It is a late fall evening. The wind is stirring, the sky is growing dark and a line of ominous clouds is rolling in.
The National Weather Service is sending out severe thunderstorm warnings, and people are hurrying home to avoid the high winds and rain.
But for some, the night is just beginning.
The atmosphere at the Milwaukee/Sullivan National Weather Service Station is full of \controlled excitement,"" said Rusty Kapela, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service. ""There is added pressure. We try to give out warnings 10 to 15 minutes before the weather event occurs to give people time to get out of harm's way.""
On any stormy night in Wisconsin, a network of devoted severe weather watchers begins to take action. The network, consisting of a team of storm chasers, storm spotters and National Weather Service forecasters, is already in place long before a storm is at full force.
Storm chasers, who sometimes travel thousands of miles to see a storm, search for weather phenomena in their spare time. Scenes from the movie ""Twister"" may come to mind. Storm spotters are people who only look for storms near their homes or places of work, but to Kapela both are important weather resources.
""Storm chasers and storm spotters are extremely valuable during the formation stage of a thunderstorm,"" Kapela said.
""They can tell us if something is happening,"" he said. ""Doppler radar may suggest hail, but it doesn't guarantee it. We can correlate their report with what we see on radar once it's a mature storm.""
An hour before a storm, Scott Weberpal, a UW-Whitewater student, is watching the sky.
""We [storm chasers] like to get there while the skies are still blue,"" Weberpal said.
Getting there early allows weather enthusiasts to watch the full development of a storm from a weak band of cumulus clouds all the way to the formation of supercell, a tornado- forming cloud.
""Tornadoes last for a matter of minutes, so being in the right place at the right time is the key,"" Weberpal said, ""and that's where forecasting comes in.""
Most storm chasers are well-educated about weather. Many are closet meteorologists, busy at home predicting the next big one. But for a person who chases tornadoes, understanding how a storm moves is more than just a handy skill. It can be life-saving information.
""People get killed in cars and [there are] a lot of close calls with lightning,"" said Don Lloyd, a veteran storm chaser of more than 20 years. ""One guy was chasing a storm and his van broke down in the path of a tornado. He made it to a basement of a farm. [But when he got out] the van was gone. I don't take those risks. If debris is falling, you're too close.""
And the number of close calls may be going up. After the movie ""Twister,"" interest in storm chasing spiked. According to Weberpal and Lloyd, ""Twister"" is a gross misinterpretation of what storm chasing is about, and it has increased the number of storm chasers who don't know what they are doing.
""A lot of the thrill-seekers couldn't forecast their way out of a paper bag,"" Lloyd said. ""Six or seven years ago it was me on a storm and that's it. If it was a big storm maybe a couple dozen. Now you can get 50 to 100 people on a storm. They even have [storm chasing] tour groups."" Weberpal said ""Twister"" has had negative effects.
""The chasing community would be much better off had that movie never been released. There would ?? likely be a lot less of the 'yahoo' chasers who have little idea of what they are doing and simply [putting] themselves in danger,"" Weberpal said.
Both Weberpal and Lloyd said their attraction to severe weather has existed since childhood and had nothing to do with the movie.
""I can still remember watching 'National Geographic' documentaries about tornadoes as a young child and just going 'wow,'"" Weberpal said.
Watching a storm develop has a strong effect on weather enthusiasts. ""The feeling is intense,"" Weberpal said. ""It's a feeling hard to explain ?? you never know what a situation will bring.""
As storm chasers position themselves to watch the coming natural show, Kapela is working hard to get warnings out to the public.
""Thunderstorms show up like popcorn on the radar screen,"" Kapela said. ""They develop very quickly.""
On a normal, calm day, three people operate the weather-forecasting computers and seven to eight people are at the station working administratively. But as severe weather comes in, administrative people roll into the weather forecasting positions.
""Usually we have six people working during severe weather, [but we can have] eight to nine in a widespread, barnburner of a storm system,"" Kapela said.
""One person is designated as the team leader, or general, in a severe weather situation,"" Kapela said. Each person is then assigned a specific task by the general: one person on radar, another on the phone taking information from spotters and storm chasers, another person making sure the weather radio is working, and so on. There is a lot of ""verbal traffic,"" and people are busy talking amongst themselves, according to Kapela.
The information from storm spotters and chasers plays an integral role in a National Weather Service's response. There are an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 storm spotters in 20 counties in the southern part of the state, Kapela said.
These spotters and the storm chasers can provide up-to-the minute information about what is occurring outside of the weather lab.
""Spotters and chasers can provide us the threshold information, as to whether to warn or not,"" Kapela said. ""But we don't hold back, especially with tornado warnings. It's easy to issue a warning. It's hard not to issue [one].""
As a storm passes, storm chasers and spotters again become important relayers of information. After a storm goes through an area, the National Weather Service needs confirmation of its storm predictions. The calls from storm chasers and spotters relaying what actually happened on the ground help the National Weather Service calculate a batting average'an average that has steadily improved throughout the years.
Weberpal and Lloyd may not like ""Twister,"" but Kapela doesn't mind so much. The more interest in weather, the more people out there spotting and the better the on-the-ground information is, Kapela said. However, spotters do need to be trained and every spring Kapela offers weather-spotting courses.
""Twister"" does highlight an interesting community. There is something intriguing about a group of people who look to the sky for excitement and challenge. Something that perhaps not even the storm chasers themselves completely understand.
Lloyd, when talking about his captivation with weather, looks at the sky, as if trying to pull answers from it.
""I can't quite explain it. There's just something about it that fascinates me,"" he said with a smiles and a shrug.
The sky above him is clear and the possibility of storms seems a distant future. Lloyd can find the answers some other day.
