Attempted to Attend Spotter Training

[Mike Peregrine]

Attempted to attend local spotter training last night in St. Joseph. Got ready, made my way in pouring rain up to the building where it was scheduled ... only to be turned away at the door! - According to the gentlemen at the door, the building had reached its legal capacity and couldn't seat anymore. I counted ten other people who came up during the next five minutes who were also sent back home in the rain. Pretty disappointing. St. Joseph - it's time get a bigger building! - It's great that so many people are interested in this, and I feel pretty strongly that attendance should be encouraged.

 

[J.B. Dixon]

Wow....that sucks, Mike!! Hate to see people who want to be as informed as possible get turned away.

Well, I attended spotter training in Seward last night. Pretty good presentation. I'm wondering how much in royalties Mike Hollingshead is getting, though. Yeesh! One of their quiz questions: How many times does Mike say "Holy" during his vid of the Alvo, NE Meso? (i.e. our Stormtrack logo picture in the uper left corner)

Pretty good stuff!

 

[Joe Nield]

Wow....that sucks, Mike!! Hate to see people who want to be as informed as possible get turned away.

Well, I attended spotter training in Seward last night. Pretty good presentation. I'm wondering how much in royalties Mike Hollingshead is getting, though. Yeesh! One of their quiz questions: How many times does Mike say "Holy" during his vid of the Alvo, NE Meso? (i.e. our Stormtrack logo picture in the uper left corner)

Pretty good stuff!

I know what you mean. Our show here at IND heavily consists of Ben Cotton's and Mike Kruze's Jamestown video from 4/20/04, a couple of my chase partners that I would have been out with had I not been giving a briefing in the senior forecasting lab. Of course, when I found out what they had seen, I had just gotten done saying, "there's been some funnel reports in Illinois, but it doesn't look like the thermodynamic environment is really there, so I'm not expecting much to come of that." A lesson to always look closely at the most current environment data...really, the rest of the class just wanted me to get done so we could get out.

It is quite possibly the most perfect supercell tornado structure video I have ever seen in Indiana. There are more spectacular tornado images/video, sure, but this was just textbook...the kind of stuff you just don't see around here.

 

[Court Hubbard]

Wow, very interesting news there Mike. I will be attending a local one on Thursday, but I doubt there will be that many people, because it is very local, BUT I may be really surprised, we shall see.

 

[John Diel]

I was planning to go up to Wellington Kansas and attend the Wichita NWSFO class. That sorta fell through with all the weather in the area though. I'm pretty sure they went ahead and had the class, but I was too busy running up and down I-35 like a chicken with my head cut off to get up to Wellington.

 

[David Sallee]

My son (Buddy) and I are going to attend the Newton Co (SW Missouri) training this wed coming up... Hopefully it's not too full.. :shock:

Dave

 

[Mike Johnston]

Mike, we had 181 attend down here in our class just south of you in Independence, MO (Jackson County, greater KC, MO) a few weeks ago...very well organized. Evidently, the Kansas City/Pleasant Hill office last season successfully warned 31 of of 31 confirmed tornadoes. My sister told me there were 5 separate training classes down in Wichita, KS due to extraordinary interest this year! Sorry you got turned away, but we're sure you'll survive and thrive this season!

 

[Mike Peregrine]

The WCM in Pleasant Hill tells me that the new EMD in St. Joe wasn't prepared for the crowds they experienced. I'm really glad that people around here are taking such an interest! - Didn't used to be that way at all ... seems like this has really become important to people in just the last few years ... most likely because of all the increased activity we've seen in this area. Mike mentioned that next year they actually plan to hold the training at the Civic Arena, which is great news. I'll probably try to jump in on one of the few remaining sessions in one of the small towns.

 

[Michael P. Morris]

That's a shame and a blessing at the same time - bad in that you were not able to attend, but its good that people are taking interest and learning peoper spotting techniques instead of just going it without knowing what to look for or expect. I got a very distinct mental picture of a guy in a raincoat walking up to the place, only to be turned away and walk through the pouring rain 15 miles home. Hopefully they will find a new place for the next one so no one else has to suffer like you did.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I was considering going to the Skywarn class in Wichita just to see what it covers. If anyone could fill me in on this, please PM me. I am not quite as pumped as everyone else is about the high attendance at the meetings. I would like to keep the storms all to myself when I am out chasing :lol: . I can only imagine how the guys that started chasing 15+ years ago feel.

 

[Kelley Austin]

I will be attending a spotter class tonight in Searcy, AR. Reading this post I think I need to get there very early just to get a seat. Thanks for the heads up.

Kelley :shock: