Storm Chasers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

An American documentary Reality TV series on Discovery Channel that follows several teams of storm chasers throughout the Midwestern United States. The show debuted in October, 2007 and was cancelled in January 2012

Tropes used in Storm Chasers include:
  • Cool Car: A large number of them, including but not limited to the Tornado Intercept Vehicles (TIV and TIV2), the Dominator, the Doppler On Wheels (DOW) trucks, etc.
  • Crossover: The TIV2 and Dominator were featured on an episode of MythBusters, testing the vehicles' ability to withstand tornado-level wind speeds.
  • Death From Above: Tornadoes, lightning, and hail produced by supercell storms.
  • Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Averted as they have vehicles specifically designed to go into them (the TIV, the TIV2, and the Dominator)
    • Subverted on a couple of occasions with the Dominator, as it's not intended to go into the strongest tornadoes. One time a window was blown out (see Eye Scream below) and another time the vehicle was shifted sideways several feet.
  • Don't Try This At Home: Each episode starts with this disclaimer.
  • Dutch Angle: Some of the vehicle footage. One shot during the "behind the scenes" special shows a cameraman hanging out the back of a moving truck holding his camera inches off the pavement so he can get an angled face-on shot of the Dominator.
  • Emergency Broadcast: Given the subject matter, it's inevitable that you'd hear one of these at some point.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The show is about people who chase after storms.
  • Eye Scream: In one of the earlier seasons, the Dominator's driver side window shattered during a tornado, spraying the occupants with broken glass. After the worst of the wind passes by, Reed says "My eyes are bleeding".
  • Heroic BSOD: Sean Casey comes close to this; the devastation he witnessed during season 5 making him question his desire to continue chasing. A pep talk from his wife sets him straight, however.
  • In Medias Res: The first episode of season 4 (the 2010 chase season) starts off in the immediate aftermath of the tornado that destroyed Yazoo City, Mississippi, on April 24, 2010, before moving back to a few days earlier. The entire first episode of season 5 (the 2011 chase season) covers the devastating tornado outbreak that tore through Mississippi and Alabama on April 27, 2011, with the next couple of episodes showcasing events that took place before then.
  • Jerkass / Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Reed Timmer. The series frequently shows him to be overbearing, abrasive, needlessly argumentative, and spastic, with the crowning moment (so far) being when he kicked driver Joel Taylor out of the Dominator 2 on a Nebraska interstate and left him stranded after a serious disagreement over whether or not they should have chased a storm. That being said, he will drop everything to pitch in and help tornado victims when they come across devastated towns, and is genuinely sympathetic to the victims.
  • Ominous Fog: One episode of season 4 had Team TWISTEX chasing a tornadic storm in South Dakota that was shrouded in a dense fog bank. Several members commented on how the low visibility may be hiding a tornado such that they might not see it until it was too late. When the fog clears, however, they're in for a nasty surprise: the storm had produced two tornadoes, one directly ahead of them and one right behind them.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: The show used Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" with seasons three and four.
  • Scenery Gorn: The aftermath of the tornadoes the teams chase, particularly the stronger ones like Yazoo City. Season 5 was replete with this, with the teams witnessing multiple powerful tornadoes striking populated urban areas.
  • Series Goal: IMAX filmmaker Sean Casey commissioned the TIVs in order to get inside a tornado for the purposes of capturing footage for his Magnum Opus that will also provide financial security for his family. For season 5, he's filming in 3D for a new movie.
    • Accomplished in the IMAX documentary Tornado Alley which is essentially The Movie.
  • Smug Snake: Josh Wurman when imposing the 'restraining order' on the TIV 2 team in season 4.
  • Wham! Episode: Matt Hughes, a member of the TIV 2 team, finally achieves his goal of getting inside a tornado, only for the viewers to find out that, according to the show, he was fatally injured in an "accident unrelated to chasing" a few days after the episode was filmed. He actually committed suicide.
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