Chaser code of ethics?

[Matt Handley]

This may have come up at one point or another and I'm sorry if it's a redundant post, but I just felt the need to speak up and see what you guys thought.

Recently there was a severe weather outbreak in North Texas and the county my parents, grandparents, anunts, uncles etc. and brother live in (Grayson) was issued a tornado warning. Reading the spc maps and meso discussions prior I took my Mobile ThreatNet out of the truck and set it up in my living room to try and keep an eye on the situation for my families sake as me living in Iowa didn't give me a chance to try and spot in the area.

I had ThreatNet going on the laptop, and pulled up the live video on TVN to be able to see where the chasers were relative to my family (Sherman, TX) soon enough there was a wall cloud spotted headed their way, so I tuned into a live feed of a chaser in the area, they happened to have audio with their feed. While they were chasing the wall could headed toward my family they made some disturbing statements.

A few I can remember were "Sherman is gonna get pounded" the chaser with him responded "that's what she said" they had a good laugh about that, another was "Hey Sherman, you're all gonna die!!!" they also had a good laugh about that. I could see these were some pretty moral lacking individuals, so I clicked over to another feed, turns out it also had audio, shortly after I heard "How great would it be if we could get footage of the tornado tearing through Sherman? Talk about a payday!". This is my family your laughing about.

Now I know there are a ton of great chasers and spotters out there with their hearts in the right place, but as we all know it takes just a few bad apples. With the popularity of the Discovery Channels' Storm Chasers have thousands flocking to TVN to watch live feeds, most of them non-chasers/spotters, but people that are interested in what we do from around the world. As a chaser, these comments made me sick, mostly because this is what people are seeing and hearing, my family had the feeds tuned in too because they were fearing for their lives and property. They heard these comments directed at them and asked "these people aren't your friends are they"? Talk about a gut check.

Now again, I know the bulk of us are great people doing it for the right reasons and remaining very respectful throughout the chasing/spotting experience. Yet I feel like if you are running audio on your feed think before you speak, there are at times thousands viewing the stream, some in the path of the chase, you are the front line on what they are basing their opinions on of chasers. It doesn't just hurt the feelings of the people who may be affected, it also hurts the chaser reputation. Many of us are there to help people.

Sherman was fine, no damage, and all was safe. Yet I still left the situation with a bad taste in my mouth over how these two chase feeds made us look.

 

[David Drummond]

People feeding audio should try to filter what they say. However, it is LIVE, and people are going to be who they are going to be. The simple solution would be to turn of the audio, or just watch someone else's stream.

...and everyone streaming on the iMap is not associated with TVN.

 

[Andy Jackson]

This may have come up at one point or another and I'm sorry if it's a redundant post, but I just felt the need to speak up and see what you guys thought.

Recently there was a severe weather outbreak in North Texas and the county my parents, grandparents, anunts, uncles etc. and brother live in (Grayson) was issued a tornado warning. Reading the spc maps and meso discussions prior I took my Mobile ThreatNet out of the truck and set it up in my living room to try and keep an eye on the situation for my families sake as me living in Iowa didn't give me a chance to try and spot in the area.

I had ThreatNet going on the laptop, and pulled up the live video on TVN to be able to see where the chasers were relative to my family (Sherman, TX) soon enough there was a wall cloud spotted headed their way, so I tuned into a live feed of a chaser in the area, they happened to have audio with their feed. While they were chasing the wall could headed toward my family they made some disturbing statements.

A few I can remember were "Sherman is gonna get pounded" the chaser with him responded "that's what she said" they had a good laugh about that, another was "Hey Sherman, you're all gonna die!!!" they also had a good laugh about that. I could see these were some pretty moral lacking individuals, so I clicked over to another feed, turns out it also had audio, shortly after I heard "How great would it be if we could get footage of the tornado tearing through Sherman? Talk about a payday!". This is my family your laughing about.

