Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Moore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

The concept of legacy is an important one for me – as a mom, a creative, a business owner, and a chronic illness sufferer. My journey has taught me to maximize my gifts and waste no time working towards my goals in life; after all, none of us is promised tomorrow.

So often we have a goal or vision in mind but find ourselves hung up on how to move forward toward accomplishing it. We may be limited in time, resources, direction, or perhaps most importantly: the belief that we can achieve our dreams.
From my youth, I’ve blazed new paths and found innovative ways to create a life uniquely catered to my passions. The problem is, sometimes life throws unexpected curveballs that shove us off course and leave us stumbling around in the dark, searching for the next steps, unsure where to turn.

My path has been anything but ordinary. While many were studying business, medicine, or art, I was studying the atmosphere. Fascinated with the tumultuous and ever-changing movements of the clouds above, I sought to find the most fierce and powerful weather of all and put myself right in its path.

While teaching myself the science governing our dynamic skies, I began chasing storms in the eastern plains of Colorado. Through years of constant learning, immersion in the study of meteorology, and the application of that science in the field as I pursued the most volatile weather on Earth, I carved a path toward achieving my dream of becoming a meteorologist. My long-term plan was to chase storms across the U.S., document all modes of extreme weather, and share it with the world.

But as I mentioned, life throws curveballs often when you least expect them.

Just as I was preparing to graduate from Mississippi State University’s Broadcast and Operational Meteorology program nearly four years ago, I fell seriously ill. I went from hiking 14,000-foot mountains in my free time to fainting just walking up a flight of stairs.

Autoimmune disease is a fearsome, merciless beast. It doesn’t care how young or healthy you thought you were or what future dreams you’d envisioned for your life. It strikes without warning, takes the wheel that is your life, and yanks it in an entirely new direction.

You have no choice but to face your mortality and have honest conversations with yourself. You re-evaluate everything you thought you were working for, and the path you carved so tirelessly to get there seems all but wasted.
But what I didn’t know at that time, when it felt as though life as I knew it was ending, was that a whole new life was beginning. One filled with struggles and obstacles and grief, yes; but that is the reality of our human existence. This new chapter has offered many great and surprising opportunities, as well. Still, once I regained my footing and began to stabilize my health to some degree, I realized that no matter what my best days looked like in this new reality with chronic illness, I’d likely not be able to work a “normal” job again.

I had two choices: wallow in the loss of my previous self or empower this new self with a redefined vision for my future that breathed life into my soul once more.

So began my life as a freelancer and small business owner.

Rather than allow my physical limitations to hold me back from my dreams of working as a meteorologist, I sought to carve a unique path. Storm chasing has been my lifeblood for 12 years. Aside from my daughter, who is the center of my universe, storm chasing is what fuels my soul. As such, I’ve channeled that passion into income generation via freelancing as a photographer and video stringer for various local and national news networks, creating content for social media, consulting, and travel writing, I’ve managed to combine various passions and sources of income to build a sustainable business. All despite serious chronic illness.

And as of this year, I’ve just launched a storm tourism company that allows me to take tour guests into the field and (safely) chase storms under my guidance. This new branch of my business has already seen rapid growth in these first few months of operation. I feel very humbled and grateful to begin a new chapter of this challenging – yet still beautiful – life I live.

I hope the legacy I leave is the knowledge that the only true limitations you face are within your mind and the stories you tell yourself. Don’t let fear of failure or any other obstacles, including health, stand in the way of your goals. No matter how far-fetched accomplishing your dreams may seem in the darkest moments of life, sometimes a simple change of perspective is all it takes to discover a new way to reach them.

Don’t be afraid to carve a new path or do something that’s never been done before. The worst-case scenario is that it doesn’t work; and if not, readjust and keep going. The important thing is to keep moving forward and know that the world needs your voice, your talent, your vision, and you.

And never stop seeking that which sets your soul on fire.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 37-year-old single mom, meteorologist, storm chaser, photographer, travel writer, and artist. The weather has been a passion of mine since childhood, and I have my family to thank for planting the seeds that would later bloom into a full-fledged obsession with extreme weather.

