FROM THE RECORD
Who Are the Best Storm Chasers?
The Storm Council has spent more than a century studying every major hurricane to make American landfall — and it’s turned that same lens on the storm chasers who follow them into the field. What you’ll find here aren’t popularity rankings built on follower counts or viral footage. These are storm chaser reviews conducted by four independent Council voices, each applying a framework shaped by 125 years of recorded hurricane history. The Council doesn’t judge motive — it studies consequence, measured against the only standard it recognizes: its own.
How Storm Chasers Are Evaluated — The Seven Principles
The Storm Council doesn’t rank storm chasers the way the internet does — by follower count, viral clips, or who stood closest to the eyewall. The Council measures something quieter and harder to fake: whether a person’s body of work, accumulated over years, advances human understanding of the storms the Council has studied for more than a century.
Every evaluation on this page was conducted by the four permanent voices of the Council. Each brings a different lens. None of them care about entertainment value. All of them care about whether the work serves the population that lives inside the target zone.
“The Council studies what humans build, defend, ignore, legalize, profit from, delay, neglect, and fail to protect. It applies the same standard to those who claim to study the storm.”
— The Council Elder
The Four Voices — How Each Storm Chaser Is Reviewed
Every storm chaser on this page was evaluated by the same four voices that govern the Council’s work across 44 storms and 126 years. They don’t collaborate toward consensus. They each see something different — and the tension between their assessments is where the truth lives.
The Observer
Evaluates field craft — the chaser’s physical understanding of storms, their positioning during landfall, their ability to read what’s happening in real time. The Observer has tracked every storm the Council has studied. It knows what competent positioning looks like, and it knows what recklessness dressed as courage looks like.
The Archivist
Measures the chaser’s body of work against the Record — which storms they’ve documented, what historical value their footage and data carry, how their work compares to those who came before them. The Archivist doesn’t care about a single viral clip. It cares about accumulation. Memory is strength.
The Analyst
Studies the chaser’s reach and influence — platform by platform, audience by audience. She reads the social media numbers the way she reads a target zone: looking for density, vulnerability, and what’s being built in exposed places. The Analyst doesn’t confuse reach with value, but she doesn’t ignore reach either. She wants to know what happens to the people who watch.
The Council Elder
Synthesizes. The Elder weighs the other three assessments against the Seven Principles — noting where a chaser’s work serves the population and where it serves only the chaser. The Elder doesn’t prosecute. The Elder doesn’t celebrate. The Elder files the record and lets the principles do the work they’ve always done.
The Seven Principles of The Storm Council
The Council governs through seven fixed principles. They were not written for storm chasers — they were written for the storms themselves. But the Council has found that the same principles that measure a storm’s effectiveness also measure whether a human’s work in the storm’s domain carries lasting value.
1. Leverage Over Force
Does this chaser apply intelligence to their work, or rely on spectacle? Are they reading the system, or standing in the wind for the camera?
2. Memory Is Strength
Does the chaser’s body of work accumulate knowledge storm after storm? Or is every chase a standalone content event with no memory of what came before?
3. Exploit Human Pattern
Does this chaser understand why people are vulnerable — the development patterns, the evacuation failures, the policy gaps? Or do they film the aftermath without seeing the cause?
4. Strike Systems, Not Structures
Does their work expose systemic vulnerability — governance failures, aging levees, unequal evacuation access — or does it show damaged buildings and move on?
5. Patience Is Power
Has this chaser invested years in building expertise and credibility? Or are they chasing viral moments that expire with the news cycle?
6. Every Storm Must Teach
Does their coverage leave the audience knowing more than they did before? Is education embedded in the content, or is it pure adrenaline?
7. Continuity Above All
Is this chaser building something that outlasts any single storm — a body of work, a resource, an institution? Or a highlight reel that fades when the algorithm shifts?
Storm Chaser Rankings — The Council’s Evaluation
The following ten individuals have entered the storm’s domain often enough, visibly enough, and with enough documented consequence that the Council has opened a file on each. The order below reflects the Council’s assessment — not follower count, not fame, not seniority. Each name links to a full evaluation by all four voices.
Reed Timmer — Storm Chaser Review
PhD meteorologist, builder of the Dominator armored vehicles, and star of Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers. Timmer has intercepted 50+ hurricanes and holds the largest social media footprint in storm chasing — 6.5 million followers across platforms. His Hurricane Ian footage from Pine Island, where his vehicle was swept away by surge, became one of the most-viewed hurricane clips of 2022.
