Willard Sharp was born and raised in the Central Iowa area and has always had a deep passion for weather. As a child, Willard would spend many late afternoons and evenings watching thunderstorms move across the countryside from his home west of Kellogg.
Raising a family and a busy work schedule kept Willard from chasing as much as he wanted to in the ’90s and 2000s but in 2012, Willard started to chase on a more regular basis. He chases in the state of Iowa as much as possible and will travel to neighboring states if the chasing opportunity looks solid. Since 2014 Willard takes a few weeks off from work in the springtime to travel all across the Great Plains chasing storms. These chasecations have netted Willard many tornadoes and supercell intercepts.
Willard is currently a Network Engineer for Hy-Vee. He has developed a strong passion for photography to go along with his passion for chasing storms. His favorite photography targets while chasing include structured supercells, tornadoes, and lightning. When Willard is not storm chasing he enjoys photographing the night sky’s on those clear nights. This includes Milky Way, Aurora, sprites, solar/lunar eclipses, star trails, and deep sky astrophotography.