A Brief History on Storm Chasing

Legend exists that Benjamin Franklin was the first "storm chaser" who would saddle up his horse and ride up nearby hills to get a better look at storms.

Records of tornadoes in the United States dating back to the year 1680 are found in the following book:

Grazulis, T.P. 1993: Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991. St. Johnsbury, VT: Environmental Films, 1326 pp.

A more detailed history of storm spotting and chasing is located in the following journal articles:

Bluestein, H.B., 1999: A history of severe-storm-interecept field programs. Weather and Forecasting, 14, 558-577. 

Doswell III, C.A., A.R. Moller, and H.E. Brooks, 1999: Storm spotting and public awareness since the first tornado forecasts of 1948. 
    Weather and Forecasting, 14, 544-557

"...the impetus for widespread encouragement and use of storm spotting is apparently 
  a direct result of concerns on the part of the military during (World War II)". (Doswell et al. 1999)
  

Much of the following information was obtained from the articles.

1940s - Planes penetrate thunderstorms for study.

1942 - Weather-Bureau (now NWS) cooperates with military to set-up spotting networks

1948 - First "Tornado Watch" issued by Fawbush and Miller on March 25 at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma and followed by an actual tornado.

1953 - Roger Jensen begins chasing storms

1956 - David Hoadley begins chasing storms; Squall lines penetrated by planes for study.

1960 - Fujita coins terms "wall cloud" and "tail cloud" in study of 20 June 1957 Fargo, ND tornado.

1961 - Neil Ward begins chasing storms as possibly first reseach meteorologist to do so.

1964 - University of Wyoming hailstone study

1960s - 1970s - Various waterspout studies

1972 - NSSL Tornado Intercept Project

1972-1974 - NCAR hail chase teams

1973 - Union City, OK tornado on May 24 begins comprehensive case study.

1975 - First confirmed observation of anticyclonic tornado on June 6 near Alva, OK.

1980 - First test of TOTO (Totabale Tornado Observeratory) in eastern Colorado (and later inspired "Dorothy" in the movie Twister).

1981 - Complete lifecycle of tornado filmed near Cordell, OK.

Early 1980s - Stirling Colgate attempts to launch rockets from an airplane into tornadoes.

1987 - Portable Doppler radar first used to probe storms

1994 - Project VORTEX, a mobil mesonet is deployed to survey storms

1996 - Universal Studio's movie Twister hits the theatres injecting significant interest into storm chasing.