Arlington Heights student on mission to find Great Plains storms

Jackson Genovese first developed a fascination with the weather when he was in middle school.

"I liked watching the sky and how powerful the storms were," said Genovese of Arlington Heights.

Genovese's interest in meteorology grew over the years and he is now on a dream mission.

The 21-year-old Ball State University student is taking a storm chasing class at the university that involves traveling the Great Plains in search of storms.

The Rolling Meadows High School graduate is expected to return later this week after driving nearly 8,000 miles with his classmates over 14 days.

Each summer Ball State provides students the opportunity to practice their meteorology skills. Ten students are working with Professor David Call, a former television weather broadcaster.

Call explains that May and June are the best months to chase tornadoes and severe storms. This is the third year Call has taken his students on the storm hunting mission. He adds that the number of reported tornadoes has increased greatly in the past 20 years, thanks to Doppler radar, hand-held video cameras and greater general knowledge of the weather because of national outlets such as the Weather Channel.

The students on the trip tackle an array of weather-related tasks including mapping routes and looking up radar on a computer, making a forecast and then finding out if it's accurate, Genovese said.

He added that they have been watching the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, hoping to find the areas where the storms are headed. They drive to where the storms are predicted, aiming to arrive as the weather hits.

Early in the trip, the two vans of students spent time in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri. They spotted some heavy storms and even a few tornadoes, Genovese said.

The group has covered a lot of ground, traveling through 10 states during the first four days of the trip.

"The storm chasing is good. Yesterday we reported the only tornado in the country, which was in Prairie County, Montana," Genovese wrote in an e-mail.

Genovese was initially worried about all the hours he'd spend driving in the van.

"I thought the call rides would be brutal, but it's going fast," he said.

The thrill of seeing the storm is exhilarating, according to the students on the trip.

"To see all the clouds rotating over head is pretty intense," Genovese said.

Some students felt vulnerable in the openness of the Great Plains.

"It was kind of intimidating to see Mother Nature like that," Genovese said after the group watched a tornado.

When Genovese returns from the trip, he will start his senior year in the fall, and when he graduates, he'll tackle his next dream - to work for a news channel in the Chicago area.