With a storm rolling toward their Indiana home, 12-year-old Steve Beckman joined his father, Donald, outside. A funnel cloud appeared, seeming to bounce off a water tower no more than a mile away.
"I can still see it to this day as if I was standing there," says Beckman, now 50. "It was like a yo-yo, and it just bounced back up into the sky. I've been interested in storms ever since, and since that day I've never been afraid of storms."
For Beckman, a construction supervisor who lives in Cass County, IN, fascination with the weather runs in the family. His brother, Alvin, serves as director of the county's emergency management agency.
Willingness to face violent weather is essential for people such as Beckman, who joined the network of volunteer storm spotters scattered across the nation as part of a warning system.
Trained storm spotters have worked with the National Weather Service for more than 60 years.
"They play a vital role in helping us really know what's going on out in the field," says Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Norman, OK.
Spotters provide the vital last link between technology and on-the-ground observation, often putting themselves at risk, Smith says.
"With all the remote sensing technology we have — the Doppler radars, the satellites, and all the fancy gadgets and tools — nothing will replace a set of eyes and ears in the field to tell us what is actually happening on the ground," Smith says.
At times, they can save lives.
"It's been a couple of years ago, but we spotted a funnel cloud over the county airport," Beckman says. Warning sirens sounded.
"Ten minutes later it struck a horse barn and house, and it sent two-by-fours into the house," he says. "An older couple got to the basement just ahead of it."