Edds, 55, has been a contracted stringer for The Weather Channel for 12 or 13 years — “I have a file in my name on their server,” he says. That relationship began when Edds lived in Key West and would shoot morning sunrise video to send to the channel. Edds’ ties to Pensacola began when his father, who retired from Eglin Air Force Base in 1974, pursued a degree in accounting from the University of West Florida. Edds lived in Pensacola from then until 1992. Two experiences would shape Edds for his future as a storm chaser. One was a boating accident in his third year at UWF that would delay his schooling for a year or so. Edds says he was run over by a boat while spearfishing at Alabama Point. He had to be LifeFlighted to Baptist Hospital and nearly died. For a time he wasn’t sure if he would walk again. When he did graduate with a degree in chemistry, he found work as a polymer chemist for a local chemical company. When the company was bought out and the work moved to Raleigh, Edds did not follow. The father of his college girlfriend, from whom Edds split when she went on to medical school, remained a friend of Edds. When the father died, Edds said it got him thinking that life was short, too short not to do something that he really loved.