Countless cars lined up outside the Evergreen Drive-In Theater in East Huntingdon earlier than usual Friday night — for the “Twisters” movie premiere and “Meet The Storm Chasers” party.
“Twisters” is the sequel to the 1996 hit film “Twister.” Starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos in the lead roles, the sequel earned a 79% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, significantly higher than the original film’s 63% score.
Joe Warren, owner of the Evergreen Drive-In Theater, said he was speechless at the large crowd.
“We didn’t expect people to be here so early,” he said.
Organized by PA Storm Trackerz, a family team of local storm chasers — Joshua Brinker, his mother and father — the drive-in event gave attendees the chance to meet and greet real storm chasers.
Brinker, 26, of Scottdale, said nine chase teams from the area and several states were at the drive-in to show off their equipment and chase vehicles before the movie. The teams explained to attendees how they chase storms and talked about what they’ve observed.
“I had a feeling it was going to be pretty crazy, but I didn’t think there would be 40, 50, 60 cars lined up an hour before the gates opened,” he said.
The Evergreen Drive-In Theater box office opens at 7:30 p.m., but on Friday it opened a little earlier to get cars off the road. According to the drive-in theater’s website, the movie “Twisters” is playing on screens 1 and 3.
The storm chasing teams will return to the drive-in Saturday night for another meet-up, and Brinker said there will be more chasers joining the event for the second night.
“It means a lot because there are a lot of storm chasers out there, but we don’t know how many people actually appreciate us being there,” he said. “It’s really cool to see. … These people are curious about the weather.”
The lure of the chase
For Jason Garrison, who says he’s been interested in weather since he was 10 years old, storm chasing is about raising awareness.
“When other kids were watching cartoons and stuff like that, I was watching The Weather Channel,” he said. “We want people to know what to do in a given situation.”
While some people may become storm chasers full-time, Garrison, 39, of Steubenville, Ohio, says he does it on the side for fun.
“I like being around other hunters, I like seeing the storms,” he said. “There’s something about nature and what it does … it gives you an adrenaline rush like you’ve never had before.”
Much of what Garrison carried in his car was safety gear, such as lights, medical kits and various tools — even a chainsaw, which helps cut down trees on the road or if someone is trapped inside their car, he said.
“If a tornado were to come through a town, I would put on my raincoat and my high-visibility clothing,” he said. “I have different things that you need to get in and out of houses.”
Bryce Shelton of Palmetto Chasers has been chasing storms for eight years, and he does it full time.
Shelton, 23, of Charleston, South Carolina, is able to monetize storm chasing by selling videos and live streams to media and news outlets like NBC, Fox and The Weather Channel.
He said he became interested in it in 2006, when an EF3 tornado missed his home by one house while he was living in Nashville, Tennessee.
“After that, I was hooked on it,” Shelton said.
B. Dean Berry of Keystone Prime is a local storm chaser in Center Township, Butler County. He also works full-time.
“They have to get these images from somewhere,” Berry, 43, said of the major news networks, “and they get them from people like us.”
He started as a kid after seeing a tornado hit in front of him in Richmond, Virginia. At 15, he started chasing storms with his cousin on his bike until he got his driver’s license. And about six years ago, he was able to monetize storm chasing.
“We have a star-studded cast here,” Berry said of the outdoor event. “If you’re talking about regional storm chasers and weather personalities, these are them.”
However, storm chasing can be “very challenging,” Shelton said, because storm chasers have to think about target areas, how to stay safe, possible escape routes and what will happen the next day.
“Usually if you have tornadoes one day, you have tornadoes the next day – and that’s the hardest part,” Shelton said.
Storm Chaser Community
Storm chasing is becoming increasingly popular in areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Garrison said. He attributes the popularity to social media, which allows people to easily connect online.
“It’s good, though, because we all become one big community,” he said.
To become a storm chaser, Garrison took online courses and watched “tons” of how-to videos from other storm chasers in the field. He said he could learn more by also having more storm chasing experience.
With the release of the new “Twisters” movie, Shelton said he expects more people to be interested in it.
“But it’s very dangerous,” he said. “Know what you’re doing before you go out, especially when you’re in a tornado.”
Despite the safety concerns, Shelton said he enjoys the adrenaline aspect of storm chasing.
“I know how to stay safe, but I like to get close,” he said.
Although storm chasing is on the rise, storm chasers agree that “storm chaser convergence” is becoming somewhat problematic.
“This is a place where there are a lot of storm chasers, they block the roads and nobody can move,” Garrison said. “It’s amazing the number of people out there — there are thousands of storm chasers across the United States.”
Brinker, who is also a janitor at Amazon’s new warehouse in New Stanton and a volunteer firefighter, said he’s an “adrenaline junkie.” The first “Twister” is his favorite movie, and he said it’s what got him into storm chasing.
He has already experienced the convergence of storm chasers.
“We were on a busy road with chase vehicles – on a two-lane secondary road – stopped everywhere watching the storm produce a tornado,” Brinker said.
For the past two years, Brinker and his family, PA Storm Trackerz, have taken what are called “chases,” or storm-chasing vacations, which are typical in the community, he said.
“They take this period between the end of April and the end of May, that’s what they call peak season,” Brinker says. “That’s their vacation time for the whole year.”
Although a “hunting vacation” isn’t very relaxing, he says he doesn’t regret not taking a normal vacation.
“Once you do it, you can never give it up,” he said of storm chasing.
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering news in western Pennsylvania. Originally from Murrysville, she joined the Trib full-time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of the Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Fellow at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.