Tornado Talk is a dynamic, information packed website devoted to tornado history! The site contains over 500 event summaries. Our team of writers and researchers dive deep into the details about each tornado event describing what happened through damage analysis and story-telling. Get Hooked on Tornado History with Tornado Talk!
Biographies
Owner of Tornado Talk, Main Writer, Researcher, Social Media Manager
Jennifer is a Midwest girl, originally from Beech Grove, Indiana. Her interest in weather came in middle school. She was living in Central Florida at the time and became fascinated with hurricanes and tracked every storm on the tracking charts you get at the grocery store. Jennifer graduated in 1995 with a B.S. in Meteorology from Penn State University. She has been working as a radio broadcast meteorologist for over 20 years. She began her career at the Weather Channel and currently works for The Storm Report Radio Network. Jennifer provides daily forecasts for 50+ cities across the country. She also provides severe weather coverage for a dozen stations including WIBW-Topeka, KMBZ-Kansas City and KNSS-Wichita. Jen Co-Founded Tornado Talk in 2016. It began as a podcast. After 36 episodes, the podcast ended but Jen continued the brand as an in depth website dedicated to tornado history. In 2020, Jen joined the Weather Brains podcast as a panelist.
Email Jen: jennarramore@tornadotalk.com
You can follow Nelson on Twitter: @jnarramore
Main Writer, Researcher, Map Creation
Nelson has had a fascination with weather since young childhood. He developed a particular interest in wind-based phenomena. Over time this interest has grown greatly, and he has spent years immersing himself in the science and history of volatile weather to increasingly greater depths. This includes extensive personal projects on the subject of tornado damage analysis, and a particular fascination with the Smithville, MS tornado. Currently, Nelson is a student at Millersville University where he is pursuing a degree in meteorology.
Email Nelson: nelsontucker@tornadotalk.com
You can follow Nelson on Twitter: @TornadoStudy
Main Writer, Researcher, Web Design
Nick lives in Altoona PA. He is a Skywarn Spotter for the NWS State College. Nick currently majoring in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)/Emergency Management and minoring in Meteorology at California University of Pennsylvania. When Nick was 2 years old, he saw the tornado in the Wizard of Oz and immediately became fascinated with tornadoes. He enjoys researching and writing about tornadoes. Nick is a Digital Content Creator for the Storm Report Radio Network, and field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). After seeing the many errors in the tornado database, he started his own database of tornadoes in Pennsylvania and has attempted to document every tornado in Pennsylvania since the first known tornado in 1724. Nick’s Personal Database got him an Internship, starting in December 2019, for the NWS State College to fix the Central Pennsylvania Tornado Database hosted by the Mississippi State University.
Email Nick: nickwilkes@tornadotalk.com
You can follow Nick on Twitter: @nickwilkeswx
Writer, Researcher
Zach grew up in the town of Scottsboro, AL before attending Ball State University in Indiana, where he majored in Geography with concentrations in Meteorological Studies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), while competing for the university’s swimming and diving team. Zach went on to receive his Master’s Degree and Graduate Certificate in Geography, focussing on GIS at Auburn University. He currently lives and works in Huntsville, AL. Zach’s passion for weather began at a young age while watching The Weather Channel’s Storm Stories. His passion only grew over the years with discovering websites such as NOAA’s National Hurricane Center and Storm Prediction Center. After his direct encounter with the 2011 Super Tornado Outbreak, his passion was solidified. Understanding the need for post-event story telling, Zach enjoys hearing the experiences from those who have survived tornadoes. He also loves diving into tornado statistics and tracking live severe weather events, and will continue to do so for the rest of his life.
You can follow Zach on Twitter: @DixieAlleyWx
Researcher
Brandon is a Pittsburgher born and raised. He currently is studying at Millersville University pursuing a degree in meteorology. Ever since he discovered Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers in first grade, he has been obsessed with everything that has to do with tornadoes. These days, he spends most of his time researching historical Significant Tornadoes (SigTors) and examining past radar data. In the future, Brandon hopes to either be an NWS meteorologist or a radar researcher.
