dangerous chaser traffic jams

[greg windsor]

Hi ,
During this down time, I thought I would start a discussion on chaser traffic jams . I read recently that the Vortex2 project director even commented on this. It seems to be more and more of a problem and I wonder if any anything can be done to help so to minimize the dangers. Heres a few thoughts on the subject in a a writing of mine:

" Sometimes the roads are also very crowded with chasers. I counted about 48 chase vehicles on a small narrow road. It was an eclectic group of chaser vehicles: it was a chaser traffic jam., with many also stopped on the side of the road. Someone should have had an "I BREAK FOR MESOS" bumper sticker.

Vehicles were moving at a doldrums pace in "rapidly changing conditions". The visibility was horrible, with tornados forming very close by. The NWS just announced that "particularly dangerous storms" were nearby. It was reported that even the downdraft (non-tornadic falling air) had clocked 90 mph winds that blew out windows of a chasers' vans. My vehicle was getting pelted with hail.

So, I'm looking at a long line of tail lights. I said to myself, "This is madness". Not a good situation. Soon the driving decisions of chasers may just catch up with us. Perhaps hunting storms gives one a sense of overconfidence. As the wheels in the sky keep on turning a chaser will someday be "intercepted" by a mega twister. I'm afraid it is just a matter of time. "



G.Thomas Windsor , author of "Life is like a Weather Forecast" : (A Storm Chaser Looks at Life’s Storms.) ( All proceeds for the month of May going to storm victims )

 

[Mike Moore]

Here's a link to the 5/19 convergence thread... lots of info.

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?24105-5-19-Chaser-Convergence

 

[greg windsor]

To be fair it's been discussed many, many times. This thread will self destruct in 3... 2... 1...

Hi Mike ,
With all due respect ,
I would rather talk about something that might seem like beating a dead horse , if perhaps something might come out of it that's constructive ,
rather than visit a chaser in the hospital or a funeral. Sometimes its good to take a fresh look at an old problem .
Thanks ,
Greg

 

[Mike Moore]

That's a good way to look at it.

I think the more people who become involved, for whatever the reason, the more difficulties you'll see with traffic. I have a pretty short commute to work... about 7 miles each way. Despite the short distance there is rarely a day I don't see someone driving like a complete nut. That's just people driving like... well people. Add to that things like storm chase excitement, frustration, and throw in bumper to bumper traffic on a two lane road. It's ugly no matter what you do.

At this point about all you can do to minimize risk is avoid chasing on high risk days, near major cities, etc.

 

[rdale]

Hi Mike ,
Sometimes its good to take a fresh look at an old problem .

Do you have a proposal? There will always be more and more chasers on the road, so what is the idea you have to reduce this that hasn't been discussed in the preivous thread?

 

[Joshua Nall]

Bill Tabor posted some tips on how to reduce ones personal role in the vehicular chaos around storms. I'm not searching for it now cause my computer and this site are having issues. As for safety, the important thing is to never position yourself directly ahead of the tornado cause you will never be able to control the actions of others.

But yeah, it's been talked to death and no amount of talking will cause it to keep from getting worse. I'm going to talk about it anyway, so feel free to not read this everyone. Even with all the recommendations on here, and suggestions of things not to do.... I came upon a vehicle parked sideways in a road on a recent chase... not turning around but parked that way... and I had a chaser turn their lights on trying to get me to let them by, on a different trip. It used really tick me off, but I just laugh at it anymore. What can you do? Thought of a few good bumper stickers. I mean if you want to pass, fine, but a lot of this stuff that goes on is just madness. I really don't have a problem with the light thing anymore, as I can see how they can be helpful. But a person flipping them on just as they get right up behind me, what kind of people do that sort of stuff? And stupid me I guess, in the back of my mind I'm saying to myself, what if that's not a chaser... so I'll usually easy up, scoot over. Sorry everyone... I guess I should just be relating this to my turtle as he probably cares as much.

Nearly got run over by the Beyrs (sp?), OK storm (not the tornado) because I under estimated the time it would take to get through a couple of stop signs. Did you know it takes longer for 8 vehicles to go through a stop sign than it does for one? So yeah, just stuff like that you have to think about to minimize the danger to yourself.

 

[Nathan Hoelting]

"Convergence Happens"...there's a bumper sticker. Seriously though, I don't think there is a plausible way to prevent chaser convergence. The best practice IMO is to simply avoid it. I have, and I'm sure others as well, had some of the best chases ever by waiting for the "4th Qtr" action to start while the throngs were busy chasing the first established cell of the day. Side note.....as gas continues to rise and the excitement level and "newness" of chasing begins to wane, I think there will be a decline in the number of chasers out on the roads. I can't imagine too many inexperienced chasers continually paying for $4 gas, especially considering the success rates of "newbie" chasers is usually pretty dismal at best.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I predict that this problem will be the death of storm chasing in the Great Plains. It has already made single/dual supercell setups and high-level risks in central Oklahoma virtually unchaseable. I wrote an op/ed blog post about this here.

If the trend does not reverse, this virus will spread into the remote areas of the Plains and outside of the April-June peak. Of all of the things that we've speculated could have an impact chasing as an enjoyable hobby, this is the one that jumped out of the woodwork as the most grim and immediate threat to what we love. And we are all to blame, me included.

It is encouraging to see more chasers covering the events in the South and Midwest, places that present more challenges for a chaser to see a tornado and get decent footage, but ones that stand to benefit from chasers' reports more than the oversaturated, far-past sufficiently covered Plains.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

I have to say, so far I have been pleasantly surprised with the lack of chaser convergence this year. While I've seen other chasers, it's been much more manageable (perhaps because of no more Vortex 2?, or it hasn't been May...). Note, I was apart of 5/19 and that was ridiculous. Also, yes this has been beaten to death in other threads.