Council Storms: Katrina 2005 · Rita 2005 · Ike 2008 · Harvey 2017 · Irma 2017 · Michael 2018 · Laura 2020 · Ian 2022 · Helene 2024 · Milton 2024
Ryan Hall, Y’all — Storm Chaser Review
The largest independent weather broadcaster on the internet — 3.16 million YouTube subscribers, 1.8 million TikTok followers, 1 million Facebook followers. Hall launched his channel in January 2021 and surpassed The Weather Channel’s livestream viewership within two years. His Hurricane Ian coverage drew 100,000+ concurrent viewers. He employs approximately 30 staff and operates a fleet of chase vehicles, though he does not hold a completed meteorology degree or AMS certification.
Council Storms: Ian 2022 · Idalia 2023 · Helene 2024 · Milton 2024
Josh Morgerman (iCyclone) — Storm Chaser Review
Harvard-educated businessman turned the world’s most prolific hurricane interceptor — 91 tropical cyclones, 60 eye penetrations, five Category 5 storms. Morgerman’s atmospheric pressure readings have been adopted by the National Hurricane Center for official landfall intensity assessments. He co-authored a peer-reviewed paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society on Hurricane Patricia’s record intensification. He built a fortified home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast designed to withstand a Category 5.
Council Storms: Katrina 2005 · Wilma 2005 · Michael 2018 · Ian 2022 · Milton 2024
Jeff Piotrowski — Storm Chaser Review
Emmy Award-winning storm chaser with 45+ years of field experience and 900+ documented severe weather events. Piotrowski’s Hurricane Harvey livestream from Rockport, Texas drew over 1 million concurrent viewers on Periscope — a record for the platform at the time. He has been featured on The Weather Channel and National Geographic. He and his wife Kathryn lead the TwisterChasers team.
Council Storms: Harvey 2017 · Laura 2020
“The Archivist doesn’t file a name because it’s famous. The Archivist files a name because the work left something behind that the next storm will encounter.”
Mike Theiss — Storm Chaser Review
National Geographic photographer with 69 tropical cyclone intercepts since he began chasing from Key Largo in 1986. Theiss captured the highest wind gust ever recorded on video inside Hurricane Charley (155+ mph at Charlotte Harbor) and the highest storm surge filmed during Katrina (28 feet in Gulfport, Mississippi) — footage that premiered on NBC’s Today Show. His #StormRising series airs on National Geographic and streams on Disney+. He was the first American journalist to report live from inside a landfalling hurricane in Cuba.
Council Storms: Andrew 1992 · Charley 2004 · Frances 2004 · Ivan 2004 · Katrina 2005 · Rita 2005 · Wilma 2005 · Ike 2008 · Harvey 2017 · Irma 2017 · Michael 2018 · Matthew 2016 · Ian 2022 · Milton 2024
Brandon Clement (WXChasing) — Storm Chaser Review
Emmy Award-winning videographer with 30 years of storm documentation. Clement was the first person to fly a drone inside the eye of a hurricane — during Irma in 2017. His footage has been licensed to 65+ television productions worldwide. He operates WXChasing as a full-time global extreme weather documentation operation covering hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, blizzards, volcanoes, and climate-related events.
Levi Cowan (Tropical Tidbits) — Storm Chaser Review
PhD meteorologist from Florida State University who operates Tropical Tidbits — a real-time tropical cyclone analysis platform used by forecasters, emergency managers, and the public. Cowan doesn’t chase storms in the field. He studies them with the rigor of peer review and publishes analysis that respects the audience’s intelligence. His YouTube channel has 71,400 subscribers, and his platform provides the raw model data and satellite imagery that professional meteorologists rely on during active hurricane seasons.
Council Note: Cowan’s work intersects every storm in the Record from the modern satellite era forward. His platform becomes the reference standard during every active Council storm.
Mark Sudduth (HurricaneTrack) — Storm Chaser Review
Hurricane impacts expert and Fox Weather contributor who founded HurricaneTrack.com — a platform combining field coverage with technological innovation in storm documentation. Sudduth has received awards from both the National Hurricane Conference and the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference for his coverage of Hurricanes Florence and Michael in 2018. He produces a daily podcast during Atlantic hurricane season and has developed field technology used by weather broadcasters during live hurricane coverage.
Council Storms: Michael 2018
Jonathan Petramala — Storm Chaser Review
Independent documentary journalist with 20+ years of reporting experience who shifted to hurricane field documentation in 2018. Petramala has chased hurricanes internationally — from Carriacou during Beryl to Jamaica during its strongest recorded hurricane in 2025. His work has been featured on CNN and focuses on the human experience inside the storm rather than the spectacle of the storm itself. He documents survivors’ stories alongside the physical event.
