Mike Chesterfield

The past few weeks were gut-wrenching for me as a human being and a meteorologist. Three hurricanes have caused one of the greatest cumulative humanitarian crises in modern history. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have literally destroyed parts of the Caribbean and United States. The past month is a stark reminder of why I never cheer or root for storms even as they fascinate me. In all three of these cases, meteorologically, we saw what was coming.

If you are reading this, I suspect that you are familiar with the concept of storm chasing. Whether you find it controversial or not, I bet you have heard of it. You may even be familiar with colleagues that “chase” landfalling hurricanes. Here is the curve ball. What about Monsoon Chasing? Have you heard of that? People do that to, but first let me discuss the monsoon.

The warning signs were all over the place. Prior to the Atlantic hurricane season, most of the scientists that do seasonal hurricane predictions warned of a potentially active hurricane season. Unfortunately, they have been spot on. Perceptions of hurricane activity are always interesting to consider anyhow. As Hurricanes Andrew and Sandy illustrated, it really only takes one storm to devastate a region.