As is common among the stormchaser community, Thomas fell into the craft at a young age. He recalls becoming fascinated with the weather during his primary school years, and that fascination stuck with him.
While most people enjoy fine weather days, Thomas discovered a love of wild and stormy weather. Storm chasing is all about extreme weather events, and storm chaser crews tend to live on the edge - especially when chasing twisters and hurricanes. Given that Thomas lives around an hour south of Brisbane (Qld, Australia), he is perfectly positioned to witness, forecast, and chase big weather events in the semi-tropical region. As a lead in Higgins Storm Chasing, he is hands-on with the process of forecasting weather patterns, issuing warnings, and even chasing the odd big storm. While Thomas loves his ‘day job’ supporting local communities with accurate forecasting, he also loves photographing extreme weather events.
Higgins Storm Chasing is an online weather forecast, warning, and observation platform that offers subscription-based access to key weather information. Members can expect up-to-date and reliable forecasting information emailed directly to them daily. The service also includes extreme weather warnings for Queensland (QLD), New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and Victoria (VIC—home of Lucy Straps). It also includes an Australian-wide tropical cyclone mapping service. Members of the Higgins Storm Chasing subscription also have ad-free access to flood, rainfall, thunderstorm risk, and snowfall maps. The company also offers members a Higgins Weather app for quick and reliable reference. Considering the increase in extreme weather events, a service like Higgins is also ideal for outdoor adventurers and photographers.
“Every day you will "know" the weather…”
Thomas’s photographic journey began with simply using his smartphone to document and capture images of extreme weather events. While Thomas eventually upgraded to a comprehensive camera and lens system, he has found no need to upgrade his gear further as it supports his creative pursuits. Thomas still shoots with an older Canon DSLR kit and loves the images from it. His gear is yet another tool for the job; if the job is getting done, there’s no need to upgrade. In a unique twist, Thomas revealed that he never recycles his SD cards - he only uses each card once. Thomas explained how he would fill a card on one of his trips, back it up, and then store it safely away.
Given the notoriously tricky and risky subject matter, Thomas has even travelled to the USA to document insanely dangerous storm events like a pro. He realised that while chasing storms in Australia was great, he wanted to chase bigger and crazier storm systems in the USA. Thomas will work from home, as part of Higgins, for nine months of the year before travelling to the USA for the remaining three. During our interview, Thomas revealed that the ‘pinnacle’ of storm seasons was 2011. In April that year, a ‘super-outbreak’ occurred with over 300 tornadoes racing across the land. Thomas has experienced and chased 93 tornadoes in the last two years alone! However, it’s not all glamour and Hollywood twisters. Storm chasing involves a lot of waiting for nothing to happen. Thomas and his team can drive across the American countryside for up to 18 hours without successfully spotting or chasing an event.
“We don’t want to be twenty kilometres away (from a tornado). We want to be less than a football field away! A lot of the time, I am shooting just wide-angle as we are getting so close.”
Storm chasing is notoriously risky, especially when facing multiple twisters simultaneously. During our discussion, Thomas admitted to driving his rental Four Wheel Drive vehicles into some of the ‘smaller’ tornadoes to get a better look. It’s a crazy concept, especially considering that Thomas’s American counterparts build heavily armoured specialty vehicles to chase storms. In one chase, Thomas recalls driving through the tornado only to discover it picked up strength and flattened a house in its path. As a result of that notoriety, Thomas has done more than his share of television news spots showcasing his storm-chasing opportunities. The images he has captured throughout the years as a storm chaser showcase the power and intensity of significant weather events.
“As storm chasers, we need to respect the storm more than anything else…”
It was an absolute pleasure having Thomas on the podcast and learning so much about a truly unique and dangerous photography genre. If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows. We host two shows weekly, the first being every Thursday at 9am AEDT (Australia), where we interview amazing guests. The second show, The Random Photography Show, airs every Monday at 7:30 pm AEDT. The Random Photography show is a little random, a little loose, and a lot of fun! Be sure to check them out.
Find Thomas online:
- https://www.instagram.com/higginsstormchasing
- https://higginsstormchasing.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/hintoschases
