Another moron on Spotter Network

[Eric Treece]

Erin, all I can say is WOW that took guts BIG TIME to come in here and tell your side of the story. Just for taking that step alone you have my respect. I also respect the members that have appologized for some of the comments made as well. While I agree with everyone that the pictures you posted clearly are not that of a wedge tornado, it was in no way, shape, or form within the right of anyone in this forum to judge you in such a demeaning way. The one thing you should never ever give up on is your passion to chase. There isn't a member in this forum that hasn't made a mistake or thought they saw something that really wasn't what they thought it was. And in the heat of the moment no less. Nobody is perfect. Period.

 

[Shane Adams]

I put as much faith in SN reports as I do GR3's latest scans being relative to reality. Nothing personal, but when it's my safety or to a lesser degree, my information hotline in the field, I'll rely on my own eyes, ears, and nose first. Field gizmos are like models: fun ways to pass the time and nice for trends/guidelines, but never to be relied on as absolute.

 

[rdale]

I put as much faith in SN reports as I do GR3's latest scans being relative to reality.

Rephrase that or turn on the sarcasm attribute You are saying that GR3 radar display is wrong?

 

[J Allen]

It took a lot of guts to come in here and say you were wrong Erin, bravo.

Another point springs to mind here for me, the judgemental behaviour by individuals who were not there at the time. Observation of severe weather is very subjective (despite our wish for it to be objective), and this is partially to do with how things may appear from ones point of view. We need to be careful calling someone a liar, or misrepresenter of truth when we were not there to see what they saw in the first place...weather is dynamic and changes rapidly.

I also note that how a photo or video captures a picture of something you wish to document can also be misleading to how it appeared at the time...or even miss that moment when it looked even more convincing. For a bit of biblical wisdom, let he who is without sin cast first stone. It was good in this case that the mistake could be corrected because of other chasers being present at the event and even with a similar viewpoint. However it is hazard to think how many mistakes have been made by Chasers and Spotters when there was no point of second verification...what is real and what isn't can throw questions on a whole database of severe weather reports.

Finally, without the efforts of people reporting from Amateur to Experienced it is difficult to produce any sort of climatology of severe weather (sample size vs event distribution). Over here in Australia this is an enormous problem: our NWS doesn't take the reports of chasers or most spotters seriously at all, and pays for it when warnings are issued late, or nothing is recorded despite a significant event occuring. While the varied experience does play havoc on the quality of the database, I would rather have the luxury of deciding what goes in, then not having sufficient reports in the first place.....proximity data, radar or observers can quite often provide this verification.

As I said before, good on Erin for making the effort to resolve the issue, clear her name and educate herself. If only all the people who made the reports were so willing to acknowledge mistakes and try to correct them.

 

[Skip Talbot]

First of all, let me apologize for letting some of the things go in this thread longer than they should have. After my initial couple of replies I stopped monitoring this thread as I was in chase mode and busy with other things. Although its quite late at this point, I am cleaning up this thread and will be removing posts that are off topic and contain personal attacks. Infractions will be not be issued simply because no one knew Erin was a member until she replied to this thread. However, in the future I don't think we should permit people to be rifling through personal information and personally attacking fellow chasers and spotters even if they aren't signed up on Stormtrack. These are public forums that everyone can read and it reflects poorly on us as a community.

That being said, I do agree that we should be able to discuss and criticize false reports. Newcomers and those responsible can learn a lot from these discussions as long as they are civil and on topic. I admit that storm did make me do a double take. One of the rain shafts I saw on it looked like a very convincing landspout. What spared me from hitting the button on a false report was that I watched the feature from the start and could clearly see it was a rain shaft. Here are the photos I posted in the reports thread:

Definitely a very convincing look-a-like as it appears to have a sheath of dust, a debris cloud at the bottom, and a even a pointy funnel at the top. I would have forgiven anyone who stumbled onto this scene and called out a landspout.

However, I stand by my original assessment though that in this case it was quite the newbie blunder to mistake these rain shafts for a wedge. If there were ground dragging scud or the radar and visual appearance were more convincing (ie a large HP supercell with a dark rain shaft in the inflow notch and a tight couplet on radar) I could easily forgive such a report as well. But its clear even to entry level spotters that the photos Erin posted are not a tornado.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Sure, we all make mistakes, and Erin has learned from hers. In 2002 or 2003 I was chatting with Warren Faidley west of Plainview, TX and we were looking at a feature that really looked like a tornado. It was very convincing. It was in the right area, but one thing it wasn't doing...It wasn't rotating. We had to look close, but we knew it wasn't a tornado and never called it in as one. New spotters and chasers have to learn to take a deep breath and analyze the situation before making a judgment call. It can obviously mean the difference between a good report and a bad report.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

I apologize for the poke about misspelling "satellite." If I didn't have a spellchecker, I'd be putting out whoppers worse than that. I admire Erin coming in here to defend her actions, but I may be the first person to point out that the post overstepped boundaries by implying misogyny as a motive for the backlash. If anything, Erin may have received better treatment in this thread than that of a man, due to the attitudes of the more chivalrous among us. Additionally, it should be noted that the author of this thread dates a female (bestselling!) writer/stormchaser himself.

Erin - don't create drama when it isn't needed. We aren't against females who chase, we won't hold a lifetime grudge against someone who made a mistake on SN (so long as one owns up and learns from it, which you did), and we don't consider you stupid - many of us have less credentials than you, many of us have similar credentials, and quite a few out in the field will be smarter than you or I will ever be, even if they don't have a college education. Your actions display your intelligence, not your reading list or the prestige of your school.

In summary, don't worry about all of this. Come in, admit your mistake, learn from it; shorter and sweeter posts mean less grumpy people. You were in the right to point fingers at the name-callers, but don't cross lines and label people you don't know and try to make yourself a victim. Keep the drama at a minimum; people will respect you and nobody will care after that point. Ask Bill Doms about my "tornado report" of a persistent gustnado under a shelf finger back in 2008; it caused DMX to TOR-warn a bow echo for three counties

 

[MatthewCarman]

With how Erin was treated I would be suprised if she continues to visit this site. I think it's time to let this thread die and move on.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Well, all right, I agree that everything that needed to be said has been said, but I don't see anything inappropriate in this thread after she posted, and plenty of us have apologized for stepping over the line ourselves in the posts we made prior to hers. :shrug: