About Skip:
Hi, I’m Skip Talbot, a software developer and computer graphics artist from the Chicago suburbs. I’ve been interested in severe weather and tornadoes my entire life. When I was only 7 years old, one of the most powerful tornadoes ever recorded destroyed the town of Plainfield, Illinois, which was mere miles from my home at the time. This deeply moving event left in me a great respect for this powerful force of nature and a desire to learn more about it. Over the years my interest continued to grow and in college I started ravenously consuming every bit of knowledge I could find about severe weather and tornadoes. This was not enough, however, and after taking a course in forecasting severe weather and attending Skywarn spotter training, I took to the road, compelled to witness these events first hand.
On May 10, 2003 I stumbled out into the darkness during one of the largest tornado outbreaks in recent history armed with only a weather radio and a map. Although I came away empty handed in my search for tornadoes, and shook up having driven into the core of a severe thunderstorm, I learned from my mistakes and kept at it. It was almost a year later before I witnessed my first tornado, one of the most powerful and awe inspiring moments of my life. It was then that I knew storm chasing would be a life long passion of mine. Since then I’ve witnessed tornadoes of all shapes and sizes and many awesome supercell thunderstorms. I still chase with my trusty weather radio but have expanded my chase arsenal to a wide range of gadgets including computers with gps navigation, radio communications, and robotically controlled camera systems. Every spring you can find me out on the plains, traveling thousands of miles for a fleeting glimpse of the elusive tornado.
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Fellow chaser Chad Cowan, meteorologist Tom Skilling, and Skip Talbot at the WGN TV station in Chicago |
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Skip following a large nocturnal tornado. Courtesy Jerry Funfsinn |
| Skip and Chad tracking a tornado. Courtesy Michael O'Keeffe |
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A tornado crosses the road right in front of Skip. Courtesy Jill Gilardi and Dena Sanders |
Contact Skip:
For commercial or non profit use of any of the videos or pictures featured on this site, please email Skip at: skip.talbot@gmail.com
