Tornadic Expeditions Crew
Erik Burns
Owner/Tour Director/Lead Storm Chaser
Erik was born and raised in the heart of Tornado Alley in Plano, TX. Growing up in North Texas, he was exposed to many severe weather events that eventually led up to him "wandering around storms". As his interest turned into a passion he began to travel further distances to encounter these monsters to suppress his need for extreme weather. Forecasting and meteorology quickly became a focus for Erik as he continued to fine-tune his chasing ability. To this day he has witnessed and documented 328 tornadoes and numerous supercell thunderstorms from the reaches of the Northern Plains, to the high plains of Colorado down to the border of Mexico in deep South Texas. He is also an international storm chaser having chased and experienced supercells and severe weather in Australia. Erik loves sharing his obsession and knowledge with others. He has done presentations at several schools where he educates students on severe weather and storm chasing. Erik also really enjoys researching tornado climatology and historical tornadic events. His enthusiasm for storm chasing is contagious and he still gets excited over the smallest of tornadoes and storm-related events. He will be your lead storm chaser and tour guide on every chase!
Erik is a former media chaser for NBC affiliate WFAA. His footage and commentary has been featured on National Geographic, The Weather Channel, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, KXII, KTEN, Storm Stories and more. He is currently a video stringer for Live Storms Media providing storm footage for media outlets across the nation. In 2017, Erik chased and documented category 4 Hurricane Harvey on the Texas Coast witnessing first hand the power and devastation of this catastrophic storm.
See what others have to say about Erik and Tornadic Expeditions Storm Chasing Tours!
Adam Cuker
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Adam was born, in the heart of tornado alley, El Reno, Oklahoma. His fear of lightning and thunder as a young child started his passion to study weather. Growing up in Central Texas, his first major tornadic storm that affected him was on May 27, 1997, known as the Jarrell, Texas tornado. After he saw the destruction, including lives and property the tornado left behind, he decided to do more to help out in the warning process. Over the next few years, he took severe weather training courses and started spotting storms for the National Weather Service (NWS). He began forecasting, chasing, and assisting with city and county emergency services in 2001 including the evacuation of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Adam is the co-founder of Vortex Chasers, a chase team founded in 2009 tracking severe weather in the southern plains and having an affiliation with KWTX-TV to provide live reports during weather events. Through the partnership with KWTX and Vortex Chasers has given Adam the opportunity to be involved in a program called Project Tornado, which is presented to school children in the Central Texas area in learning about severe weather and safety. Adam is currently certified in CPR, AED, FEMA courses and is an associate member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He is also a HAM radio license holder, which is a great source of communication in getting information to the NWS while in the field. Adam has spent countless hours and miles tracking storms over the years and can't wait to be on tour to help guide others to witness the power of Mother Nature.
Adam Lucio
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Adam is a storm chaser based out of Chicago and has been aggressively chasing storms for over 10 years. He has witnessed 315 tornadoes in his career including some of the more notorious tornadoes in recent memory.
Adam was also a backup driver for Sean Casey's TIV (as pictured here) and has footage featured all over national television. Adam has spoken at storm chaser conventions around the country and helps run an Illinois Weather page that has grown to over 315,000 followers.
Being from the midwest, Adam is used to life on the road and loves putting in the time, energy, and miles it takes to get to the right storm!
