Famous storm chaser left California for South MS. Here’s why he made the move

On the first Saturday of the 2025 hurricane season, weather experts and storm chasers from the U.S. met up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a “hurricane party” like no other.

National Weather Service meteorologists, U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunters, Jim Cantore, Margaret Orr and Jefferson Parish council member Scott Walker mixed and mingled at a new, New Orleans-like cottage in the heart of Bay St. Louis.

Outside, dozens snacked on barbecue, swapped stories about severe weather coverage and sipped on White Claws or the specialty cocktail, hurricanes.

The party is hosted by Josh Morgerman, a world-famous storm chaser known as iCyclone on social media.

It was a chance for him to show off his new home that he built from the ground up on a lot a near the beach.

But it was also a rare moment for both of his worlds to collide. The fellow weather obsessed who know Morgerman as thrill-seeking storm chaser got to meet the Hancock County and New Orleans locals who know Josh as the relaxed “weather dude” who bikes around town and spends evenings on his front porch listening to frogs ribbit and insects chirp.

And for Morgerman, the laissez-faire lifestyle of the Gulf Coast is a big part of what made him decide to leave Los Angeles behind and make a home in the Bay.

“When I’m not chasing storms, I’m all about routine and steadiness,” he said this week. “I want to complement the other side of my life, which is very dangerous and very unpredictable.”

From L.A. to the Bay

Morgerman first discovered Bay St. Louis in 2020 as he was trying to figure out how to safely chase storms in the height of the COVID pandemic.

“I had always been based in Los Angeles, and with air travel shut down for several months, I remember thinking, ‘If I want to chase hurricanes ... I’m going to need to live in hurricane country.’”

He began renting a cottage in Bay St. Louis and made that his home base for a few years during the season. When a big storm approached, he’d pack up and head out from Mississippi to begin the chase.

Morgerman thought the move to the Mississippi Coast was a “crazy idea” at first, as he had only ever lived in major metros including L.A., New York City and Boston.

But to his surprise, Morgerman said the adjustment was easy.

“Being in the Bay, I felt, like, this stress disappear. It became my happy place. I felt very zen about it.”

Building a ‘coat of armor’

After a few summers, Morgerman said he realized his feelings for the Gulf Coast weren’t temporary.

He decided to stay put, buying a lot and beginning the process of building his dream “hurricane house” up to standards so high he’d feel comfortable in it riding out a Category 5 storm.

It looks like an average shotgun-style New Orleans cottage, like those commonly seen around Bay St. Louis.

But the home is reinforced from the inside out.

“Folks ask me a lot about what materials I used to build my house,” Morgerman said. “The roof is 24-gauge metal, and I have heavy composite shutters with a polycarbonate layer to protect the windows (from flying debris).

“I also used James Hardie fiber cement siding, which is like a coat of armor around my house.”

Why a storm chaser loves Bay St. Louis

Morgerman moved into his home in early 2024 and has no regrets.

He said he loves the beach, the humidity, his front porch and being able to ride his bicycle pretty much anywhere.

“That’s kind of magical to me,” he said.

Morgerman often treks a few blocks for coffee at PJ’s or Mockingbird Cafe, and likes having a nice dinner at The Thorny Oyster inside the Pearl Hotel. He will also bike over to Pass Christian to enjoy the pork chop special at Bachhus on the Beach on Monday nights.

Morgerman isn’t the only weather guru who has fallen in love with the Mississippi Coast. At the party on Saturday, Cantore — a famous Weather Channel meteorologist who rode out Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport — said Bay St. Louis is one of his favorite coastal towns.

“The MS coast will be forever changed from Katrina’s record surge, but places like Bay St. Louis have turned into absolute gems,” Cantore said on Instagram after the event.

Morgerman said his mother, a lifelong New York City resident, was puzzled when he told her that he was moving to Mississippi.

“A lot of people in New York and L.A., they don’t know about this area, they don’t know of its charms,” he said. “She’s visited several times since then, and she gets it now.”

Preparing for hurricane season

Now that his friends have left and Morgerman has had time to recover from his big shebang, he’s looking ahead to what forecasters are predicting to be an above-average hurricane season.

“I believe we’re in for another busy year with the activity centered in the Gulf,” Morgerman said. “I think we all got to keep watch.”