(Transcript) Backroads Chasing with Zane Hamilton

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[00:00:00] Gabriel: Hey everyone, Gabriel here. You’ve probably noticed that Chaser Chat took a bit of a hiatus over the last six months or so, and I am beyond excited to be back. It won’t just be my voice hosting shows now though. I’ve added an entire team of podcasters to the Chaser Chat roster, combined with an incredible support staff who will be helping out with editing, managing social media, graphic design, merch, and more.

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[00:00:41] Alright, that’s enough of that. Let’s get into the episode. 

[00:00:47] Kay: Hello, everyone. My name is Kay. Welcome to the Chaser Chat Podcast. I am here with Zane Hamilton for our interview. How’s it going?

[00:00:55] Zane: Good. How are you? 

[00:00:56] Kay: I’m doing very well. Said that you had gotten interviewed already before, but I’m here to interview you again. So tell me a little bit more about how you got into weather, what storm chasing you’ve been going on lately. Floor’s kind of yours, honestly.

[00:01:11] Zane: All right. I’ve always been into weather since I don’t know, the age of five, since I can really remember. Really the first tornado memory of mine of watching it on TV would probably have been the Greensburg tornado. My dad has always been into meteorology as well. He doesn’t chase or anything, but he’s now emergency an emergency manager here in Oklahoma. I’ve always been around it. Really just from 2010, I just started studying weather and 2011 outbreak in Oklahoma happened. And ever since then, it was just game on.

[00:01:42] Kay: Nice. You said you studied weather. Did you just learn on your own or did you go to college for it?

[00:01:47] Zane: No, I just learned on my own really starting from a young age all the way up to 23 where I am right now. So yeah, it’s been a, it’s been quite a journey and I didn’t start chasing until 2022, but yeah, that, that was my first chase year. I didn’t score any tornadoes my first chase year. I think that was a huge learning experience and 2023 really done it for me. 

[00:02:12] Kay: It seems like around 2020 to 2021 is a pretty popular time where a lot of chasers started chasing around that time just because COVID gave them a lot of free time. You said that you, you said that you hadn’t really gotten the tornado your first year, but you learned a lot from it. Can you tell me some of the stuff that you might have learned from that?

[00:02:29] Zane: Yeah, really from it’s a lot different when you just study and study and never get to put it into practice. Really the second half of 2022 I actually started progressing in my, I guess you would so call it training. And I got to go down to the November 4th, 2022 Northeast Texas outbreak and I believe it was my first tornado, but I’m not sure it was in flat Texas. But from there, I started piecing all the puzzles together to where I can get better, figure out better strategies and so on and so forth.

[00:02:59] Kay: Good. What would you say that was the most like difficult thing for you to have learned when you were first starting out chasing?

[00:03:05] Zane: To avoid the chaser convergence. In reality, it’s pretty difficult, but now I’m like a back road. I only stay on the back roads when I’m chasing. So that was probably easily the hardest part about chasing is not even with a storm. It’s really the chasers with the storm.

[00:03:22] Kay: That does seem to be what I’m hearing from a lot of people via Twitter or just talking to them is that the least dangerous part seems to be the tornadoes, it’s actually the traffic that seems to get a lot of people.

[00:03:33] Zane: Oh yeah, it is, I love the fact that I get to share a hobby and something I love, my passion with a lot of other people as well. No shots thrown at anybody, but sometimes it is a little bit difficult when you are in chaser convergence. There’s a lot of failures that can happen and usually do when that stuff happens and becomes more dangerous.

[00:03:51] Zane: Yeah, it seems like as chasing has become a much more accessible hobby that’s become more a common theme, I hope that it gets a little bit better, but it’s good that you’re able to, you’ve found that sticking with the backroads seems to work out pretty well for you. Have you ever ended up in any negative situations by taking those backroads, cause I’m picturing like, dirt roads, gravel roads, turning to muck and mush.

[00:04:12] Kay: Okay. Yeah. Living in Oklahoma, we have a lot of back roads. So and Oklahoma is usually a state, I really chase in a lot. But I really haven’t had any issues except for in Eldorado near that tornado that day. And that was really just because all of the back roads were, I had to strip a grass about four ft tall and on both sides of the dirt road or trees. Then you got to really just sand and it rained. That was the first time I actually had problem with the back road other than that, not really. And I was really surprised. But yeah, that I almost got stuck that day and I almost didn’t see that tornado.

[00:04:47] Kay: Yikes. Honestly, whenever it comes to me chasing, I stick with the top roads right now. The ones that are paved, because I don’t trust myself not to get stuck and stranded. More power to you. You said that you remember the Greensburg Tornado. Did you say that your dad worked that one, or? Tell me a little bit more about that.

