Jim Leonard's Hurricane Chase Companions

Forecast togetherCompare tracks, roads and possible shelter.

Travel and positionShare vehicles, rendezvous points and local observations.

Record the stormFilm, photography, pressure readings and field audio.

Review afterwardScreen tapes, compare notes and pass practical knowledge onward.

Derek Sibley · student, chase partner and friend

A student became a chase partner.

Jim began teaching Derek Sibley about hurricane and storm chasing while Derek was still a teenager. Their relationship developed into a close friendship and a field partnership, with Jim passing along the practical judgment that cannot be learned from a forecast map alone.

The graduation photographs supplied by Derek show the relationship away from the storm: Jim filming an important day in his young friend’s life, then standing beside him after the ceremony. Derek later built his own hurricane and storm-chasing record and a successful career in television meteorology.

Rob Jones remembers that he was chasing Hurricane Isaac with Michael Laca when they encountered Jim and Derek together in Key West in August 2012. Jones and Laca later continued to New Orleans, intercepting Isaac in a second location—the only storm Jones has chased that way. Jones encountered Jim and Derek only in Key West. Derek is now a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist with WDSU in New Orleans.

Jim Leonard filming Derek Sibley's high-school graduation — **Jim Leonard behind the camera** at Derek Sibley’s high-school graduation.

Derek Sibley in his graduation gown with Jim Leonard — **Derek Sibley and Jim Leonard** after Derek’s high-school graduation.

Michael Laca · firsthand account

A tape exchange became a mentorship.

Michael Laca’s archived TropMet profile records how their friendship began in December 1984. After Laca ordered Jim’s Hurricane Diana tape, Jim telephoned, brought his storm archive to Laca’s home and spent the evening comparing footage and hurricane experience with the teenage chaser.

They planned to chase together in 1985. Laca’s account places Jim and National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch with him during Hurricane Elena’s Category 3 landfall at Biloxi, and expressly credits Jim’s mentoring and guidance with helping launch his chase career.

Read Michael Laca’s archived account →

Cloud 9 Tours and Cyclone Tours · archived field record

The tour years widened Jim’s influence.

Cloud 9 Tours’ archived staff page describes Jim dividing his chase seasons among South Florida, Oklahoma and Guam. Its May 27, 2000 field log places him with Charles Edwards, R. J. Evans and Keith Brown on a tour day that produced a tornado near Windthorst, Texas.

By the 2004–05 season, Cyclone Tours identified Jim as a guide, forecaster and co-owner. Its team page connects him with Mike Theiss, Olivier Staiger and Brad Riley, showing how field instruction and shared travel extended Jim’s practical knowledge to another group of chasers.

Cloud 9 profile → · Cyclone Tours team →

ForecastCompare data and select a target.

GuideRead the storm and manage position.

TeachPass field judgment to newer chasers.

VHS circulation and informal instruction

The tapes traveled farther than the cars.

Before online video, chase films moved through a small network by mail, private screenings and annual highlight tapes. Bill Reid recalls that a friend showed him VHS recordings by Jim Leonard and Tim Marshall around 1990–91, helping turn an interest in weather into an active storm-chasing practice.

A newly recovered copy of Jim’s 1995 highlight program shows the same culture from the creator’s side. Along with eight field sequences, the tape includes a May storm-chaser gathering. The recording makes the transmission process visible: document the season, assemble a tape, gather to watch it and carry the lessons into the next forecast.

Jim’s May 1986 tape preserves an earlier version of that network. It ends at an informal Oklahoma gathering with Chuck Robertson, Roy Britt, Randy Zipser and Rocky Rascovich after several chase days.

Bill Reid interview → · Jim’s 1995 program →

RecordCapture the storm and field decisions.

EditAssemble a seasonal highlight tape.

ShareMail copies or screen them together.

ApplyUse the lessons on a later chase.

Gatherings after Jim

Chris Collura documented Jim’s final gathering in early 2014. Friends continued the custom afterward, including gatherings hosted by Derek Sibley.

