BILLINGS — The sky above Billings hung quiet on Sunday, but the tension was palpable — not in the streets, but higher up, in the clouds.
“If we’re out in the middle of nowhere and there was a tornado, I would definitely go try to get photos and video of it,” said Jamielee Rindahl. “They’re just very powerful, they’re very beautiful if you can catch ‘em right.”
Rindahl is no stranger to the skies. Once a tornado chaser in Kansas, she now keeps her eyes trained on the radar, running Billings Area Weather, a popular Facebook group with more than 21,000 members.
“Facebook came along, and I was posting all my weather stuff to my Facebook profile, and I was like, ‘Why not just start a group?’” said Rindahl.
See how a former storm chaser built a community of 21,000 weather watchers:
Her passion for weather predates social media — and even adulthood.
“I think we had just left Wyoming, crossed the border into Colorado, and there was a funnel cloud next to us, and another tornado right in front of us,” said Rindahl, recalling a formative moment in third grade while living in Littleton, Colorado.
That early spark evolved into full-blown fascination. As a young adult, she took to the open roads, chasing storms just as the film Twister captured the public imagination.
“I had the opportunity to actually go out and chase tornados, and that was about the same time that Twister came out,” said Rindahl.
Now, she is more likely to be found behind a phone screen — but her eye for awe has not dimmed.
“It’s beautiful,” said Rindahl. “You have the light shining off the clouds just right, you get a rainbow, or a beautiful sunset.”
