Christine has always had a fear of lightning but has given into Les' hobby and now goes storm chasing with him. And now their daughter, Georgina is becoming as fascinated with storms as her father...
 Les and Christine |
Les has been into weather since he was a child. His wife Christine says, "Les has an immense, almost infectious, enthusiasm for it". And that, she says, rubs off on her.
Tornadoes are usually associated with more exotic climes, but in fact, they are far from rare in this part of the world. The UK has more tornadoes per unit area than anywhere else. They've been known to take a roof off a house.
To track their tornadoes, Les and Christine monitor the 大象传媒 Weather website. When they find out about an impending tornado, they just get in the car and drive towards the storm.
But what exactly do they both get out of it? Les thinks it's all about seeing nature at it worse. The most dangerous experience was when they were bird watching and Christine's hair started standing on end. Les realised there was going to be a lightning strike. They adopted the posture to avoid lightning: get down, feet together, knees together and hunch up in a little ball. "It clobbered a tree about 150 yards away from us". If they had remained upright, it might have hit them.
Their family and friends think they're mad. But it doesn't bother them when people ridicule their hobby. Les doesn't see the point of people playing golf!
Their daughter Georgina is 4 and is also interested in weather although she hasn't been storm chasing yet. "She a little bit too young and doesn't have the patience". But she does like to watch the sparks of lightning at home.
Christine never used to like lightning, but is getting over her fear. She says she's never attempted to change Les. It was his love of storm chasing that attracted her to him in the first place.
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