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Michigan has seen 22 confirmed tornadoes 2026, including three in Metro Detroit.
The National Weather Service has issued more than 50 tornado warnings statewide this year. Joel Fritsma has tracked every one of them online.
Fritsma is the chief meteorologist for Michigan Storm Chasers. The website launched in 2022 and hired Fritsma straight out of Central Michigan University, where he studied meteorology. He says their goal is to fill communication gaps between NWS and the public so people watching online have time to take shelter.
“Every time there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning in the state, we’d be covering it live,” he says. “Since 2024, we haven’t missed a single warning.”
It’s “go” time
Fristma says he and his team start live streaming as soon as the weather service issues its first warnings for any severe event. And they don’t stop until the last warning comes out.
“Sometimes, it’s upwards of 10 to 11 hours,” he says. “It just depends on how long the storms want to go.”
Joel Fritsma is the chief meteorologist for Michigan Storm Chasers
And it doesn’t matter what time it is. Fritsma was live streaming when a brief tornado hit Lincoln Park between 2 and 3 a.m. on April 15. He doesn’t mind.
“I kind of like taking the night shift,” he says. “We always have at least one person on call throughout the day.”
Fristma says when the weather is fine, he’s still working full-time.
“We’re looking at the forecast multiple days in advance,” he says. “We host live streams prior to an event so that people can ask questions.”
A lot of people tune in
Fritsma says the website’s staff has grown from a handful of people to about 30 since 2022. And he says its audience has grown, too.
“We have over a million followers between all of our platforms,” he says.
People can watch and interact with the live streams on Facebook and YouTube. And soon, they’ll be able to download a new mobile app.
Fritsma says the app will allow followers to get live streams on their phones and let them report storm damage.
“We have Messenger, we have Discord, there’s so many options,” he says. “And that information will be very crucial when we send it to the National Weather Service.”
The app is set to launch this summer.
