ETT team and guests with vans enjoying a slow-moving shelf cloud after experiencing tornadoes in Nebraska.

There are a few choices out there, so why chase with us? To answer that question, you would want to learn about what separates the best storm chasing tour companies from the rest. So, what makes a tour company great? There are a lot of storm chasing tours out there, but only a few that actually operate as full-fledged businesses. It is important to be wary of those that don’t operate with a fleet of tour ready vehicles and a team of professionals to keep you safe with a successful outcome for your touring efforts.

Any tour company worth their salt will have a team of dedicated professional tour guides that are well versed in not only storm chasing, but the operations of directing and keeping a group of storm hungry guests safe, properly lodged and fed while being successful in finding the right storms. Each one of our team members is a professional storm chaser, not only when operating with us on tour, but at all times on their own time, year around. Our team is the new guard of storm chasing, originally hand-picked by Reed Timmer, the most recognizable professional storm chaser on the planet. Each one of our team members is a prolific storm chaser in their own right, and you have likely seen them or their work on national television or in the media. All of our forecast meetings include our entire team, and that helps us to put our minds together to create the safest and most successful storm chasing opportunities for our tour guests!

ETT Guides Kevin, Nick, Blake and Ashleigh with tour group.

When operating you will always have two guides in each of our specially modified storm chasing tour vans, a dedicated driver and a navigator/radar tech. Our front van houses our team Meteorologist, Kevin Rolfs, one of the most experienced storm chasing Meteorologists around with over 17 years of chasing under his belt. This allows him to oversee weather and radar communications and guide our tours in tandem with our veteran Tour Director Nick Drieschman following up in the rear van. Our Tour Director concentrates on the overall intent of the tours as a whole while Kevin applies his professional skills to the weather. Together Nick and have Kevin have been guiding the tours this way since they were brought on as guides in 2015 and have logged literally hundreds of tornadoes together this way. Our drivers’ sole purpose is to keep an eye on the road, period. And even then, our drivers are all professional storm chasers themselves, so they know what to expect in the adverse conditions we sometimes encounter.

ETT Tour Meteorologist Kevin Rolfs viewing forecast soundings before a chase.

The vehicles you travel in are just as important, you don’t want to be crammed into a minivan with three other guests, two guides and a mountain of luggage for days at a time. Storm chasing tour vehicles should be heavy duty, spacious tour vans like our fleet of full-size Ford E350 XLT 15 passenger vans. Each of our vans is specially modified for storm chasing with an array of technological and safety minded upgrades that makes our fleet the best in the industry! Even though our vans can carry 15 people, we never load them full and remove the furthest back row of seats to give ample room for your luggage and gear, and the coolers we bring for ice cold drinks on the go. Home style power banks and USB chargers are available front to back, as well as our 17” drop down LED monitors for sharing our radar data, entertainment like the movie “Twister” and our video game systems for those long drives. Upgraded sound systems with Satellite radio rounds out the entertainment aspect, and our guest PA system allows us to communicate with guests all the way back to keep you informed of what is happening. Safety features for all of our vans include an OSHA approved first aid kit and fire extinguisher, tool kit, side external lighting for low light condition guest ingress/egress, and directional rear amber hazards for our off-road stops providing increased visibility of our operations to other chasers/motorists. Communications between our team and vans is very important, and we are able to have crystal clear comms at all times with our partner Midland USA’s GMRS radios. These allow us to be in constant communication at all times regardless of cell phone connectivity which is vital in storm chasing situations.

ETT Guests and guides enjoying ominous skies on a chase in 2015.

There is a reason our tour company is one of the most prominent in the industry, and that has much to owe to our specialized team and fleet of tour vans that go beyond what the others do, allowing us to provide a safer, more successful experience for our tour guests. We hope that whomever you choose for your tour that they have gone the extra mile to make sure you have the best team and vehicles out there. You can be assured you will get just that when you join us for the adventure of a lifetime with Extreme Tornado Tours!

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