up a small
library of meteorology books over the years. I don't buy new books very
often any more, but instead I reread the same books every year to prepare
for chase season. There is a list of books I recommend on the About Chasing
page.
After two years without a tornado my luck changed in 2004 and I managed to
get 21 tornadoes that season. It was an incredible year for storm chasing to
say the least. I have done well every season since then and I am sure it was a
result of working hard at forecasting. I am a firm believer in the notion that
you are never going to be a consistently good storm chaser without being a
good forecaster.
Also in 2004 I began chasing for KWCH, a local TV station out of Wichita.
They are a great station to chase for. They have always been very
appreciative of the job the chasers do and they do a great deal to help us
out. In addition to paying me for storm chasing, they provide me with a
stormhawk, which gives me radar, NWS warning text, surface charts, and
GPS navigation through a PDA. They also give me a cell phone for use with
the stormhawk. KWCH has a pretty cool setup. They have a map that they
can pull up that shows radar and where the chasers are located via GPS. I can
send in reports through the stormhawk and my report and location where I
witnessed whatever I am reporting are displayed on the screen in addition to
my current location. Rodney Price is the new chase coordinator. He is always
there to help out with nowcasting and logistical support when I need to feed
video to the national networks. He has done a great job with the chasing
operation at KWCH and I am very happy chasing for them.
In my life outside of storm chasing I work for my dad at the family business.
It is a manufacturing company called Carlson Products. I do quite a few things
out there, but my primary job is managing our anodizing facility.
Some of my other hobbies include hunting and fishing. Since I got into storm
chasing I have slowly stopped hunting, but I still get out a few times a year.
This past year I went on an elk hunt in Wyoming with my dad, which was an
awesome experience. For the most part though I don't get out very often
anymore. I do get out fishing every now and then. I really enjoy going bass
fishing on the golf course where my parents live. It is a good chance for me to
relax and clear my mind.
The bottom line is that storm chasing is my passion in life and I am perfectly
happy doing nothing but that. I have yet to find anything that is as
challenging and exciting as storm chasing. Every storm is unique and I am
never happier than I am when I'm out chasing.
Equipment
Data - Mobile Threatnet through XM, Stormhawk radar, internet access
through a cell phone, weather radio, weather station, Delorme Mapping
Software with GPS, a Toshiba Satellite laptop, and a Dell laptop
Cameras - Sony VX 2100 (video camera), Sony Handycam (dash cam),
Nikon D70, and a small Sony digital camera for sending email pics from the
field
Editing Software - I use Adobe Premier Pro for video editing and Adobe
Photoshop for picture editing
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About Me
Loaded Gun Chasing
website of storm chaser Mikey Gribble
website of storm chaser Mikey Gribble
| Me riding shotgun and biting my lip as I try to forecast on the road |
| Me filming a tornado near Protection, Kansas on 4/23/07 |
| Me with a mule deer I shot in Wyoming while I was on an elk hunt with my dad |
This is my Xterra that I use for chasing.
List of Accomplishments
5/12/04 - An F3 hit Attica, Kansas. There is a very well known piece of video
out there of a house getting picked up by the tornado. I was right in front of
the guy shooting video at the same time of the same thing. The tornado
crossed the road and picked this house up right in front of us, plain as day. It
was amazing. The only difference between me and that other guy was that he
remembered to hit record on his camera and I didn't.
4/21/05 - An F3 hit a house just North of Parsons, Kansas. I was tracking right
in behind the tornado the whole time and watched the house get hit and the
debris flying around the tornado. It was an amazing site and it would have been
amazing video, but I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to manually
set the white balance on my video camera (for the first time) right as I got on
the storm. The video was royally screwed up. There was no definition. You
could barely make out the debris from the house getting hit and everything was
a really bright white color. It looked like the film had been damaged or
something. It was awful. The second time I get a house getting hit on video
(from a quarter mile away) I managed to screw up the video again.
6/12/05 - A prolific tornado producing storm drops numerous tornadoes in
Kent County, Texas, one of which was a red dirt filled wedge. I filmed the
tornado from about a half to three quarters of a mile away. After ten minutes
of incredible video the tornado began to die out and as I looked down to turn
off my camera, I realized that I had once again forgotten to hit record.
