Spring Training: The Inclusive Storm Chasing 101, Because Weather Is For Everyone

It’s well known that the field of storm chasing, like meteorology, is male-dominated. But is it, really? Women have been chasing and capturing wild and amazing weather content for as long as men – yet we rarely see them proportionally in media (news, reality television, and social). Qualitative and anecdotal data gathered by the Girls Who Chase initiative since its inception in 2021 found that this imbalance has become self-perpetuating, with women opting out of storm chasing or the weather enterprise due to a perceived lack of representation. It also found that a second – and equally significant – barrier to entry for women is their own storm chasing education (or a lack thereof); women prioritize a complete forecasting, positioning and safety education before beginning to chase, which can actually slow or prevent them from beginning to chase at all.

Identifying barriers to entry for women in storm chasing has helped formulate operational priorities such as education for the Girls Who Chase initiative, whose mission is to “inspire, empower, and equip girls and women to pursue storms, the sciences and their passions.” The initiative assessed readily available storm chasing education resources, focusing on topics such as forecasting, understanding storm behavior, positioning, content production, and safety – and found existing resources to be disparate and/or hard to find, and many assuming varying levels of expertise (many were highly technical).

Its next step was to develop a comprehensive and accessible “storm chasing 101.” In March 2023, Girls Who Chase and the UCAR COMET program partnered to host the first-ever “Spring Training” event, a daylong, virtual conference focused on the fundamentals of storm chasing. The conference was comprised of presentations and Q&A with topical experts, and two all-female panels focused on careers/skills building in meteorology and storm chasing. The full event was hosted on Zoom, tightly facilitated, and included a chat function, allowing attendees to ask questions and converse with one another. Presentation topics included forecasting, using satellite and radar, how the Storm Prediction Center and National Weather Service WFO offices work and how storm chasers can contribute, chaser safety and field response, brokering storm chasing videos, and chasing the monsoon and capturing lightning. The panels were designed in a purely Q&A format, and included meteorologists and storm chasers (some crossing over into both areas) from a variety of backgrounds and education types so that participants could have access to people with a diversity of experience and perspectives.

The conference was priced at a low dollar amount, offered virtually and recorded to ensure it was accessible to participants in any location at any time, and within reach for people in a majority of financial scenarios. Since it was the first time the event was run, it was an experiment to see what types of people in what locations and with what backgrounds would attend. The attendance goal for the event was 150 people – but over 320 registered, representing a range of ages and backgrounds. Overwhelmingly positive feedback was received in response to evaluations distributed after the event concluded, including that participants “found somewhere in the weather space they felt welcome,” that “the event removed barriers,” that “it was inspiring and energizing,” and that “it made storm chasing feel within reach for the first time.”

The Spring Training concept was developed first to tackle barriers to entry – but also as an experiment to see if there was a market for the topic and this type of training, and it is clear that offering a virtual training of this nature on a reoccurring basis would be welcomed and well-attended. This presentation will focus on what made the inaugural training successful, as well as lessons learned that will be folded into the development of Spring Training 2024.