Rarely has a tornado improved someone’s day.
And yet, as storms swirled around southern Minnesota in May 2021, local storm chaser Zach Folie didn’t feel dread or fear, but excitement.
“I was actually kind of in a bad mood that day, and my fiancee convinced me to go out. We punched the core of the thunderstorm, and noticed a little purple dot that appeared on the weather radar,” Folie recalled.
That little purple dot on the radar turned out to be the first tornado in Folie’s storm chasing career, but it wouldn’t be the last.
Riding around with “Interceptor” emblazoned on the side of his car, Folie has spent this year running from one storm to the next, as often as he can manage. While some of these storms strike close to home, others have drawn him as far as Texas and Louisiana.
Folie has ventured out on his own — trying to keep his eyes on the road, the skies and the radar — but he’s found it helps to have someone else aboard, whether it’s his fiancee or Michael Marrero, of Ellendale, who chases storms as Kryptonite Weather.
Marrero and Folie met during that fateful storm in 2021. After a chance meeting at a local gas station about a year later, they began chasing storms together.
By spreading the word when dangerous storms are forming, Foley hopes to keep others safe, but the danger is exactly what attracts him.
“One of the greatest benefits about it is you get to experience Mother Nature at its full force, and you get to really experience the true power of these tornadoes. You get to live a little bit. It makes you feel alive when you’re doing it. All your worries about bills and rent kind of just get flushed right out the window, and you’re in the moment and you’re just living,” he said.
He traces his fascination with storms back to the film “Twister,” which he estimated watching over 100 times as a child. Folie still watches the movie regularly, and said it holds up to his real-life experiences as a storm chaser. A number of storm chasers he’s met also cite the movie as an inspiration. With the sequel “Twisters” hitting theaters this month, he hopes it’ll inspire the next generation of storm chasers.
“I’m hyped for it. I’ll probably be seeing that one 50 times in theaters,” said Folie.
Living out his lifelong dream has come with its share of challenges. Folie cuts down on travel expenses by sleeping in his vehicle, which includes a bed in the back, but there’s no getting around high gas prices. Storm chasing has proven to be an expensive hobby, although Folie said monetizing his social media outreach has begun to help with the costs.
In the future, he’d like to install a roll cage and sheet metal around the car for safety.
“Two-by-four wood, if that comes flying at your car at 200 miles an hour that’ll easily just puncture your door and it’ll kill you,” said Folie.
Folie said his loved ones have expressed concern for his safety, but they’ve ultimately been supportive of his dream. While he takes driving rain, oversized hail and tornadoes in stride, Folie said lightning is his biggest fear. He feels comfortable predicting the movements of storms, but lightning can still strike anywhere, at any time.
He’s supplemented his research and firsthand experience with a meteorology course at Riverland Community College. After graduating from Riverland, he plans to pursue a degree in meteorology at Iowa State University. Folie said having a meteorology degree would further his storm chasing career and help him seek sponsorships. With more resources at his disposal, he’d like to launch probes into storms to collect valuable data from inside.
Folie said he and Marrero have been stepping up their operation this year with more storm chasing trips, and that each experience teaches him something new.
He feels that storms are an example of natural beauty, like mountains or rivers, especially at a distance.
“The closer you get, the more you experience the sheer power,” said Folie.
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