Amateur storm chasers cause headaches for emergency spotters

Steve Miller

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Original: http://www.naplesnews.com/weather/375395951.xhtml

The storm chasing frenzy is causing headaches for emergency personnel in severe weather situations, such as happened Sunday.

On several occasions Sunday, the control operator for Wichita County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARE), the volunteer storm spotter group, had to shoo amateur storm chasers from their closed radio frequency. But the main problem is traffic congestion as amateur chasers converge on roads where severe weather is developing.

"The country is inundated with these people," said Charlie Byars, who is ARES coordinator for nine North Texas counties."

"Safety is our main issue," said Byars, who noted that as many as 100 amateur storm chasers may converge on the area when the potential for tornadoes is high.

He said they will sometimes park in the middle of a road to watch and photograph an approaching storm. His group has begun calling law enforcement to clear away congested roads.

"We do not think storm chasing is a good idea," said Rick Smith, Warning Coordinator for the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., the bureau responsible for Wichita Falls and much of North Texas. "We don't condone it."

To illustrate the potential danger of chasing, Smith points to an incident in May 2013 where four chasers were killed by tornadoes near El Reno, Oklahoma, two of whom were seasoned chasers.

"That's a sobering reminder that it's not as cool as it looks on TV, Smith said.

He said the tornado-chasing phenomenon began with the release of the movie "Twister," in 1996. The movie, which combined romance, villains, and unrealistic meteorology, glamorized tornado chasing. Since then, video captured by tornado chasers has become regular fodder on some cable TV channels.

Byars said some amateur chasers will drive hundreds of miles from their homes for a chance to photograph a tornado. The phenomenon seems to have special appeal to foreigners who do not have tornadoes in their own countries, he said.

One intruder on the spotter radio network Sunday was an Australian, who continued arguing against his exclusion from the frequency into Monday afternoon.

"We try to be nice. We hate to be rude," Byars said. "But we don't know who these people are or if they know what they're doing."

Intruders on the net are told they are welcome to listen — but not to talk.

In addition to tornado chasers, Byars tells of "tornado safaris" in which companies charge customers thousands of dollars to participate in a tornado hunt.

Storm spotters are different than storm chasers. Members of the local ARE undergo extensive weather and safety training and serve time as trainees until they qualify to spot storms on their own. Spotters are typically assigned to an observation point and move only when they're in danger or asked to mover by the network controller. Chasers actively pursue storms, sometimes at high speeds.

Smith praises the value of trained spotter groups such as the one in Wichita Falls, which he calls one of the best in the country.

"They are doing life-saving work," he said.

The spotter group here communicates with the weather service and with emergency managers in area communities who decide if storm sirens should be sounded. While weather technology has become sophisticated, no radar can "see" a tornado, Smith said. Confirming a twister depends human eyes on the ground.

Sunday night, radar had a strong indication one storm cell could become tornadic and the weather service issued a tornado warning for part of Wichita County. ARE spotters never saw a tornado and none was confirmed.

The Sunday storm produced strong wind and large hail in southwest Oklahoma and gave Wichita Falls 1.37 inches of welcome rain. Another storm before dawn Monday temporarily knocked out electricity to about 2,400 customers in the Wichita Falls area and dropped small hail — but added nothing to the official rain gauge near Sheppard Air Force Base.
 
Another case of officials getting butthurt about storm chasers in their 'territory'. Many of the chasers I saw out on Sunday were behaving and probably had more experience than 80% of the 'trained spotters' out there. That doesn't excuse bad behavior - but this does provide another example of why I never bothered getting my HAM license. Its so much better to just talk to the NWS directly and 'bypass' a third party.
 
I wonder if the Australian was Daniel Shaw, I doubt it, he doesn't seem like the type of person to argue. I also saw a post on Facebook about an experienced chaser being blinded by extremely bright amber lights from another chaser in front of him...
 
