Chasing "Old School"

[Connor McCrorey]

The thread about how much technology has changed the chasing world got me wondering, how many of us have gone out, even regularly, and tried chasing without all the fancy gadgets? No wireless data, no cell phones (although turning a cell phone off instead would work just fine), etc. I think this is something I would really like to try at some point, but I haven't done it yet.

 

[Danny Neal]

Up until 2002 I was commando. (Well unless NWR/spotter freqs on radio count as using today's technologies) It was more of a challenge, but made scoring feel that much better. I used the fold out atlas, the small WX radio, and the most important gadget/tool a chaser can possibly have...... their eyes. I am sure I can still chase this way, and probably should since I don't like to depend on other things for my own success. I don't know it may feel WEIRD to do it the first few times (again) , but where there is a will there is a way.

 

[Shane Adams]

The majority of my chases since 1998 have been with NOAA radio and a HH scanner (1996-1997 was just FM radio). I've found that having technology VS not having it isn't what makes a chase day easier or harder for me, but what kind of setup it is. Doesn't matter how much gear we have in the car, if the setup is complex and difficult to pinpoint, it's gonna be a long day...and if I'm using my eyes and a paper map on the type of setup that I naturally understand, it's gonna be a fun day without the gear.

I think a lot of chasers could chase old school, but I also think very few of them truly trust their own forecasts. It's one thing to sit in your computer chair and say what you think will happen on ST...quite another to put that to the test for a 500-mile chase. When I make a "forecast" or "chasecast" or whatever, I pretty much have a feeling before I leave how the day is gonna go. Certain types of situations give me trouble while others I seem to have a natural nose for. Regardless of my "gut", I still go out on any day where I believe I can see a tornado.

There really is no need for further data once you leave the house with today's at-home technology, if you truly believe in your forecast (adjustments can be made visually through a pre-conceived contingency plan or "back-up" plan, along with real-time observations and on-the-fly changes). I think most people who use data do it more for a nerdy techno passion than because they really need it. Seems most chasers today are hydrids who enter the hobby through other interests, mainly IT types who are gearheads and love to tinker with software and all that gogglygoo and of course, the photog.

I hate technical crap, I have zero patience for it, and still photography does nothing for me. So right outta the box I've eliminated 99.9% of the crap most guys carry around. Not to be defiant, but because it doesn't help me (and I'm not interested in it). WX-WORX, GR2, 3, ??? nor the internet has ever saved me when I blow a forecast...but they have pinpointed what we were already on top of many times.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

(although turning a cell phone off instead would work just fine)

Then I chase "old school" a good deal of the time. One thing I have gradually learned over this years is how annoying it is being bothered while you're busy chasing.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I like any chasing no matter what, with our without the gadgets.

I started out with nothing. My first chases would involve me seeing a storm on radar 40 miles away...looping it to see which way it was heading...then bolt out the door...Ive gone out at times where the only radar I was able to check was at a rest stop IF they had it on. I chased 2 full years without a laptop....just a NOAA radio and cell phone radar that barely worked.

Each year I added a little more to my technological arsenol. I still consider myself low tech compared to the way i see some chasers all decked out. I have my technology now, but anyone whos chased with me can tell you, im poor so its bottom of the line and breaks allot lol so its only good half the chase anyways.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I need my laptop - Even without wireless internet data, I *HATE* paper maps. I've chased before with nothing more than paper maps and a noaa weather radio and a cell phone (I've had a cellphone as long as a drivers license, so I never had a chance to not use it..)

I didn't have mobile data or even GR3 until after the 10/18/07 outbreak.

So, even if for Streets & Trips, I can't throw away my 'gadgets'

 

[Chris Lott]

I would have to say I chase old school in a way. Other than having the models to view on the home computer to decide on a target leading up to an event, on an actual chase day I have a cell phone(only for nowcasting from another chaser, not annoying phone calls), ham radio and my road atlas, and that's it. I plan on eventually getting a laptop and GRL 3, but that's about as far as I'm going.

 

[Mike Smith]

Some of us did it in the mid-1970s with no radar, no satellite, no models, no laptops and only a road atlas! Dairy Queen was the restaurant of choice!

 

[Verne Carlson]

I'll chase old school if a situation develops where I have to leave work fast without my equipment. I chased blind enough in the 90's so that now I like to use every new gadget available now. As long as I have room in my car and I go visual after I get to the storms I don't want to handicap myself. Chasing is still just as satisfying for me if I found the storm using all the equipment that today provides.

