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By J. T. Turner (StormNet)
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Dramatic weather video has become a staple of
today's newscasts and major moneymakers for cable channels like
The Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel and The Learning
Channel. If you live in the US, chances are that at least a
portion of the weather video you have seen was shot by veteran
Storm Chaser and PMC Steve Marshall or one of the Severe Weather
Specialists he employs at his company, StormNet. |
It has been a long and winding road from a nine year old with a
bedroom full of old weather maps to the state of the art, high tech
mobile communications center that Steve now utilizes. Having grown
up in Northern Virginia and Oklahoma, he became interested in storms
and hurricanes at a very early age, in fact he can't remember ever
NOT being interested in storms. At 8 years old, Steve was a frequent
visitor to the weather department at WTOP TV in Washington DC, thanks
to a neighbor who was the evening weather forecaster. The 60s were
a busy time both in TV weather and in Washington DC's weather action.
Numerous hurricanes passed through the region on their way up the
east coast, and with each storm, Steve's interest grew.
That interest became a fixation on a stormy afternoon in 1969 along
the Shenandoah River in Virginia.
Steve was camping with another DeMolay and his parents at his family's
property in the wake of Hurricane Camille and they had become cut
off from outside help by rising floodwaters. Knowing that the local
bridge would be passable in a day or two, they stayed put at their
campsite. One afternoon, as the river was about 12 feet above flood
stage, they could hear shouts for help coming from the river. Running
to the riverbank, they could see a rowboat floating downriver at
a rapid pace with 2 teenage girls in it. The girls shouted that
they had dropped the oars overboard and couldn't swim. Having camped
in the same area for years, Steve knew that only a few miles down
river was Leisure Point Falls, a low rise dam that, under these
conditions, could prove fatal for the girls. (besides, a teenage
DeMolay would never ignore two babes needing help!)
| Both brothers dove into the river and caught up
with the boat and guided it to shore only a half-mile above
the falls. Steve's Dad caught up with them, driving the family
pick-up truck along a riverside road and transported the girls
and boat home. Steve says he swallowed about half the river's
flood waters that day and ended up getting a |
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| number of shots for exposure to contaminated floodwaters. |
The power of Hurricane Camille (category 5) amazed Steve and he
began to track hurricanes in earnest. June 21st, 1972 would prove
to be another hurricane day that would lead Steve towards more atmospheric
adventures.
Having joined the local volunteer fire department, June 21st was
the first day he was allowed to ride the fire equipment to real
emergencies. It was also the day that Hurricane Agnes struck the
Washington DC area with devastating floods. As much as 16 inches
of rain fell in 24 hours across the region, destroying water and
sewage treatment facilities, power plants and many bridges and roads
Steve reported to the fire station at about 5 pm and the first
fire call came in shortly after and the emergencies didn't stop
for the next 14 hours. At about 2 am, the Ladder Truck Company that
Steve was assigned to was called upon to rescue a man that was trapped
in an upside down car in raging flood waters that had washed away
part of US Route 1 in Fairfax County Va. Steve and the other 4 Fire
Fighters on that truck spent about an hour in waist deep water,
tethered to their fire truck while slowly extracting a very large
man from his now ruined car.
It was just one dramatic rescue in a night filled with such acts
by many dedicated public servants.
26 fire calls later, Steve was a confirmed storm fanatic or as they
are known in their circles, a "Weather Weenie". It also
led to another series of shots for exposure to contaminated waters!
In the late 70s and early 80s, Steve managed a private ambulance
service in the Washington DC area where he rode out the likes of
Hurricane David and others. In 1982, Steve and his wife relocated
to Western Pennsylvania in search of easier living. Just three years
later, extreme weather would again exert a strong pull on Steve.
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Over the course of 6 hours on May
31st 1985, northwestern Pennsylvania was struck by no less than
43 tornadoes. Now in command of a local fire station, Steve
got to see the storms and the damage up close and personal,
and it would lead to bigger things. A new sport was about to
be born, but the public wouldn't learn about it until the media
focused in on its pioneers. |
Before 1993, if you were a Storm Chaser, you didn't tell people
what you did because the next question was always the same. "What
do you do when you catch one?" Even the term "Storm Chaser"
was virtually unknown at the time.
