ReliaWeather Begins Local Production on Storm Chasing Documentary
by Jason Berry/ Lead Meteorologist
Updated: May 2, 3:59 pm ET
A release date for Stormtrackers has been delayed until mid-to-late summer, do to budget and scheduling conflicts.
Updated: March 20, 8:22 pm ET
ReliaWeather will begin immediate production on a storm chasing documentary for air in late May on ReliaWeather.com and DCTV-Channel 5 in Defiance during the month of June.
The documentary, titled Stormtrackers, will feature footage from chases in Northwest Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Chase footage from Indiana will be used from Ball State students, who are members of the University's storm chase team. ReliaWeather also plans to compile footage from students who have chased in The Great Plains, as part of a month long field study offered by the University's Operational Meteorology and Climatology curriculum.
Footage from storm chase meetings, as well as interviews with participating students and professors, will be shot on campus in the following months. On camera interviews with Skywarn spotters and survivors of the November, 10 2002 EF-4 Van Wert tornado are also being planned.
Steve Marshall, a veteran stormchaser from Northwest Pennsylvania, has also volunteered for the project. Marshall has hours of severe weather footage, including several small tornadoes, one of which occurred in Oil City a few years ago. He has also chased storms in the Plains, as recently as May 2010.
"I've captured some hail encounters with the dash cam, some of which are pretty intense," says Marshall.
When finished, the documentary will be streamed on ReliaWeather.com's Live U-Stream Channel, http://www.reliaweather.com/Live.html in late May, and again sometime in June on DCTV-Channel 5 in Defiance, Ohio. Plans to market the DVD are also in the works.
For more information on Stormtrackers, stay-tuned to ReliaWeather.com and ReliaBlog for production announcements leading-up to air. For questions on how to become a sponsor, e-mail Jason Berry/ Lead Meteorologist at documentary@reliaweather.com.
Local production of a storm chasing documentary will begin immediately, ReliaWeather announced. The documentary, titled Stormtrackers will air in late May and feature interviews and chase footage from around the area.
