Dear Readers, 

This month’s story introduces you to the kind of person I always wanted to meet. There are people that make certain choices in life, and you just want to know – “why”? I am friends with LaDonna Baker, and when she first told me about her husband’s activities, I kept asking questions…a lot of questions…and I asked her if she thought her husband would consider allowing me to interview him. Well Readers, he said yes, and here is his tale.

If I told you that Tim has a daring spirit, and then I told you his work, you would look at me quizzically.  Now age 66, Tim drives for Lift – a rideshare program and he is a retired pastor after serving 34 years in nondenominational churches. Occasionally, he still officiates weddings and funerals. Hhmmm, that doesn’t sound like an audacious character? Reader, how would you describe yourself?

Well, you see, Tim is also a storm chaser. He finds and films tornadoes. Over the years, he sold his footage to all the major networks: NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, as well as for documentaries with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. He was featured in a YouTube Jaguar commercial and one of several storm chasers on a TV show called Tornado Road. Let’s start at the beginning and hear how Tim’s life unfolds. 

One of Tim’s earliest childhood memories was when he was four-years-old. He was standing on the shore of Lake Michigan. A tornado approached and everyone ran for cover. Tim wanted to stand there and watch the tornado. “Something was in me at that age; I just didn’t know it,” he said. His parents had to grab him and move him to safety. By age five, his family moved to Wisconsin. It was in his youth that he said he reminded himself of the Sid character from the 1995 animated film, Toy Story. He told me he was torturous to his toys – just for fun. He said he was a risk taker. Reader, do you remind yourself of a character from a film or book?

After graduating from high school, Tim started as a machinist, and his specialty was tool and die work. At that same time, Tim delved into one of his passions – flying lessons.  By age 19, he married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth. “We had known each other since we were six years old,” he said. By age 20, Tim had his private pilot license. He lived near an airport, and he could rent planes at a reasonable price. By age 22, he moved into a new position in his career; he became a quality control expert in management. However, he then went back to work as a machinist for the next five years because it was twice the pay with union wages. Five years later, the company closed.

Tim, wanted to care for his family, he said, so he immediately took a position with the fast-food restaurant, Hardee’s. Within six months, he was managing one of their million-dollar stores. For three years, Tim worked in the restaurant business. Then he moved his family to Colorado, and he went back to work as a machinist for the next four years. Reader, do you have a strong work ethic? If so, where did you learn that value?

Throughout this time, Tim had also been developing his work in pastoral care. Since he was nineteen years old, he held a role in his church. He had fulfilled the position of youth pastor, fill-in pastor and the assistant pastor. In 1989, he was asked to become the full-time pastor of a rural church in Kentucky. “It was so rural that the church bathroom was an outhouse,” he said. Tim agreed and moved his family to the central region of the bluegrass state. The members in this church were very family-oriented, he said. He described their lifestyle as people that focused on family-time. “They often didn’t go anywhere and stayed home at night visiting with other family members. Tim also remembers a lot of pot luck dinners. He said it was difficult to make a living in Kentucky, and the church could only afford to pay a small salary. The Bakers’ stayed in Kentucky for over a year. 

 Then, Tim was offered a full-time pastoral position in an inner-city church in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. “It was a very different world compared to the Kentucky church,” he said. Now, Tim was ministering to people who were “doing business” right outside the church doors: drug addicts, dealers, prostitutes. One day, he had a gun pulled on him by a drug dealer. Another time he was robbed. While in Indiana, Tim began to learn about computers because he was helping a mission set up and fix their technology equipment. He said that the “hands-on learning helped launched my skills as a computer tech.”

After a year and a half of living in Indiana, a new position opened, and Tim became the full-time pastor of a country church in Akron, Colorado. The church and the parsonage were in the middle of a cow pasture. During the six and a half years that Tim pastored in Akron, two significant events occurred that would change his life. The first was that they began to notice a weariness in his wife, Elizabeth’s, health. It was the beginning signs of cancer. Reader, have you experienced a loss in your life?

Secondly, Tim lived in a perfect place for what would become his hobby and passion. The Colorado plains are a hotbed for tornadoes, he said. In fact, Weld County, Colorado has more tornadoes than in any other county in the United States, Tim explained. Tim’s storm chasing began in that Akron pasture. Have you ever experienced a tornado, Reader?

In 1993, the area around Akron had a lot of storms. That year, Tim, on impulse, followed a tornado. “Just out of curiosity, I thought I would see what a storm looked like.” He was able to see only the tail-end of that first tornado. When he arrived on the scene, there were already a number of storm chasers there. He asked them to explain how they knew where the storm was going to be. That afternoon, they explained storm chasing to Tim. That was all it took – Tim was hooked. 

When the next storm was predicted, he now understood where it would be going. This allowed him to get the best photos. “You have to be there hours ahead of the storm”, Tim explained. You also have to be able to understand the data to know which storms have the potential of producing a tornado. From his extensive training as a pilot, he knew how to read meteorological charts that told about the weather and indicated storm warnings. 

