Spring Training 2025 has concluded but you can purchase the complete event recording!

PURCHASE 2025

More info about Spring Training 2025, in partnership with COMET/MetEd and sponsored by the American Meteorological Society and RadarScope

Spring Training offers foundational, operational and accessible information and training material for storm chasers at all levels - from those who want to begin their chase education or brush up on the basics, to more advanced chasers wanting to learn more in-depth about specialized topics. Just like in baseball, we gather every spring to shake off the rust, refresh our skills, and get ready to hit a home run.

Spring Training speakers are experts within their fields, and the training is an opportunity to learn from them in-depth, in addition to offering interactive opportunities to ask questions and chat with chasing veterans.

This event will always be held virtually and remain affordable; Girls Who Chase is a global community and we believe strongly in making science and learning accessible to everyone without the constraints of travel or financial hardship.

Schedule

Speakers

SESSIONS

We incorporate three different session types into our Spring Training event:

Presentations: You'll gain knowledge on a variety of topics relevant to developing skills in storm chasing and forecasting.
Interactive panels: You'll have the chance to connect with chasing and meteorology experts in a facilitated Q&A session.
NEW IN 2025 - Networking rooms: Connect with other chasers and weather enthusiasts in your region in a lightly facilitated conversation over lunch.

SCHEDULE*

Detailed schedule (all times in CT):
Most sessions have 10-minute breaks in between, with a (NEW!) optional networking session over lunch

10:00am Event kickoff
10:15 Skip Talbot: Strategies For Safe & Successful Storm Chasing (entry-level)

11:55 ROOM 1 Lee-ann Simpson: Nowcasting Using Satellite Data (entry-level)

11:55 ROOM 2 Robin Tanamachi: Radar Interpretation For Storm Chasing (intermediate/advanced level)

1:20pm Lunch OR Networking room
2:15 John Sirlin: Take It To The Field: How to Prepare to Storm Chase (entry-level)
3:25 Raychel Sanner: Pulling It All Together With a Chase Case Study (entry/intermediate-level)

4:50 PANEL 1: Careers in Weather/Meteorology (Kathryn Prociv, Chelsea Burnett, Emily Sutton, Mayra Oyola-Merced)

5:55 PANEL 2: Field Research & Extreme Weather Chasing (Karen Kosiba, Robin Tanamachi, Melanie Metz, Brandy Carlos)

6:55 Event close/evaluations

*Please note all times/topics/speakers are subject to change

TO ACCESS THE EVENT

While the live event took place on March 1, all presentations and panels were recorded and the recordings can now be purchased!

To access the recordings package, head on over to Vimeo or click "purchase," below.

PURCHASE 2025

SPEAKERS & PANELISTS

*To read the full bio, click on a speaker's image

Skip Talbot

Strategies For Safe & Successful Chasing

Skip Talbot is a storm chaser based out of central Illinois, with a reputation for producing top-notch educational pieces about storm structure and chase safety. Skip has been documenting supercells and tornadoes across the Great Plains and Midwest since 2003. He has worked as crew and forecaster on a Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) IMAX film, developed software for and co-authored publications for the El Reno Survey, and driven for the College of DuPage’s Thunderstorm Lab. Skip is currently working with atmospheric scientists Anton and Tracie Seimon, photographer Jennifer Brindley Ubl, and videographer Hank Schyma on a research mission to measure the near surface winds of tornadoes using photogrammetry.

Raychel Sanner

Pulling It All Together With a Chase Case Study

Raychel Sanner is the co-founder of Tornado Titans and has been storm chasing for 20 years. Raychel is an Emmy Award winning storm chaser, award winning photographer, and manages many of the day-to-day operations for Tornado Titans. This includes creating content for Titan U, which is a resource for weather enthusiasts and storm spotters to learn how to forecast storms, as well as a comprehensive resource on storm structure and behavior.
Raychel was born and raised in rural Oklahoma before attending the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting and Social Issues. Raychel started her first online media company as a teenager and has now worked in digital media for over 25 years. She is married to Sara and enjoys spending time with her fur babies and exploring the southwest outside of storm season.