4/15/06 - A large tornado touched down within two hundred yards of me
southeast of Beatrice, Nebraska. I filmed the tornado as it displayed amazing
rotation and vertical motion in the clouds right in front of me. The tornado
became strong and I got awesome video of dirt and other debris getting
thrown around at the surface. Five minutes later after the tornado roped out I
noticed three water droplets that had been on my lense the whole time. My
camera focused in on the water droplets on the lense instead of the tornado,
ruining the video.
5/04/07 - An incredibly potent setup for strong tornadoes was setting up east
of Dodge City, Kansas. The setup was extremely favorable for strong
tornadoes and had been handled well by the models for days leading up to the
event. It was clear that if a storm fired on the dryline bulge, strong tornadoes
were very likely. I knew as well as anybody else the potential of this setup. The
night before my forecast post included these quotes,
"Good god! If the NAM is telling the truth and something goes up on the N-NE
side of that bulge it is going to be intense"
"I think tornadoes are very likely over a small area N-NE of the dryline bulge"
I was sitting East of Greensburg, Kansas when storms finally fired southeast of
Greensburg. It was a little over an hour before dark when storms went up. I
debated on whether I should go home to get a good nights sleep for the next
days chase or get on the storm that just went up. I was well aware of the
extremely favorable environment for tornadoes, but for some colossally stupid
reason that I will never fully understand, I thought it would be best to go home
and get a good nights sleep for the following days chase. Later on that night
Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado and I missed it. Well done.
5/12/04 - An F3 hit Attica, Kansas. There is a very well known piece of video
out there of a house getting picked up by the tornado. I was right in front of
the guy shooting video at the same time of the same thing. The tornado
crossed the road and picked this house up right in front of us, plain as day. It
was amazing. The only difference between me and that other guy was that he
remembered to hit record on his camera and I didn't.
4/21/05 - An F3 hit a house just North of Parsons, Kansas. I was tracking right
in behind the tornado the whole time and watched the house get hit and the
debris flying around the tornado. It was an amazing site and it would have been
amazing video, but I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to manually
set the white balance on my video camera (for the first time) right as I got on
the storm. The video was royally screwed up. There was no definition. You
could barely make out the debris from the house getting hit and everything was
a really bright white color. It looked like the film had been damaged or
something. It was awful. The second time I get a house getting hit on video
(from a quarter mile away) I managed to screw up the video again.
6/12/05 - A prolific tornado producing storm drops numerous tornadoes in
Kent County, Texas, one of which was a red dirt filled wedge. I filmed the
tornado from about a half to three quarters of a mile away. After ten minutes
of incredible video the tornado began to die out and as I looked down to turn
off my camera, I realized that I had once again forgotten to hit record.
4/15/06 - A large tornado touched down within two hundred yards of me
southeast of Beatrice, Nebraska. I filmed the tornado as it displayed amazing
rotation and vertical motion in the clouds right in front of me. The tornado
became strong and I got awesome video of dirt and other debris getting
thrown around at the surface. Five minutes later after the tornado roped out I
noticed three water droplets that had been on my lense the whole time. My
camera focused in on the water droplets on the lense instead of the tornado,
ruining the video.
5/04/07 - An incredibly potent setup for strong tornadoes was setting up east
of Dodge City, Kansas. The setup was extremely favorable for strong
tornadoes and had been handled well by the models for days leading up to the
event. It was clear that if a storm fired on the dryline bulge, strong tornadoes
were very likely. I knew as well as anybody else the potential of this setup. The
night before my forecast post included these quotes,
"Good god! If the NAM is telling the truth and something goes up on the N-NE
side of that bulge it is going to be intense"
"I think tornadoes are very likely over a small area N-NE of the dryline bulge"
I was sitting East of Greensburg, Kansas when storms finally fired southeast of
Greensburg. It was a little over an hour before dark when storms went up. I
debated on whether I should go home to get a good nights sleep for the next
days chase or get on the storm that just went up. I was well aware of the
extremely favorable environment for tornadoes, but for some colossally stupid
reason that I will never fully understand, I thought it would be best to go home
and get a good nights sleep for the following days chase. Later on that night
Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado and I missed it. Well done.
| This is a picture of Duck |
| Duck's sister Sam who is my parents dog |
| A picture of Duck burying his head in the snow |
| A picture of Duck and Sam. Duck is the one of the left |