The storm chasers trying to save the world from drought

By Jeremy Miller

Bill Kornell has spent most of his half-century-long career flying into bad weather. A former bull-riding champion, the sinewy 80-year-old has been a pilot since the 1960s, when he realised that travelling to far-flung rodeo towns across the American West was more efficient by plane than by car. After an injury in the late 1970s, Kornell left the bull-riding circuit and took a job as a bush pilot, ferrying supplies and commuters deep into the Alaskan interior. Flying in the Arctic presented a host of challenges: bad weather, freezing temperatures and poor visibility.