• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Concerns about 2021 first big events (numbers, traffic, idiots and such)

24 chasers is enough to clog an Interstate? I'd have to believe something else is causing the road to be slowed...
 
The real gem was all the dots right in the path of the Happy wedge; however, their location could be delayed more than the radar image.

How many chasers are out there for each one showing a dot? I believe that's important to answer the questions above.
 
I've seen some discontent on social media regarding "established" chasers behaving poorly, but as usual, no one had the guts to mention names. I think the storms moved somewhat fast and the cloud cover / storm mode / spacing / terrain / made interception difficult and split up the hordes. I'm glad no one was killed or injured -- considering the chase complexities and apparently strong / large / rain-wrapped tornadoes. Some chasers got stuck on muddy dirt roads, which is (as we all know) very dangerous, although I don't know the circumstances.
 
Jessica B. said:
This was Stephen Moore's location during the Happy tornado a couple of days ago.
Click to expand...

I think we need to be careful about posting screenshots of SN locations and using it to say a chaser was hit by a tornado. There can be significant lag in SN location so using it as the only source of information to say a chaser got hit can be a dangerous accusation.
 
I’m posting these two screen shots not knowing what the actual position of this chaser was as the tornado approached and then crossed the road. Not being there, I have no idea what kind of visibility there was either. I scribbled over the chaser’s name from the two screen shots. It looks like he wasn’t in a very good position if the tornado had made a turn to the left. I’m really curious what this person saw as the tornado went by. 2DFA833A-F8B7-477F-B0F7-A5033675112B.jpegF0558D92-ECCD-4537-BCC7-FD4388BB406E.jpeg
 
Ken Perrin said:
A video was just posted on YT, by someone claiming to have been hit near Lockney TX.
Be careful people, no shot, or video, is worth it.
Click to expand...
A disturbing trend this early in the season. If close-enough-to-get-hit is the new standard for chase videos, it's only a matter of time before we're talking about more than broken windows.
 
Dean Baron said:
I think we need to be careful about posting screenshots of SN locations and using it to say a chaser was hit by a tornado. There can be significant lag in SN location so using it as the only source of information to say a chaser got hit can be a dangerous accusation.
Click to expand...

Dean is correct. My position on spotter network is almost never anywhere near where I am really at a given time. For starters, I only beacon thru RadarScope, and the only time RadarScope beacons is when it is in the foreground being used. Since I use GR mainly, I only occasionally have RadarScope in the foreground. Anytime a chaser has the phone asleep or is using another app, it doesn't beacon. Of course if I make a report, the location updates and is correct.

Second, RadarScope doesn't show you how old a beacon is, and when you loop a radar the positions don't update. I'm not being down on RadarScope (I love it) - but it wasn't intended to accurate report everyone's position all the time.

As for number of chasers you have to remember that many vehicles have more than one chaser in the car running RadarScope and reporting position, so does those 4 dots represent 4 chasers in separate vehicles or is it 1 vehicle with 4 chasers in it each beaconing at different times as they go down the road? Add in limited zoom capability and it always looks worse that it is.

As someone who chased both Friday and Saturday in the panhandle I can tell you it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it looked. Lots of cells kept chasers spread out on Saturday.

Before I end my rant I will note that chaser convergence is real, and is a hazard. My rant isn't to say it doesn't exist. It just isn't always as bad as folks make it out to be.
 
Tomorrow (Wednesday, March 17th into early Thursday), will be a real challenge for spotters, local chasers and inexperienced chasers. A lot of PDS soundings and multiple rounds of assorted storm modes including some fast moving and messy set-ups. Not to mention poor visibility due to trees and darkness. It will interesting to see if everyone gets through unscathed.
 
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