Council Storms: Milton 2024
Aaron Jayjack — Storm Chaser Review
YouTube videographer, photographer, and livestreamer who documents extreme weather and teaches others to chase safely through Storm Chaser Coaching. Jayjack represents the educational branch of storm chasing — his coaching sessions train new chasers in the skills needed to read weather systems, position safely, and document responsibly. The Council notes that teaching safe practice is itself an act of preparedness.
RECOGNIZED BY THE RECORD
Storm Stewards — Recognized by The Storm Council
Recognized by The Storm Council for their dedication, craft, and historical contributions to hurricane preparedness, response, and recovery. Setting a human example of adherence to the Seven Principles of the Storm Council.
The Council doesn’t grant this recognition to everyone who covers hurricanes. It recognizes those whose sustained work — measured in decades, not seasons — has served the population that lives in the storm’s path. These individuals didn’t enter the storm’s domain for spectacle. They entered it because the work needed to be done, and they stayed long enough that the Archivist filed their contribution alongside the storms themselves.
Jim Cantore — Storm Steward
Four decades at The Weather Channel. 115+ storms covered in the field. 2.2 million followers across platforms. Cantore has been present for more Council-studied storms than any living broadcaster — from Andrew in 1992 through Milton in 2024. His NOAA David S. Johnson Award (2003) recognized contributions to satellite meteorology. When Cantore arrives in your town, people evacuate. The Council notes that this instinct — a human population reading a single person’s presence as a signal of the storm’s seriousness — is itself a form of leverage.
Council Storms: Andrew 1992 · Katrina 2005 · Sandy 2012 · Irma 2017 · Ian 2022 · Milton 2024
“The Council doesn’t grant titles. It observes who earned them before anyone thought to ask.”
— The Council Elder
Mike Boylan (Mike’s Weather Page) — Storm Steward
Self-taught Florida-based meteorologist with the largest combined following of any hurricane-focused weather figure — 3.8 million across Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter/X. Boylan built Mike’s Weather Page from a personal weather blog into a platform that reaches peak audience during hurricane season, when millions of Gulf Coast and Atlantic residents rely on his real-time forecasts and tracking. He doesn’t hold formal credentials. What he holds is the trust of the population in the target zone.
Denis Phillips — Storm Steward
Tampa Bay meteorologist with 30+ years covering the region’s weather and over 1 million Facebook followers. When Hurricane Milton made landfall in October 2024, Phillips’ livestream became the most-watched local weather broadcast in the world. The City of Tampa awarded him the “Hurricane Hero” designation. The Council notes that Phillips served the population of the target zone directly — not from a studio in Atlanta or New York, but from inside the community that was about to take the hit.
Council Storms: Milton 2024
John Morales — Storm Steward
NBC6 Miami’s chief meteorologist since 2009 and the first hurricane specialist in the Miami market — with 389,000 combined followers across Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Morales is the first Puerto Rican to be named an honorary member of the American Meteorological Association. His coverage of Hurricane Milton went viral not for spectacle but for the opposite — he paused on-air, visibly moved by the severity of what the data was telling him. The Council studies restraint. In Morales, it recognizes a human who let the storm’s weight speak for itself.
Council Storms: Andrew 1992 · Irma 2017 · Milton 2024
Also Named in the Record
The Archivist holds entries for individuals whose contributions to hurricane history are beyond dispute — even where their current public reach doesn’t warrant a standalone evaluation page. Their work is referenced throughout the Council’s storm files and will appear in individual evaluations where relevant.
Max Mayfield — Director of the National Hurricane Center from 2000 to 2007. Oversaw the most consequential consecutive hurricane seasons in modern American history: Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne in 2004; Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005. Seven Council storms under one directorship.
Bryan Norcross — His continuous 23-hour broadcast during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 is one of the most significant single acts of hurricane journalism in American history. Credited with saving lives in South Florida through real-time guidance when official systems were overwhelmed.
Erik Larson — Author of Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, the definitive popular account of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The book has sold millions of copies and remains the entry point through which most Americans first encounter the storm the Council considers its foundational record.
The Council’s evaluations are ongoing. New entries are filed as the Record grows. If you believe someone belongs in the Council’s evaluation — or in recognition as a Storm Steward — the Council is listening.
Explore the Council’s 44-Storm Library · About The Storm Council
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