Storm Chasing Imposter Syndrome ~ 2025-01-17
The Clarkson, NE EF1 Tornado helixing on June 15th, 2024. One of my favorite tornado captures in 10 years of chasing.
2025 will be my 10th season of storm chasing. While it seems crazy that I’ve been doing it for this long, there always seems to be a lingering elephant in the room when I reflect on my chasing career; my ‘stats’ are abysmal.
There are a lot of reasons why that is the case which I’ll get into, but ultimately why should that type of thing bother me? Who cares about stats if you enjoy it for the love of the game? Trust me, I’m in it for the love of the game (which seems to get lost on many these days, but I digress). What I believe to be the reason for why I care so much is because the success of June First has put me into a state of Imposter Syndrome. That term gets thrown around a lot these days, but there is some merit to it in my estimation.
Like many people in their perspective fields in the 21st Century, I’ve leveraged social media to build my career in a world that I wasn’t originally classically trained in. Sure, I could’ve used my engineering background to get into a more traditional weather enterprise job since there is such a foundational overlap between the two professions, but I saw another avenue to build my own independent career vehicle. Social media is both a blessing and curse. You can connect with the world, but it can quickly skew your perception of yourself. While I always remind myself that it is not an accurate representation of real life, it can still make you feel like a fraud or even a failure if things don’t seem to be going your way.
Storm chasing in today’s day and age is heavily tied to social media. So much so that it is the primary way to make a career out of it now if that is something one desires. I do not wish to make storm chasing a full time career, but so much of what I do now is tied to the world of storm chasing in one way or another. Thus, the success I’ve had over the past few years with June First has left me feeling somewhat exposed when it comes to my chasing background. Chasing really seemed to explode in popularity in the midst of the Pandemic. In theory, I should have roughly double the amount of tornadoes or photogenic storms as someone that started in the Pandemic. That is not the case for me, as in fact, it is safe to say many folks that have started after me have seen significantly more beautiful storms or tornadoes than I.
My car in front of a dying storm in Northeastern Colorado on May 20th, 2021. This was my first ever chase trip to the Great Plains.
The reasons why I’ve severely lacked are fairly obvious. I don’t live within a reasonable distance from the Midwest or Great Plains, I was a broke college student for a good chunk of that time frame, and once I was making money, I could only set aside two weeks of paid time off a year to chase in the Plains (which I’ve only been able to do since 2021). All of my chasing leading up to those points were the scraps I could get in the Northeastern United States, which has its difficult terrain and often lackluster storms. I had great successes here and there, but I definitely would have a much better portfolio had I lived in a state like Colorado or Illinois over these past 10 years, even during the times I had school or my full-time desk job. It goes without saying that I’m still extremely fortunate. There are many that wish they could even have two weeks of freedom or funds to roam the Plains and many more that wish that they could see any thunderstorm near where they lived, never mind a tornado-producing one. That does not escape me as I ponder this internal dilemma.
My lacking portfolio makes plenty of sense given my circumstances, but why does it still bother me? Now that I’ve grown a bit of a name for myself (not an easy way to say that without sounding ego-driven) in this world of weather and even storm chasing, it's hard to back anything I say with the experience, at least, that is what it feels like at points. 2025 will be the first time that I can put a lot more time into storm chasing, which is certainly exciting. Nevertheless, there is still that lingering Imposter Syndrome as June First grows. 10 years of chasing with not nearly as much to show… I’m definitely blessed though to see what I have seen, including some of the rare catches I’ve gotten in the Northeastern United States. That’s at least something I can put a feather in my cap for.
Cheers,
Ethan