Tony Laubach is a veteran storm chaser and degreed Meteorologist who has pursued severe weather across the United States since his first tornado in 1997. Over three decades on the road, he has documented hundreds of tornadoes, contributed to field research with projects such as TWISTEX, and shared extreme weather stories through broadcast, digital media, and national reporting. Today, Tony continues his work with AccuWeather, tracking, explaining, and experiencing the storms firsthand.
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Western Nebraska
476 Miles | SPC Outlook: Slight

Drove straight from home to a Nebraska supercell north of Mullen that morphed into a fast-moving bow echo that blasted portions of I-80 from North Platte to Maxwell.

TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Observed
LIGHTNING: Captured

Chase Log: August 25, 2026

Nebraska Panhandle (389 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Not Observed

Chase Log: August 22, 2026

Northeast Colorado (117 Miles)
TORNADOES: 1
MAX HAIL: 1.25"
FLOODING: Observed

Chase Log: August 19, 2026

Eastern Colorado (898 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: 1.75"
FLOODING: Not Observed

Chase Log: August 13, 2026

Eastern Colorado (268 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: 1.00"
FLOODING: Observed

Chase Log: August 12, 2026

Northeast Colorado (529 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: .50"
FLOODING: Not Observed

Chase Log: July 31, 2026

East-Central Missouri (1,579 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Not Observed

Tony's Blogbach, Between the Isobars

Latest Blog Entries

A Quiet Stretch FINALLY

There are 19 days between August 12 and August 30, and I chased 11 of them.  Three were road travel days, and I flew to Houston on the 30th… 15 of 19 days I was on the road/in the sky… if you factor Edouard and flying home yesterday, that would be 17 of the last 21 days… that’s a lot… So yes, forgive me when I say FINALLY in terms of a quiet stretch… I hadn’t really had any idea I had gone that hard in the last few weeks until I felt it yesterday.  Edouard wasn’t the most exhausting…

Tropical Storm Edouard Intercept

September 2, 2026 | Tropical

Trust me when I say that I wasn’t really have THAT much fun standing in the western eyewall of Edouard near Port Arthur, Texas to start off September; I was attempting to recorded a selfie-style video, but the wind and rain was so overwhelming, I just laughed at the camera.  Made for a great still!  Haha But yes, got back from a one-and-done intercept of Edouard; a small, but mighty storm… got blasted pretty good in the western eyewall, and spent a good chunk of time doing the thing in there, and was back home the following day.  While more…

Early Weather Journals Section Going LIVE!

August 30, 2026 | Website News

https://tonylaubach.net/weather-journals/ This is exciting!  In conjunction with a social media series I am putting together for September, I finally created a space here on my site to include some early-era (pre-chase) weather journals, which cover many events in the mid/late 90s prior to my chase documentation.  This includes a few Ohio-based weather events I experienced and documented in some form, plus my high-school era lightning photography when I moved to Colorado in 1998.  For years, most of this stuff has been scattered about on various pieces of hardware in various forms of archives, many scans of old photos with no…

Mullen to Maxwell Monster

August 28, 2026 | Post-Mortem

The last two weeks have provided plenty in the eye-candy department, from awesome lightning to great structure to awesome sunsets, and while yesterday’s chase provided plenty of a lot of that, what it did differently this time was actually be severe.  Yes, I have seen severe storms scattered over the last couple weeks, but its been rare to actually experience one.  Yesterday will wrap up this lengthy stint with a memorable bow echo intercept along I-80 as I rode out 60-70mph winds in Maxwell after being overtaken by a pretty dramatic looking shelf cloud. Wrapped up in North Platte shooting…

The Most Stunning Chase Day of the Season

August 26, 2026 | Forecast Thoughts, Post-Mortem

To say the cameras got a workout yesterday would be an understatement.  I woke up in North Platte after having seen my target shift from northwest Kansas the morning before, to ‘perhaps around North Platte’ the night before, to “oh crap, I’m going all the way to Wyoming, aren’t I’.  Big shift in how I panned this day, but I pivoted, headed west, and was treated to some fantastic daytime lightning which the Bolt Hunter captured very well (that thing has completely changed my lightning chasing). After some great lighting near Kimball and a quick core check, I got onto…

And All We Got Was This Lousy Piece of Hail

August 25, 2026 | Forecast Thoughts, Post-Mortem

I’m not even kidding… I ran into fellow chaser and friend, Vince while watching a struggling storm north of Sutherland, Nebraska yesterday… we chatted for the better part of an hour while watching this nearly stationary storm struggle, go through an impressive LP phase, then fizzle over our heads.  Toward the end of its life as we were chatting away, we heard a small plunk on the ground next to my vehicle and Eagle-Eyed Vince spotted the source, a single, solitaire piece of hail, which when it fell, was about the size of a penny.  But by the time all-thumbs…

Tony's 10-Day Chase Outlook

TODAY SEP 4
No Chase Planned
<5%
TOMORROW SEP 5
No Chase Planned
<5%
SUNDAY SEP 6
No Chase Planned
<5%
MONDAY SEP 7
No Chase Planned
<5%
TUESDAY SEP 8
No Chase Planned
<5%
WEDNESDAY SEP 9
No Chase Planned
<5%
THURSDAY SEP 10
No Chase Planned
<5%
FRIDAY SEP 11
No Chase Planned
<5%
SATURDAY SEP 12
No Chase Planned
<5%
SUNDAY SEP 13
No Chase Planned
<5%

Career Stats

Stat Keeping Started in 2002
Career Miles: 572,280
Career Chases: 578
Career Tornadoes: 495
Career Tornado Days: 210
Career Tornado Average: 0.363
Career Work Logs: 428
Career Total Logs: 1,006
Career 1K Mile Chases: 148
Tactical Weather-Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes Experiment
Chase Log: May 24, 2011
Central Oklahoma
Tornadoes: 2
Chase Log: April 24, 2007
Central Kansas
Tornadoes: 3
Chase Log: May 22, 2007
Northern Kansas
Tornadoes: 1
Chase Log: May 22, 2010
Northeast South Dakota
Tornadoes: 7
Chase Log: April 23, 2007
Southern Kansas
Tornadoes: 1
Chase Log: May 23, 2011
Central Oklahoma
Tornadoes: 2

HAIL CHASES

Chase Log: May 10, 2004
Northern Colorado
Max Hail: 2.00"
Chase Log: May 1, 2024
Central Kansas
Max Hail: 4.50"
Chase Log: June 24, 2020
Central Kansas
Max Hail: 2.25"
Chase Log: August 9, 2011
Southwest Nebraska
Max Hail: 2.25"

FLOOD CHASES

Chase Log: June 16, 2019
Southern Kansas
Flooding: Street Flooding
Chase Log: May 22, 2014
Eastern Colorado
Flooding: Flash Flooding
Chase Log: June 27, 2004
Northeast Colorado
Flooding: Flash Flooding
Chase Log: July 7, 2011
Northeast Colorado
Flooding: Urban

LIGHTNING CHASES

Chase Log: April 19, 2023
Southwest Iowa
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: April 15, 2024
Southeast Nebraska
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: September 9, 2025
Eastern CO/Western KS
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: May 14, 2020
Southeast Kansas
Lightning: Captured

MY CHASING HISTORY

Where It All Began

The first chase, the first tornado, the May 14, 1997 Ohio-chase that started it all.

The Story of #81

The number of Washington Redskins great, Art Monk, becomes a storm chasing icon.

The Road to Half-a-Million

In 22 years, 2 months, and 2 days, I drove half-a-million mile chasing storms across…