The Twisted Sky Tours Team

About Hunter: Hunter is a forthcoming "lilapsophile" from south-central Wisconsin. Weather, especially severe, has intrigued him since early childhood. 16 years after developing an interest, he obtained his B.S. in Atmospheric and Hydrologic Sciences at St Cloud State University (December, 2018.) As of November, 2020, he has been employed as a meteorologist of the WeatherOps team at DTN in Burnsville, MN. A common hobby synonymous with meteorology is storm chasing. In 2012, he attained his drivers license and was given enough authority by his parents to take their SUV around town to locally storm spot (whenever the weather pattern decided to cooperate!) The spring and summer of 2012 was historically dry across southern Wisconsin, and only 4 tornadoes were surveyed across the entire state that year (the second-lowest tally on record in a calendar year) due to the drought. The following year he had purchased his own vehicle and was ready to roam further around Wisconsin. Being only a senior in high school, he had high ambition for venturing across rural farmland in search of coruscating convective phenomena and documenting its grandeur, but didn't have much experience or knowledge on the physical lower atmosphere, strategy behind effective navigation, correctly and safely reporting what he was observing, and overall toleration when undergoing (multiple) long days of perpetual driving. In 2014, he began venturing into neighboring states, still without a tornado under his belt, as Wisconsin seemingly only offered the typical "squall line" or non-tornadic "supercell" thunderstorms, he witnessed his first tornado one day after moving into his dormitory--one day before his 4.5 years of college courses commenced--near the town of Gilman, MN. Since then, he has managed to record around a few dozen tornadoes during his first 8 years of actively chasing.

About Shanda: Shanda's fascination with extreme weather began at the age of 5 when a tornado came through her small hometown of Maple Lake, Minnesota. Since then, she has been in pursuit of witnessing tornadoes and discover what it is that causes them. So, during her childhood she would find any way to stay out of the basement when the tornado sirens sounded in hopes of finally getting a view of a tornado. This chance came in 2008 when Shanda really began to chase storms, rather than wait for them to come to her. She has gone through the Spotter Network training and various weather forecasting classes. She has chased in 19 states and Canada, witnessing over 100 tornadoes and has experienced softball sized hail, intense lightning, and amazing storm structures. Shanda has a pre-law background with a degree in political science and economics, but decided in 2011 to devote herself to her true passion of chasing. She has been a tour guide since 2012 and enjoys getting to know others from all over the world that share this same passion. When she is not chasing, she enjoys traveling, watching football (Go Broncos and Vikings), photography, and thrill rides.

About Ryan: Ryan's passion for weather began around the age of 7 when his neighborhood of Burnsville, Minnesota was hit by a damaging straight line wind storm. Seeing the destruction, the storm left behind sparked curiosity which eventually turned into a passion. Ryan graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from South Dakota State University before going on to receive a certification in meteorology from Penn State University. While studying in the Penn State program, Ryan interned for a year as a meteorologist with KARE 11 in Minneapolis. In 2014, he started his first storm chasing season as a guide. He's witnessed countless storms and tornadoes in his years of chasing. In the spring of 2015, Ryan began teaching storm-spotting classes to the public as part of the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN program. He then went on to begin a career as a broadcast meteorologist in the fall of 2016 at the news station WJFW in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. After a few years on TV, Ryan decided the newsroom life was not for him, and moved back to the Minneapolis area. Outside of his love for weather, Ryan enjoys spending time at the lake, fishing, hunting and rooting for his Minnesota sports teams.

About Dillon: Dillon’s fascination with weather started at a young age. Like many his age, the movie Twister only fueled that fascination. His first tornado was on June 4, 2005 outside his hometown of Hiawatha, KS when he 12 years old. Dillon started storm chasing locally in 2009. After graduating from high school in 2011, he started storm chasing all over the Central Plains/Midwest. Since then, he’s documented close to 100 tornadoes and driven over 25,000 miles chasing storms. Dillon is a contracted storm chaser for both KSNT in Topeka, KS and KWCH in Wichita, KS. When Dillon isn’t chasing storms, he’s an equipment operator for a construction company in Sioux Falls, SD. You can catch him rooting on the Kansas Jayhawks, Boise State Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs. Other passions he has are traveling, BBQ, NASCAR, and camping.

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