Dominate The Storm: A Heart-Pumping Evening With Reed Timmer

Dr. Reed Timmer is an extreme meteorologist and storm chaser who specializes in intercepting the most powerful storms on the planet to collect valuable scientific data. Graduating with a PhD in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, Timmer is not only a hardcore storm chaser, but also a scientist driven to unravel the mysteries behind these destructive storms and how they are changing over time. With a life devoted completely to storm chasing and extreme field research, Dr. Timmer has intercepted over 1,000 tornadoes and over 50 hurricanes over the last few decades, and is one of the few people in history to chase both an EF5 tornado and Category 5 hurricane. He considers the up-close chasing of tornadoes an artform that is perfected over decades of experience. The famous, tank-like storm-chasing vehicles, called the Dominators, were invented by Timmer in 2009 for the purpose of recording data inside these most dangerous storms.

Still in full operation today, the Dominators are outfitted with state-of-the-art meteorological sensors, and protected by an aerodynamic, armored outer shell that can anchor to the ground with hydraulic spikes. Reed has pioneered delivery mechanisms for deployment of sensors into tornadoes and hurricanes, such as ground-based probes, drones, balloons, and even model rockets. Dr. Timmer has driven directly inside 10 tornadoes in the Dominator 3 since 2020 to become the storm chaser who has been inside more tornadoes than any human in history.