Email Brandon: brandonskalniak@tornadotalk.com
You can follow Brandon on Twitter: @Brando_WX
Guest Writers
A native Texan, Lon grew up in Belton, some 40 miles south of Waco and 60 miles north of Austin, and vividly recalls the day of the 1953 tornado at Waco, a disaster in which 114 people died and almost 600 people were injured. Inspired by a fourth grade teacher who taught world geography with a weather perspective, he was drawn into a lifetime pursuit of meteorology, but not without forays into other fields. Lon earned a law degree from S.M.U. in Dallas, worked as a police legal advisor for two years, then was a felony criminal prosecutor for 24 years in Bell County. More or less simultaneously, he was also a volunteer firefighter in Belton, and was assistant fire chief for 20 years. Lon never abandoned meteorology as an intense interest, and in 1997, he was actively tracking the severe storms that moved from near Waco to west of Austin, producing numerous tornadoes. He was in Jarrell when the F-5 tornado killed 27 people there. Several months later, he accepted a part-time position as weekend meteorologist at KWTX-TV (Waco), and after 3 1/2 years, he retired from prosecution and worked fulltime at KWTX until he retired in 2011. He earned a Certificate in Broadcast Meteorologist from Mississippi State University, the N.W.A.. (Television) Certificate of Approval, and the A.M.S. Certified Broadcast Meteorologist. He has presented at many weather conferences on severe storms and tornadoes, and in 2004, published a peer-reviewed article in the A.M.S. journal Weather and Forecasting.
You can follow Lon on Twitter: @Centxwx
Dan was raised on a farm, east of El Dorado, Kansas. Throughout his childhood he built his own radio and weather station in his bedroom and began practicing his passion for a career. While in high school, Dan got his first job at KOYY Radio as an afternoon announcer. Since that time, he has worked at several radio stations including eleven years at KZSN-FM as mid-day on-air host and music director. In 2004, Dan moved to Kansas City to join KFKF-FM as the afternoon personality. In 2006, he earned certification as a Broadcast Meteorologist through Mississippi State University. He is president of the Storm Report Radio Network. Dan is a member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society. During college basketball season, Dan will be rooting for the Wichita State Shockers.
You can follow Dan on Twitter: @danholiday
Matt is the owner of the Innovative Construction and Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.
You can follow Matt on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innovativebuildingmaterials/
Brandon Molyneaux graduated with his bachelor’s in meteorology from Millersville University. After learning he really enjoys developing software, he pursued a bachelor’s degree in software engineering at Auburn University. Brandon now combines both of these degrees as a Software Integrator for Satellite Systems for Lynker Technologies. He is currently working to develop, and maintain operational software supporting the National Weather Service.
Email Brandon: brandonmolyneaux@tornadotalk.com
You can follow Brandon on Twitter: @WxBDM
Harrison earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology and Minor in Geography from The Pennsylvania State University in 2018. Harrison has extensive interests in dual-polarimetric radar, and its applications to operational forecasting and hail detection. He first started storm chasing in May of 2015, and has spent extensive time in the Great Plains since then while also participating in the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) Hail Study during the Spring of 2018. Recently, in May of 2019, Harrison led a group of undergraduate students from Penn State on a university-sponsored storm chasing trip, teaching the students about severe storms forecasting and about storm-scale dynamics while on the chase. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, watching lots of hockey, and chasing during the springtime convective season.
Other Contributors
Jacob Crawford
Beth Ann Crocker
William Dunn
Zach E.
Matt Gaines
Chris White
OKTornadoDb
Tony Rogers
A Special Thanks
There would be no Tornado Talk without Thomas Grazulis. He has dedicated decades of his life to the pursuit of tornado history. His Significant Tornadoes books have been one of our biggest assets in capturing these events. We have also connected with him via social media and he has given us invaluable insight!