When Bill Bernard isn’t serving as the Associate Provost for Student Services and Enrollment at NMU, he can probably be found chasing storms in the southern United States.
Bernard shared his experiences as a storm chaser Tuesday night at the Mead Auditorium in the West Science Building. Bernard’s presentation included pictures, stories and video clips. Bernard said he first began chasing storms after his brother asked him to join the storm chasing team he was involved with.
He said he was skeptical at first, but has returned every spring since, this year marking his 12th as a storm chaser. During the presentation, Bernard shared photos of forming storms, tornadoes and cloud formations.
He took questions and shared stories, remembering once chasing 21 tornadoes in the course of only two days.
Bernard and his team have been the subjects of documentaries by MSNBC and video clips from one of the documentaries were shown at the presentation. Bernard also shared his own video clips from his years of chasing tornadoes. He and his team travel each spring to Amarillo, Texas, where they set up home base and chase storms in multiple southern states during their two week vacation.
“We do it for the rush, that’s how I relax,” Bernard said. “It’s the most relaxing thing I do all year.”
The presentation was sponsored by the Superior Geography Club and Gamma Theta Upsilon.
