Joey Krastel and Chris Scott
A meteorologist from Maryland proposed to his boyfriend as a tornado twirled. Because, well, what could be a more romantic and dramatic backdrop?
On May 28, Joey Krastel, 27, journeyed with his boyfriend Chris Scott, 23, and some friends on a “storm chasing” trip in Kansas, where they were following weather reports that conditions were ripe for producing those sexy funnels. Unbeknownst to the group, Krastel was packing a surprise in his twister-tracking gear: an engagement ring.
Krastel and Scott met online, where they chatted about their mutual fascination with seeing big storms up close. After they met in person, the duo started taking their exhilarating (and dangerous) storm chasing trips together. As Krastel told NBC News: “It was always in the back of my mind to get engaged during storm chasing…I felt like it would be this perfect way to seal the deal.”
It took a while to find the right storm, however. Krastel gathered his group in Dallas, where they began in a car chasing stormy weather through Oklahoma to New Mexico. Without any tornadoes spotted that day, they then turned back east and drove to Kansas, where storm fronts teased with impressive clouds. And then along happened that Tipton tornado, spinning in the middle of a field, close enough to see but far enough to not get blown away to Oz.
It was the perfect storm, forgive the pun, for the big moment.
“It all just kind of came together and happened so quickly,” Krastel said. “I was like ‘OK, this is it.’”
One of Krastel’s friends snapped the photo of the proposal, which Krastel posted on his Twitter account with the caption “The 2 loves of my life.”
Storm chasers have been swarming all over the Great Plains, where wild weather patterns have produced approximately 10 tornadoes a day every day for almost two weeks. Just an hour after Krastel’s friend took this photo, an EF4 tornado (the Enhanced Fujita scale has a maximum rating of five), with a cone that was a mile wide and winds blowing at 170 miles per hour, blasted through the town of Linwood, where it literally tore houses from their foundations and blew them to smithereens.
Linwood residents had enough warning to retreat to their storm shelters and basements (although how safe is a basement if the house is torn off?). This tornado did not cause a single death, but take a look at this video from a reporter:
Tornadoes kill an average of 60 people each year in the U.S., and occasionally that includes storm chasers. All jokes aside, these storms really are dangerous. Fortunately, Scott said “yes” to the marriage proposal, eliminating the possibility that Krastel would have driven away and left him behind to run for his life.
If they adopt a puppy, they must name it Tipton. Because that’s just too cute.
Congrats to the happy couple!