 

[Bill Schintler]

I've had some of my best chases while chasing "old school". For example, April 10, 2008 in eastern Iowa. I left work on a moment's notice after looking at data, and headed west on I-80 from Iowa City with the intention of intercepting storms developing along a strong warm front. I had nothing but the (broadcast band) radio... I also had no visibility with a very low ceiling north of the front - even the tops of 400ft radio towers were obscured! I was basically going by feel and instinct - things just "felt right". Soon, heavy rain and small hail started; and I raced east. An opening formed in the low clouds ahead of me, and I looked to the right and there it was! The tornado was less then 1/2 mile in front of me...

In the 80's and 90's, I intercepted dozens of tornadoes by taking a look at the radar and then bolting out the door and heading down the road with nothing more then the car radio for "data".

I actually hate fiddling with technology and buggy Windows operating systems while I'm trying to focus on the weather - for me it's easy to become too focused on that aspect and not on relying on one's senses. That's ironic because my "day job" is very technical - I design signal processing (DSP) algorithms and embedded software that runs in software-defined radios...

- bill

 

[David Drummond]

That is hard to answer because, YES I had to do it. It was the only way back in the day, and I of course liked it because we had none of what is available today. That was all we knew then.

In retrospect, it sucked and a lot of what we have now I wouldn't necessarily want to give up. I often find myself sometimes saying, "when did chasing get so complicated?"

 

[Dan Robinson]

The more I think about it, what is so different about the actual chase today (other than the crowds)? I might use radar to help get me to the right place, but once I'm there, the laptop usually closes for the majority of the time I'm on a nice supercell. From that point on, I'm watching, capturing and taking in the storm the same way as if I'd used a paper map and a stop in at the NWS office in the morning.

Truth be told, I'd be less likely to be there at that supercell if I'd done it the old way. The old way would probably have me 100 miles to the south sitting under blue skies and dying Tcu.

I think our lament of technology may be misguided. If what really matters in chasing is seeing a great storm, it has improved chasing 300 percent for all of us. I guess if the lure of nostalgia is not seeing storms, then technology is a bad thing.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

As a radar meteorologist, I always wanted to review the radar data on an event I chase so I could visually compare the storm features to what was seen with the remote sensor. The real reason I first started getting live radar data in the field was to do just that. In 2000, I cable-tethered a 9600 kbs phone to a big clunky slow laptop, and would get a Cartesianized 0.5 degree Weather Tap radar image about once every 10 minutes, at best (when I was in decent coverage). This was enough to give me a fair idea of what the radar was seeing. I never really gave any thought, back then, to using the radar data to navigate to and around the storms as it is most commonly used, until I realized the next year that the radar data would be useful at night from a safety standpoint.

Now...we have GR2AE in the field when bandwidth permits. Talk about advanced analysis of a storm that is sitting right in front of you!

For the novice chaser, I'm not even sure radar data is needed anymore. Just go to the place where all the "famous names" on the Spotter Network icons are converging.

 

[Jason Foster]

Of course...Old Skool....to me also means the environment to which chasing was like back in the day.

I'm talking about the small group of chasers that when you actually bumped into them out in the field it was a special occasion. I'm talking the old school, before all the cameras and TV crews and when you ran into town, people didn't know what a storm chaser was. When the police and fire rescue folks who know of storm chasers had a high level of respect for what we did. When the number of research chasers was about 50% and the other 50% where hobby type enthusiasts. That's the old school I'm thinking about.....no way to find that now....no matter what you bring or don't bring on a chase....the environment has just changed.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I remember chasing hurricanes "old school" as far back as 1987!

It was fairly straight-forward, take a map with lat-lon lines on it of the target area (if it had no lat-lon lines - I drew them in), and listen to NOAA radio / AM radio and plot the positions ... This tenique got me into the eyes of several hurricanes in the 80's / 90's. GPS was more of a "luxury" for hurricane chasing when it came out.

I have not chased in the Central US / Great Plains until about 1999 / 2000, but chased thunderstorms frequently in S Florida. Often, in the summer, if you know (visually) where boundaries were going to interect, that was all you needed. The boundaries were lake / sea-breezes, and clearly geographic-induced.

Playing fronts were a different story, often it was hit or miss. There was NO live radar, just NOAA / storm reports / warnings ... And often, prior to 1995, warnings went out AFTER the storm, not during or before.

No huge chaser convergences either ... Often seeing a storm, no one was around - Just you!