Circus Chasing Texas Panhandle

[Tom Pastrano]

Hate for this to be my first post but what I saw yesterday was very frustrating. In the 15 years I have been chasing, I have never seen anything close to this. While there have been many times I have seen chasers converge on one spot, this occasion everyone forgot to put safety first. I witnessed multiple people parked on the road to view the storms in Lipscomb county. There were 3 occasions when I had to slam on my breaks in order not to hit someone who were standing in the middle of a state highway. One person just got out of their vehicle and ran out across the road without looking. I saw several people who had tripods in the middle of a county road I wanted to turn off on. Not to mention all of the lightning rods that were shooting video. One of these days something like this will turn tragic!

 

[Tim Vasquez]

I wonder how many of these people are the proverbial "local yokels" or are completely unaffiliated storm chasers (who don't even interact online or at events).

I'm really astounded that there have been no accidents yet. It's like chasers are astonishingly lucky or are operating on borrowed time.

Tim

 

[Greg Stumpf]

I can recall the rare "tripod in the road" incidents in my early days of chasing in the early 1990s. These folks were exclusively media chasers, and had their heavy duty tripods and Betamax cameras out there. Why the F#%$ they can't just as easily set up a tripod off the road is beyond me.

As the chaser crowd has grown through the years, there has been an increasing number of newer chasers who are emulating these irresponsible media chasers (and, unfortunately, "movie" chasers). I emplore the newer chasers out there to consider emulating the veteran chasers who started this hobby. Those are the chasers who put safety, courtesy, and responsbility first. One of these days, a chaser with eyes glued to a storm is going to peak a hill or curve, and right around the bend will be chasers parked or standing on the right-of-way, and it is not going to be pretty.

Sheer numbers of chasers aren't the main cause for this. If the increasing numbers of chasers were acting responsible, I think things would be much better. And I think it is lame that some chasers on this board blame "locals" for all the problems without looking in the mirror.

I think the last 5-10 years has bred a new brand of chaser, and it is those folks who are causing the problems. If you feel my description describes you, and you don't like my opinion, then too bad. But if you do feel like you could improve yourself, with a desire to learn and grow in this hobby, then I congratulate you. I know there are members of both camps on this forum, and my only hope is that more folks will gravitate toward the "responsible chaser" camp, regardless of your motivations for chasing. Let's keep this hobby alive and free.

Anyway, as I like to remind folks, here are two great essays to read, written by the pre-eminent veterans of storm chasing, two persons that deserve our utmost respect.

Chuck Doswell's Chase Safety tips

Al Moller's Chaser Ethics

 

[Dave Grass]

This is also my first post. My neighbor and I will be chasing for the first time next week with a very experienced chaser who has graciously allowed us to tag along and learn from him. One thing he will not have to cover is common sense. I respect the road, it's inhabitants and the ever changing conditions. In my youth, I logged over 1,000,000 miles driving a semi and have seen much in the way of "stupid people tricks". I'm sure some of these were chasers, media types and locals. Point is, there are stupid distracted people in all walks of life driving our highways. The trick is to be patient and defensive for it may be your life you're saving.

Have a safe and successful season.

 

[Andrew McDonald]

We had an interaction with a "local yokel" yesterday when he pulled up beside as and said, "Are you guys storm chasers or are you just following along like me?". I told him that what he was doing wasn't a great idea and that he would want to be very careful (what else can you do/say?).

It was certainly a little chaotic yesterday but given the number of vehicles on the road, I thought it wasn't too bad (people's driving/other behavior) given the narrow width of the road(s) which people were on.

One instance which comes to mind was several chase cars full of chasers parked on the crest of a hill. They had done a decent enough job of parking off the road, however, they were then all gathered around the vehicles on the road side and many were standing well onto the road on the crest. There was no way any approaching vehicles could've seen whether there was anything coming the other way (due to the crest) and these people made little, if any, effort to get off the road. Sure, they could probably see that nothing was coming the other way but for those still driving, having to go onto the wrong side of the road on a crest is a little unnerving.