Dr. Robin Tanamachi

Radar Interpretation For Storm Chasing
Field Research & Extreme Weather Chasing Panelist

Dr. Robin Tanamachi is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University. Her research mainly focuses on radar-based studies of severe convective storms and tornadoes, as well as atmospheric science education research. After being captivated by a tornado on television when she was a child, she received a Bachelor's in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin -- Madison, and her Master's and Ph. D. degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Tanamachi worked briefly at the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms and the National Severe Storms Laboratory, before moving to Purdue to teach meteorology to a new generation of students.

John Sirlin

Take It To The Field: How to Prepare to Storm Chase

John Sirlin is a photographer and storm chaser with over 30 years of experience in the field. He began chasing storms in Minnesota and the northern plains in the early 1990's and learned to forecast, target, and track severe weather, long before mobile radar and up-to-the-minute weather data was widely available. He currently leads storm chasing tours and weather photography workshops in the Great Plains and Desert Southwest.

Emily Sutton

Weather Careers Panelist

Emily Sutton joined the Oklahoma City 4Warn Storm Team in December 2009 as KFOR-TV’s first female meteorologist. She started on air a few weeks before Oklahoma City’s largest snowstorm, the “Christmas Eve Blizzard,” and has been experiencing Oklahoma extremes ever since. Emily is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and was awarded the National Weather Association (NWA) Seal – and is the only meteorologist in Oklahoma with both seals. She recently won an Emmy for Best Weather Anchor. Her storm chasing of the historic May 2013 tornadoes gained national recognition on CNN, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Popular Mechanics Magazine. Emily loves to be involved in the community and has helped raise thousands of dollars for local charities and tornado victims.

Lee-ann Simpson

Nowcasting Using Satellite Data

Lee-ann Simpson is an Associate Scientist and Meteorologist with the The COMET Program, creators of self-paced, online learning content. Lee-ann is involved in the design and creation of online lessons, in addition to facilitating and presenting at virtual and in-person training events.

Lee-ann started her career as a weather forecaster in South Africa, focusing on public weather and marine forecasting. After 5 years “on the bench”, Lee-ann moved into the Regional Training Center of the South African Weather Service, where she specialized in the training of weather forecasters in South Africa. Joining the COMET team in 2022, Lee-ann brings over 20 years of mixed forecasting and training experience for a wide variety of audiences. Having obtained her Bachelor of Science, Honors and Master of Science degrees from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, Lee-ann is a career Meteorologist who enjoys sharing her love for the weather with others.

Dr. Karen Kosiba

Field Research & Extreme Weather Chasing Panelist

Dr. Karen Kosiba is the Managing Director of the F.A.R.M. (Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets) Facility and Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has a B.S. in Physics from Loyola University, an M.S. in Physics and an M.A.T in Teacher Education from Miami University, and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Purdue University.

Her research mainly focuses on the kinematics and dynamics of severe convective storms, characterizing the low-level wind structure in tornadoes, and understanding the boundary layer winds and small-scale structures in landfalling hurricanes. Key to her research is executing field projects to collect data that can be analyzed to better understand and predict these hazardous weather events. Additionally, she is passionate about science education, regularly participating in outreach activities at schools, museums, and festivals, and online and through media interviews and consultations.

A strong believer in experiencing weather from the inside of a mobile weather radar, Dr. Kosiba has participated as a radar operator, project scientist, and project leader in a multitude of field projects, including those studying tornadoes, hurricanes, snow, convective initiation, fires, and nocturnal convection.

Melanie Metz

Field Research & Extreme Weather Chasing Panelist

Melanie has been documenting severe weather for over 20 years, and is known by many as the “tornado queen.” She started her chasing career as one of the "Twister Sisters," appearing in documentaries, a TV series and many public speaking events. Her work has been featured on National Geographic Television, The Weather Channel, ABC, CBS, FOX, Outside Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Weatherwise, and Restless Skies. She also had the honor of being the official photographer for the tornado used on the Movie Cover & Poster for the recent 2021 movie, "13 Minutes." She is currently actively chasing and offers mentoring, private tours and even “storm portrait photo shoots”!

