The WNY StormChasers Team
You dedicated team behind the scenes that make the WNY StormChasers a leader in all things weather!
Mitch Bellinger
Founder/Lead Storm Chaser
Mitch Bellinger is the Founder & Lead Storm Chaser for WNY StormChasers, founded in 2017.
Mitch has resided in WNY for 95% of his life with a short time spent living in Zephyrhills Florida. Mitch moved to the Jamestown, NY area in 2005 from the Yorkshire NY area the same day Hurricane Katrina made her landfall in New Orleans.
Prior to beginning the WNY StormChasers in 2017, Mitch has chased since 2009, intercepting several tornadoes and other severe weather events across not only WNY, but in other states as well! While residing in Florida, he also experienced landfall events from Hurricane George and ironically, Hurricane Mitch!
He holds a bachelors degree in Information Technology Systems and also owns several companies including Ultimate Solutions, UltraWave Internet & WeHaul Logistics. Mitch has also completed the National Weather Service (NWS) trainings including Skywarn Spotter training (Spring & Winter) and Advanced Spotter training for NWS in Buffalo, State College and Cleveland. Therefore holding certificates in each of those National Weather Service offices. He has also completed several other trainings including but not limited to the Spotter Network trainings and several others!
While Mitch has had extensive trainings and experience in the field, yet he believes the first mistake of storm chasing is thinking you know it all and stop advancing your knowledge. Therefore he continues to grow his knowledge in meteorology and continues to take additional training courses. In 2024 Mitch brought onboard Andrews and Jackson who where part of a news agency located in Jamestown which also collaborated with the group. Since then, the group's following has grown substantially to tens of thousands of followers in a short amount of time and continue to grow! The team is 100% dedicated to our followers and helping to protect public safety!
Mitch has resided in WNY for 95% of his life with a short time spent living in Zephyrhills Florida. Mitch moved to the Jamestown, NY area in 2005 from the Yorkshire NY area the same day Hurricane Katrina made her landfall in New Orleans.
Prior to beginning the WNY StormChasers in 2017, Mitch has chased since 2009, intercepting several tornadoes and other severe weather events across not only WNY, but in other states as well! While residing in Florida, he also experienced landfall events from Hurricane George and ironically, Hurricane Mitch!
He holds a bachelors degree in Information Technology Systems and also owns several companies including Ultimate Solutions, UltraWave Internet & WeHaul Logistics. Mitch has also completed the National Weather Service (NWS) trainings including Skywarn Spotter training (Spring & Winter) and Advanced Spotter training for NWS in Buffalo, State College and Cleveland. Therefore holding certificates in each of those National Weather Service offices. He has also completed several other trainings including but not limited to the Spotter Network trainings and several others!
While Mitch has had extensive trainings and experience in the field, yet he believes the first mistake of storm chasing is thinking you know it all and stop advancing your knowledge. Therefore he continues to grow his knowledge in meteorology and continues to take additional training courses. In 2024 Mitch brought onboard Andrews and Jackson who where part of a news agency located in Jamestown which also collaborated with the group. Since then, the group's following has grown substantially to tens of thousands of followers in a short amount of time and continue to grow! The team is 100% dedicated to our followers and helping to protect public safety!
Andrew stevenson
Chief Forecaster/Live Stream Host
Andrew Stevenson is our Chief Weather Forecaster for WNY Stormchasers.
Andrew is a Jamestown NY native, with a lifelong passion for weather. From dreams of being a storm chaser as a child to forecasting the weather for his family, he knew something in the field of meteorology was in his calling.
Stevenson earned his Associates degree in Science from Jamestown Community College in 2017, where he took a meteorology class with none other than Erie News Now's very own Tom Divecchio.
Beginning in 2019, Stevenson joined WNY News Now, a local, online news station as a weather forecaster, where he worked alongside Dakota Hunter, who also works at Erie News Now. After 4 years of learning, forecasting, writing daily weather articles, and taking part in live broadcasts and emergency storm coverage, Andrew left the station at the end of 2023. Not too long after he was offered to come join the WNY Stormchasers as a forecast contributor.
Andrew is a National Weather Service Certified Storm Spotter for Buffalo, Cleveland, and State College.
Since joining the team fully in early 2024, Stevenson has helped to grow the online Facebook page from around 5,000 to over 35,000 followers and climbing, and his passion for keeping the public aware of the weather has only increased! He helps maintain a constant online presence within the WNY StormChasers community by posting not only daily, but sometimes hourly, messages in the Stormchasers Facebook group as well as the Facebook page. Andrew has also taken part in live chases, where he will help the team answer questions the public may have during the chase.
Jackson hickey
Storm Chaser/Chief Photographer
Jackson is our Chief Photographer and another chaser for WNY StormChasers. He joined WNY StormChasers in the summer of 2023.
Hickey has many years of experience in photography and videography. Covering many local news and sporting events across Chautauqua County for a local news station up until 2023.
His experience helped him land a news photography job at WGRZ in Buffalo at the beginning of 2024. Where he continues to showcase his photography to this day. Most recently working for WGRZ, Hickey covered the aftermath of a destructive EF4 tornado in Kentucky in the summer of 2025 and the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in 2024 that struck Florida.
In his spare time you can find him out chasing storms across the area.
JAred Paxton
Storm Chaser/Photographer
Jared Paxton is a self-taught photographer whose passion for photography started during
8th grade middle school when he documented the factory buildings and other historical places
in and around the city, he lives in. This was just the beginning to his journey into photography.
Based in Jamestown, New York, Jared has traveled the United States and Canada to photograph subjects
that include Natural Landscape, Nightscape, Cityscape, Astrophotography, Street Photography, Weather, Wedding, Portrait,
Emergency Vehicles & Air Medical Helicopters, and much more.
Jared strives to share his passion for photography & travel through social media such as Facebook, and Instagram.
Outside of photography & travel, Jared is an EMS Dispatcher and Amateur Radio operator.
Our Corporate Sponsors
These are other local companies that sponsor the storm chasers and their efforts in bringing the content you all know and love! Be sure to visit these business's webpages as well as visit them at their respective locations!
New York Incident Alerts
Emergency Scanner Monitoring
New York Incident alerts provides us with real time emergency dispatch alerts as well as reports of severe damage and places that may have been effected by severe weather events.
Our Collaborative Partners
These are other pages and groups we work with while in the field as well as local/state and federal partners!Interested in collaborating, submit a message through our contact us page!
Ultimate Solutions
Primary Corporate Sponsor
Ultimate Solutions is a Information Technology (IT) company offering networking, surveillance, door access, VOIP services and much more! Ultimate Solutions has been our main primary sponsor since the beginning of the WNY StormChasers and we are incredibly honored for their continued support!