I think in every situation, people just need to take a second (literally- that's all it takes) to think whether they are in a position which may cause hindrance to other drivers/road users. If so, move. If not, fine .

Andrew McDonald

 

[Joshua Horenstein]

First Post

Hi everyone, my first post, though a long time lurker.

Of course we all fear that one or more chasers will be hurt by doing something stupid like standing in the middle of a highway, but another fear is that such an event will push legislation to ban our beloved hobby. It's hard to imagine how a bill would be worded that says you can't drive around the plains, but I'm sure some creative politician could figure it out.

I think it is of upmost importance to auto-regulate the best we can. Though we obviously can't control what every local yokel is doing, we certainly can make efforts to police ourselves.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

There will never be any bill or legislation that will ban or regulate storm chasing. A bill like that would be impossible to enforce since there is nothing illegal about driving around in the plains unless you're breaking already existing laws (speeding, wreckless driving, etc...). And alot of chasers tend to chase commando, that is they don't have anything on their vehicle that would indicate they're a chaser.. so how would they be able to prove they're storm chasers?

Anyways, we beat this topic to death year after year - it's frustrating but at the same time I know nothing will change. No matter how long of an essay we write up about the subject, no matter how we present our opinions, there will still be storm chasers that are wreckless.

All I can do is just make sure I'm doing my part to present myself in a respectable manner while out chasing and make sure that I'm doing so in a safe manner. Safety has always been and always will be #1 when I'm out chasing.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

Honestly, I woulda hit the guy, that'd teach em, in a harsh way, but hey, dont stand in the middle of a busy road to look at a bleepin storm.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Hopefully you're kidding; killing someone is generally not the best way to educate him. If we all killed each other every time we did stupid things, we definately wouldn't need to worry about chase convergences.

 

[Chris Wilburn]

I had no problems chasing the TX Panhandle on Wednesday. This is probably due to the fact that most of our chase was from 9pm to around midnight. Even at 6pm when we were chasing a tornadic cell just nw of Lipscomb we only ran into a few people. I have no doubts it was bad and we lucked out I am sure. I do my best to be respectful and pull all of the way off the road and don't deploy my tripod to where it will block traffic. I also do not get into the view of somebody trying to shoot pics and video as well. I always staff as far off the road as possible and respect people with taking videos and pics. If everybody would do this it would be much better out there chasing. I don't think anything will ever change though. It's just like anything else in the world.......you will have a few crazy/irresponsible people out there with just about anything that goes on no matter what the hobby.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Just lay on the horn about 5 feet from them. The run faster than they should from the tornadoes lol. If I see a tripod in the road tho.....its mine.
I saw and have video of chasers getting out after being parked safely....then they run acrross to the.....stop and take their pic on the center stripe.....GET YOU A$$ accross the road....its ok to get muddy shoes and thats why ya wear long pants to aavoid chigger... I actually like to get back awy from the road unless I have founf a gate entrance to park in. I like to try to the road and the power lines ouf of my pics.
Also....stop parking on the side of bridges even theo they have a shoulder....its jsut not safe. Turn off your head lams when you are in crowds on the side of the road.....people wan to take pics of the storms...not your headlights
Finally....yet again we have people getting toooo damn close. The media should seriously sonsider not even shwoing videos from stormchasers if its from 1/4 mile or less. Maybe it will keep them back a distance but I dount it. The only person they care about is them selves and when the die on some dirty road one evening from a lightning strike orthe tornado throws a t-post into the wind shied it wont be their problem becuase how theya re dead. The reest of us will have to be with stormchasing reualtion laws. All from one Jack A$s.....WHEN ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF CHASING TELLS YOU TO TONE IT DOWN.....ya might want to admit you have a problem and your scareing alot of people.
I wont say names,him alot of guysagree and it is no secret Doswell has had a talk with him..,..and it does no good......so when for the chaser who gets too close and drives 100 passing you doing 70 instead.
The media neds to start showng real stormchasing educatonal videos.....and not these failed suicide attempts....its not like they jsust being ina abad spot bad time.....theytry to get aunder the wall cloud tolet a tornado drop on them.......darwinwill win eventually

