'Girls Who Chase' empowers woman to storm chase

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Published  August 13, 2024 11:12am EDT
FOX 13 News
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'Girls Who Chase' empowers woman to storm chase

FOX 13's Dave Meteorologist profiles a Sarasota native and storm chaser, Jennifer Mitchell, who joined a group called 'Girls Who Chase,' which empowers females in storm chasing, a male-dominated field.

SARASOTA, Fla. - The skies over Florida have always fascinated Jennifer Mitchell. But in 2020, the Sarasota native's fascination turned into a hobby. "I kind of found myself out on rural roads during the lockdown. Just kind of following clouds and then taking pictures of clouds," she recalls. 

Now she's a full-blown storm chaser, chasing hurricanes around the southeast, like Hurricane Idalia last August. She also takes what she calls "chase-cations" for fun to tornado alley in the Midwest. "From the start of seeing the storm on the radar and then being actually able to take that radar image and see it up in the sky is so exciting to me," says Mitchell. 

Early in her chase career there was no shortage of severe weather around her, but there were very few female storm chasers. Then she came across a certain Instagram page called Girls Who Chase. "It was so awesome to see this group that I needed, and I didn't know that I needed."

Girls Who Chase is an online initiative with a goal of inspiring and empowering women interested in storm chasing. 

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Colorado resident Jennifer Walton founded the organization. She was always fascinated by weather and got her start in chasing after signing up for a storm chasing tour online. Shortly after, she came face to face with her first twister. "I crested a hill, and in front of me was this beautiful tornado. And I just remember standing outside my car shouting, jumping up and down in my pajamas, thinking I did it!" she recalls. 

As her storm chasing career grew, something was obvious. "I really wasn't seeing a lot of women at all," says Walton.  She also noticed her male counterparts were getting more attention online. Frustrated, she decided to do something about it. "The goal of the Instagram page was really just to amplify the great content coming from women in the field."

Three years later, Girls Who Chase has exploded into a multi-faceted platform, with podcasts, a YouTube channel, and media partners. "If you can see it, you can be it. And so that's something that we really do take literally here, in order to amplify voices and help dissolve some of these cultural stereotypes around who a storm chaser is," says Walton. 

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