Research guiding storm chaser

A Kansas storm chaser with ties to Pratt will be featured this week on the Weather Channel.
Research meteorologist and storm chaser Jon Davies, son of Boyd and Dorothy Davies of Pratt, and his wife Shawna will be among the stories in the series “Tornado Road” airing on the Weather Channel at 2 p.m. from Monday Oct. 26 to Friday, Oct. 30, said Jon Davies who grew up in Pratt.
The series is about storm chasing. Davies appears in the latter part of episode one and the early part of episode two that includes on a tornado in western Iowa on June 11, 2008 that killed four Boy Scouts at a camp. The Davies’ also appear in episodes four and five including one of their storm chases in western Nebraska and their wedding in June 2008.
Unlike many storm chasers, Davies is not a thrill seeker and he doesn’t sell photos for profit. He is a severe weather researcher and his focus is comparing data from storm predictions with what actually occurred. From that research Davies writes technical papers on storm structure.
Davies doesn’t have weather instruments. He uses prediction data, photographs and documents storm then compares it with the forecast to see how accurate they are and if more information could come out of the data.
Davies wishes the episodes spent more time making sure people had storm information on how severe weather develops and how to be safe.
The Davies happened to be storm chasing in Iowa on June 11, 2008 when a tornado tore through a campground and killed four Boy Scouts. The area was very hilly and the storm was rain wrapped so it was very difficult to see. They gathered information from wind profiles.
“I learned a lot from that storm,” Davies said. “That was a very interesting day for me.”
While the episodes feature their activity, his information was too technical and they focused much of the episode on the lack of a shelter.
After the tornado they went to the camp and helped with the weather survey. Although it was unfortunate that four boys died, Davies said the scouts were well prepared but just didn’t have an underground shelter.
One element of the episode shows the Davies’ wedding. Shawna, who does weather safety talks, wanted to do an outdoor wedding associated with storm chasing. They were chasing near Manhattan with 10 friends but it turned out to not be a severe weather day so they selected an outlook in the Flint Hills and one of the storm chasers happened to be an ordained minister and performed the ceremony.
Davies interest in tornadoes goes back to 1965 when a tornado went through the Pratt Industrial Airport and destroyed one of the World War II airport hangars. It sparked his interest and he got a degree in meteorology. He worked at the Weather Channel in the early 1980s and also in Wichita. He returned to Pratt during the late 80s and early 90s when his mother was sick and took over the family farm equipment and furniture business. He later sold the business and went back to weather work. He published a lot of technical material on weather forecasting. He and Shawna also published a children’s book “Storm Chasers, On the Trail of Twisters.” It came out in 2007 and is 50 pages of what storm chasers do and don’t do.
The Davies currently live in the Kansas City area.
The Pratt Community College Boyd Davies Executive in Residence program was created to honor Boyd’s accomplishments.