 

[Shane Adams]

Chasing situations like we had last Wed is no different than driving in a metropolitan area. Sure it was a pain in the rump, but we were never in danger of being killed, killing someone else, or any other horrible fate that seems to be looming over the chasing universe of late. Use your eyes, use your brain. There's a ton of vehicles out here, there's rain-slicked roads, it's pouring rain, there are many chasers who are newer than you (and therefore more excitable and less-likely to think before running across the road, etc etc.) Give yourself a bit of space between yourself and the guy ahead of you....look over your shoulder before opening that car door.......look both ways before crossing a road....hey, this is NE TX pan and the terrain is very conducive for creepy crawlys....check the ground for rattlers, scorps, and other nasty things before squatting down with your tripod....these are just a handful of the dozen or so things I am constantly aware of out there, regardless of what you see me doing. Safety is simple and an afterthought.....it should be instinctive, if you're to survive to be old enough to vote.

I don't understand the new breed of chaser hatched in the past 5-10 years as mentioned by Greg, because he never described that type of chaser. I guess he means generally aloof? I dunno.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

I don't understand the new breed of chaser hatched in the past 5-10 years as mentioned by Greg, because he never described that type of chaser.

Shane,

I did:

...there has been an increasing number of newer chasers who are emulating these irresponsible media chasers (and, unfortunately, "movie" chasers). I emplore the newer chasers out there to consider emulating the veteran chasers who started this hobby. Those are the chasers who put safety, courtesy, and responsbility first.

Expounding....the media (and "movie") chasers are the ones in the limelight, and can easily be identified with the masses. A new chaser to the hobby could think that these types are the "typical" chaser.

Just as an example, never has there been a veteran chaser who has adorned their vehicle with decals and other accoutrements that are designed to attract attention to themselves (at least, that I'm aware of, and I'm very well connected to that group). Yet, how many newer chasers are doing this? Are they emulating the veterans? No. They are emulating what they see on the screen - media (and "movie") chasers.

BTW - I'm not trying to insinuate that all media chasers are bad, because I am aware of several who are very responsible. But there are a few (most of whom I don't think are members of this board) who go way over the top, and are very self-promoting (and via their employers). In addition, there are other chasers (and yes, some are on this list) who are also extremely self-promoting, and get the "air-time" and hence attract a lot of attention. They are, in my opinion, serving as the wrong role-model for new chasers.

It's a Catch-22. Many of the responsible chasers remain low-key and out of the limelight, so it's difficult for them to be seen as positive role models. It's up to the rest of us to help steer folks in the right direction, otherwise our hobby is at serious risk of being curtailed. I sure hope that is important to many of us.

 

[David Drummond]

Turn off your head lams when you are in crowds on the side of the road.....people wan to take pics of the storms...not your headlights

Just a note on this. Some more newer cars have automatic headlights/Daytime running lights that can't be shut off without turning off the vehicle. I have one such vehicle...and I have a personal rule about not shutting off my vehicle near a severe storm for my own safety. I hate not being able to shut them off too sometimes. It's a PIA!

 

[Dan Robinson]

never has there been a veteran chaser who has adorned their vehicle with decals and other accoutrements that are designed to attract attention to themselves

Greg, I agree with everything you said except for that one point. I believe the mobile mesonet cars from VORTEX and the original white NOAA chase vans were the inspiration for the modern chase vehicle, which predated the movies and media vehicles. Those vehicles were the first impression many of us got to chasing in the 80s and 90s, so naturally there will be some imitation. At least those are what I think of when I think 'chase vehicle'. Of course, that may not be true for newer chasers who aren't familiar with the originals, only the second generation media/movie vehicles.