Colt Forney
Meteorologist/Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Colt was born and raised in the small farming town of Denton, KS. He always had a fascination for anything nature, but weather stole his heart at a young age when he and his family had to run over to a neighbors house during a tornado warning to take shelter in their basement. Colt began chasing storms locally in 2004 when attaining his driver's license, witnessing his first significant tornado near Hiawatha, KS in 2005. By 2008, Colt was putting on over 10,000 miles a year chasing storms across many states. In 2008, Colt pursued his passion for weather and attended the University of Oklahoma for meteorology, where he got his degree in 2013. While at OU, Colt met and began chasing with some other students, who would end up forming the group Basehunters Chasing. In 2012, Colt was a part of Josh Wurman's research project, ROTATE. He was responsible for driving a probe truck and deploying instrumented pods in the path of tornadoes. He also met his wife out storm chasing. She was a part of Project Vortex 2 and they met in a parking lot in the small town of Canton, OK, and the rest is history! He has had his footage on many national and international media outlets with the most notable events being the Joplin, MO EF5 in 2011 and the Moore, OK EF5 in 2013. Colt chases not only tornadoes and severe storms but also enjoys documenting blizzards and hurricanes. He looks forward to sharing his knowledge with tour guests and being a part of Tornadic Expeditions!
Nick Busby
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Like many chasers, Nick was born and raised in the heart of Tornado Alley. His passion for severe weather was sparked while riding along storm spotting with volunteer firefighter family members in central Oklahoma.
It was during this time he saw his first tornado, then shortly thereafter assisted with recovery efforts for the original Moore, OK tornado.
Expanding from that first tornado, over the years he has documented hurricanes, flooding, snowstorms and any other form of extreme weather that arises.
His work has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Weather Channel, Weather Nation TV, and most commonly his home station Fox 4 in Dallas.
In addition, Nick was a member of the Army National Guard for 8 years, which included search and rescue, evac and medical training. Outside weather, you're
likely to find him with a camera in hand whether it be at the local airport, a national park, at the lake, or in the city. Nick is excited to share his passion for the extremes, knowledge and training with others this season!
Jason Cooley
Meteorologist/Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Jason grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and moved to Oklahoma in 2010 to witness and study severe weather. He graduated from OU in 2016 with degrees in meteorology and mathematics. He participated in a storm field research project known as PECAN in 2015. He now resides in Lewisville, Texas with his wife and chases for KTEN in the Texoma region. He is a member of Texas Storm Chasers and Live Storms Media. His footage has been aired frequently on multiple national networks since 2014 and even a movie. He also plays multiple wind instruments and has been known to bring a horn and call to the clouds and cows out in the open plains.
Jason has always been fascinated by storms and wanting to be where the weather action is. His first tornado was a waterspout over Lake Erie in 1998. If only HD camcorders were handy back then! He has seen 187 tornadoes and 8 hurricanes since living in Tornado Alley.
Chelsea Burnett
Storm Chaser/Public Speaker/Tour Guide
Chelsea grew up in the epicenter of Tornado Alley - Shawnee Oklahoma. Her parents noticed when she was 2 years old how excited she’d get when she heard thunder. The Weather Channel was her preferred Saturday morning cartoon channel, and Christmas gifts consisted of weather calendars and NOAA weather radios! As of today, she has witnessed 41 tornadoes since 2015. She takes her knowledge and applies it to her public speaking business Beyond the Skies by giving presentations to schools, libraries, HOAs and other organizations looking for a dynamic & unique speaking experience! She is associated with groups such as Texas Storm Chasers, Girls Who Chase, and partners with Guide Nick Bartholomew’s Severe Weather Information public speaking endeavor. Chelsea’s content has been featured on many podcasts, news networks such as ABC, Fox Weather & The Today Show, and she volunteers her public speaking time on the virtual educational platform Pathful which brings free virtual content to classrooms across the US. Chelsea is ready to provide an authentic and unique storm chasing tour experience for new and returning guests alike!
Joe Pudlik
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Joe grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a strong interest and passion for weather. This passion for weather has grown through the years, which has lead him to associated interests, such as storm chasing and photography. Joe has been storm chasing since 2010, and while he doesn't always have to ability to chase a lot and has been known to be very picky in what he chases, he has witnessed around 50 tornadoes during that time. Some of the more notable tornadoes he has documented includes the Moore, OK EF-5 tornado on May 20th, 2013, the Rochelle/Fairdale, IL EF-4 tornado on April 9th, 2015, and the Naperville/Woodridge, IL/Chicago Suburb EF-3 tornado on June 20th, 2021.