When Tim first started storm chasing, he did not have money for a computer. “I was broke, raising four kids,” he said. Instead, he would go to public libraries to find the weather information, then he would have to remember it as he headed to his car to chase the tornado.  His first camera was a cheap video camera. He took the footage for his own enjoyment of seeing the tornadoes. “It was a trophy. Instead of antlers on a wall, I had a video,” he said. What do you value, Reader?

His first professional camera was a SONY TRV900, common among field reporters at the time.  This allowed Tim to capture more details of the storm. Then in 1998, he was filming a spectacular tornado. “I started checking around to see what I could do with this video,” he said.  His storm chasing skills had developed, and he wanted to move towards a business of selling his photos and videos to media outlets. 

In 1999, Tim was offered a part-time pastoral position in Briggsdale, Colorado. The church was in a small community almost on the Wyoming border. Tim said that “we really meshed well” with the congregation. To help bring in more of an income, in 2002, he also began working at IBM as tech support and eventually a trainer for the company’s projects.  They were flexible about the hours Tim needed for storm chasing. 

In 2000, Tim’s storm chasing part-time career amped up into something more than just an adventuresome hobby. Tim met a media broker, Doug Kiesling, who helped Tim begin to sell his videos around the world. Two years later, Tim was featured in an episode of the Biography Channel’s show, “Urban Legends”. Tim explained it as a science episode to show how tornadoes can move things and people long distances. They reenacted if “a tornado could move a person 100 yards and have them walk away from it,” he said. By now, Tim has also gained the nickname “Tornado Tim”. Reader, do you have a nickname, and if so, how did you get it? 

Eight years later, Tim was invited to participate in “Tornado Road”, a reality television series featured on the Weather Channel.  The show follows several storm chasers and their dangerous encounters with tornadoes. Tim’s work is highlighted in episodes one and two.  Tim said that he enjoyed his time working with the crew on “Tornado Road.” It allowed him to learn what went on behind the scenes. He especially enjoyed his conversations with the professional camera men, he said. “I learned many new ideas for filming.”

Thirteen years after moving to Briggsdale, Tim’s wife died of cancer. Tim and Elizabeth had been married for 40 years and had four children – three girls and one boy.

Two years after Tim was widowed, he found out that his colleagues were conspiring. LaDonna, a fellow coworker and Tim were working on a project. Many of the IBM employees thought that Tim and LaDonna should start dating. They tried to get the two together. For example, one day Tim mentioned to a coworker that he thought LaDonna was pretty and he liked when she wore her hair down. Sometime later, they were in the same room and LaDonna had her hair pulled up. That same coworker said, “LaDonna you look so pretty when you wear your hair down.” “Our coworkers thought “we would be perfect for each other,” Tim said, “and it turns out we were”. For some of their dates, Tim would take LaDonna storm chasing. “She needed to know how crazy I was,” he laughed. The two married in 2016. 

Later that year, Tim was recruited to make a Jaguar commercial that would run on the YouTube channel. The company wanted to promote that year’s newest model. “They actually had me chase in the $80,000 car,” Tim exclaimed. He said it was the best car he ever used because it had all-wheel drive and lots of horse-power. “It was comfortable for riding long distances,” he added, “and I didn’t ruin it!”

Tim continued to serve as pastor in Briggsdale until he retired in 2019. Occasionally, he still has a role at the church as a Sunday school teacher, officiating weddings and funerals, and other responsibilities as needed.  Additionally, when he retired from IBM, he took a part-time position as a Lyft driver. This allows more time for Tim to pursue his passion of storm chasing.

Tim now uses a SONY AX 53 camera. “It has an incredible stabilizer,” he said. Tim explained that it is important when you are driving in a car and filming the tornado. “The stabilizer helps if the car shakes, rolls to the left or right, or bounces up and down; the camera lens eliminates that shake in the video so instead you have a smooth non-shaky video.” Compared to his early years visiting a library to get his weather updates, Tim now has a cell phone to check the doppler radar maps. He also has a booster to get a better signal. “Now, you can get updates every 15 minutes on your phone,” he said. As well, Tim has become more sophisticated in his skills, so he no longer spends days on end tracking a storm. When he first started, he would track a storm for three days. Now he says, “I won’t drive more than eight hours”.  

I asked Tim if storm chasing is profitable. “It’s very risky to think that you are going to make a profit,” Tim said. Storm chasing can also be a competitive career. “There are those that will slice your tires to stop you from getting the footage,” Tim said. He said there are other fellow storm chasers who respect each other’s work. Reader, have you ever worked in a competitive field?

 

Readers, I will confess that I have a bit of a daredevil in me. My curiosity had to know more about some of Tim’s specific adventures. In 2000, there was a tornado warning. Starting in Colorado, Tim followed the warnings to Kansas. It took him through eight-hours of driving in rain and baseball-size hail. While the warning continued, there was never a point where a tornado was visible on the ground. By nightfall, he returned home to Colorado.