The 1995 movie "Twister" and countless television specials
changed all that and allowed Storm Chasers to come "out of
the closet" so to speak. In 1994, Steve caught a rare Pennsylvania
tornado on video and sold it to the local television station. Soon,
word got around and other stations were calling for storm footage
as newscasts became more action oriented (the dreaded Weather Channel
effect!).
It was soon apparent to Steve that he couldn't provide all the storm
chasing coverage that was being requested and he started to add
other Weather Weenies to his team. Word spread within the chaser
world and pretty soon, Steve was fielding Chasers across the country.
| In 1997, the corporate world came
on board and Steve became the only Storm Chaser ever to be sponsored
by an auto manufacturer. In 1998 Steve left Hyundai America
and signed on with Saturn Automotive. 1999 would see Steve and
his team starring in a Saturn car commercial and making appearances
on Saturn's behalf. |
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It also saw the beginnings of his team's school based weather safety
program called "WeatherSafe Kids". Steve traveled to schools
all along the east coast, presenting his weather safety message.
By the time the program ended in 2004, more than 26,000 school kids
had been given the message, "If you hear it, fear it!,"
urging kids to take actions to protect themselves when they hear
thunder.
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In 2001, Steve and his Team were signed by a movie
studio to star in a reality television series called, "Chasers".
It was designed to be produced exactly like the popular television
series "Cops" with bad storms in place of the bad
guys. The series was picked up by The Discovery Channel and
then optioned to a production studio, where the project resides
today. Steve doesn't know if it will ever get produced but he
has a signed television contract and a Screen Actors Guild card
that he says will make for interesting stories for the grand
kids some day. The studio did produce a 4-minute promo short
for the series that Steve says is "really kick butt".
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Soon after, Steve went to work as a professional Storm Chaser and
Severe Weather Specialist for WKBN TV in Youngstown, Ohio and then
as a Storm Chaser and a Video-journalist for WJET TV in Erie, Pennsylvania,
where he is today. Steve also writes a newspaper column called "The
view from the east side" that runs in several Kansas newspapers.
What started out as a fascination with weather, led Steve to a unique
job that has allowed him to interview movie stars, rock stars, Miss
America, royalty and many elected officials as well as experience
some of the worst weather that Mother Nature can offer. While Steve
has had opportunities to leave the news business, he summed up his
thoughts on his job in a recent interview, "One of the attractions
of working in news, is that it's different every single day, you
never know where the police scanner is going to send you next. The
attacks on September 11th, 2001 are an excellent example. Every
single "newsie" in America will remember where they were
and what they did that day. We all had front row seats to what will
surely be the largest news story any of us will ever cover. If I
worked in any other industry, I would have been just a spectator
like most other Americans. I am not sure I could have stood by and
just watched. I think we were lucky that we had a job to do and
it prevented us from thinking about what we had witnessed."
| In recent years, Steve has jumped back into extreme
weather in a unique way. The public's repeated requests to "ride
along" on storm chases led Steve and 2 partners to start
a "storm tour" company in 2004. That company, Tornado
Express Tours, runs out of Oklahoma City during the prime tornado
season of April, May and June. Storm junkies from all over the
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| world come in for week-long tours across the plains
in search of tornados.Steve is amazed at the numbers of "custormers"
from Australia and New Zealand that sign up each year. As of
this writing, Steve is busy preparing another high tech van
for next season's tours. |
He says it's been a long strange ride and nothing like what he
had ever planned.
Steve tells me, "Sometimes life offers you a left turn off
the beaten path, it's up to you whether you take the turn or not.
I have always been one to go just around the next corner or over
the next hill to see what's there."
His team, StormNet, now numbers 154 Chasers working for 45 television
stations in 4 countries and has communications centers in Bristolville,
Ohio and Dalton, Georgia and sports its own team of Meteorologists
that concentrates on "ChaseCasting" for his teams.
Steve Marshall is a PMC from Woodlawn Chapter in Springfield Virginia
and a Past Chapter Advisor of Northwestern Chapter in Meadville
Pennsylvania.
Photos on this page are from Steve's websites, and are used with
permission. His websites are available at:
www.stormnet.org
www.tornadoexpress.com
www.expressphototours.com
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