Storm Chaser Proposes to His Boyfriend as Tornado Looms

As a massive tornado in Kansas descended on them, experienced storm chaser Joey Krastel, thought it was a real and exhilarating way to show his love for his boyfriend, now-fiancé, Chris Scott.

Krastel is a meteorologist and risk analyst for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, and saw his first tornado when he was four.

“It was at that moment where I knew everything I wanted to do from then on out,” Krastel, 27, told NBC News. “Every meteorologist has a weather story from when they were little that defined their path.”

Disastrous storms brought Krastel and his now-fiancé, Chris Scott, together. Scott used to watch storms with his father and his favorite movie as a child was 1996’s Twister, a film about a storm-chasing couple on the brink of divorce who must join forces to create an advanced weather alert system during a record outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma. Scott, 23, and Krastel had been following each other on Instagram, where Krastel posts pictures of the storms he sees, for a while until one day Scott sent a message.

“Hey, do you actually chase tornadoes?” Krastel recalls Scott asking at the time.

“That’s why it was always in the back of my mind to get engaged during storm chasing,” Krastel said. “I felt like it would be this perfect way to seal the deal.”