Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
These are two weather broadcasts with [former] meteorologist Dave Whitford on WZZM 13 ABC in Grand Rapids, Michigan from presumably July 1991. At the time all three stations in West Michigan had live operational radar systems, both conventional and Doppler. While I'm not aware of the specific date of these broadcasts, they were from sometime in the late summer of that active weather year!
Enjoy!
These are two weather broadcasts with [former] meteorologist Dave Whitford on WZZM 13 ABC in Grand Rapids, Michigan from presumably July 1991. At the time all three stations in West Michigan had live operational radar systems, both conventional and Doppler. While I'm not aware of the specific date of these broadcasts, they were from sometime in the late summer of that active weather year!
Enjoy!


![April 21, 1967 Northern Illinois Tornadoes
A deadly tornado outbreak transpired across the Midwest and western Great Lakes on April 21, 1967. Significant tornadoes swept through the communities of Belvidere and shortly thereafter Lake Zurich and Oak Lawn, Illinois. 58 people died and thousands others sustained personal injuries. Locally for several generations this day became known as Black Friday, nor has there been a repeat of this event in the decades since, although a few events have come close in geographic occurrences and intensity [Lamont 1976, Plainfield 1990, and Chicago, west suburbs, 2023].
This Universal Newsreel chronicles only a brief glimpse of the tornado aftermath. Further information on the April 21, 1967 tornado outbreak can be accessed here: https://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes
Film © 1967 UPI, Universal Newsreel. April 21, 1967 Northern Illinois Tornadoes](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p7gbJv8AcoY/mqdefault.jpg)


![Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team, April 1998, WSBT-TV Segments
In April 1998, WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana produced a two-part feature on the Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team [VUSIT]. These were recorded off-air from the original broadcasts. I visited the meteorology department and later applied at Valpo in 1998. Although ultimately I was not accepted due to abysmal initial math test scores and eventually attended Western Michigan University for geography/meteorology/GIS, the small Midwestern meteorology department was just one of two others that were within the Great Lakes region [those being Ball State and College of DuPage]. Central Michigan University or Purdue University did not have academic storm chase programs at the time. This is a fun time capsule with several familiar faces whom went on to fruitful careers in broadcast meteorology, forecasting work at the Storm Prediction Center and other routes entirely.
Enjoy!
Video © WSBT-TV. Valparaiso University Storm Intercept Team, April 1998, WSBT-TV Segments](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qDOpECsTuOI/mqdefault.jpg)




![Neil Ward, Interview and Tornado Laboratory Model, 1964
Neil Ward was a pioneering research scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory [NSSL] from the start of the ESSA [later NOAA] funded organization in 1964 onward until his death in 1972.
Along with building and developing the first physical laboratory model in his garage, and later updating a new version at NSSL that imitated actual tornado features later observed in field observations, Ward lead the way in scientific based storm chasing and documentation, the first to successfully locate and film a motion picture of a tornado on a storm chase with radar report radio relay assistance from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on May 4, 1961.
Purdue University later refined the Ward model, which allowed for identification and investigation of the parameters that govern various types of vortex formation and behavior. [Grazulis, The Tornado Project].
This interview was recorded and distributed by a now defunct New York City television firm that produced educational films. The later tornado model films were taken by Ward himself. The entire sequence was provided by Dr. Ward to The Tornado Project for use in the Tom and Doris Grazulis produced educational film Approaching the Unapproachable in 1972 and later the Tornado Video Classics videotape series in 1992.
Additional information via StormTrack magazine: https://stormtrack.org/library/people/ward.htm
Film © the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the archive of Neil Ward, courtesy of The Tornado Project. Neil Ward, Interview and Tornado Laboratory Model, 1964](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sLYJzfC-S_4/mqdefault.jpg)