WACO, Texas — As tornadoes roll in, most people head for cover, but storm chasers like David Baxter III do the complete opposite.
For the last ten years, the Colorado resident has traveled the country, tracking and chasing storms. This week in Texas he hit a milestone after a tornado in Luling being the 100th he's seen.
"Last year I ended the chase season with 99 and I was like ugh this just isn't fair," he said.
"I really wanted to have that 100 done by last year," said Baxter. "This was the first chase of the season, my first chase of 2022, and seeing the models I knew it was a pretty good bet I was going to see it."
Storm chasers visited Texas from around the country this week and Baxter said safety should always be a top priority for people in his field.
"It all comes down to safety and making sure that you don't put yourself in harm's way and become another issue for EMS to have to worry about," he said. "They already have enough to worry about with the communities affected, you don't need to have a storm chaser putting into that."
Despite the danger and devastation tornadoes could potentially bring, Baxter said he doesn't get scared anymore and relies heavily on his meteorology background to keep himself safe.
"I have a lot of different gear in the car," Baxter said. "You have wireless data to get yourself real-time internet while you're going, different radars, GPS mapping programs. I have a lot of real-time data being fed to me to make that safe decision as I track the storm."
Followers can keep up with Baxter on his multiple social media platforms as he prepares to possibly return to Texas next week for another storm.
