Oklahoma House advances controversial bill giving some storm chasers emergency vehicle status

OKLAHOMA CITY — Some weather enthusiasts are hoping a plan to create a new class of storm chaser will breeze through the Legislature, but the effort has ignited concerns about government overregulation in what has become a booming industry.

House Bill 2426 would classify some storm chasers as “professional severe weather trackers” for a small fee. The designation would allow chasers to subvert road closures, run red lights, add flashing lights and act as “emergency vehicles.”

The bill easily cleared the House business committee on Tuesday, the first step toward becoming law. There is a similar measure in the Senate authored by Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City.

State Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, the bill’s author, said he was asked to file the legislation after going on a “ride along” with a storm chaser who saw his interest in the topic. He said it is necessary to help improve the forecasts and warnings for severe weather by allowing greater access to professional storm chasers.

He said it would be “un-American” to ban storm chasing in a state that has served as the backdrop for blockbuster weather movies, but said media outlets licensed by the Federal Communications Commission along with colleges and universities offering meteorology courses need greater access to the storms.

“Storm chasers, at times, pull up to intersections in a storm and there’s not a car in sight,” he said. “They’re stuck at a red light and they’re falling behind the storm because they’re stuck at a red light, right? I don’t want people driving erratic or being crazy, but if I have a storm chaser I’m watching following an F4 tornado, they need to be able to run a red light.”

An initial license would cost $500, while renewal would cost $250. The measure would not impact unlicensed chasers, Fetgatter said.

Storm chasing is a dangerous activity, but growing in popularity.

Many storm chasers are thrill-seekers who capture footage of dangerous storms, often hoping to sell it to TV stations, documentary filmmakers or post on social media for a viral moment. The popularity of movies like “Twister” and “Twisters,” which were filmed in Oklahoma, have contributed to the fascination with storm chasing.

The practice does have its place in scientific research, too, allowing researchers to understand how a tornado forms or a hurricane loses momentum.

Three men in Texas died in 2017 while storm chasing when their vehicles collided at a rural intersection.

Three University of Oklahoma students died while storm chasing in 2022 when they were struck by a trailer-tractor rig. OU currently has a policy that explicitly does not endorse storm chasing for its students.

Many well-known storm chasers have taken to social media to express their distaste for the legislation and to express concerns that the concept is a step toward broader regulation of the industry.

Reed Timmer, who describes himself an “extreme meteorologist” and is a prominent storm chaser with over 812,000 followers, posted on X that he worried it was a step to broader regulation. He also objected to defining professional storm chasers as those who “work with legacy media or university,” and said the measure could limit where storm chasers can go during severe weather through road closures.

Warren Faidley, the self-described “Cyclone Cowboy,” posted that he believes the purpose of the legislation is “to get you off the road and stop coverage by ‘live’ internet sources.”

The bills should “send a shiver up the spine of every chaser,” he said.

Fetgatter said his bill is a work in progress, but didn’t point to any specific changes that would be made. He said he is in touch with storm chasers and expects to hear from law enforcement on any issues they have with public safety concerns.

The Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police, the Oklahoma Sheriffs Association and the Oklahoma Sheriff and Police Association were not available for comment Tuesday.

Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Norman, said while severe weather forecasts can be aided by on-the-ground aid, storm projections rely on a variety of sources, including doppler radar and other observation systems.

“In 2025, some of it is still humans that are providing ground truth about what’s happening in the atmosphere,” he said. “Typically these are storm spotters, which are usually from local communities, maybe an emergency manager or other local officials who are trained to see storms. There are storm chasers out there as well. Some of those also contribute to that process by making reports. There’s a wide array of storm chasers that are out there for a variety of reasons, and we do get information from some of them as well, occasionally. So it’s really a combination of a lot of things.”

Val Castor, a storm chaser for News9, posted on Facebook that he is in support of the legislation.

He said the bill doesn’t restrict anyone from participating in storm chasing, but instead gives qualified university and media chasers the option to obtain a license.

“It is designed to give them a higher level of visibility and safety on the road, and to be more efficient at doing their job of relaying accurate, timely, and potentially life saving information to the public,” Castor wrote.

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