Another reason I love writing is for the opportunities it has afforded me.After interviewing a tornado chaser and NOAA hurricane hunter forThe Everything Weather Book, I was invited on a twister chase and a hurricane flight, and turned them both into articles. I did so without aguaranteed market for either, but since they were both things I’ve wanted to do all my life, I took the chance. Actually, I would have paid them for the opportunities.

Chasing tornadoes across the Great Plains is, by turns, boring and exhilarating. To save money I decided to rent a car rather than ride in the official Tempest Tours van, a decision I would later regret. Three days out of Oklahoma City, we encountered a likely-looking supercell near the town of Happy, Texas. The tour director parked us in a cemetery on the edge of town and we saw a giant, wedge-shaped tornado form and begin to slide toward town.

When he realized it was cutting off our only escape route, he ordered everyone back in the van and we raced the twister toward town as the eerie sound of warning sirens filled the air. Safely out on the Interstate, we watched as the gray-black monster transformed into a ghostly gray-green funnel and disappeared into a veil of rain.

A few months later I found myself racing toward Florida and MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center is located. The AOC houses the agency’s fleet of hurricane hunter aircraft, which includes two Cold-war-era P-3 Orion four-engine turboprops converted into flying weather stations. Now designated WP-3Ds, they bear the Muppet monikers Kermit and Miss Piggy, while NOAA’s Gulfstream G-IV is designated Gonzo.