[00:05:05] Zane: No, we just watched it on TV, like on the national I say national weather channel. The weather channel just following up with that. And I knew that was that was like, I don’t know, the first distant memory that I remember. But just going back, I’ve studied the Greensburg tornado a lot. I think it’s, I think it’s a crazy, I don’t know, just a crazy environment, a crazy storm to do what it did. And the storm just kept on going on and on. And, yeah, that was the first, I don’t know, memory of mentioning or even, I don’t know, seeing a tornado. And I was hooked from there. I just remember, I don’t know, I used to be really scared of tornadoes. Now I chase them.

[00:05:43] Hey everyone, Kay here from Rough Skies Ahead and Chaser Chat. I wanted to give a quick shout out to the new Chaser Chat YouTube page, where you can find all your favorite episodes uploaded in video form with a transcription to follow along with. The link is in the podcast description. All right, back to the episode. 

[00:06:07] Kay: I honestly was just, while you were talking about that, I was just thinking, because I’ve seen and had a lot of interviews with people, and I know Gabe’s talked to a lot of people with this too, and from personal experience it’s the same way for me, that a lot of people who chase now used to be terrified of the storms be it thunderstorms or tornadoes or hurricanes, it seems like there’s a common theme there. So I, I wonder if there’s something that should be studied with that. 

[00:06:28] Zane: Yeah, I think it’s really good that people turn their fears into a passion. And I think that’s something really unique. And I feel like that’s why we do have a lot of weather enthusiasts, especially for tornadoes. They’re just a different, there’s just a different type of nature as well as a hurricane and a blizzard, obviously. But it reminds me of some magic that has to happen for in order to get a tornado. And I look at tornadoes is very powerful and very rare. So I’m very glad that, I’m I get to chase them whenever I’m able to.

[00:07:01] Kay: Yeah, it’s definitely something that you consider a blessing after a while, it seems. Plus, I would make the argument, and this is something that I’ve experienced with what I do because I work as a nature educator, is the more that you teach people about things, the less scared they are of it, and I’m wondering if that kind of helps when it comes to being weather aware, almost. And I don’t know, personal experience, like I said I started out being scared and then the more that I learned, the more that I thought that they were cool. 

[00:07:24] Zane: For sure. I feel like every Oklahoma person feels like they’re probably a storm chaser because they watch the televisions, the news stations that we have here and they go into depth and they’re studying tornadoes or even studying any type of weather. So then they think they’re a storm chaser. I could have rooted from as well.

[00:07:41] Kay: I feel like there’s a lot more that goes into storm chasing than that, but we’ll give them at least a little bit of something there. So did I see I think I saw on Twitter that you’re gonna start streaming your chases soon, right?

[00:07:52] Zane: Oh, yeah. Probably coming up in 2025 or late 24 whenever fall season comes around I should be able to really start streaming and getting my live footage out there as well. So that’s going to be really cool for me because I’ve never got to do that. So I’m really excited for that to really show all my friends and family what actually goes on behind the scenes of actual storm chasing. I know there’s a tons and tons of people out there that stream. But I always thought it would be cool to set up a stream and have people see how the process goes.

[00:08:25] Kay: See, and I’m curious what the process looks like to even set up to be able to stream when you’re on the road like that because I wouldn’t even know where to start. 

[00:08:31] Zane: yeah, I’m definitely going to try to keep it as minimal as possible. Shout out to everybody that has a great setup because I don’t know how you do it.

[00:08:39] Kay: I think it comes down to the fact that a lot of people do this for their job. So I think that it goes hand in hand. You have to invest in the best equipment and stuff to make sure that you’re able to do that side of your job correctly. Is this something that you would want to turn into a career path for you, or are you pretty content where you’re doing for your day job?

[00:08:56] Zane: Man, I love seeing my family. Probably not, I’ll keep on studying it and I guess you can say it’s a hobby, even though I feel like it’s a passion. But I feel pretty, pretty content doing what I do right now, taking off work when I need to go storm chasing. Coming to, coming home to my family every night. So absolutely, I’ll continue to chase until I can’t.

[00:09:15] Kay: I like the way that’s worded. So I know that you and I have spoken a little bit about this previously off interview and whatnot. But do you feel like your faith as a Christian impacts anything when it comes to your storm chasing? Floor is yours on that if you’re open to talking about it.

[00:09:27] Zane: Yeah, I definitely want to spread Christ whenever, wherever I can, in the most respectful way as possible. And going back to nature, sometimes I feel the most connected with God whenever I’m studying meteorology, not necessarily just chasing, but I just think it’s a beautiful thing how the atmosphere actually works. And I think it’s even more beautiful when you actually get to see how the atmosphere actually works, even if I don’t know too much about it. I know the layers I need to know. And I just think I think it’s absolutely beautiful. And I also get to talk to my friends about Christ as well. My chaser friends. And that has led to good conversations, great conversations like with you and open my mind to a lot of things. I don’t think I would have ever got to see if I didn’t get into this community. 

