James M. Leonard (February 17, 1950 ‒ November 3, 2014), also known as "Cyclone Jim", was an American professional storm chaser, photographer, and

videographer Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...

. Intercepting severe weather including

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es, hurricanes and typhoons, he was among the earliest storm chasers. He was the first to photograph an

anticyclonic tornado An anticyclonic tornado is a tornado which rotates in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The term is a naming convention denoting the anomaly from normal rotation which is ...

. Leonard was the son of Arthur H. Leonard Jr. and Marjorie Irene Leonard. He grew up in south Florida and in 1971 began chasing

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s in the United States and the Caribbean, as well as on

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

and Hawaii. He sometimes moved to Guam during typhoon season. He was considered a pre-eminent tropical cyclone chaser. Leonard began chasing thunderstorms in 1974 and traveled across the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

as well as locally in Florida where

sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...

interactions and

waterspout A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel cloud, funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus clou ...

s are common in summer. He sometimes moved to Oklahoma during

supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (s ...

season in

Tornado Alley Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, So ...

. Leonard's photographs, films and videos have been licensed widely and featured prominently around the world. He was featured in numerous

television documentaries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

explaining hurricanes and magazine articles. He was a contributor to ''

Storm Track ''Storm Track'' was the first magazine for and about storm chasing. The magazine was in circulation between 1977 and 2002. History and profile ''Storm Track'' was started in 1977 by chasing pioneer David Hoadley following an informal meeting o ...

'' magazine and his photographs appeared frequently in ''

Weatherwise ''Weatherwise'' is a magazine founded by David M. Ludlum and was published by Heldref Publications in Washington DC, but now is published by Taylor & Francis Group. It covers weather and climate for weather enthusiasts as well as meteorologists a ...

'' and other publications. Leonard was also an early and respected storm chasing tour guide, working with Charles Edwards for Cloud 9 Tours, where

George Kourounis George Kourounis (born 22 May 1970), is a Greek-Canadian adventurer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme weather and worldwide natural disasters. He presents the television series ''Angry Planet''. Storm chasing Kourounis has b ...

and

Mike Theiss Mike Theiss (born April 22, 1978) is a National Geographic photographer, on air talent, video producer, professional storm chaser. He is the CEO/Founder of Ultimate Chase Inc. that specializes in extreme nature photography. His work has been publ ...

also are guides. James died of cancer on November 3rd, 2014.

References

External links

Jim Leonard's "Cyclone Jim" website
* *
Cloud 9 Tours
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Jim 1950 births 2014 deaths Photographers from Florida Storm chasers

See also

References

External links