So, you want to know a little more about Brian A. Morganti...
I am a life long weather enthusiast and resident of Berks County, Pennsylvania. I recently retired as the co-owner of a sales rep agency in the kitchen and bath industry and much of my free time is devoted to the pursuit of severe storms. I have been actively chasing storms throughout the Plains states since 1997, but my passion for the weather and photography goes back to my childhood years. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I have always been fascinated by thunderstorms and would anxiously await their return each Spring. I began reading everything I could about them at an early age, and even built a weather station to help forecast their occurrence. I took the liberty of giving myself a day off from school each Spring when I was certain there would be big storms to monitor! By my early teens, I also became interested in photography and captured my first crude images of lightning on black and white film. Somehow, the storms I was seeing in the hazy skies over southeastern Pennsylvania did not resemble the ones pictured in my books...those magnificent supercells of the Great Plains! So the seed was planted, and I promised myself that one day I would plan a trip to the Plains in order to witness those marvelous storms firsthand.
After 30 plus years of making excuses I finally made the decision to go! During the winter of 1996 I subscribed to the now defunct StormTrack magazine as well as a couple of storm related newsgroups. I spent the next year studying and preparing for my first storm chase trip to the Great Plains. Fortunately, my wife Nancy supported my enthusiasm and even served in the position of "chase driver" during the last weeks of May 1997. We even got to see our first tornado on May 25 near Anthony, Kansas!
In 2016 I completed 20 consecutive years of storm chasing with over 500 active chase days throughout the Great Plains of the United States. Several of my photographs have appeared in Weatherwise magazine, The Old Farmers Almanac Calendar, The Weather U.S.A Calendar, and The Weather Guide Calendar as well as in numerous magazine articles and meteorology related text books. During recent years I've made two trips to the plains each season. More specifically, a trip to the southern/central Plains each May, has been followed by a trip to the central/northern Plains during June, July, or August. Since 2001, I've had the pleasure of working for the premier storm chase tour company Tempest Tours first as a staff driver and later as Tour Director. I have also broadened my chase adventures to include a trip to photograph lightning in Arizona and New Mexico during the summer Monsoon season, and to meet a couple of hurricanes head on in the DELMARVA Peninsula and Florida. I'll even chase within a couple hundred miles of my home in southeast Pennsylvania if conditions are ripe for tornadic supercells. However, I do tend to shy away from these local chases due to poor visibility, a poor road network, and traffic congestion.
My passion for severe storms continues, and my quest to seek out and experience the worst, and the "best", mother nature has to offer will likely continue for as long as I am able to do so. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail with any questions or comments you may have, or just to say hello!
Brian