[00:10:13] Kay: Amen. I agree with that, because doing what I do, I find that learning about nature, because I, again, I work in nature education, I find that I am closest whenever I’m learning about it and being able to teach people about the world that God created and how cool it is. So it’s cool that you’ve found your own way to do that in this hobby. What would you say is your most memorable storm chase that you’ve got?

[00:10:33] Zane: Man, that’s a good question. I think a lot of people could say El Dorado, for sure. Everybody did great on that chase. But I got to go back to either Cole or Yukon. Cole of 2023 or Yukon of 24. So I’ll just tell you how both days went and I’ll let you decide. 

[00:10:50] Kay: Oh yeah, definitely.

[00:10:50] Zane: The Cole day I planned on chasing I met up with my buddy Nick in Chickashe. Fully expected, I felt like the atmosphere was primed for, a good lasting storm chase that day scored really big. Now the Yukon tornado. I was sitting at home with my wife watching everything go down. I live about, 30 minutes east of Oklahoma City and I turn on the TV and there’s the Union City tornado in Oklahoma. And I was like, all right, I’ve had enough of this. I’m gonna go chase this storm and me and my wife hop in the car and we get to El Reno and we tracked the storm all the way down to Yukon. Eerie feeling. I’m not too big on weird feelings, but I actually chased the Twistex memorial chasing this storm. And two minutes later, I get the Yukon, Oklahoma, 24 tornado and I felt like I got some of the best footage I’ve ever got in a safe position and, we was able to respond to any damaged houses or properties immediately. Probably the Yukon one but Cole put me on the map at the same time.

[00:11:48] Kay: Yeah. Was there, so you said you got to go chase with your wife. That sounds like it was a lot of fun. How does she feel about this particular hobby?

[00:11:55] Zane: So at first she thinks she thought I was crazy. And she knew I had a passion ever since we met for weather and sports and stuff, but she thought I was crazy at first. And once she’d seen that, you know, how much I study and after I started actually I guess scoring while storm chasing, she thought it was amazing. This year it was her first time actually out and we’ve seen the Wetumpka Holdenville Oklahoma tornado, which was an EF3. That was her first time and she loved it. And I think we’ll keep on going together, honestly. I think she acts accordingly. She doesn’t freak out while we’re chasing and, just a couple of hundred yards away from a tornado. I think she’s done a great job and, she’s helped me out a lot as well.

[00:12:36] Kay: It’s great that you guys have something like that, that you can go and do, especially as a couple together. I tried to convince my fiance to come chasing with me and he said I think I’m good. It’s too much time on the road. He’s cool seeing the twisters, but the driving is the problem for him.

[00:12:49] Zane: Yeah. Then they go chase storms and they see a tornado. Then they’re like, all right, I want to go do it again. It’s like, all right, now you’re hooked. 

[00:12:55] Kay: I told him! He’s from Florida, so he’s used to hurricanes. And I’m like, you’re good with hurricanes, but you won’t come and chase a tornado with me. And he’s It’s just, again, it’s, he would probably enjoy the tornado aspect, but it’s the driving that’s the problem, because he doesn’t do very good on the long road trips like that.

[00:13:11] Zane: Oh, I gotcha. 

[00:13:11] Kay: Do you have any advice for new chasers that might be wanting to get started in this hobby?

[00:13:16] Zane: Trust your forecast. Really just if you want to, if you actually want to do it, trust your forecast study as much as you can. And stick to your gut. Sometimes you’ll fail, but it makes it even better when you did it yourself and I feel like it’s more rewarding. And I feel like you learn a lot more by doing it yourself, studying more and becoming a better chaser. Just create your own path as well. You don’t have to be like everybody else. You can be yourself and people will still love you, so that’s my advice.

[00:13:47] Kay: I like that advice. Do you have any future exciting plans outside of the streaming adventures for chasing?

[00:13:53] Zane: Who knows? Who knows? I might go full time sometime. In my mind, I like to think I would pass up the opportunity, but I don’t know. Oklahoma City has a really big network as far as news coverage, weather coverage. Actually this past year, I did a little gig with one of the news channels in Oklahoma City. So I don’t know. I’ll keep the eye out for it.

[00:14:12] Kay: All right. I’m excited to see where this hobby and any future endeavors take you. I’ll be keeping an eye on your streams if you ever get those started. Can you let everybody know where to find you for social media if they would like to follow and see more of what you do?

[00:14:25] Zane: Yeah, really just on, I’m on Twitter just Zane Hamilton and maybe I have some type of tornado in my profile. Yeah, you can find me there or you can find me on TikTok as well. 

[00:14:35] Kay: Perfect. All right. I think that’s gonna finish up and wrap up our episode here. Thanks much for joining me and I encourage everybody to go follow Zane on Twitter. He’s got some good stuff going over there. 

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