SUNY Oswego Storm-Chasing Students Study Twisters Across Tornado Alley

Adventurous students followed storms across Texas this summer, and even witnessed a rare double tornado.

A SUNY Oswego storm-chasing class saw and tracked several twisters through Tornado Alley this summer in an intense real-life classroom experience.

Highlights included witnessing a double tornado — an EF-2 storm nearly a mile wide — near Morton, Texas, on June 5; two tornadoes the next day near Ropesville, Texas; and multiple twisters throughout their travels.

"From start to finish, it was great," said meteorology professor Scott Steiger, who launched the Oswego Chasers program in 2007. "Even when we don't see tornadoes, it's a great learning experience, but this was very impressive. We had a lot of chase days, we saw a lot of different things, a lot of different phenomena."

Zoe Bush, a May 2025 meteorology graduate who will head to Texas A&M University for her master's degree, made her second trip in the program, this time as a teaching assistant. Beyond radar and classroom knowledge, she emphasized the sensory side of the experience. "One of the coolest things is feeling the inflow of a storm, the air rushing into the storm," Bush said. "At points it will knock you off your feet, it's so powerful."

A living laboratory

The trip started on May 27, when the team of 12 students and four instructors departed Oswego along Lake Ontario, returning home June 10. Every morning, the chasers met to determine where the best chances of tornadoes were within driving distance, then set off to study and potentially observe extreme weather from a safe distance.

Through real-time field observation, launching weather balloons and evaluating forecasts, students gained experience beyond what classroom equipment alone can offer.

Students were split into three rotating groups: the forecast team (analyzing conditions and deciding where to go), the logistics team (navigation, fueling, and maintenance), and the equipment team (preparing and launching weather balloons with radiosondes). This structure ensured everyone learned each aspect of the chase.

'Really impressive' learning

"The students' learning was really impressive," Steiger said. "I have them lead forecast discussions every morning. By the second half of the trip they were speaking really intelligently and I could just tell how much they learned. As a teacher, that was amazing."

Bush added that leading undergraduates during the trip prepared her for graduate school teaching. "Helping to lead a class is going to help me in the future at Texas A&M when I have to teach undergrads and lab classes," she said. "They also have a storm chasing class at Texas A&M and I'm hoping I can find a role with that after doing this trip twice for Oswego."

Learning from experience

"The laboratory for a meteorologist is outside," Steiger emphasized. "You have to go outside to learn the weather. I would love to get separate funding to make it free for all meteorology majors."

Bush agreed: "Being out in the field, he constantly points out what's happening and relates it back to the classroom so you have that classroom-field connection. He puts it out there that any question is a good question."

Moments to remember

The students and instructors shared excitement when they came across a dramatic double tornado on June 5: a smaller satellite twister orbiting a massive wedge tornado. "I've been chasing for 18 years and have seen maybe two wedge tornadoes," Steiger said. "That was amazing. It was very exciting, very much a 'wow' moment."

Other highlights included two EF-1 tornadoes in the Brownfield-Lubbock-Lamesa area of northwest Texas; a distant tornado near Tucumcari, New Mexico; and a possible tornado south of Plains, Kansas. The team also experienced intense dust formations, spectacular lightning, and large hail.

For Steiger, beyond the storms themselves, the students' enthusiasm and growth made this year's chase rewarding. "To hear students say this was the best trip of their lives, or that it encouraged them to stay in meteorology, or go to graduate school to do research — that to a teacher is the golden ticket".