Paul Sirvatka, Father of Storm Chasing, set to retire from teaching after 38 years

GLYN ELLEN, Ill. – At the College of DuPage, inside the meteorology lab, Professor Paul Sirvatka discussed the formation of tornados with a group of more than a dozen students.  

“It’s got to be rotation,” he said. “It’s got to be the mesocyclone, because what’s a mesocyclone? Strong and persistent rotation.”

After 38 years in the classroom, there are changes swirling in his life, too.

“I’m retiring,” he said.

Sirvatka is leaving behind a towering legacy in meteorology. He began to make his mark in 1987 at the College of DuPage.

In 1989, he founded the first undergraduate storm-chasing program in the United States.

“It wasn’t until 1995 about when Twister came out,” he said. “It kind of exposed storm chasing, but until then, we were it. If you wanted to take a course in storm chasing, you came to the College of DuPage.”

He firmly believed that the study of meteorology had to take place in the natural world, where weather exists.

“If you’re a meteorologist, you need to see the weather,” he said. “It’s one thing to see it on a computer or a picture, you need to see it.”

Sirvatka recorded the only known video of the Plainfield tornado of 1990.  It became a catastrophic event with 29 people killed, and 353 injured. The F-5 tornado (with 260 mile per hour winds) remains the strongest august tornado ever recorded in the U.S. It caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage. But the legacy of the tornado is the fact that it came without warning from the National Weather Service.

“We weren’t prepared well enough, so that kind of launched me into a career where I focused on emergency management,” he said.

He helped create the multi-county “sky-warn” system for Northeastern Illinois and establishing the annual advanced severe weather spotter training seminar – all key components of the public safety system that now warns the public about dangerous storms.

“I think it’s really important for us to figure out what’s going on in the science and make that science available for the community,” he said.

He also created the Nexlab website, which functions as a kind of clearing house for critical weather information. The collected data, radar, and satellite imagery is a resource used by military, aviation and emergency management officials.

“Now it’s something that we serve our meteorological community across the entire world, so Canadian Weather Service, the Navy, the Air Force, firefighters across the country use our site because we offer so many unique things,” he said.

But he says his greatest success is reflected in his students.

“Because I work at a community college, I don’t have to worry about doing research and publishing,” Sirvatka said. “My focus is to teach. Good teaching is not about giving good lectures. Good teaching is about having connections to my students.”

Several of his students called is a “privilege” to take Sirvatka’s class.

“There is nobody on this planet who I’d rather have be my mentor,” said Dominic Cosentino, a graduate assistant.

Students also pointed to Sirvatka’s ability to explain complex science and math in clear understandable ways.

“He brings the needed elements – not all the fluff – the needed elements that you need to understand a concept,” said Arnold Sandridge, 63, a retired biochemist who worked for Abbott, and is taking Sirvatka’s final course.

Sirvatka’s lessons covered everything from science to self-confidence.

“Just that I need to keep believing in myself and keep doing what I love and what I’m passionate about because he’s been such a great supporter,” said Fauz Johnson, 19, one of Sirvatka’s students.

Mckenzie Taylor, 21, a student from Bensenville echoed those sentiments, saying Sirvatka encouraged her to speak up in class.

“Be yourself and ask questions and don’t be afraid to want to learn more, and to think out loud instead of receding into yourself,” she said.

Perhaps it’s one last lesson from a professor who always knew that experience was the best teacher. 

“I say look what you can do! Don’t be afraid,” Sirvatka said. “Don’t sit in the back of the classroom. Come to the foreground. Show up. Participate. Be wrong.  And then you’re going to learn, the more involved you are as a student, the better you’re going to be as a student and a human.”