Storm chasing is quite a peculiar occupation, whether one is a professional or a hobbyist. When we first took notice of these folks, they seem tailor-made for exciting action movies and reality TV. The new movie Twisters opened ten days ago and scored a record box office for a natural disaster movie. But is it anything like a real storm chaser's life? Just the more exciting parts. Oh yeah, it takes a special person to even consider heading toward a tornado instead of away from one, but you can't just decide to do it and think you'll be okay. The real labor that storm chasers put in to learn the ropes and find tornados to get relatively intimate with while staying safe is a lot of work, but not all that exciting onscreen. Still, learning the story behind the story is always interesting. Accomplished storm chasers have varied motivations, but some of them have ultimately made the rest of us safer.