2007 chase season observations...

[Aaron Kennedy]

Here's just a ramble of a post... a few things I've noticed over the 2007 season.

Having been on the stormtrack online forums for who knows how long, I am amazed at the pace at which technology develops. While I certainly don't have the experience that many veterens do, even during my relatively short chasing career, the changes in our hobby are remarkable.

Thinking back to the days when ST was starting out its online presence with the original forum and yahoo group a typical chase day went like this:

In the early days of ST forum/bb on the internet:
Days prior: A few pages of discussion about the upcoming setup.

During the event: A few cyber chasers throw in a bit of insight on how the event is unfolding. We were lucky if we heard what such n such chaser was up to if they told their nowcaster by phone (and the nowcaster then posted online).

After the event: Any sort of substantial chase summary the night of was pretty rare unless the chase target was relatively close to an individual's home. Some waited to post pix till film developed, others posted some digi stills the following day. Not much video.

ST Now:
Days prior (or sometimes a week+): For large events we often have pages after pages of forecast discussion.

During the event: Now we're on the verge of information overload. Programs such as GRlevel2 allow the common joe to watch level 2 radar as it comes down the pipe. Webcams are plentiful, and you're almost guarenteed to catch a tornado if it is hitting a major metro area. Even if it doesn't, more and more chasers are using live webcams that update via cellular data connections. Chasers are routinely updating their status and position online... both on forums and/or with programs such as the spotter network.

After the event: While we still get the chase summaries (and complete versions tend to show up the following day), this and "during the event" categories are starting to blur. We often have photos of tornadoes (and even video) uploaded to the forums, youtube, or other websites even prior to chasers arriving home. Almost everyone is digital now, and you can often have a good idea of what transpired during the day without even viewing the SPC storm reports page.

While I'm sure I missed a few odds and ends above, it's clear that storm chasing is pioneering many of the new wireless and digital technologies.
So with that... I welcome everyone to the cyber storm chasing era!

By the way... I suppose this latest event will stop some talk about tornado alley shifting north for awhile

Aaron

 

[Scott Taylor]

By the way... I suppose this latest event will stop some talk about tornado alley shifting north for awhile

Aaron

Completely agree! I thought it was a tad premature to label that change as an actual pattern shift in the first place, when you consider the number of years a climate pattern may encompass.

I rarely get to chase, but I certainly have had a few in TX, OK, AR, and nearby areas a number of times since '99. The past year or two may not have been great when considering previous years, but that wasn't enough to say the action has taken a northern shift, IMO.

Scott

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I've also noticed how different things move now that we have data streams and improved communication, etc. The internet has totally changed chasing forever. Your observations about the way ST has changed are good ones. When it first went online, ST used an old forum format (even before the Yahoo forum - which still exists, by the way - ha) that was not intuitive (as most were back then). We would chat about stuff, but half the time didn't really have a clue. The forecaster types weren't that interested in using ST at the time - so the rest of us schmucks were usually guessing at prospects and chatting it up. Before Yahoo, it was more of just a message format where we couldn't even line up replies under message headings - so there were long strings of replies to every topic. It was disorganized and hard to focus on what you were really interested in, and a person usually ended up opening just about every post. Fortunately, there weren't many posters, and the ones who were posting at the time were just pretty much interested in chasing (or adding a log to the occasional flame war). If there had been as many active participants as there are today using that old format, it would have been impossible to keep up or locate the information that was important to you as a chaser. ST really did get its act together with the newer forum formats and the tighter restrictions on Forecast and Report threads, and it became much more usable. Even though there were a lot of complaints along the way, the growing pains actually helped get ST focused and usable by a wide range of people, from those interested in the science to the media to the ordinary chaser folks like me. Although I do believe that there is a threshold after a few years when chasers naturally begin gravitating away from the online environment. I think it's just a natural part of the process.

I do notice more chasers out there these days than before, and wonder how much of it is due to the way we organize and handle information online these days. If I would have had access to this much information when I started chasing, I probably would have had a much better track record, I know that much. And as far as photos go - when ST first went online, there was no such thing as sharing photos. I was still using film (in a bad camera), so I never even bothered trying to share photos (let alone video). Of course, when I first started chasing, it took several years before I even bothered to bring a camera, because I wasn't into photography at the time. Things are sooo different now. We can have photos (good photos) of the tornadoes up within minutes of the event for everyone to see. I'm amazed now when I go through threads like the Report thread for Wednesday.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

By the way... I suppose this latest event will stop some talk about tornado alley shifting north for awhile

Aaron

LOL, I don't know. It felt a bit weird to me watching a big wedge, in March, in western NE. Guess the calendar was on vacation on this one and so it allowed it to produce this day....