Reed Timmer
Reed Timmer is the world’s leading storm chaser. He’s known primarily for his work with tornadoes, highlighted in the Discovery Channel show “Stormchasers”. However, Reed is interesting in all things atmospheric science, and since his early days in college to more than 20 years later, Reed has observed over 800 tornadoes, 300 flash floods, 100 hurricanes, 50 nor’easters, 30 haboobs…if severe weather of any kind is happening, Reed is there on the front lines.
Reed’s passion for weather is obvious and infectious. Throughout many series on NatGeo, Discovery, the Weather Channel and with over 400 speaking events, Reed has been the go-to chaser to bring the audience into the fold and show them the awesome power of severe weather. Holding a Doctorate in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, Reed combines extensive real-world experience with high-level atmospheric science in order to put him in the right place every time.
Real observations matter, as scientific models can only tell us so much. First-hand observations are necessary to either validate or provide feedback on them. This was the main motivation for Reed building The Dominator chase vehicles. They’ve been used to get close enough to tornadoes to deploy probes using drones, small aircraft, and even rockets.
Though Reed is widely known for his work in severe weather, he describes himself more as
“an extreme naturalist”. His social accounts are filled with crystal mining, mountain biking, leaf peeping, bug spotting and more. Whatever the case, his message to the world has been clear:
“Never stop chasing.”