Now I know there are a ton of great chasers and spotters out there with their hearts in the right place, but as we all know it takes just a few bad apples. With the popularity of the Discovery Channels' Storm Chasers have thousands flocking to TVN to watch live feeds, most of them non-chasers/spotters, but people that are interested in what we do from around the world. As a chaser, these comments made me sick, mostly because this is what people are seeing and hearing, my family had the feeds tuned in too because they were fearing for their lives and property. They heard these comments directed at them and asked "these people aren't your friends are they"? Talk about a gut check.

Now again, I know the bulk of us are great people doing it for the right reasons and remaining very respectful throughout the chasing/spotting experience. Yet I feel like if you are running audio on your feed think before you speak, there are at times thousands viewing the stream, some in the path of the chase, you are the front line on what they are basing their opinions on of chasers. It doesn't just hurt the feelings of the people who may be affected, it also hurts the chaser reputation. Many of us are there to help people.

Sherman was fine, no damage, and all was safe. Yet I still left the situation with a bad taste in my mouth over how these two chase feeds made us look.

Sounds like they need to turn the sound off. You can't fix what's coming out of their mouths but you should pass this along to the streaming platform they represented. Sorry you had to hear that, I personally would rather see a tornado out in an open field and most don't want to see a killer.

 

[Matt Handley]

You guys are right, turning off the audio would fix the situation, but hearing the HAM traffic in the background was why I had it turned up.

Even still It's what the general public that were tuned in that want to see and learn what we do heard that I was most concerned about.

 

[Steve Miller]

Welcome to the new world of chasing. No respect for the storm, no respect for property, no respect for human lives. You should just say who it was that was doing it. They need to be hung out. You were watching the stream so you should know.
Audio is a HUGE draw for those who are in a good enough cell signal area to pull it off. I'm sorry to hear it was not positive in nature. Again, welcome to Discovery Channel inspired chasing at it's finest.

 

[rdale]

That's just sick and tells me that they don't have a heart and don't care about what happens to other people.

Something I've grown to learn and accept after decades of forecasting and chasing is this... No matter what I say, think, ask for, beg for, or otherwise plead my case when it comes to weather -- none of those efforts actually changes the outcome. I can't make a tornado by telling someone I want to see a tornado today. Can't make it miss Jonesville because my family lives there. What I want really has no bearing on the actual outcome. So it doesn't matter if my heart says "Save them" or "Kill them" -- the outcome is unchanged because of it.

 

[Jason Foster]

Back issues of the printed StormTrack FTW. Read it, Know it, Live it.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Yep, SOME chasers nowadays want to be the next youtube sensation and Good Morning America star, along with padding their wallet. To do that, they need to get the best footage, which most of the time includes damage footage and lives being affected. Sad to say, but most networks think footage of a tornado in open country is boring. Storm chasing is sadly not what it used to be.

 

[Mike Moore]

This is the same as the bad driving threads, the not stopping to render aid threads, the chasers should ____ and not ____ threads.

Some people are jerks. (being nice here)

Some people storm chase.

Some people meet both of the above criteria.

I know it's personal when family is involved, but you can't let those kinds of people get you down... just hit the mute button.

 

[Scott Bennett]

Well I have to change my post now to make it make sense.

Yea that is in peoples videos on youtube too and it sucks, but that is how some people think.

I agree with Rob's comment as you can't control the weather, I said this on Facebook earlier.

"Bowdle... that was a great outbreak... broke some power lines, a radio tower and damaged a house. Nobody got hurt and you could see every shape and size of Tornado in one day with very little in the way. THAT is the kind of outbreak day I wait to see again. These destructive Tornadoes can take a break for a while"

 

[Jeff Duda]

Yep, SOME chasers nowadays want to be the next youtube sensation and Good Morning America star, along with padding their wallet. To do that, they need to get the best footage, which most of the time includes damage footage and lives being affected. Sad to say, but most networks think footage of a tornado in open country is boring. Storm chasing is sadly not what it used to be.