 

[Michael Gavan]

I think chasers can avoid causing convergence by being ambiguous first and foremost. I think the most problematic people are the ones who chase-crash. Possibly using a combination of ChaserTV, facebook etc. to get right on the tail of other chasers. Chasing the chaser, rather than the storms. I have some other ideas, though they are probably either already in use by the community as a whole, but perhaps some fine tuning... Keep GPS beacons off until storms mature, avoid posts like 'i'm on exit 24 of I-80 in IA, storms firing to my west, should be here in an hour' If the road network allows it, choose secondary and tertiary roads when actually on a storm. I've noticed it's the slowest moving storms that are the most conducive to jams...so tertiary roads might be faster anyway! If you pull off, use field entries and pull off only on roads with big shoulders if those aren't available. Stay in your car as much as possible. If it's time to get out and watch, get well off the road. If you need to set up a timelapse or get a better vantage point, do so away from the road. Always chase with a partner! If you have someone to handle navigation and photography for you, you can spend less time taking your eyes of the road. Most of all, if Chaser convergence is occurring or imminent, bail. Find other roads. Getting stuck is not worth it. Avoid chasing storms in road network holes. South of Valentine, NE is a good example from experience!

There are more chasers out there, like me that are just emerging into this. I've wanted to chase since I was 12. The biggest obstacles were waiting until i could drive, then afford the gas and the vacation time, and the final enabler was the right amount of technology to make it happen. Living in Michigan was a big obstacle of course. Unfortunately for me it all happened for me at the same time certain TV shows got popular and realtime data-in-the-vehicle became cheaper than a tank of gas. It's a lot of factors that came together---Movies, TV Shows, the Media, technology and the Internet, better forecasting. Many weather-nerds suddenly became rockstars, and closet weather nerds suddenly found themselves elevated to garage-band cool. 5 years ago I was told I was insane for even wanting to do this. Now i'm asked when spring comes along by dozens of friends and complete strangers when I'm taking my next trip so they can come along. hell some chasers even have groupies. My wife still thinks i'm insane though.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

One solution to the chaser traffic jam problem (and it's only a temporary one) is to get on the back roads. It's wise to only do so with 4 wheel drive and you have to be very careful about getting in front of tornado/mesocyclone since sliding into the ditch is more of a concern, but the back roads usually aren't too bad. It's only a matter of time until it gets crowded on the dirt roads too though. Don't get me wrong, you will see plenty of chasers on the back roads, but nothing like the bumper to bumper crap you'll get on paved roads. I try to stay on back roads whenever possible and I can't remember ever having any real problems with traffic when doing so.

 

[J Tyler]

Do like I did this last Saturday. Two massive storms, one in south Dallas with a million little green spotter network dots on it, and one in the boonies headed toward Commerce TX with one little green SN dot on it. I went after the storm that only had one spotter on it.

I won't tell people that they don't have a right to chase, because it gets in the way of me chasing. BUT, I do want to start stressing to people to PARK YOUR CAR *OFF* THE ROAD. Dipping two tires into the grass IS NOT *OFF* THE ROAD. If you are afraid of getting stuck, then either buy a vehicle and tires to solve that, or go another 100 feet down the road to a parking lot/intersection/driveway and stop.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Do like I did this last Saturday. Two massive storms, one in south Dallas with a million little green spotter network dots on it, and one in the boonies headed toward Commerce TX with one little green SN dot on it. I went after the storm that only had one spotter on it.

I did the same April 25th S of Ft Worth on the Cleburne storm where I got a tornado. As Mikey mentions I also took back roads up to intercept.

On the 25th it was amazing because there were tons of chasers in the higher SPC tornado probability further toward Dallas and east, but few to the west or S. My interpretation is that most of these people are not doing their own forecasts, but simply going to highest SPC probability. I think a lot of them are going where the other Spotternet icons are as well. As usual I left mine off until I was on the tornadic storm. People forget that SPC also puts their areas where it may be higher probability even if that is later on in a few hours or after dark. In other words, because they have it there right now - doesn't necessarily mean that is the best place to go right now. Also, I like to be on a storm at initiation when it's first showing on vis sat before there is ever a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning. All of the above helps with the convergence.

Obviously keeping Vortex2 out of the field will help, but I also think a lot of the traffic we see are not chasers, but locals and 'looky lous' partcularly on high risk days where severe weather has a lot of attention. It is also increased near larger metro areas, particularly around OK.

 

[Rob H]

There are plenty of things working against the convergence. Eventually 'Storm Chasers' will lose its audience and you'll lose the wannabes. The rookies will look at the $6/gallon gas and say to heck with the possibility of a bust. The 'movement' towards not sharing forecasts on ST and FB will keep even more from going out. I also don't really see this happening anywhere else but OK. I like the storms I've seen in OK, but I don't think I'd put them anywhere near my top 5. Maybe there's just too many people in OK that chase

 

[Bill Tabor]

I like the storms I've seen in OK, but I don't think I'd put them anywhere near my top 5.

Yeah, check out Alabama tornadoes. Apparently they can get some wicked ones. Then again you have to contend with the trees and all but some folks like that. One of our local chasers down here in Austin is from there and he likes it. I haven't yet bitten on MS or parts further east, but I almost did AR/MS just the other day but turned out the better area was further west that day. Even the day of the outbreak I considered going east but because my chase partner was unavailable it was just too late to make the distance up in time. Not sure what I would have thought about dealing with these fast moving outbreak tornadoes in screwy terrain.