 Tim told me about the most dangerous storm that he experienced; it was in 2009.  He was in Kirksville, Missouri, and he ended up on a dead-end road with the tornado behind him. Pieces of house debris were flying into his car. “That was the day I should have died,” he said. Reader, have you ever experienced a life-or-death situation? 

Tim is not afraid to die. It is the adrenaline that keeps him motivated to continue storm chasing. He says he has seen so many storms that it is not as exciting to just “see” a tornado. Now, his challenge is to see how close he can get to capture the footage. “I want to see it close up,”

Nature provided much activity for Tim in 2016. That year, he saw his longest tornado on the ground. He was able to see it for 1 ½ hours. “That is phenomenal,” Tim said. Typically, a tornado is on the ground for 30 minutes or less.  His wife, LaDonna, was with him for that trip. As they inched near to the storm, Tim remembers her repeating, “and you’re getting closer? And you’re getting closer?” As you approach a tornado, your car needs to creep at a very slow rate.  You want to make sure that the tornado does not shift course and head your way. “Pieces of houses and barns were flying overhead,” he said. The couple reached to about a quarter of a mile close to the edge of the tornado’s tunnel. 

Again, that year, Tim and two of his children experienced his most devasting storm. He was chasing a tornado in Kansas when they encountered a scene of destruction. In front of them was a house that had been destroyed by the tornado. Tim stopped to see if they could help. They heard someone in the rubble.  “We realized there was a lady in the debris,” he said. They helped get her out, wrapped her in a blanket and after she was sitting safely in their car, they called for help. “It changes the way you chase when you find a person on the scene of a demolished home,” he said.

That storm had an EF4 rating. Tim explained the rating stands for Enhanced Fujita. This was a system of measurement created by Ted Fujita who was a Japanese-American meteorologist/researcher. Ted had a doctoral degree from Tokyo University where he gained fame for his analytical study of typhoons. By 1971, he was working out of the University of Chicago. Ted’s chief area of analysis involved severe storms: tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and thunderstorms. Ted’s bachelor degree was in engineering. With that background understanding of structural strength, Ted was able to assess the potential intensity and damage caused by a storm. Thereby, he created the measurement of the level of destruction, or what we know as the EF ratings.

Tim described his ideal setting for acquiring great tornado footage. “You need wide open fields, no trees, low precipitation and before dark – that’s my dream tornado,” he said. He also likes to be able to get as close as a hundred yards from the edge of the tornado.

Again in 2016, Tim captured his most successful tornado footage. He was tracking a weather system that had started in Carpenter, Wyoming. “It was a fantastic tornado,” he said. A number of media outlets bought both his videos and photos. “Videos sell, but it is almost impossible to sell photos,” Tim said. So, he was quite pleased to see his work on that day’s national evening news. 

Tim continues to hone his craft. He chases between 10 to 12 storms in a year. For those of us that follow his work, he provided a wealth of information during the gulf coast’s hurricanes and the west’s blazing fires. Throughout the seasons, he captures lovely images of the night skies.

Through the lens of Tornado Tim Baker, he introduces us to nature’s rages. We gain insight into a world few of us will see up-close. However, the winds, rains and storms touch us through his images. World-renowned, John Muir, has a resume that includes botanist, author, and zoologist, among other titles. His has been dubbed the “Father of the National Parks”. Muir once said, “Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.” Storm chaser, Tim Baker, spreads open those pine branches to take us on his path of discovery. 

Last month, I introduced you to Brennan Francois. Through his company, Dynamic Living, Brennan used his orator skills to inspire and mentor others. Readers, you enjoyed him as much as I enjoyed telling his story. 

• Eiko said, “I’ve just read your blog about Brennan Francois. It was so interesting and inspiring! It was also like learning the history of the US through a man’s life. I’m looking forward to the next blog as well! We often rave about your blog at our [work] meetings!
• Mary, “I enjoyed reading Brennan’s blog. His life is inspiring.”
  
  Martha, “I love seeing the path the Lord has taken him through in life, and his finding joy in that service.”
• Maria noticed how far Brennan goes to inspire others: “Another great blog! Brennan is an interesting person. I liked that the frightening incident with police when they were threatening his dad when he was a child didn’t keep him from helping them deal with stress in his career as a motivational speaker.”

 

Until next month, may peace be at your side,

Debbie Noel

We have several ways to interact with Debbie!

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• Email her at DroppingInWithDebbie@gmail.com

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• Send your letters to:

Debbie Noel
C/o Longmont Senior Center
910 Longs Peak Avenue
Longmont, Colorado 80501

 

In 2020, the Longmont Senior Center had offered a class titled, “National Weather Storm Spotter Training”. However, with the pandemic, the program was cancelled. Keep checking back on the center’s website to see what classes may be available. https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-n-z/senior-services/catalog-and-registration-senior-services 

To see more of Tim’s work, you can go to his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TornadoTim/ 

• Tornado Road – reality TV show in June of 2008 https://youtu.be/Ha6_DExrNo0 — episode one 
• https://youtu.be/x8v9VQ6WP8A  — episode two 
• https://youtu.be/QDL7npTQFdA — Jaguar commercial

On Twitter @TimBaker