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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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Central Kansas
1039 Miles | SPC Outlook: Slight

Remnants of former Hurricane Polo spun into Kansas, helping spawn a localized tornado outbreak where I documented eight twisters, including my 500th career tornado!

TORNADOES: 8
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Observed
LIGHTNING: Not Captured

Chase Log: September 20, 2026

Northern Colorado (27 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: 0.88"
FLOODING: Observed

Chase Log: September 19, 2026

Eastern Colorado (456 Miles)
TORNADOES: 2
MAX HAIL: 1.25"
FLOODING: Not Observed

Chase Log: September 6, 2026

Northern Colorado (9 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Not Observed

Chase Log: August 27, 2026

Western Nebraska (476 Miles)
TORNADOES: 0
MAX HAIL: None
FLOODING: Observed

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

Tony's Blogbach, Between the Isobars

Latest Blog Entries

Website Updates, Fun Video Coming, and my MIA

Excited to upload my first behind-the-scenes video tomorrow, it’s the story of why I wore Art Monk’s number for so many years.  I have been sitting on this video for a while as it was suppose to go up at the start of football season, but I missed that week due to being out in the field, and given the downtime I have had this last week, it was an easy slide-in as I just didn’t have the brain capacity to edit a full video.  Yes, it’s the lazy approach, but past Tony did well at editing a few videos…

Drove From Colorado to Florida for Isaias

October 11, 2026 | Tropical

That’s me standing at the Florida state sign next to my Weather Wolf; yes, for the first time in my life, I drove from Colorado to Florida.  Multiple weather assignments in a short duration of time warranted this over trying to juggle flights and travel logistics.  Thus, I spent two days hauling from my northern Colorado house to Florida to cover the failed tornado outbreak of Hurricane Isaias.  We got moved over to the potential tornado threat on landfall day, thus I did not intercept the eyewall, which ultimately yielded a failed intercept as there were no tornadoes on landfall…

What Did September 30 Mean For This Season?

October 3, 2026 | Post-Mortem

September 30 turned the entire 2026 chase season around… topping the list, it gave me the top goal of this year, my 30th season, and that was to hit 500 tornadoes!  It was the goal I set right out of the gate; I was 26 away, and I knew that was a lofty number, only 8 of my prior seasons saw more than that, so almost two-thirds missed that mark.  But I knew it was reachable if the season performed well, and I wanted more than anything else this year to hit that tornado milestone on this milestone year.  And…

It Finally Happened! Tornado #500!!!

September 30, 2026 | Post-Mortem

IT HAPPENED!!! On the third tornado of an EIGHT TORNADO DAY in Kansas, I documented my 500th career tornado!  It’s after midnight, I am exhausted coming in less than 36 hours after wrapping my East Coast Nor’Easter coverage and left this morning on a whim only to have my best tornado chase day of 2026 and it’s not even close!  Plenty more to talk about, but I absolutely HAD to mark the occasion, my number 1 goal of 2026, which I inched slowly and painfully to, finally happened!!!

Came for the Pokemon, Stay For the Nor’Eastern

September 25, 2026 | Forecast Thoughts

Months ago, the wife and I planned our first trip to Boston to partake in a Pokemon Go event, the city Safari, Zone, which would’ve been our second after last winter’s fun trip to Miami.  Given the September weekend fell in the midst of tropical weather season, we had booked everything with the idea that if a tropical system timed out that weekend, I’d have to be on call for that and scrub the trip.  While I KNEW that was a distinct possibility, even in the lighter El Nino year, I didn’t have a tropical system, or in this case,…

My Top 5 Favorite Lightning Shots of Summer 2026

September 22, 2026 | Atmospheric Abstractions

Today marks the OFFICIAL start of Astronomical Fall!  And we’re beyond the start of Meteorological Fall!  So no matter which you accept as the formal start, summer is now over in both manners!  For me, the summer 2026 will go down as one of my best lightning photography seasons ever.  I cannot recall having the level of success I had this past summer with the opportunities I had to snag some awesome lightning photos!  I plan to do a “was this my best lightning year ever” at some point here soon as I have fantastic pictures dating all the way…

Tony's 10-Day Chase Outlook

TODAY OCT 23
No Chase Planned
<5%
TOMORROW OCT 24
No Chase Planned
<5%
SUNDAY OCT 25
No Chase Planned
<5%
MONDAY OCT 26
No Chase Planned
<5%
TUESDAY OCT 27
No Chase Planned
<5%
WEDNESDAY OCT 28
No Chase Planned
<5%
THURSDAY OCT 29
No Chase Planned
<5%
FRIDAY OCT 30
No Chase Planned
<5%
SATURDAY OCT 31
No Chase Planned
<5%
SUNDAY NOV 1
No Chase Planned
<5%

Career Stats

Stat Keeping Started in 2002
Career Miles: 575,966
Career Chases: 582
Career Tornadoes: 505
Career Tornado Days: 212
Career Tornado Average: 0.364
Career Work Logs: 431
Career Total Logs: 1,013
Career 1K Mile Chases: 150
Tactical Weather-Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes Experiment
Chase Log: May 23, 2008
Northwest Kansas
Tornadoes: 7
Chase Log: May 22, 2007
Northern Kansas
Tornadoes: 1
Chase Log: April 23, 2007
Southern Kansas
Tornadoes: 1
Chase Log: May 23, 2011
Central Oklahoma
Tornadoes: 2
Chase Log: May 24, 2011
Central Oklahoma
Tornadoes: 2
Chase Log: May 22, 2010
Northeast South Dakota
Tornadoes: 7

HAIL CHASES

Chase Log: May 1, 2024
Central Kansas
Max Hail: 4.50"
Chase Log: May 10, 2004
Northern Colorado
Max Hail: 2.00"
Chase Log: April 11, 2016
Northern Texas
Max Hail: 3.00"
Chase Log: September 19, 2026
Eastern Colorado
Max Hail: 1.25"

FLOOD CHASES

Chase Log: April 15, 2016
TX/OK Panhandles
Flooding: Urban Flooding
Chase Log: July 7, 2011
Northeast Colorado
Flooding: Urban
Chase Log: August 13, 2016
Southern Illinois
Flooding: Major Flash Flooding
Chase Log: June 27, 2004
Northeast Colorado
Flooding: Flash Flooding

LIGHTNING CHASES

Chase Log: September 20, 2026
Northern Colorado
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: September 6, 2026
Northern Colorado
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: May 6, 2016
Northeast Colorado
Lightning: Captured
Chase Log: September 9, 2025
Eastern CO/Western KS
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…