I graduated in 2020 with a B.S. in Broadcast and Operational Meteorology from Mississippi State University. Since then, I have navigated life as a freelancer and small business owner. My work involves documenting all modes of extreme weather across the U.S., and often I provide media coverage to local and national television networks while in the field. Additionally, my storm imagery has been displayed at art exhibitions and purchased by a wide range of commercial clients globally. sharing the beauty of storms is one of my greatest joys in life.

I’ve also been fortunate to have been featured in several national news and print media stories about women in STEM, meteorology, and storm chasing, and these opportunities have further fueled my desire to make an impact with the work I do. I hope I inspire others to pursue their dreams, even if they must follow a non-traditional career path in order to do so.

Public outreach is incredibly important and it is one of my main drivers for doing the work that I do. I seek to educate and inform the general public about weather events that may impact them while simultaneously capturing the beauty of the atmosphere with my camera. In this way, I can blend my passions for art and science into one, as they need not be mutually exclusive.

I hope that the connections I build with the communities I encounter and the art that I create leave a lasting positive impression. While I love to see Mother Nature’s most turbulent skies, I never want to see communities impacted by them. For these reasons, I always seek to add another layer of communication that helps people prepare for inclement weather, as well as help communities recover after disaster strikes.

I always donate a portion of my income to communities and disaster response organizations because it is important to me to help people when I’m in the field tracking the weather and doing what I love.

As another extension of my business, I also operate a storm photography and tourism company that guides guests on a week-long adventure in the Great Plains documenting storms. With 12 years of storm photography and chasing experience myself, and another 16 years of experience that my fellow tour guide contributes to the storm photography tours, we provide guests with an unforgettable experience that, for many, is a lifelong dream. Storm photography is a challenging and dangerous endeavor, but we seek to provide the training, education, and experience that will allow them to pursue this hobby safely and effectively going forward.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Consistency is key. It is essential to maintain a frequency of posting and sharing content on social media that keeps your followers engaged and wanting to connect more with you. Experiment initially with posting at various times of day, but try to aim for sharing content across your social media platforms at least 3 to 5 times per week.

It is really important to try to make a personal connection with your audience. You can post content all day, but people resonate with you more if you share bits and pieces of your story, or do live streams with you talking with your followers, or perhaps engage them in polls and surveys. Round-table interactions are great for building brand loyalty and making people want to hear from you more.

I also always recommend offering a newsletter. It is simply another method for keeping people engaged, allows you to dive more deeply into discussions about your business, and invites your subscribers into your journey. I have a Substack newsletter that is free but also has a paid subscription option. I offer my paid subscribers extra perks such as free digital downloads of images, personal Q&A sessions, sneak peeks of photo and video content before posting to the public, and more.

My recommendation would be to cast a wide net and utilize every social platform that you can without burning yourself out. Even if you can only put out a couple of posts here and there, a steady stream of content creates a snowball effect on the growth of your following. Our world exists on social media these days and, for better or worse, these tools are critical to the sustainability and success of virtually all businesses.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Time and experience. The more time I spent in the field, the more I put myself out there and found success, the more I began to establish myself within my market. I began to speak at weather-related conferences and seminars, deliver live weather reports on local and national television from the field, sell my storm footage to news networks, and more. I also sought to stand apart from the crowd by capturing the best storm images I possibly could with my camera. There have been several moments in my career where I captured images of now-iconic storms that are widely recognized in the weather and storm chasing community, which both excites and humbles me. In recent years, I’ve also been interviewed for several national news stories and media publications that featured my storm chasing and meteorology endeavors, alongside many other talented women in the field. While these fields of meteorology and storm chasing have been largely male-dominated and still are, the tide is turning. We’re finally seeing more female representation in the media as storm chasers and photographers, which is a very exciting movement to be a part of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jessicamphotographer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicamoore.photographer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessicamoorestormchaser/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meteorologistjess/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessicaMooreWx
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JessicaMooreMeteorologist

Image Credits
Robin Lorenson, David Hegner