Circus Chasing Texas Panhandle

[Mike Kovalchick]

I wanted to note one incident related to this topic that I thought was interesting.

The DOW was zooming off up the road...and part of the DOW convoy got seperated by throngs of chaser vehicles. A middle age gentlemen(with a moustache) in a truck carrying/flashing what looked like a firemen's badge blocked the road and was yelling at chasers in the 2 or 3 vehicles that tried to get around him...and allowed the rest of the DOW crew to catch up. He actually almost rammed his vehicle into a chaser vehicle to accomplish blocking the highway. (He was sideways across the road.) I was about 2 or 3 vehicles behind.

I always try to give DOW a wide berth as I figure the science outweighs any hobby interest that I have...but I think safety first should be everyone's concern.

Does anyone know if this gentlemen was part of DOW?

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I don't think anyone on the dow team would carry a badge and especially block the road and flash it at people. I would say that it was probably just a volunteer firefighter for the county or something.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

I don't think anyone on the dow team would carry a badge and especially block the road and flash it at people. I would say that it was probably just a volunteer firefighter for the county or something.

I assume the same. This person was the only person who seemed to have a bit of an attitude that I saw the whole day.

For the rest of the chase...it was like seeing crowds watching a Fouth of July fireworks display. Everyone was smiling if not actually jumping up and down with excitement.

 

[Earl Faubion]

This sounds a lot like the guy my chase partner and I bumped into on April 21st near Wayside, Texas.
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12101&highlight=people+you+meet
Read posts # 25 and 29.

He also may be the same guy who last Wednesday (5-23) asked W5AMA to tell any of her spotters near them to back off and give them room and then a while later said the DOW was taking some long range readings from the "four corners" which caused some confusion on the net as no one seemed to know exactly where that was.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

This sounds a lot like the guy my chase partner and I bumped into on April 21st near Wayside, Texas.
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12101&highlight=people+you+meet
Read posts # 25 and 29.

He also may be the same guy who last Wednesday (5-23) asked W5AMA to tell any of her spotters near them to back off and give them room and then a while later said the DOW was taking some long range readings from the "four corners" which caused some confusion on the net as no one seemed to know exactly where that was.

Your description of him fits perfectly. It must be the same guy.

I suppose I should hire a thug or two to keep away all those pesky other chasers away from me when I'm out chasing! (Being sarcastic).

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

It would be interesting to hear the exact role of this person, by those that surely know.

 

[Kem Poyner]

circus yahoos

May 22 and 23rd made me realize that it is just a matter of time before someone gets killed on the road. I know there must be several chasers who caught some of the close calls on video. I personally video taped a couple people run across the highway with video equipment nearly get ran over. I also seen a car do a u-turn and nearly get t-boned by a speeding chase truck. When someone does get killed, it will probably be caught on someones video and be a CNN story. Another black eye for chasing.

 

[Rob Herman]

I'm sure EM is going to love all their emergency equipment and personnel tied up working a chaser pileup while their county is getting torn to threads by a tornado.

JMO

 

[Brett Adair]

This is certainly something that I do not want to see outlawed in any way because I enjoy chasing from a meteorological and educational standpoint. I won't forget that I also enjoy the adrenaline rush that factors in also. However, we must help everyone grow and mature as a group and continue to preach the importance of safe chasing otherwise we will see the government put restrictions on this wonderful hobby I am afraid considering that government officials are the main ones collecting data and not out for freelance purposes. Not saying that everyone is, but considering this involves mostly the "tripod in the road" instances.......just a thought.

 

[John Wetter]

I actually thought everyone was behaving themselves fairly well on both days. I didn't see much of anything that I don't see in urban driving every day (except people getting stuck on mud roads). No matter your avocation, you will have a subset of people that perform their 'stupid human tricks'. This is unavoidable.

-John

 

[Kem Poyner]

chasers creed

Maybe we can start a chasers creed that would be similiar to this:

When you stop to film a tornado or wall cloud remember, slow down and Think D.O.W. (should be easy to remember)

-Do not block roadway
-Only film or stand well off roadway
-Watch for oncoming vehicles when exiting or running across ANY roadway.

It should be short and simple. Heck, The Weather Channel could even put up a graphic when talking about stormchasers.

Kem Poyner

 

[Joel Taylor]

Reed and I had a similar experience with the DOW on the night of April 21st just west of Wayside, TX. We were heading west on 285 and noticed around 10 vehicles backed up behind a truck who was blocking the road. We weren't sure what was going on so we crept by everyone up to the truck and asked what was going on. He said he had blocked the road because the DOW was doing some maneuvers up the road a ways. We sat there looking at each other for a second then decided to proceed west. After a mile we came across the DOW parked in the road scanning to the west. Then shortly thereafter we came up on the TIV driving slowly west. It may have been our imagination but it seemed like they were trying to keep us behind them. As I'd try to pass they'd move over to the left essentially blocking me. Eventually we did get by and within a few minutes saw the tornado they were trying to get to just north of 285. At the time we just thought it was weird, but apparantly it may be something they are making a practice of.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Besides, a few people tripoding on the dirt roads on May 22, the only thing I thought was endangering, was about 5-6 chasers (convenient their personalized tags were of their ham callsigns!) passing us, punching a core east of Hill City. I was doing about 65-70, and they passed me like I was sitting still!

 

[Brandon Lawson]

On the 23rd I saw two DOW trucks,(or maybe the same one at different times), completely blocking one lane, as if they had not even bothered to try getting out of the way, with a huge line of cars stuck behind it.

I understand that the DOW trucks are much bigger and it's probably harder to maneuver around in, but surely they could have made more of an effort. Because those were the two worst incidents I saw of roads being completely clogged up out of both days on the 22nd and 23rd. I thought maybe there had been some wreck, but it was just the trucks sitting there in the road.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I know I've seen Sean post in here, and maybe Josh. So what's the deal, guys? Care to reply?