Ben Hostetter

big fan of hardcore punk and mexican food. 23 he/they

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Large dusty tornado near Palmer a bit ago!! #iawx

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@HurricaneIsaac 150 miles north on a shit from a butt storm that I turned around to catch

[Censored Humans @CensoredHumans]

CNN will never show you this : An Israeli settler pointing a gun at a Palestinian farmer.

"This land is mine now. Get out. Never come back"

The farmer's family worked that land for generations.

The settler flew in from Eastern Europe.

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@TornadoClipss Newnan was weaker but yea this one’s up there. I could see a good argument for ~160 based off tree damage

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@WickyDubs2 The one who impulsively leaves storms they shouldn’t leave

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@wxkylegillett @a_dose_of_wx This one’s a bit of a deep cut but I think anyone who knows it happened would recognize it immediately

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Tiny little mini spinny followed by a sunset-backlit OFB just skirted by the house

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@CPalermo_Storms 2/28/17 let’s run it back

[Carmen Palermo @CPalermo_Storms]

Storm chasers going west in Illinois (me included)

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@CLEstorm789 @Shirkfce @MaxVelocityWX Most of the Canadian prairie gets into the 100s during the summer lol

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Honorable mention: Effingham, IL 6/17/26

DON’T GO WEST IDIOT HOW DID YOU NOT LEARN THE FIRST TIME

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Top 4 busts

4. Winterset, IA 3/5/22
-i go fast but storm go faster

3. Kankakee, IL 3/10/26
-yea don’t go west 😔

2. Lake City, AR 4/2/25
-don’t turn around halfway to your target to chase inferior storms

1. Mangum, OK 5/20/19
-picked right storm but wrong chase partner

[Isaiah Montgomery @GumryWX]

Top 4 tornado chasing busts
4. Madison, AL 5/20/25
-basically nobody but reed saw this one anyway
3. Mount Vernon, IL 5/21/26
-turned around from my target
2. Kankakee, IL 3/10/26
-don’t go west
1. Sikeston, MO 5/16/25
-ouch

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@JackKelley_wx @CPalermo_Storms Had Lake City in my GPS at 11:30 that morning and turned around halfway there to try (and fail) to catch the storm that dropped that single sigtor in Washington County 🫩

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Top tornadoes of my chasing “career” (generous)

1. Palmer - Gilmore City, IA 4/12/22
2. Ipava, IL 6/11/26
3. Shobonier, IL 4/30/25
4. Cushing, TX 4/13/19
5. A bunch of bird farts, all tied

[Carmen Palermo @CPalermo_Storms]

My top tornadoes of my chasing career

1. Carbon, IA 5/21/24
2. Greenfield, IA 5/21/24
3. Gilmore City, IA 4/12/22
4. Kankakee, IL 3/10/26
5. Lake City, AR 4/2/25
6. Wynne, AR 3/31/23
7. Kokomo, IN 8/24/16
8. Winona, MS 3/24/23
9. Bennington, NE 4/17/25
10. Truman, MN 4/13/26

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@JackKelley_wx @CPalermo_Storms 2026 was the first year I could get out more than 2-3x and boy did it show lol. Gilmore City day, that storm was the most obvious target of all time as soon as it towered and I just waited in the next county. I wasn’t great at positioning yet but man I miss easy chases like that.

[Eric1101 @Ericwang1101]

Violent wedge tornado tonight in Huanggang, Hubei Procince, China. Two major city took a direct hit, already hearing 2 fatalities and hundreds injuries, more info coming

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@JackKelley_wx I crossed the river at Hutsonville a little bit ahead of it so I wouldn’t fall behind or get stuck on the IL side and then missed this as a result lmao

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@a_guidarelli I’ve pulled off some insane recoveries by driving quickly and being good at positioning, but unfortunately I also make impulsive decisions to leave storms or change my target all the time and have missed countless tornadoes due to that incl Lake City, Kankakee, and all of 6/17

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@ATWChasing Neck and neck imo but BCM gets the vote bc as insane as rolling that oil rig is, I don’t think there are very many/if any at all images of what Piedmont did to vegetation and topsoil at its real peak intensity

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

Didn’t wait around for round 2 and went north to support my friend’s band that’s playing a show in Evansville tonight and uhhhhh guess I shouldn’t have done that lmao

[Ben Hostetter @benhosWX]

@CPalermo_Storms Only real attempt I saw was a brief couple minutes from like 4:06-4:08 where the rear end of the wall cloud started really cranking while I was trying to get off a treacherous gravel road outside Charleston lol, never had anything condense tho. Felt like Pontiac all over again