08/23/2026
⭐️CHASER SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY - HAYDEN ⭐️
Another Sunday, another SparkService storm chaser spotlight post! Our team member for this week is none other than Hayden Lester!
Hayden is 24 years old, and he currently lives in Kaiserslautern, Germany, as a full time employee for the United States’ Space Force. However, he says the great state of Texas will always be his home, regardless of wherever his feet are currently planted.
He’s been casually storm chasing since 2019, but he started getting serious about it back in 2022. Not long after, in 2023, he decided to join us at SparkService. This happened specifically after the events of the Rolling Fork EF4 took place. He says his favorite thing about being a part of SparkService is that most of his closest friends are united together by a common goal. “It honestly makes it easier to maintain those friendships while overseas,” he adds. Despite being separated by distance, Hayden is an important part of our team, and usually close by (through messaging or calling) when he’s needed. Of course, he chases when he can, whether it be in Europe or back at home, and when he isn’t actively chasing, he is a voice of encouragement and a sounding board for whatever ideas or situations come our way.
He is most proud of his Hyannis, NE storm chase, on April 27, 2025. He forecasted this chase by himself, and was successful. In fact, people tried to persuade him to go to Kansas instead, where they thought conditions looked more favorable for storm development. But alas, Hayden stuck to his original forecast, and it paid off big time. A nice storm ended up firing off ~4 miles from Hayden’s target. He was able to see the tornado it produced, the most photogenic tornado of the day. “It was my most flawlessly executed chase,” he recalls.
Hayden says he “spawned into existence with a special interest in weather.” On that note, he goes on to say he’s “undiagnosed, but something ain’t right. If you know, you know.” He took the leap into chasing as he got older, and thus had more freedom to do whatever he pleased. Now he has the freedom to take a month off every year to dedicate entirely to storm chasing.
A fun fact about Hayden is that he plays the drums! (Maybe Hayden and Malachi should get together and make a SparkService, very percussion heavy, band! 👀) Hayden is actually currently in the process of trying to make some metal music with a few of his military friends. “The album will hopefully be out within the next decade,” he jokes. Also, Hayden is a talented photographer. You can catch some of his work on his socials, like Instagram and Facebook.
Hayden’s advice for new chasers would be to always use the bathroom before getting locked into a chase. That way, you don’t have a bathroom emergency and a tornado emergency happening simultaneously.
Lastly, he would like to add that Josh calls him at 2 AM frequently to tell him stuff that (1) he already knew, and (2) are very textable things. We all thought this was funny, because it’s very true of a statement. Joshua definitely loves a good phone call, however, sometimes, this meeting could have definitely been an email.
Hayden, we appreciate your listening ear and your way of communicating, encouraging, and helping us solve problems, even though proximity is not on our side. You are a soul part of our team, and we are so thankful for you and your many talents!
