Reed Timmer is a scientist, meteorologist, storm chaser.
You may know him from the Discovery Channel TV series Storm Chasers, the documentary film Tornado Glory and the character Glen Powell plays in the film Twisters, loosely based on Timmer, and his YouTube Channel Reed Timmer Weather.
Timmer recently joined WNIJ host Jason Cregier for a conversation ahead of his speaking engagement at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford on Friday night.
(This interview is edited for clarity. The Coronado Theatre is a sponsor of this event.)
Jason Cregier: How long does it take you to construct your storm chasing vehicles?
Reed Timmer: The Dominators were built by the mechanic at the golf course that I worked at from high school into college. Kevin Barton is his name, and they take him about a year to build.
We did not even evaluate them out; we just hopped into the Dominator and started driving right into tornadoes.
This may be part of the reason rental car companies deny your business.
I am on the Do Not Rent list of all major rental car companies.
You get into large hail when chasing tornadoes, so you must punch through the hail core to get a visual of the tornado. It did not happen on purpose, but I have blown the windows out of many rental cars over the years.
How many storms do you chase per year?
The last three years have been nuts. We are currently in a ten-year cycle for highly active tornadoes, with another five to seven years left in that cycle.
The last couple of years we have seen 75 to 100 tornadoes a year, but in a normal year we see anywhere from 30 to 50.
2025 was unique because the season went from late February through July. I have never seen a tornado season that was so persistent and active as the 2025 season.
Has climate change played a role in making tornado season so active now?
The season is attributed to the current ten-year cycle I mentioned earlier.
Anytime you have warm water in the North Pacific Ocean it encourages big tornado seasons in the U.S.
El Niño and La Niña play a part in determining tornado season activeness in the tropical Pacific.
Severe weather and tornadoes are different from hurricanes because their relationship to a warming climate is more complex than hurricanes.
What made the 2011 Super Tornado Outbreak so dynamic?
It was a multiple day outbreak in late April of 2011, with the peak day being April 27.
There were over two hundred tornadoes in a single day down in Dixie Alley.
The month of April alone in 2011 had over seven hundred tornadoes, which is the most in recorded history for one month.
The weather conditions came together perfectly, and I did see an EF-5 tornado during the multiple day outbreak.
Tomorrow at the Coronado Theatre we will share with you what it feels like to be inside a tornado, including sharing the audio of what being inside a tornado sounds like.
It is a very loud roar.
We also will share our science on tornadoes, which includes shooting rockets and miniaturized sensors into the tornado to collect data about the storm.
Twisters screenwriter Mark L. Smith described you as being “A little bit nuts, but exciting and fun.,” what is it like having a character in a major motion picture to be based on you?
It was cool working with Mark Smith; we took him storm chasing as part of his research for Twisters.
There is a scene in the movie where the vehicle deploys spikes that anchor the storm chasing vehicle to the ground inside of a tornado, as well as the depiction of our live streams, merchandising and our scientific work. It was a cool experience.
In closing, you are on the road quite a bit in your line of work, what is your favorite gas station food?
Breakfast pizzas from the Casey's gas station chain.
Reed, thanks for being with us today.
Thanks for having me.
Reed Timmer will speak at the Coronado Theatre on Friday, September 12.