Kathryn Prociv

Weather Careers Panelist

Kathryn Prociv is an entrepreneur and co-founder and EVP of women-owned Monarch Weather & Climate Intelligence. At Monarch, she identifies emerging markets in need of weather and climate insights, seeks out strategic partnerships, provides expert analysis, and supports the team in account and project management.

In addition to Monarch, Kathryn is an Emmy award-winning Senior Meteorologist and Producer for NBC News in New York, where she is responsible for all weather content that airs nationally across all platforms, including The Today Show and Nightly News. Prior to NBC, Kathryn spent five years as a meteorologist and weather producer at The Weather Channel.

Kathryn is proud to be one of the few active female Certified Consulting Meteorologists (CCM) in the world. Kathryn is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is a member of the Association of Certified Meteorologists (ACM). Kathryn holds a bachelor’s and a master’s from Virginia Tech.

Chelsea Burnett

Weather Careers Panelist

Chelsea Burnett is a storm chaser with Texas Storm Chasers, public speaker with the Storm Science program, and a tour guide for Tornadic Expeditions Storm Chasing Tours. She is an Oklahoma native obsessed with weather since she first remembers hearing thunder at two years old. She started chasing in 2011, and saw her first tornado in 2015. Since then, she has witnessed 70 tornadoes and three hurricanes, and has learned an incredible amount about how weather works and impacts different regions of the U.S. Chelsea has a Bachelor’s in Business from the University of North Texas, and additionally several semesters in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Mayra Oyola-Merced

Weather Careers Panelist

Dr. Mayra Oyola-Merced is a tenure-track professor in the Department of Atmospheric
and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (the birthplace of satellite meteorology), and is affiliated with the Center for Climatic Research at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Dr. Oyola-Merced’s research focuses on atmospheric physics, including applications on aerosol interactions with severe weather, satellite meteorology, and aviation weather. Her professional experience includes
working at the National Weather Service, NOAA NCEP, the University at Albany, and
the United States Naval Research Lab. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, she worked as an Atmospheric and Ionospheric Scientist and Deputy Director
of the International GNSS Service (sponsored by NASA’s Space Geodesy Office) at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. Dr. Oyola-Merced has conducted extensive field research,
including over 200 days at sea, studying aerosols over the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr. Oyola-Merced earned her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Howard University
and her BS in Theoretical Physics from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.
In addition to her academic and research roles, Dr. Oyola-Merced actively contributes to
the broader atmospheric science community through her service on the National
Academies’ Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (CESAS) Board, the Members Committee at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and as chair of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Women’s Committee. She also serves on the AMS Board of Representation, Accessibility,
Inclusion, and Diversity (BRAID), where she leads initiatives promoting inclusive
practices and equity in the field of atmospheric sciences.

Brandy Carlos

Field Research & Extreme Weather Chasing Panelist

Brandy Carlos is a California-based professional photographer and photojournalist specializing in breaking news wildfire and emergency services incidents, where she provides live coverage, photos and videos to first responders, media outlets and the public. She has been active in these fields for over a decade and is nationally- and internationally-published, and has become known for documenting natural disasters to aid in community awareness. Her work was widely utilized and highlighted during recent significant fire events in California, including the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. She’s known as FirePhotoGirl online (Instagram, YouTube, and more), where she shares content and updates from active scenes.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AND PARTNERS!

SPRING TRAINING 2025 TITLE SPONSORS

EVENT SPONSORS & PARTNERS

THANK YOU TO OUR PRODUCTION PARTNER!

Check out prior Spring Training events and
add to your education library!

Spring Training is designed to become a library of complementary resources. Each year, experts present on topics relevant to storm chasing for chasers at any level. The topics and speakers change as we piece together the puzzle of forecasting, technical resources such as radar and satellite, chase strategy and positioning, and more from a variety of angles and technical specificity. You can attend Spring Training annually and keep learning!

Spring Training 2024: Storm Structure & Chasing Basics; How to Read Radar; Safely Responding to a Natural Disaster; Positioning for Safe & Successful Chasing; Chase Case Study; Soundings & Hodographs; Lightning Photography
Spring Training 2023: Forecasting 101; Intro to Radar & Satellite; Chasing Safety; Video Brokering; Intro to the SPC/NWS; Intro to the Monsoon

Feedback from past participants