'Storm Rising' Host Reed Timmer's One True Love Is Storm Chasing

Although Storm Rising is a brand-new meteorological television show, its host, Reed Timmer, might be familiar to some stormy fans. This new series follows Reed and his storm-chasing partner, photographer Mike Theiss (and Reed’s adorable pup, Gizmo), as they get to the center of extreme weather.

Unlike his past television appearances in Storm Chasers and Tornado Chasers, as well as the documentary Tornado Glory, he’s now focusing on learning more about these storms to make weather conditions more predictable. Reed is always a big presence on screen, with some fans even comparing him to MacGyver and Batman, but in Storm Chasers, Reed is veering off his typical path.

When it comes to chasing storms, Reed has a passion for tornadoes. But in Storm Rising, he’s expanding his repertoire to include hurricanes and tornadoes, and he really wants to move into typhoons.

Originally, the Storm Rising team was going to travel to the Philippines, which gets about five destructive typhoons every year (not including the 15 less destructive annual storms). However, because of COVID-19, Reed and Mike had to stay local.

So, for Storm Rising, they’re using new technology and a targeted effort to understand and “demystify” the storms rather than just chasing them.

“As you may have seen in the screeners, we’re deploying hardware inside these storms to measure the surge, wind speed, and other meteorological data in real time, to understand them better, whereas Storm Chasers was more about pure tornado-chasing,” Reed explained to Inquirer.net.

Ever since he was a kid, Reed had a fascination with storms. “Initially, I was scared to death of thunder and lightning,” he told the publication. “But there’s a fine line between fear and curiosity, and I just developed a deep passion for storms.”

Reed went on to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, where he also received his doctorate in the subject. Although Reed’s known for his own viral videos of storm chasing, he’s also worked within the weather news circuits for KFOR-TV and AccuWeather.

“I did get married, briefly, only for a few months, and I think that chasing storms is my lifelong passion,” he revealed to the outlet. “Doing anything else would only take time away from that. I plan to chase as many storms as possible over the next 40 to 50 years.”

Reed is devoting his life to storms, and even when he was in a committed relationship, discovering the secrets of storms was always his first love.

Could that change? Sure. But it appears that Reed doesn’t see that happening any time soon. He’s committed to chasing storms, his van lifestyle, and his boon companion, Gizmo. And although he knows he lives a risky lifestyle — chasing storms in a van — he knows it’ll all be worth it if by learning more about these beasts, he can prevent more natural disasters in the future.

Storm Rising is available to stream on National Geographic.