Mississippi newspaper reporting documents Josh Morgerman's housewarming in Bay St. Louis on June 1, 2024 and his hurricane-season gathering on June 7, 2025. At the 2025 event, meteorologists, Hurricane Hunters, broadcasters and chasers exchanged stories, continuing the community's tradition of learning through shared experience.

Person	Storm	What the source establishes	Evidence
Richard Horodner	Hurricane Frederic (1979)	The hurricane-chasing chronology places Leonard and Horodner together for Frederic in Alabama.	Historical chronology Source →
Michael Laca TropMet	Hurricane Elena (1985); later shared intercepts	Laca’s archived first-person account dates their friendship to December 1984, describes their first planned season together and places Leonard, Laca and Richard Pasch at Elena’s Biloxi landfall. Surviving recordings and later accounts extend the shared record.	Firsthand account + surviving recordings Archived profile →
Chuck Robertson	Oklahoma storm chases (1985–86)	Jim’s surviving videotapes document Robertson chasing with him at the Gotebo supercell in June 1985 and during the May 1986 Oklahoma chase sequence.	Primary audiovisual record Watch →
Steve Wachholder	Hugo (1989) and Opal (1995)	Wachholder's signed 2014 memorial recalls chasing both hurricanes with Jim.	Firsthand remembrance Source →
Jim Edds	Hurricanes Georges (1998) and Irene (1999)	Edds’s firsthand accounts describe Jim driving with him and documenting Key West during Georges, then traveling in separate vehicles and reviewing footage together after Irene.	Firsthand Georges → · Irene →
Brad Riley	Hurricane Bret (1999)	Cyclone Tours’ archived profile recalls Riley meeting Jim for a Texas hurricane chase. The profile misdates Bret as 1997; the storm made landfall in 1999.	Contemporary team profile Archived profile →
Charles Edwards Cloud 9 Tours	Windthorst, Texas tornado (2000)	Cloud 9 Tours’ May 27 field log places Edwards, Jim, R. J. Evans and Keith Brown together on the tour day.	Contemporary field log Archived log →
Mike Theiss	Hurricane Gordon (2000)	Jim Edds reports Jim Leonard and first-time chaser Theiss arriving together in Cedar Key.	Firsthand third-party Source →
Olivier Staiger “Klipsi”	Plains seasons beginning in 2002	Cyclone Tours’ archived team page says Staiger had chased with Jim and Mike Theiss since 2002.	Contemporary team profile Archived profile →
Andy Dressler	Hurricane Charley (2004)	Jim Leonard calls Dressler his longtime hurricane chase partner in his original season narrative.	Jim’s original account Jim's 2004 season narrative →
Jose Garcia	Hurricane Frances (2004)	Jim directly names Garcia among his fellow chasers around Jupiter Island.	Jim’s original account Jim's 2004 season narrative →
Karl Hoarau	Hurricane Frances (2004)	Jim directly names Hoarau among his fellow chasers around Jupiter Island.	Jim’s original account Jim's 2004 season narrative →
Casie Crosby	Hurricane Katrina (2005)	Named as a group member by Tim Marshall in the same report.	Contemporary eyewitness Source →
Roger Hill	Hurricane Katrina (2005)	Named in Tim Marshall’s report and coordinated with Marshall and Jim during the storm.	Contemporary eyewitness Source →
Tim Marshall	Hurricane Katrina (2005)	Marshall’s August 30 chase account names Jim in the group at a Slidell hospital parking garage.	Contemporary eyewitness Source →
Derek Sibley	Hurricane and storm chases; Isaac in Key West (2012)	Jim taught Sibley hurricane- and storm-chasing practice while he was a teenager. Rob Jones recalls seeing the two together in Key West while Jones and Michael Laca chased Isaac; photographs supplied by Sibley document the closeness of their relationship beyond the field.	Firsthand recollection + personal photographs

Chasing with Jim Leonard

A student became a chase partner.

A tape exchange became a mentorship.

The tour years widened Jim’s influence.

The tapes traveled farther than the cars.

Gatherings after Jim