Nick Bartholomew
Storm Chaser/Public Speaker/Tour Guide
Nick has been interested in weather as long as he can remember, at least on TV. Back in 1990, the strongest August tornado in US history, still to this day, hit his hometown and caused unimaginable damage. Because of this, throughout his childhood, he was terrified any time another storm would impact his area. As Nick grew older, that fear turned into a burning desire to understand severe weather and tornadoes. As soon as Nick got his license, he would go on local chases to see Mother Nature up close. In 2016, Nick decided to kick it up a notch and start traveling to Tornado Alley to see some of the most stunning weather our planet has to offer. Nick's passion has now grown to include public speaking and education, where he travels around the Midwest to share his knowledge with people of all ages. Nick looks forward to sharing his knowledge and experience with the guests of Tornadic Expeditions!
Billy Reed
Storm Chaser/Meteorologist/Tour Guide
Billy is your traditional Midwestern weather nerd. If it involves the weather, he’s interested. He wants to experience the beauty and extremes Mother Nature has to offer. He’s been fascinated with weather since he was a kid and pursued meteorology during his college years where he earned a MS in Applied Meteorology from Mississippi State University. His first storm chase was in way back in May of 2011, shortly after the ‘Super Outbreak’, as part of a storm chasing and assessment course. While that trip yielded no tornadoes due to a quiet weather pattern, it sparked the interest in storm chasing and he’s since gone on dozens of storm chasing trips in the Great Plains and Midwest chasing severe weather, snow storms and the northern lights. His first tornado was captured in 2014 near South Haven, KS but his most memorable tornado occurred on February 28, 2017 near Vergennes, IL when a large cone traversed much of Missouri and IL producing EF4 damage along the way. These days Billy is back in graduate school pursuing a 2nd Master’s Degree, this time in Weather & Climate Risk from the University of Illinois. In addition to that, he’s also doing an online program from Millersville University in Space Weather and he’s looking forward to sharing his knowledge and passion with this season’s guests.
Matt Fischer
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Matt is a storm chaser who hails from the Chicago area. He has been chasing storms since the early 2000s. Matt's love for weather started at a young age after tornadoes ripped through Plainfield (Aug. 28, 1990) and Lemont (March 27, 1991), along with hurricanes Hugo (September 29th, 1989) and Andrew (Aug. 24, 1992). During his college years, he would start his chasing career at the College of DuPage, where he found his real passion in the open laboratory of the Great Plains. Matt learned a lot while at the College of DuPage, including how to forecast for storms and isoplething data on surface and upper air maps. After his last trip with the College of DuPage in 2005, Matt would go on to chase solo for a couple of years before meeting Adam Lucio. Matt realized he loved showing people how to chase and forecast storms. He went on to teach many up-and-coming chasers in the Chicago area how to approach storms and to forecast.
Ryan Cartee
Storm Chaser/Tour Guide
Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Ryan's interest in weather came from April 8, 1998 when a large F5 ripped through his community and leveled his high school. He started chasing in 2000 locally and have since expanded all over the country. If there is severe weather in his market, you can catch him providing field reports/phoners for WBRC 6 News in Central Alabama. Also you can catch his content on TWC, Fox Weather, Good Morning America and a few other outlets. He is a video stringer for Live Storms Media. Ryan was Brett Adair’s driver from 2014-2021; covering everything from tornadoes to hurricanes to blizzards. He’s intercepted most of the hurricanes that has came into the gulf as well as a few up the east coast. The last few has been Harvey, Laura, Michael, Irma, Ida, and Ian. He worked on the production crew in the making of Earthstorm as a production assistant and storm chaser. He positioned the crew in southern Louisiana for Hurricane Ida. When he’s not covering the weather, you can find him taking cruises, camping, off-road racing, taking road trips, and running with the fire department. Ryan is also a first responder with his fire dept.