I think those who have been chasing for years and chase because they love being out there with nature, nailing a forecast, and witnessing the power of mother nature is what storm chasing is, and still is to those people, and the newcomers who are doing the same thing. What is giving the view of storm chasing changing is the thousands who are now buying a laptop and phone to get data and running out after any storm near their home and trying to get on TV just like you said. Since there are more of them and fewer of the more purist or hardcore chasers out there, this new breed of chasers has a louder voice and it seems that storm chasing is going that direction. When the crticial point on the obsession curve is reached and everyone suddenly gets tired of seeing tornadoes/drama on TV, the hordes will move on to their next flavor-of-the-years abomination and those who chase storms because they love it will remain. I'm hoping this happens within the next 5 or so years.

 

[Matt Handley]

I think those who have been chasing for years and chase because they love being out there with nature, nailing a forecast, and witnessing the power of mother nature is what storm chasing is, and still is to those people, and the newcomers who are doing the same thing. What is giving the view of storm chasing changing is the thousands who are now buying a laptop and phone to get data and running out after any storm near their home and trying to get on TV just like you said. Since there are more of them and fewer of the more purist or hardcore chasers out there, this new breed of chasers has a louder voice and it seems that storm chasing is going that direction. When the crticial point on the obsession curve is reached and everyone suddenly gets tired of seeing tornadoes/drama on TV, the hordes will move on to their next flavor-of-the-years abomination and those who chase storms because they love it will remain. I'm hoping this happens within the next 5 or so years.

Maybe they'll go try and catch crab on the Bearing Sea? Problem solved

 

[joel ewing]

From what I've experienced over the years, and of course this is just my opinion only, but I have found that the world of chasers has more than it's share of egotistic, selfish individuals. And some weird ones, too. I've tried to figure out why this is, in fact, the subject will come up between my chase partners and me every couple of years. I've yet to satisfied with an answer, but do have a couple of hunches...which if anybody is interested, might be a subject for another thread some chasing off-season. I can understand your angst with the situation you presented. My first thought after reading your post was..."grow some thicker skin"....but I'm sure that's not what you want to hear. What I'll tell you though is that chasing is one unique endeavor that allows for a person's true makeup to be seen by all...under a myriad of conditions. I would ask you to reflect on that statement for a moment. There's an old saying that goes something like: "you never really KNOW someone until you've LIVED with them". And I'll say that "you don't know a person until you've CHASED with that person". All I'm saying here is that if you hang around and get into this chasing game...for lack of a better word...you'll soon see that there are jerks involved for sure. However, the friends and relationships that I've made within chasing are the strongest ones in my life. Hope this helps.

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

I'm not surprised by this though I'm disappointed by it. The sad truth is there are probably many 'chasers' who have the same view as those you heard on that audio. These people want to see destruction. These are the same people who don't stop to help because 'they don't want to lose that storm'. Sadly it isn't something that's going to change and this Gladiator mentality is probably only going to get worse.

I know many consider me to be part of the 'new breed' of chasers. While this may be true, I don't want to be associated with people like this. Maybe its because the passion I've had of weather almost my entire life and the respect of weather/mother nature that I have (i.e. I didn't just see an episode of 'storm chasers' on the discovery channel and decided I wanted to 'do that' like I'm sure some people have) or maybe its just the fact that some people have a conscience and some don't.

...in any case, very sad

 

[Rob H]

This is the same as the bad driving threads, the not stopping to render aid threads, the chasers should ____ and not ____ threads.

I completely agree with the other part of your post, and think it's the best answer for the OP, but it's probably worth pointing out that good people can still drive poorly or drive past a town that needs help, and the circumstances might be in their favor on these decisions. It can be a gray area, for sure.

Hoping that a tornado hits a populated town to sell video - at that point, harsher words than 'jerk' may be applicable.