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A thrill-seeking dad has found a terrifying way to unwind during his holidays - by leaving his family at home for storm chasing trips across America.

Consultant engineer Matthew Higgins, 28, has cheated death several times while pursuing tornadoes across the wind-swept Midwest.

His dangerous hobby has cost him £10,000 and means wife Tania, 37, is left at home in Berkshire to look after their 20-month-old daughter. 

Matthew Higgins takes photos while chasing tornadoes, including this image of a super storm cell forming in South Dakota in June 2013

The dangerous hobby has cost married father-of-one Matthew £10,000. This image of a gathering storm was captured in Kansas last year

In the past four years he has visited Kansas, Colorado, North and South Dakota and Nebraska, and even escaped death by minutes when one of the largest tornadoes on record hit Oklahoma in May 2013. 

Matthew has documented his holidays with hundreds of stunning photographs of the storms in action.

He said: 'I don't like worrying my family, and I've gotten dirty looks from locals who've lost their homes and think storm chasers are insensitive.

'But I love the buzz you get when you're standing in sight of a tornado.

'I appreciate it's not everyone's idea of fun and most of my family and friends think it's mad but I love watching the full force of Mother Nature.

'It's the best show on earth.

'When people find out what I do for fun they usually think I'm mad.

'But when they see the photographs I've taken, they all say it's amazing and they want to try it!'  

This stunning photo of a super storm cell forming on the horizon was captured by Matthew in South Dakota in June this year

Matthew escaped death by minutes when one of the largest tornadoes recorded hit Oklahoma in 2013 - but he did capture this image

In the past four years, Matthew has visited Kansas (pictured here), Colorado, North and South Dakota and Nebraska to chase storms

As a child Matthew, from Wokingham, was fascinated by thunderstorms and spent hours staring at the sky as they happened.

His fascination with extreme weather continued and his passion grew as he watched more and more documentaries about storms.

In 2010 the consultant engineer went on his first ever storm chasing holiday to Kansas with Extreme Tornado Tours, and he has not looked back since.

Now, every summer the dad-of-one shuns a traditional family beach holiday and leaves behind his quiet suburban life to set foot in America's Midwest chasing the deadly storms.

He has been on more than 20 chasing tours and has seen 26 tornadoes across the States.

He has also watched supercells - a thunderstorm characterised by the presence of a deep, persistently rotating updraft - lightning storms and dust clouds. 

Matthew and Tania Higgins' smashed windscreen which was broken during a tornado-chasing trip in Kansas earlier this year

This photo of mammatus clouds was captured by Matthew during a storm-chasing trip in South Dakota in June 2014

Luckily Matthew has escaped injury over the past four years but he said there have been a few close calls.

On his most recent tour in May this year Matthew's van was bombarded with baseball-sized hail stones came close to smashing the reinforced windscreen to pieces.

'It was like being in a war zone. We couldn't even drive away because the other windows aren't toughened glass so they wouldn't have protected us,' Matthew said.

'We just had to wait for it to stop and hope the windows lasted or someone could have been killed.'

On another tour in Nebraska, the group were watching YouTube videos in the car before noticing a tornado was forming right in front of them.

He added: 'We were caught completely off guard but thankfully no one was hurt and we were perfectly positioned to watch it develop from start to finish.' 

The hobby has cost Matthew (right) £10,000 and means that wife Tania (left) is left alone to look after their 20-month-old daughter

Matthew and Tania Higgins pictured in Norway in 2013. The daring couple have traveled all over mid-west America chasing tornadoes

But Matthew's most dangerous trip was to Oklahoma in May 2013, where he escaped death by minutes after one of the largest tornadoes the country has ever seen hit.

The two and a half mile-wide twister raged through Oklahoma City and the surrounding suburbs for forty-five minutes.

Matthew said: 'It was terrifying. Thousands were left without homes and twenty-four people were killed, including three storm chasers.

'I realised then that there was a whole other side to chasing that I hadn't really expected.

'We were staying in a hotel with a lot of people who had lost their homes and it was humbling to talk to them about how the storm had affected their lives, but we also got a lot of dirty looks for being storm chasers.

'People think they're insensitive but storm chasers collect a lot of important meteorological data and they're often the first ones to report dangerous weather systems to the authorities so they actually save lives as well.' 

Matthew is a consultant engineer but the married father-of-one spends his holidays chasing storms like this one in South Dakota

Matthew eventually hopes Tania will join him on one of his trips when their daughter is older.

Tania, who goes on her own annual fitness holidays to Turkey, said: 'We're both very independent people.

'I know Matthew's always been interested in weather and he loves photography so it made sense to combine the two.

'I would never stop him from going because I know how much he loves it.'  

Matthew's storm-chasing hobby is dangerous but it has allowed his to capture stunning images like this one taken this summer

Another image of storm clouds taken by Matthew on a tornado-chasing trip to South Dakota over the summer months of 2014