What drives someone to spend decades chasing storms? And what can those experiences teach us about weather, data, and the tools we rely on to understand it?
In this conversation, we sit down with retired storm chaser RJ Evans, whose journey spans from early fascination with severe weather to building one of the first personal mobile mesonets in 1999. Drawing from years of hands-on experience alongside leading meteorologists and researchers, RJ shares powerful stories from the field, insights into the evolution of weather instrumentation, and why reliable, real-time data is critical to advancing our understanding of the atmosphere.
From chasing historic tornado outbreaks to developing innovative ways to collect data on the move, this interview offers a rare, firsthand perspective on both the science and the human side of meteorology.