Sounds like a bunch of "trained spotters" are getting their feelings hurt and are looking down at chasers as "amateurs" and assuming they don't have any training. Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it sounds like they think everyone who isn't a "trained spotter" is there to do nothing but take pictures and block the road. Get over yourselves.
 
This is why I will never have light-bars, hail-guards, bumper-stickers, or any other things on my vehicle that would give anyone the idea that I am storm chasing. I am not a storm chaser. I am just out there going for a nice Sunday drive. Sure, my license plate says I live in Minnesota. It isn't illegal to travel the country on a nice leisurely drive is it? The headline to this story is as follows "Amateur storm chasers cause headaches for emergency spotters" .... What the hell is an emergency spotter? A "trained" spotter sitting on top of a hill in a fire truck reporting a rain shaft wedge tornado...? What is an "Amateur storm chaser"? Someone who actually moves around and gets into the correct position inside of an HP supercell to see the area of interest? They want to call law enforcement to keep people away from storms??? Like when the law enforcement on Brandon Clements live stream stopped traffic IN THE PATH of a tornado??? They don't condone storm chasing, they don't think it is a good idea ................ let the "emergency spotters" and law enforcement have all the fun... Well, I don't condone skydiving, or bungee jumping, hell I don't even like flying. There are many unsafe things in this world, but I get physically angry and actually want to get into a fist fight when I see these types of articles. Stop chasing and stay away from areas that are forecast to have tornadic supercells.... Ok, so just stop doing one of the only things that I love to do on this earth. Give us a break.
 
Similar to what has been previously stated, the issue I have with this article is that they try to classify professional/amateur storm chasers/storm spotters, which can't be done. Are they promoting the idea of attempting to ban amateur chasers? Any experienced storm chaser started as an "amateur". Who cares why you're out there, whether it is for a hobby, media, reporting, or science. Everyone out there thinks they are justified in some way to be out there chasing. Just don't be stupid or obnoxious and everyone can get along.
 
I also really hope they are not referring to Daniel Shaw. He is very good at what he does. If they are referring to Shaw, I think he should just drop the whole spotting aspect, and just get out there to enjoy the storms. Don't even bother with the radio and calling in reports if they don't appreciate it. Half the time I am watching his live stream I hear crazy redneck sounding hillbillies saying "hee haw dem der its a tornaduh jim bob look at all dat der rotashun in dem clouds" all while Shaw is trying to chime in and tell these guys that the storm is completely outflow dominant and has zero tornado chance at the moment.
 
These news articles will only get worse unless we fight back with full video from our chases. Nothing shuts up the armchair critics and wayward chicken littles faster than video evidence.

If you have archived video of your ENTIRE chase from this day, please let me know and I will add it to this page I created for the Kansas coverage last year. I've edited the page to add Texas to the list.

http://stormhighway.com/blog2015/april2815a.php
 
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That article was about 10 paragraphs longer than it needed to be.

The TL;DR: a lot of storm chasers were in north Texas Sunday night. One of them stopped in the middle of the road briefly. Another got on the "closed" radio frequency for the local ARES group and argued with them over something. This kind of thing annoys a radio operator and some law enforcement officers...for a few days each year. WAH WAH WAH.
 
I would agree that the numbers have gotten a bit out of hand. 20 years ago, I never saw another chaser on the roads (at least not that I knew of). However last I checked, "Storm Chasing" itself is not illegal, and should never be illegal. (Free country and all). But the real issue isn't the "storm chasing", it's the moronic actions by some chasers (ie: blocking roads, extreme speed, wreckless driving, insane blinding lightbars, etc.) that are causing the problems, and some of those actions are illegal. Law Enforcement and the media just like to focus on the fact that they are "storm chasers", and not that they are just idiot drivers, violating traffic laws, or trespassing on private property.
 
Also... I like how they call it "The Storm Chasing Frenzy!!" LOL. Frenzy? Maybe for some real n00bs, but for most of us that have been doing this for a long time, it's not a "frenzy". Hell, I wouldn't even call it a hobby. It's more of a way of life.
 
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