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Odd ~
Jobs
by ALAN M
PETR ILLO
Chasing
Storm
When a massive lightning storm
welled up over Tucson. Ariz., in the summer of
1988, Warren Faidley grabbed his cameras and
headed toward the action.
A professional photographer specializing in weath
er-related pictures, Faidley was in dire need of light
ning shots. After setting up his equipment under a
highway overpass, he snapped a photo at the perfect
moment, capturing a quadruple-forked lightning bolt
striking a power pole. At the same instant, one of
the bolt's branches struck close by and electrified the
overpass.
"As 1 got the shot, I also got jolted, like getting a
painful jolt from a 110-volt live wire." he recalls. The
spectacular photo was published in 1989 in Life maga
zine. which dubbed Faidley "The Storm Chaser." the
first-known use of the moniker in print.
“After the photo ran in Life , things changed for me
overnight," says Faidley, 48. “1 had been shooting wed
dings to survive, but very quickly 1 had people calling
me for weather shots and paying me S7OO a pop."
Hurricanes, lightning storms and tornadoes all
are fair game. "Ive always had a fascination with bad
weather,” he says.
Today, chasing storms is part of the two businesses
he runs. In addition to Weatherstock Inc., his stock
photography and video library company, he oversees
j
A twister was captured on film by Faidley near Attica, Kan.
m/L *Br !
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Photographer Warren
Faidley (above left)
travels the country
shooting extreme
weather such as this
summer storm over-
Tucson, Ariz.
Storm Risk Consulting Services, working with corpo
rate clients such as DuPonc (to develop storm shelters)
and Sure Fire (to create emergency flashlights).
Born in Topeka, Kan., during tornado season,
Faidley escaped his first funnel cloud at age 5. A few
years later his family moved to Mobile, Ala., and then
to Tucson when he was 12.
“I went from tornado alley to hurricane alley to
lightning alley,’ says Faidley, who’s authored several
books including 1995’s Sturm Chaser. "When you’re a
kid experiencing storms, everything is so much bigger
and grandiose. But as an adult, that kind of weather
still has an appeal for me that’s bigger than life."
In 1981, Faidley earned a degree in photojournal
ism from the University of Arizona in Tucson. After
working as a photography stringer for several Tucson
newspapers, he landed a job as a photojournalist at
the daily Tucson Citizen. He worked there three years
before venturing out on his own to form Weatherstock
in 1989.
Although there are several hundred full-time
storm chasers" in the United States, Faidley estimates
only "about 20 or 30 of the really hard-core chasers
have been doing it since before Twister referring to the
1996 action film tor which he worked as a consultant.
Chasing storms is a seasonal occupation, so Faidley
.-• i Faidley - W6atherstock.com
■PM
Wnrrm Faidln Weather tock.com
A colorful thunderhead hangs over southern Arizona.
"drives the roads" in the central and northern Plains
looking for tornadoes from May to June, heads to the
Southwest in search of lightning strikes around July,
and then pursues hurricanes until late October.
Jose Garcia, meteorologist-in-charge of the National
Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas, says Faidley has
been a valuable resource to alert Texas residents to
dangerous weather.
"Several times Warren has called in firsthand tor
nado reports to us so we can warn people to get out of
the path of storms," Garcia says. “He’s sometimes our
eyes and ears.
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