I understand that not everyone’s job allows for such freedom, but for those who do have that flexibility, how did you achieve it?
For me, my job just has 2 weeks of paid sick time, and it’s no questions asked. Just call off the night before or morning of. I just work in IT. A lot of full-time jobs have PTO like this. Of course, don’t abuse it and call off every time it looks like a shelf cloud is gonna roll through the next day.
I’m not a true chaser and I won’t be too specific but I work in the software industry. 90% of the time, it’s fine if I leave at 3pm on a given day and make up for it another day. The other 10% there’s something urgent and I just have to skip chasing that day.
Note that that limits me to chases within ~3-4 hours of my location, unless there are storms on a weekend/holiday. Never taken PTO for a chase so far.
Yeah I figure location plays a big role in this. While in college, it was easy to chase because I lived in Lubbock so good local setups were plenty. Even if I had class til 4. Really hoping to find a job in chase country to keep this going.
Thanks for that note about the software industry though. I’m going into technical writing for software so that’s definitely relevant advice. Especially if I find something remote
Yep, remote would be big. I live in Wisconsin so it’s certainly not prime tornado alley but we get our fair share of storms. If you could work remotely from OKC, DFW, Kansas City, or something like that, you’d have a whole bunch of days every year where you’re within a few hours’ drive from the storms.
Work for a state park system as a maintenance worker. I’m the one in charge of alerting the bosses and campers to severe weather so I kinda have carte blanche when it comes to weather events. we had a tornado go about a half mile north of the park in November and I went to photograph the damage after it dissipated. plus we have an open hay field out back that’s perfect for taking pictures from
I’m one of two owners of an aviation-related business. I actually don’t get too excited about every little storm system unless the conditions are like they were when the El Reno storm happened.
Teacher. I can only chase early season spring events when they align with spring break, or June events. I’ve never done a northern plains / high plains trip in June, but eventually I’d like to make it an annual week long trip. Might not be the most eye catching setups, but definitely some of the most beautiful terrain and scenery.