One of the greatest advantages to choosing F5! Tornado Chasing Safaris is the personalized attention you will receive from our world-class team. Backed by the knowledge and experience of our professional meteorologists and guided by our arsenal of seasoned drivers, F5! has everything to get you up close and personal with the strongest storms on this planet. Most members of our staff have worked together since F5! Tornado Chasing Safaris' inception in the late 1990s. While enroute to storms, our staff is always eager to reflect back on past chases; perhaps woolgathering with clients about an unforgettable tornado intercept or lamenting over the storm that got away...

Gregg has been interested in severe storms ever since he was a young boy growing up in Colorado. He can remember in elementary school hearing tornado sirens and being completely focused on what was happening and why. Gregg’s chasing career began by the time he was 13 years old as he actively begged Mom and Dad to drive him around looking for storms. He knew early on that he was going to become a meteorologist and started studying books to learn as much about weather and how it works as possible.

Gregg went to the University of Kansas and earned his Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Science in 1995 and immediately incorporated Widespread Weather Services, the private weather company he runs with Bill Combes. Gregg also is the President of AnythingWeather Communications, Inc., which he runs along with Bill year-round. Gregg loves to educate his clients during the tour on how the forecast is made, why we are going to point A instead of point B and how severe storms and tornadoes develop. Offering smaller more personal tours allows Gregg to cater to his clients much better than larger tours would allow. After 10 years of chasing storms with clients on board, Gregg has forged strong friendships with clients and other chasers that we meet along the way each season. Gregg plans to spend several weeks in tornado alley with his clients each year until the day he dies.

Bill’s passion for weather has been on-going since he can remember. He grew up on Long Island and has young memories of Agnes, a tropical storm by the time it hit NY, moving across Long Island. He was up all night at his bedroom window watching the storm. Over time, his enthusiasm for weather continued to build. He reccounts his first chase in 1986 or 1987 when a tornado warning was issued for Long Island: "Although I never saw the tornado that day, I knew he had to be in weather somehow full-time."

On January 16, 1991 (coincidentally the day the 1st Gulf War started), Bill joined the Air National Guard located at the same airport that was hit by the tornado he tried to chase a few years back. An opportunity existed to “fast track” through weather observing school and weather forecasting school at one time which was only offered to about 5% of all school attendees and he went to Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois for about a year for weather. While in school, unfortunately, his unit in New York closed and he had to “find” a new unit. He was in school with several others from the Kansas Guard and took the opportunity to join the 127th Weather Flight out of Forbes Field. He attended KU in Lawrence where he was the weather observer for the University for two years. In 1995, Bill founded Widespread Weather Services with now President Gregg Potter and subsequently helped get F5 Tornado Safaris off the ground. He has chased every year with F5 since its inception. Bill also serves as VP of Sales and Marketing for AnythingWeather.

Jason was born and raised in the heart of Kansas and always has been comfortable with and attracted to severe weather. In high school, Jason frequently drove into the country to view storms as they passed by. While in college at the University of Kansas, Jason met Gregg Potter where they became fast friends and then roommates. Jason and Gregg started storm chasing when any severe storms tracked near Lawrence, KS. In those years Jason also ventured out on quite a few road trips, covering many of the highways in Tornado Alley. Thus when F5 was started in 1999, he felt privileged and right at home in the driver's seat of the chase vehicle.

Jason has been the lead driver for every season with F5 starting in 1999. He is always ready and eager to drive the long highways through any adverse conditions to navigate to the storms as they roll along the landscape. Jason also has a knack for stumbling upon eccentric oddities and Midwest treasures that are as unique as the storms we chase. Although Jason still calls Kansas home, he currently resides in the mountains of Montana the rest of the year. During the off-season, he manages the kitchen of a breakfast and lunch cafe, baking bagels and pizzas. When not working, Jason loves to run trails and backpack in Glacier National Park, along with whitewater rafting. In the winter months, he can be found downhill skiing on Big Mountain in Whitefish MT. But every year he anticipates the menacing updrafts and downdrafts, phenomenal sunsets, violent tornadoes and the calming lightning storms of the Midwest.

David's interest in storms, like many weathermen, began at a young age. During the Blizzard of 1993, his hometown of Reston, Virginia saw near white-out conditions. He still remembers watching the satellite loop of the hurricane-like storm on the morning news and being awed. While synoptic-scale meteorology is his strong-suit, David's appreciation for more localized weather events such as thunderstorms and tornadoes began in June 1996 when an F2 tornado touched down a few miles from his house. The tornado packed winds in excess of 150 MPH and caused heavy damage to subdivisions across its 13 miles path through Fairfax County. Ironically, while attending college at George Mason University, David rented a room in a townhouse that sustained damage from this tornado although his street address was never mentioned in the storm survey compiled by the National Weather Service. David was lucky enough to be chasing with F5! on May 29, 2001, when the team bagged seven tornadoes in three hours. He currently works as an on-air Traffic and Weather Reporter for Sirius-XM Satellite Radio in Washington D.C.

Laura loves to drive. Her love for road-trips began when she was a young girl and her family moved from New York to California, driving from coast to coast. She first drove on a storm chase for F5! Tornado Chasing Safaris in 2000, and has been hooked ever since. There are so many things about chasing that she enjoys; the beauty and the thrill of the storms themselves, the fun of being on the open road with mother nature charting the course, exploring the U.S. well off the beaten path, but mostly it's spending a week of adventure with some of the nicest, coolest people you'll ever meet! After a long day of chasing, Laura will most likely be found putting together a poker game in her motel room. Laura is a massage therapist and lives in Los Angeles.

An Air Force "Met" for 20 years, plus another 12 years as a meteorologist in the private sector, he became passionate about severe weather and storm chasing while in the military and he's had the bug ever since. He joined the F5 team in 2002 as one of their meteorologists and has logged over 15,000 chase miles. His most memorable moment came in 2006 while chasing storms in north central Texas. The team saw three tornadoes that day; one was up close and almost very personal, dropping less than a quarter-mile in front of them. "It quickly expanded and rotated, with us right in its path. We made a quick get-away as the twister passed right where we had been," he recalls.

Richard (Ricky) Ragone is a full time student at the Penn State University. He is majoring in meteorology and has developed a strong interest in extreme weather, and in particular, severe storm processes. Although originally interested in global warming, his focus soon turned to tornados after his first internship with F5.

Ricky was born and raised in Staten Island, New York. He is a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do having placed third in the national tae kwon do junior Olympics in 1999. He graduated with honors from Curtis High School on Staten Island and was a top scholar athlete and a member of both the basketball and baseball varsity teams. Winner of awards and accolades for his academic and athletic performance, he involves himself in charity functions and his community. He also takes part in fund raising activities, more recently in Penn State’s fundraising, raising money for children with cancer. He is fast becoming a chasing fanatic and cannot wait to return to F5 for the coming season.