Dodge City, KS May 24th, 2016  Shawnee, OK Tornado 5/19/13  Bartlett, CO Tornado 5/25/10  Canton, OK 5/24/11    Roscoe, SD Elephant Trunk 5/22/10    Dodge City, KS, May 24th, 2016 

Boston Storm Chaser Home Page

    Valentine, NE Mammatus 5/24/10    May 16th, 2017 McLean, TX Tornado  Bennington, KS Tornado 5/28/13  Healdton, OK Large Hail 5-19-03   Bowdle, SD Wedge Tornado 5/22/10 

 


Welcome to Rich Hamel's storm chasing page! Despite living in Massachusetts, I get out to the plains and chase as often as I can, and even chase locally when weather permits. I'm an Air Quality Meteorologist by trade and National Weather Service Spotter, and have been chasing storms as a hobby for more than 15 years. On this page you'll find photos and descriptions of the best storm chase days I've experienced, and some of the other sights of interest I've seen on my storm chasing trips. All pictures found on this website were taken by me unless otherwise noted and are strictly copyrighted. I am available to give talks on storm chasing and tornado forecasting in the greater Boston area. If you are interested in setting up a lecture, or have any questions or comments about this site, please feel free to contact me.


 

 

Chase Day Pages by Year:

2001: My first chase year and first supercell near New Ulm, MN. 2012: Structure was the theme of the year! Only 5 tornadoes, but one was the spectacular La Crosse, KS night time tornado.

Rich at Dodge City, May 24th, 2016

May 24, 2016 west of Dodge City, Kansas

 


 Are you interested in seeing some of this stuff for yourself?
Come on tour with Silver Lining Tours!
 

2002: My first tornado: A landspout near Turpin, OK.
 

2013: Started with a bang with a tornado an hour and 12 minutes after I landed, then 11 chase days in the 12 I was on the plains highlighted by the Bennington, KS tornado.

2003: Including a big tornado day, May 15th on the Texas Panhandle.

2014: A fun year in places I hadn't chased before: southeast New Mexico and west Texas. 3 tornadoes and some great storm structure.

2004: Including the June 10th, Chappell, NE tornado.

2015: Seemed like we were chasing in the rain the whole tour but ended up seeing 9 tornadoes anyway!

2005: Lots of good chasing in West Texas and Colorado. 2016: It started slow but finished with a bang, including the Dodge City cyclic supercell that produce over a dozen tornadoes!

2006: Well, at least the scenery was good! OK, a couple of good storms. 2017: Deep south chasing and close encounter with big hail with a tornado or two mixed in.  

2007: My first South Dakota tornado and a lot more. 2018: My first northern plains chasing in over 10 years!

2008: A great chasing year, 14 tornadoes in 10 days! 2019: Back to the central plains for 7 tornadoes on 3 separate tornado days.

2009: A slow year, but we still managed to chase 7 of 10 days and saw the best twilight storm of my chasing career.
 
2021: Northern plans chasing including the Dakotas and Montana, including 2 tornadoes in North Dakota.
2010: My best year of chasing! 17 tornadoes in 6 different states over a 10 day period!
 
2022: Prime Time Chasing in the central plains. Lots of miles and a nice wedge tornado near Morton, TX.
 
2011: A successful but frantic chase year: 11 tornadoes and 5 consecutive tornado days, but also marked by a very close call in Joplin, MO on May 22nd. 

2023: Prime Time Chasing in the central plains. Lots of miles and a nice wedge tornado near Morton, TX.
 
Assorted Shots:  These shots are a variety of pictures I've taken out on the plains. Some of them are nice storm shots not worthy of their own individual pages while others are just neat scenic things I've seen out there.
 
Media: A few of the opportunities I've had to talk to various media sources.
Video: Videos of some of the better tornadoes I've seen (also in the individual year pages).
Favorite Links: Useful or interesting weather and storm chasing links.