© 2025
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our translator station serving St. Francis and Cheyenne County at 96.3 FM is off the air due to an air conditioning breakdown at its leased transmitter site, making it too hot for HPPR's equipment to operate. We are currently working to fix the situation. We apologize for the loss of service and ask listeners to tune to KZNK at 90.1 FM or listen on line through the player above or HPPR's mobile app.

Stormchasing in Oklahoma

Dave Hall
/
The Guardian

An editor for the British news site The Guardian recently went on a trek with a team of Oklahoma stormchasers. His expectations were low—he knew seeing a tornado was rare, even for these intrepid weather watchers.

As they pulled out of the filling station on that first day, Dave Hall said, “If I see a tornado, I’ll wear my underpants on my head.” As it turned out, that day they witnessed a huge wall cloud turn into a wide twister: “We watch in awe as the rotating wall cloud, now above us like a huge spaceship, sucks in air around us.”

Dave reported that the funnel made a noise like a large waterfall. The team watched as it tore the roof off a barn. That day, 23 tornadoes were spawned across the state. As a hobby, notes Dave, stormchasing isn’t cheap—mostly on account of all the traveling. But, he said, “It’s worth it.”