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Jessica Burchard of Greensboro has always gotten a rush whenever there was a
rainstorm.

Add lightning to the mix, and Burchard considered it the
perfect storm.

"I’ve always really loved the weather. When I was little, I’d always run to
the window to watch the rain and try to go outside. Of course, if there was
lightning, my parents would not let me near the door," Burchard said.

Burchard, a 19-year-old sophomore at Virginia Tech, said her love for weather
was the first clue she’d like to become a meteorologist one day.

Virginia Tech didn’t offer an undergraduate meteorology program, so she took
geology, the study of science that deals with the dynamics and physical history
of the earth.

Then, Burchard ran across an advertisement for a storm-chasing experience
that was sponsored by the school.

Though she really enjoys studying geology, Burchard said she couldn’t pass up
an opportunity to get a "crash course in meteorology."

"I missed the sign-up date, but I really got lucky when another student
canceled," she said.

Burchard’s trip began May 11 with two instructors and students from Tech and
other schools.

The trip took them from Virginia across 13 states over the course of two
weeks.

"You have this image in your head that it’s going to be like the movie
"Twister," but about eight days went by with no storm systems," she said.

"Then on the ninth (day) we saw like nine tornadoes — we joked that there was
one for every day we missed," she said. "It was really exciting and tiring. We
chased for 10 hours that day."

The students and instructor, Dave Carroll, relied on computer equipment to
lead them to the storms. A GPS system was provid ing directions to the weather
chaos and provided escape routes in case the chasers got too close to a
storm.

Burchard said her crew had a "Twister" movie moment while on the chase.

"It’s hard to describe, but there was one tornado that we caught just as the
sun had set and it was the most beautiful display. The thing is, you can only
stay with a tornado for a short period, and then you have to get out before the
back end of the storm approaches," she said.

The crew was in awe of the storm and stayed with the storm a little too long,
"hooked" by the storm.

Burchard said they were in the middle of a huge rain and hailstorm, making it
impossible to see outside of their van.

"It was really scary because we depended solely on that GPS to get us out,
when we finally did escape, we were all falling out of the vans, kissing the
ground," Burchard said.

Burchard said the trip has heightened her love for the study of weather.

"I am planning to take a meteorology course, and I want to go on another
chase before I graduate," she said.

Burchard said she plans to study meteorology in graduate school, though she
hasn’t decided what career she’ll choose.

She wants to do something exciting like storm chasing.

"My friends always ask me if I would consider being a weather girl. I tell
them, ‘maybe when I retire.’—"

Contact Adria Hairston at 883-4422, Ext. 244 or adria.hairston@news-record.com