The Great Plains: Lurid Destination For Maniacs

Here they come!:

These are storm chasers, part of the tornado paparazzi. This afternoon's bait: a supercell in far western Oklahoma that could spit out an EF2 (that's lingo for a strong tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which measures such storms.)

Highways are increasingly clogged with storm chasers trying to beat each other in a risky race to capture the storms, and some have even been killed. While there's no certain way to estimate how many there are, longtime chasers who crisscross the Midwest put the figure in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Fifteen years ago, they say that number would have been a few hundred.

"It's become a much bigger thing. Because data is available to anybody, you can essentially have live radar data in your vehicle with you for the price of satellite wireless," says Harold Brooks, meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma.

..."The thrill of the chase. ... That's the excitement," says Tiffany Crumrine, 37. She's part of the pack tracking the EF2, and tired of seeing funnel clouds only on TV. Any storm on the Great Plains could have as many as 30 cars following it.

"There's so many chasers, it's difficult to get where you need to go, and that can be a problem," says Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert at The Weather Channel. "What if a tornado hits something, and there are so many cars around? It makes it difficult for emergency managers to do their jobs."

At least three people have been killed since 1999 while chasing or observing weather for forecasters, according to the National Association of Storm Chasers and Spotters.

Topeka, Kansas-based chaser Scott Blair says some parents take their kids on the chase while others get as close as 100m from the twister.

Drivers use two-way radios to spread warnings about speed traps. One driver radios that it's easy to do 16 to 24km/h over the limit in Oklahoma, and brags he can go even faster when chasing storms in Wyoming or Colorado.

Among the tornado paparazzi is Daniel Shaw, who travels from Australia to the US to chase storms.

"There's something about America and its storm systems that just produce these monsters. You just don't get things like this in Australia. I suppose it's strange - America's a long way to come to see a storm, but what you have here is truly incredible."