Hi, I am Job Beeman, a 15-year-old teen living in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have had a passion for meteorology and storm-chasing since I was around 4 years old. Despite my early love for it, only recently have I been getting involved. So far, I have been forecasting for at least a year, but I have been reading radar and watching severe weather events unfold for over a year and a half. I am beginning to start my storm-chasing career to get much needed experience under my belt for the future. What has always fascinated me is the immense power that some of these tornadoes can exhibit from just the air around us. I've always asked myself this one question: Why?
There are two main reasons I chose to start Project: Gladiator. I am inspired by and want to follow the path of people such as Reed Timmer, Ryan Hall, Vince Waelti, and Sean Casey to keep their legacy going when they may eventually retire and to keep extreme meteorology and storm chasing going forward. The second reason is some of the recent tornado outbreaks that have been happening across the US, most notably the outbreaks before I started my YouTube channel. Outbreaks such as the March 31st, 2023 outbreak, when I watched a tornado hit Little Rock, Arkansas, on live radar, and the November 4th, 2022 tornado outbreak, when I watched a devastating tornado outbreak impact a lot of the ArkLaTex region, more so, the devastating and destructive tornado that impacted Rolling Fork, Mississippi. There are also the multiple outbreaks that I covered live on the YouTube channel, such as the July 12th, 2023, outbreak across the Chicago metroplex region, the outbreak on November 20th, 2023, which led to multiple dangerous tornadoes across the Mississippi River Valley, and the two back-to-back outbreaks in the same week for both January 8th and January 11th. All of these outbreaks were very devastating and extremely worrying for not only me but also the folks involved to watch unfold live. All of my condolences go to the people that these events may have impacted. I'm hoping that with Project: Gladiator, we should be able to give back to those who may have been involved. There are ways that we can help, along with donating money to help those in need. Better research to keep people informed on these significant events as well as upcoming events is a must-have in everyone's daily life. Unfortunately, there is very limited data from the heart on what makes these significant tornadoes so powerful.
What's the reason for mentioning these tornado outbreaks? These events are some of many that have happened in the past and many more that will happen for years in the future. My goal is to research these tornado outbreaks out in the field and to research some of the strongest tornadoes that are produced by these events. But what is Project: Gladiator?
Project: Gladiator is the project to raise money to pay for the designing, building, and testing of The Gladiator. The Gladiator is going to be a tornado intercept vehicle that will station in the path of tornadoes and let them pass overhead, allowing the vehicle to act as a mobile and manned research probe to gather important data and information from inside the tornado, such as air pressure, humidity, wind speed, and temperature. This sort of data cannot be gathered from inside any ordinary storm-chasing vehicle outside of tornadoes. So far, there has only been one research paper ever published using data from the inside of a tornado. With the construction of The Gladiator, many more will come and will massively increase the knowledge of what is known from the inside of tornadoes, most notably the strongest of the bunch. The credit for the research paper goes to Reed Timmer.
What does The Gladiator bring to the table? The Gladiator will be an insanely powerful and capable storm-chasing beast that will be capable of withstanding some of the strongest tornadoes. The Gladiator will be a Jeep Gladiator (still determining) at heart but will be fitted out with a sturdy, solid steel frame, which will be the framework for a thick protective shell consisting of an outer layer of at least half an inch of steel and a composite mixture of various insulators and protectors to fill the space and keep everyone protected inside. The immense weight from all of this, plus hydraulic wind skirts that can be lowered down around the entire car as well as hydraulic spikes that can be driven into the ground, will keep the vehicle anchored in place when inside a tornado. Current in-depth specifications are yet to be determined as planning goes forward. However, I will be open to any information regarding The Gladiator’s progress toward completion, what steps are still needed, and more in-depth details. I will also be free to answer any sort of questions anyone may have, and you can ask these questions using the various social links below. This vehicle, with its insane capabilities, will be able to gather breakthrough information inside some of the strongest and most violent tornadoes. These insanely powerful tornadoes, such as high-end EF4s and EF5s, are way too powerful for the current intercept vehicles that exist as of now. The Gladiator will be able to safely gather information from these tornadoes that cannot be intercepted by some of the current top-of-the-line intercept vehicles.
What will we do with this data? All data collected from The Gladiator will be published directly to the public for personal viewing. There will be a dedicated section on this website for the data, including info on the tornado intercepted, any video clips that may have been recorded during the intercept, a radar loop of the tornado itself, as well as the data that was gathered from The Gladiator during the intercept, while also explaining the data in a way that will be understandable to anyone who wants to review it. The data itself will also be directly sent to the SPC, NWS, and NOAA for further research.
Where will the funds raised go? Any money raised from GoFundMe will exclusively be used for designing, building, and testing The Gladiator. 50% of any money raised from any other method, such as YouTube donations, will be added to GoFundMe. In the future, there will likely be alternate methods to donate to the cause. When we do eventually add them, everyone who is following Project: Gladiator on any social media will be notified. However, until then, there is no other method to donate besides GoFundMe and YouTube donations. What will happen with any money that is left over? 50% of what is left over will be donated back to tornado survivors, who will desperately need any sort of funds to recover and get back on their feet. When we do donate to people in need, we will notify the GoFundMe. Any sort of updates to Project: Gladiator and the movement of any funds will be completely transparent and honest, so those who do choose to donate will be satisfied and at ease knowing that their money will be going towards what they intended it to. Any questions pertaining to Project: Gladiator can be asked on any of the social media sites linked below, most notably the about page for this website.
With Project: Gladiator, I hope we cannot only change the lives of people whom severe weather events have impacted but also change the knowledge that we have now on weather forecasting and increase warning times for severe weather events to not only keep more people informed about the weather but to unlock the secrets of what makes the most violent tornadoes so powerful so they can be much better forecasted and detected. Anyone can be impacted by these events, and that's why it's so crucial to know about them. This will help the human race understand more about the events that impact everyone's daily life. We hope you found this compelling enough to donate to the cause, and we hope to see you out in the field. Go Project: Gladiator
