Since an essential element of storm chasing is mobility, some sort of vehicle is a key piece of equipment. Four-wheel drives are favoured, because the adverse weather conditions will often be too much for an ordinary vehicle.
Emergency supplies and equipment for carrying out basic vehicle repairs are always advisable. Serious chasers may travel into areas cut off from any form of support from the emergency services. In fact, the emergency services will often attempt to bar entry to storm areas. Once there, chasers are on their own in sorting out any problems.
For the same reason and also to get up-to-date information on the direction of a storm, a GPS (Global Positioning System) radio or phone could save a wasted journey or even a life. Increasingly, chasers are calling on laptops, satellite links and cellular phones for the latest on a changing weather situation. But others dismiss such high-tech tools as a distraction, preferring simply to study the sky in their search for a target storm.
For filming or photographing the storm, a domestic video or stills camera is all that is needed, but it must be waterproof. However, for a quality of picture good enough to sell, one will probably need something more upmarket. Check out the various storm chaser websites for more details.
In choosing items, the experts suggest UV filters, good quality lenses (Canon or Nikon, for example and a fixed focal length lens as usually sharper than a zoom lens), tripods and slow films (ISO 100, for example) for better resolution.
As important as the right equipment is a good technique. For example, for sky pictures, lenses will usually need to be focused on infinity. And try not to push lenses to their capability limits.
Trying to predict when lightning will fire for a still shot is fruitless: the best way to capture it is to take random but frequent exposures, and prepare for the fact that many shots will often be needed to get that lucky hit.
Again, the various storm chaser websites will offer advice and provide key links. Much is based on the experience of storm chasing guru Chuck Doswell, of the US National Severe Storms Laboratory, who gives excellent advice on techniques, forecasting and equipment on his own site.
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