Our Team
DANNY NEAL
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Danny overcame an immense fear of severe weather to build the largest resource in social media weather that the state of Illinois has to offer. Over the past seven years Danny has dedicated his life to bringing severe weather education and awareness to over 500,000 followers. Danny has a background in meteorology from the College of DuPage and Penn State University. He has documented 120 tornadoes over his 20 years of storm chasing. Danny volunteered his time at the National Weather Service Chicago during severe weather events, as well as assisted with the training of storm spotters and surveying past tornado events. Danny has assembled the Illinois Storm Chasers team and put them on the map not only locally, but nationally as well.
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Adam Lucio
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Adam has been fascinated with severe storms his whole life. Unlike many, it wasn't fear that sparked his interest but rather a strange fascination with the power of storms. Adam has been actively chasing storms since 2004 and has documented nearly 200 tornadoes in his career. Adam is self taught, and his greatest passion lies with the most power forces a storm can offer. Growing up in Illinois, Adam also has an obsession with Midwestern climate. Adam stars in the web series 'Season of the Storm' and also guides tornado tours across tornado alley each spring. In addition to being an active media broker, Adam also enjoys educating folks on weather and has given dozens of talks around the country ranging from private home school groups to national storm chasing conventions. Adam co-founded ISC with Danny Neal in 2014 with one mission in mind. Make Illinois the most weather-savvy state in the nation!
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Joe Pudlik
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Joe grew up with a strong interest and passion for weather. This passion for weather has grown through the years, which landed him a position at Illinois Storm Chasers in 2017. He has been storm chasing since 2010 and has witnessed nearly 40 tornadoes during that time; including the Moore, OK EF-5 tornado on May 20th, 2013, and the Rochelle/Fairdale, IL EF-4 tornado on April 9th, 2015. He is self taught with regard to meteorology and has an additional interest and knowledge in historical and record weather statistics and events.
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Matt Piechota
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Matt has always been fascinated with the weather, but specifically his expertise is drawn to wintry weather. Matt is an official weather observer at O'Hare Airport, but also assists with severe weather education at the College of DuPage. He has been storm chasing for over 8 years and has documented nearly 50 tornadoes over that time, including while guiding storm chasing tours with the College of DuPage. Matt has documented the twin EF-4 tornadoes near Pilger, NE, as well as the Washburn, Rochelle and Elmwood, IL tornadoes in recent years. Matt joins Illinois Storm Chasers in 2017 to become their best overall winter weather forecaster.
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Luke Henderson
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Ever since Luke can remember, he's been fascinated by all aspects of the weather. Growing up in rural the rural North-Central Illinois town of Gardner allowed Luke to view all kinds of weather roll in from afar, and experience four close proximity tornadoes (Essex 2008, Dwight 2010, Coal City 2013 & 2015), fueling his desire to study meteorology. Now a third year student at Northern Illinois University, Luke is excited to be joining ISC as an up and coming meteorologist.
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Nick Bartholomew
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Nick has been obsessed with weather as long as he can remember. When he was younger he was interested in weather but was terrified when thunderstorms would roll in. As Nick grew older that fear turned into a burning desire to understand severe weather. 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. With more than a dozen tornadoes documented so far in his career Nick will now focus on severe weather presentations, live reports from the field during severe weather events and chasing blogs for ISC.
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Jesse Guinn
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Jesse specializes in digital multimedia for Illinois storm chasers. He has always been fascinated with severe weather. Jesse studied Broadcast Meteorology from Eastern Illinois University, and is currently completing his Master's degree in Applied Meteorology through online education at Mississippi State University. The bulk of Jesse's professional experience extends from broadcast television in Central Illinois. In 2018, Jesse was on television for over four and a half hours covering the December 1st tornado outbreak, one of the biggest on record for Illinois. He can also still occasionally be seen forecasting the weather throughout Central Illinois.
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Billy Reed
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Billy grew up in Bunker Hill, IL (A small town in the west-central portion of the state) and currently lives in Alton, IL. He has been passionate about the weather for as long as he can remember. He read an weather related book he could get his hands on. This desire to learn lead him onto graduate school at Mississippi State University, where he earned a Masters of Science in applied meteorology. He has used the knowledge he has gained over the years to chase severe weather and winter weather all overt he United States. Most notably, he chased the powerful EF-4 tornado that ravaged the southern part of the state on February 28th, 2017 and has seen 42" of snow from a lake effect snowstorm in the U.P. of Michigan. Additionally, Billy is equally passionate about space weather and hopes to share his interest with us here and Illinois Storm Chasers.
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