Reed Timmer (born March 17, 1980) is an American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while th ...

and storm chaser. He is known for starring in the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series ''

Storm Chasers ''Storm Chasers'' is an American documentary reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2007, on the Discovery Channel. Produced by Original Media, the program follows several teams of storm chasers as they attempt to intercept ...

'', as well as in the documentary film '' Tornado Glory'' and in the series '' Tornado Chasers''. He also worked with

Mike Theiss Mike Theiss (born April 22, 1978) is a National Geographic photographer, on air talent, video producer, professional storm chaser. He is the CEO/Founder of Ultimate Chase Inc. that specializes in extreme nature photography. His work has been publ ...

in the

series ''Storms Rising'' on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

Early life

Timmer became interested in the weather at a young age, after experiencing a severe thunderstorm that reportedly dropped golfball-sized hail in his yard. Later on, Timmer participated in the

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...

competition in middle school and high school. After graduating from Forest Hills Central High School in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1998, he began studying meteorology at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

(OU). In October of that year, he filmed his first tornado.

Career

Media

Timmer followed severe weather with his TornadoVideos.net team in their vehicle, the

SRV Dominator The SRV Dominator is the name given to a series of vehicles used for Reed Timmer, as featured on the Discovery Channel series '' Storm Chasers'' (SRV stands for Storm Research Vehicle). In April 2013, Reed Timmer, designer and operator of all t ...

. He was featured in an interview on a bonus feature for the ''Into the Storm''

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

. Timmer also appeared in a 2004 episode of ''

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

''. Timmer was a storm chaser for

KFOR-TV KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside independent station KAUT-TV (channel 43). Both stations share studios in Oklaho ...

's 4WARN Storm Team, with his SRV Dominator 2 as 4WARN Dominator 4. Timmer left AccuWeather in October 2019 to become a content creator for weather forecasts and storm chasing, mostly on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

Vehicles

Timmer created several chase vehicles, each called the Dominator.

Dominator 1

The first Dominator was a modified 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe that was used during the 2008 storm-chasing season and debuted in the 2009 chase season.

Dominator 2

In early 2011, Timmer and other members of TVN purchased a 2011 GMC Yukon XL, which would be the base vehicle for a second Dominator vehicle named Dominator 2.

Dominator 3

A third Dominator vehicle debuted in late April 2013. This vehicle, named Dominator 3, began life as a Ford

F-350 The Ford Super Duty (short for F-Series Super Duty) is a series of heavy-duty pickup trucks produced by the Ford Motor Company since the 1999 model year. Slotted above the consumer-oriented Ford F-150, the Super Duty trucks are an expansion of t ...

crew-cab pickup featuring a 16-gauge body strengthened with a polyethylene

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s ...

composite, thick

Lexan Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily worke ...

windows and

gull-wing doors In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, first as a race car in 1952 ( W194), and then ...

to repel hail. When storms approach, hydraulic systems lower the vehicle to the ground and drive spikes 8 inches into the ground to prevent wind from getting underneath.

Dominator Fore

With a heavy presence on Twitter, Reed was often found chasing in his 2018

Subaru Forester The is a compact crossover SUV that has been manufactured by Subaru since 1997. The first generation was built on the platform of the Impreza in the style of a taller station wagon, a style that continued to the second generation, while the th ...

, donning the name Dominator Fore. Dominator Fore featured an increasing number of hail stone dents in its factory sheet metal body, and undergoes several windshield replacements each year due to Reed's attraction to sitting under what he refers to as Gorilla Hail storms. In September 2022, Timmer posted on Twitter that he had abandoned Dominator Fore to the

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...

Hurricane Ian Hurricane Ian was a large and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that was the deadliest hurricane to strike the state of Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. Ian caused widespread damage across western Cuba and the southeast Uni ...

while tracking the storm at Pine Island, Florida. The car was later found battered, and was no longer drivable, although attempts to fix it are ongoing.

Dominator 5

In December 2022, Timmer purchased a 2016 Subaru Forester to replace Dominator Fore.

Tornado chasing

While chasing storms in 2009 in

Aurora, Nebraska Aurora is a city in Hamilton County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 4,479 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hamilton County. History In 1861, David Millspaw became the first permanent settler in the area of what was to ...

, a tornado strengthened while passing over the Dominator and blew out the driver's window. Its exterior Lexan window failed to roll up. Timmer and Chris Chittick suffered lacerations to the face from the flying glass. The incident was documented as part of the ''Storm Chasers'' TV series. The day before the

Yazoo City Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mo ...

tornado of April 24, 2010, Timmer and colleague Joel Taylor got into a heated argument as to whether or not to make the trip. An EF4 tornado went through the town the next morning, and the team helped rescue people from the rubble. Taylor ended up saying that he was glad he committed to the chase as he saved lives.

''Tornado Chasers''

Timmer started ''Tornado Chasers'' on his website TVNWeather.com. The first two seasons debuted in 2012 and 2013.

Season 1

Season 1 included 12 episodes. Few tornadoes struck that year. In one episode, their SUV's windows were shattered by large hail.

Season 2

Season 2 had far more tornadoes and footage than season 1. The most notable tornado was the May 31,

2013 El Reno tornado During the early evening of Friday, May 31, 2013, a very large and powerful tornado occurred over rural areas of Central Oklahoma. This rain-wrapped, multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded and was part of a larger weathe ...

, which killed

Tim Samaras Timothy Michael Samaras (November 12, 1957 – May 31, 2013) was an American engineer and storm chaser best known for his field research on tornadoes and time on the Discovery Channel show, ''Storm Chasers''. He died in the 2013 El Reno to ...

. The season showed Timmer enrolling in the KFOR 4WARN Storm Chasing team. Joel Taylor returned for episodes 1 and 2. Jim Cantore and

Ginger Zee Ginger Renee Colonomos (née Zuidgeest; born January 13, 1981), known by her pseudonym Ginger Zee, is an American television personality. She is the chief meteorologist for ABC News, after having been the network's weekend meteorologist. Early ...

also appeared.

Personal life

In December 2015, he married

Maria Molina Maria Janeth Molina (born April 7, 1987) is an American meteorologist. She was the on-air meteorologist for the Fox News Channel, a U.S. television network, from 2010 to 2016. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric ...

at the

Masaya Volcano National Park Masaya ( es, Volcán Masaya) is a caldera located in Masaya, Nicaragua, 20 km south of the capital Managua. It is Nicaragua's first and largest national park, and one of 78 protected areas of Nicaragua. The complex volcano is composed ...

in Nicaragua. They divorced in 2018. On October 4, 2013, Timmer suffered a

seizure An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with l ...

while storm chasing in Nebraska as part of the KFOR-TV weather team and was rushed to a hospital by his team. According to Reed, it was his second seizure. Timmer was not driving. Timmer has a dog named Gizmo who often accompanies him on chases.

References

External links

TornadoVideos.Net
an
TVNweather
*
Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timmer, Reed Storm chasers Living people University of Oklahoma alumni People from Grand Rapids, Michigan American meteorologists 1980 births