(May 2023)
Tim Spitzack
Editor
When the calendar flips from April to May, Valarie Namen starts to get a bit antsy. It’s not from spring fever. No, it’s quite the opposite. She wants bad weather and is normally planning a trip to find it. For the past 13 years, the Mendota Heights native has traveled across the country searching for that ominous natural phenomenon that most people pray they’ll never experience: a tornado.
Namen has seen dozens of tornados in her lifetime and hopes to see many more. She is among the rare breed who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to achieve a goal. As proof, she is a member of the Zero Meter Club, which is a storm chaser’s way of saying they have been far, far closer to a tornado than one should be.
The reason people chase storms varies. Some do it for scientific investigation. Some to capture media coverage. Some for the adrenaline rush. Others, like Namen, do it to satisfy their deep curiosity of storms and to witness the magnificent power of nature, and to capture those images on film.
Namen’s fascination with storm chasing was piqued by the 1996 blockbuster, “Twister.” She found herself doing more and more research on storm chasers and the powerful effects of tornados. She discovered there were – and still are – many tour operators that cater to people like her. One day she made the call.
“My first tour was in 2010,” she said. “I couldn’t find anyone to go with me, so I went alone. Unfortunately, we got skunked.” Things improved from there, however. In all her years of storm-chasing she has seen a tornado in all but three tours. Most outings are quite eventful, with one producing seven tornados.
“When you see one coming it’s just mind-boggling to watch,” said Namen. “The cloud formations are stunning. You have these moments that are so amazing, like the sunsets you see after a storm. It’s crazy-cool stuff that you get to witness.”
Most tour groups are small and travel together in an 8-passenger van, staying in hotels along the way and eating at odd hours. They typically travel to states in the infamous Tornado Alley – Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas – where the storm season runs from mid-April to mid-June. It’s not uncommon for them to drive 4,000-5,000 on a week-long trip for the chance to witness a seconds- or minutes-long tornado. While the adrenaline is high when one is spotted, the days and hours leading up to that moment can be monotonous and dull. It’s been described as “extreme sitting.”
“It’s hurry up and wait, a lot like the military,” said Namen, who as a young woman spent three and a half years serving in a U.S. Air Force military police unit in Athens, Greece.
Namen was drawn to law enforcement at an early age. After graduating from Henry Sibley High School (now Two Rivers) in Mendota Heights, she earned a bachelor of science in law enforcement from Mankato State University (now Minnesota State University, Mankato). After college she enlisted in the Air Force. Back in the states she was a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy for seven years. In 1998 she started her 20-year career with the St. Paul Police Department and served in several roles before retiring in 2018, including police officer, patrol, vice, narcotics, family violence and supervisor of the mounted patrol.
A dangerous hobby
Namen saw her first tornado on May 31, 2011, in Campo, Col.
“It was amazing,” she said. “It was all open fields, and we watched the entire development of the storm, from the super cell to the wall cloud to the tornado forming and touching down. It was picture-perfect in that the sun and blue sky were behind it. It was very slow moving and took about 30 minutes to go from one side of the road to the next. Then a rainbow came out and a perfect white tornado dropped next to it.” Her group was safely 8 miles behind the tornado, which caused no damage since it was out on the open plain.
The most imminent dangers of storm chasing include being struck by lightning, large hail or flying debris, as well as threats related to flooding and downed power lines. Few chasers have been killed by a tornado itself. Most injuries result from auto accidents, from hydroplaning to hitting – or swerving to miss – animals or other debris on the road.
“It’s not the tornados that kill,” said Namen, “it’s the debris.”
The largest tornado Namen has ever witnessed was in El Reno, Okla., and it was a doozie. It was one of the widest tornados ever recorded, reaching 2.6 miles wide, and it’s the one that put her in the Zero Meter Club.
The multiple-vortex tornado touched down 6:03 p.m., Friday, May 31, 2013, and traveled 16 miles in 40 minutes over mostly open terrain eight miles southwest of El Reno. Wind speeds were clocked at 302 miles per hour, among the highest ever observed. The tornado claimed the lives of eight people, including four storm chasers, the first known deaths in the nearly 70-year history of storm chasing. Three of the men were doing research and one was an amateur.
Namen recalled that she and her group were about 10 miles behind the massive storm when the tornado suddenly switched directions.
“We were going south and the tornado turned east, cutting off our route to the south,” she said. “Now we were going toward the tornado, which is not what you want to do. The best place to be is behind a tornado. They can go straight. They can go left or right, but they can’t stop and reverse.”
As Naman and her group were traveling down the highway, they watched with amazement as the storm started dropping multiple tornados. She said the main tornado instantly morphed from a quarter-mile wide to nearly 3-miles wide in the span of three minutes. Debris filled the air.
“We drove past a farmhouse and saw the roof get ripped off,” she said. “It dropped right in front of us and we drove right over it.”
She was in the passenger seat during the storm and at one point the intense pressure from the storm blew out her window.
“My first thought was does everyone have their seatbelt on because if we lose more windows we might lose people,” she said. “But everyone kept their cool. It wasn’t until we got out of range and pulled over to inspect the vehicle that we knew it had been a close call.” Remarkably, there was very little damage to the vehicle.
Namen has traveled with several tour operators over the years. She is adamant about picking ones that put safety first and don’t accept adrenaline junkies. Tours last 7-10 days, with an average price of $2,200. Each day starts with a briefing by the tour guide and a meteorologist. The group might spend half the day chasing the storm before the conditions are right for it to spawn a tornado. As they cruise along, the group can view charts and graphs that the meteorologist uses to track the storm and learn about the science of tornados and how to predict them. Namen said many tornados occur in the mid- to late-afternoon, so groups arrive in a predicted tornado location well ahead of that time. Then the waiting begins. It’s during this time that she and others take photos and video of cloud formations, eat and find other ways to pass the time.
Chasing tornados has given Namen a new-found respect for the raw power of nature. For anyone interested in observing a tornado, she recommends using a reputable tour company. She stresses not do it on your own. If you happen to be on the highway and see a tornado, don’t try to outrun it. She said to get out of your car and lie down in the lowest place possible, such as a ditch.
Here’s more sage advice from a member of the Zero Meter Club.
“Don’t stop under an underpass,” said Namen. “That’s the worst thing you can do because wind speeds increase as they are funneled through them. The chance of your car getting picked up or you getting sucked from your vehicle is now 10 to 20 times worse.”
