Chasing chasers? Storm chaser confronted by angry rancher in Texas; how much is too much?
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Nicholas Sonneborn chases storms for kicks, but not literal ones, nor punches either. But for several tense moments on a county road in a part of Texas that has more cows and calves than people, he thought he might get punched and kicked by a rancher fed up with springtime parades of chase vehicles barreling across the countryside.
"I just had a guy in a flatbed Dodge pickup run me off the road and threaten to pull me out of (my) vehicle and beat my (expletive) for being a storm chaser," he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "This was after he attempted to blockade the road. I was not speeding or breaking any traffic laws ... outside of Crowell.
"It happened on (Farm-to-Market Road) 262 outside of Thalia."
Thalia, population about 125, is 10 miles east of Crowell, population about 750, in Foard County, Texas, with about 1,000 people, 200 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. Chief Deputy Sheriff Perry Shaw said the people in Crowell, which has one other law enforcement officer, Sheriff Mike Brown, can double with chasers during severe weather.
Not that they hang around in town. They're chasers. Not fond of sitting still.
Whether the man driving the flatbed truck was worried about his cattle (there's usually about 20,000 head in Foard County), or just weary of meteorological roadshows, he didn't spell out. But apparently he and some neighbors had had enough.
Severe storm season is back, and with it come the storm chasers, both pros and amateurs, like Sonneborn. How rare was his run-in with a riled-up rancher? Rural landowners aren't used to heavy traffic not involving a tractor or combine. Do they get tired of speeding caravans of storm chasers?
Texas storm chaser, confronted by rancher: 'Never been that scared'
The threats from the man driving the flatbed were more hair-raising than lightning. More worrisome than a wall cloud, said Sonneborn, who is 25 and lives in Allen, a Dallas suburb, works in retail, and chases storms as a hobby in his 7-year-old pickup.
He had two of his buddies with him as well, each in separate trucks, and I was totally boxed in. I’ve never been that scared in my life. I thought I was gonna get extracted from my vehicle.
— Rabbit_Is_Good_Rabbit_Is_Wise (@SonnebornChasng) May 4, 2023
"He had two of his buddies with him as well, each in separate trucks, and I was totally boxed in. I've never been that scared in my life. I thought I was going to get extracted from my vehicle," Sonneborn posted. "When I have a chance, I'm gonna pull over and review dash cam footage to see if I can pull a license plate."
It happened last May 4. He decided not to report it to law enforcement.
After calming down, "I just wanted to leave the area," he said this week.
The news traveled as fast as lightning across the internet and as quick as thunder cracking over the rolling plains of northwest Texas.
RELATED: Storm chaser Reed Timmer brings Team Dominator and armored chase vehicles home to Oklahoma
Celebrity storm chaser Reed Timmer: Chasing attracts crowds
"We heard about that little ruckus out there," Deputy Shaw said. "The comments that rancher made do not reflect the views of everybody in Foard County. I appreciate what (storm chasers) do, and stop and visit with them about the weather. 'Do we need to turn the sirens on in town?' ''
"Yeah, I heard about that story last year down in northwest Texas, celebrity storm chaser and "extreme meteorologist" Reed Timmer said recently during a tour of his new shop south of Norman. "Sometimes there can be a lot of crowds out there when you're storm chasing. It's become so popular."
But Shaw said 100 chasers stopped on a road outside a community with about as many residents, like Thalia, can create problems. Crowds can panic if a tornado thought to be heading one way unexpectedly turns and goes another. Before you know it, as Melissa, Bill's thunderstruck fiance in "Twister," said, "We got cows."
Storm chasers who get in trouble, say, stuck on a muddy road or in a field, are on their own, Shaw said, with him being one-half of Foard County's police force and the possibility of a genuine emergency 40 miles away. Shaw said he has given chasers who wound up afoot a ride into town, though.
He said he and the sheriff have no problem with storm chasers who stick to pavement and drive carefully and not too far above the speed limit.
Two Oklahoma sheriffs, two views of storm chasers
It's not any different in Oklahoma.
Everybody is treated the same north of the Red River around Walters, Temple, Randlett and Devol, Cotton County Sheriff Tim King said. That's prime country for storm chasing, with a big sky and sweeping views, about 110 miles southwest of OKC. King has taken training from OK-First, the weather education program of the Oklahoma Mesonet.
Storm chasers observed driving 90 mph or careening carelessly down county roads and highways? "They're not going to do that down here," King said, grumbling that speeding congregations of chasers can wind up "endangering more people than the storm itself."
More: How many tornadoes were in Oklahoma in last year? How bad were they?
The same goes around Frederick, Davidson, Grandfield, Tipton and Hollister in Tillman County, the next county west from Cotton, although chasers might be extended a little more understanding there.
Tillman County sheriff caught up in 'most dangerous tornado' in El Reno
Tillman County Sheriff Bill Ingram chases storms himself, and he got caught in what the weather service calls "the most dangerous tornado in storm observing history" on May 31, 2013: an EF3 that got as wide as 2.6 miles and churned its way 16.2 miles through cropland, property and eight human lives — including four storm chasers — around Union City and El Reno.
Ingram was in his patrol car, a Dodge Charger. The monster storm produced several other tornadoes in the Oklahoma City metro area, and a line of training supercells dumped so much rain the runoff caused historic flash flooding.
"It passed smooth over me," Ingram said, not leaving even a scratch on his Charger. "I hold chasers to a higher standard."
He was startled to hear of the trouble that Sonneborn, the amateur storm chaser, got into with the angry Texas rancher. The sheriff said that in 20 years of law enforcement, he had never heard of such a confrontation between a chaser and landowner.
The movie 'Twister,' of course, had a role in storm chaser's hobby
Unlike many storm chasers, Sonneborn did not get his love of severe weather from "Twister," the 1996 adventure film starring the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, which inspired a generation of chasers. He wasn't born yet. But it eventually did turn him on to chasing storms.
"When I was a kid I used to love watching the storms rolling by," he said, and then he saw the movie, over and over again, fascinated. "My parents had a VHS tape of 'Twister' that I would watch on repeat after school. I’m excited for the new 'Twisters' movie this summer and I’m hoping it has a solid plot!"
Sonneborn still smarts from his run-in outside Crowell. It kind of hurt his feelings.
"Chasers are a passionate bunch who love Mother Nature like it’s their first-born child, and our goal is to chase as safely as possible while respecting those around us," he said.
Storm chaser Reed Timmer gets too close to tornadoes to hear any complaints
For his part, "extreme meteorologist" Timmer said he's never been confronted by an angry landowner while at work in any of his specially equipped Dominator chase vehicles, but he doesn't necessarily blame people who get upset.
"I totally understand, too," he said. "If you saw a lot of traffic on a road where there's usually not traffic, and a storm's coming in, it's high anxiety, you know. There's possibly hail coming down that could be disrupting their livelihood, whether it be farming, cattle, or whatnot, so I definitely understand their perspective, too."
Timmer said he's never had a close call with ranting people while trying to get in position close to, or directly under, a tornado.
"We're always good friends with the people out there, with law enforcement and with the landowners. They like to see the Dominators, too," he said.
He added, with a twister twist: "We work a lot closer to the tornadoes, too, and the crowds really thin out a little, you know, within about a half-mile of the tornado where the big hail comes in."
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Storm chasers draw crowds in Tornado Alley, irk a few rural residents
