Did You Know This is the 40th Anniversary of Storm Chasing?

[Mike Smith]

On a cool spring evening in 1972, Joe Golden of NSSL proposed to the student chapter of the American Meteorological Society that we chase storms so they could have ground truth for the dual-Doppler radars they were operating. After all, NSSL couldn't know how good the radars were without ground truth. So, organized storm chasing was born. Many of us from that evening (Al Moller, Steve Tegtmeier, Steve Amburn and others) took him up on it.

I have some thoughts on the 40th anniversary season here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2012/04/storm-chasing-2012-its-40th-anniversary.html

And, if you want to read more of the history of storm chasing, I tell it in Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather.

I haven't gotten to chase much in recent years and I was impressed with what I saw yesterday. Nice work, everyone!

 

[Timothy Finn]

Regarding the Dominator:

I was in downtown Kingman, making a left to turn south onto 14, and he flew by us, steering out from behind a car making a left to turn north.

Later, we were on NE 40th Road heading north, and pulled off in a turnout watching the storm. There was a lot of traffic, and this guy just charged up the wrong side of the road! Much in the same manner that got Sean Casey in hot water a few years ago in the TIV.

The Dominator team undoubtedly showed the LEAST courtesy out there, and I thought that to be sort of surprising.

Tim

 

[Lee Smith-Whaley]

He is not the only one. There was an older car with hail guards over the window, and a custom plate that said Torn WX or something that passed me, a truck, and a semi in a high wind event while going uphill (legal pass zone, but still dangerous for the conditions). He is lucky that the semi driver was experienced as the trailer was being blown in and out of the lane. That was just one instance. Several times, I saw chasers run across the highway in front of traffic, park in the road, or drive across a highway with oncoming traffic forcing us to slam on the brakes. At one point I was driving for miles with my hazards on just so I could warn people behind me that I might hit my brakes. I will self admit though, I did have one bad call on my part. I was in a line of cars on 22nd road, and while switching the gps for the radar on my window mount, and turning the camera on I almost went off the road. After that I payed better attention. If the person who was behind me reads this, sorry for the scare.

Regarding the Dominator:

I was in downtown Kingman, making a left to turn south onto 14, and he flew by us, steering out from behind a car making a left to turn north.

Later, we were on NE 40th Road heading north, and pulled off in a turnout watching the storm. There was a lot of traffic, and this guy just charged up the wrong side of the road! Much in the same manner that got Sean Casey in hot water a few years ago in the TIV.

The Dominator team undoubtedly showed the LEAST courtesy out there, and I thought that to be sort of surprising.

Tim

 

[joel ewing]

Howdy from Tucson! Well, I really hesitate to respond about this issue, because I have ALWAYS stuck up for the main players on both those teams regarding many different issues...even though I've never met any of them personally...and even when everybody else in StormTrack is piling on them relentlessly. Many many times throughout the years, while in the field underneath wall clouds, I've literally been parked right next to them. What you're addressing in your post is something that I have definitely noticed over and over again. I've come to the conclusion that whoever the drivers are that are manning the helms in both of those vehicles have perhaps gotten their priorities mixed up a little bit. Priority # 1 should always be driving with safety in mind...especially around stormy / windy / risky environments. However, over the last several years, I've repeatedly seen these vehicles exhibit less than ideal examples of courtesy and common sense, and I've often wondered if the push to capture the wildest footage has de-sensitized these teams from what should be their priority # 1. That being said....I too have made some boneheaded moves in my vehicle when in the field and the s--t begins hitting the fan. Just ask my chase partners. A good example would be last year while gassing up our Chase SUV in the Texas Panhandle, some gorgeous little nubile young fuzzbutt walked out of the C-store swinging her hips, and of course, I pointed her out to my chase partners sitting inside our vehicle. Then...like a fool without a brain, I drove out of there with the damn gas hose from the gas pump still connected to our gas tank. It ripped the hose right out of the pump....and man, did I ever panic. All I could think of was that some idiot driving by would inadvertently toss out a cigarette butt and we'd all be incinerated. I ran into the C-store screaming how sorry I was and to shut off the main gasoline line to the pumps, etc.etc. The little 16 yr. old girl working behind the counter calmly told me to just stick the gas line....which was strewn all over the asphalt, back into the gas pump. I didn't know you could do that...evidently they make those hoses as a "tear-away" system....and it doesn't hurt anything when some idiot like me does what I did. Man, was I lucky. OK...my point is...we can ALL lose our concentration when in intense environments. There are a LOT of chasers that need to be reminded of this during the course of the chase season. Perhaps the crews of these two vehicles will be reading these posts and make a mental note to cool out on the roads a little bit. Like I always say...."life is nothing more than a series of adjustments".

 

[Justin Wilcox]

I encounter horrible drivers everyday. Most of them over the age of 70 though. I beginning to wonder if these guys have some sort of superiority complex going on. I would like to see them try that stuff down in some of the east Texas towns I lived in.

 

[Jeff Passner]

Storm chasing has been going on since the 1950s... There were only a couple of chasers then, but it was NOT 1972 that it started. A guy from Dallas (Jensen??) started chasing in the '50s and Dave Hoadley began chasing in the 1960s... Much of the early problems were the lack of population in the Plains. I started chasing in the early 1980s and it was wonderful only having 5-10 cars out there. I agree, today is not as bad as some people make it out to be. Saturday was fine... A young chaser from Colorado mouthed off at me for not giving enough room, but he had more than enough room to make his left turn on to some remote stupid road that only slowed his progress near Woodward.... Chasers need to learn --- when the storms are moving fast stay off the dirt roads.. They slow you down. Oh, the things we learned in the 1980s..

 

[Mike Hardiman]

I was out in S/C Kansas Saturday. This was my first long-distance experience since sometime in May 2004. Since then I've either been too busy working events (when I lived "downstream" in Illinois) or was content to photograph lightning and the occasional supercell in Far/Near-West Texas down into Coahuila. I was expecting much worse crowds with it being a Saturday, but the whole "Chase Convoy" thing really freaks me out. At one point, late in afternoon, I had pulled off KS-17 NE of Kingman near a mailbox cluster. There was a brief funnel that developed... nothing spectacular. The problem all afternoon had been the speed and direction of the storms and very few diagonally-oriented roads. I was able to intercept 5 cells in total - but there was no realistic way of keeping up with them while "stair-stepping" up back roads. I would intercept, watch the storm drift away... then adjust east or west to intercept the next storm coming up from the SSW.

Anyways, several minutes after pulling off the "convoy" arrived... with a steady stream of vehicles heading north. I would guess over 100... tightly packed. I'm not sure where they were going... the RFD having already crossed the road up ahead. There was no way you were going to catch-up stair-stepping in a line of 100 cars doing 40 mph... with frequent stops anytime someone looked to pull off the road.

What struck me was what would have happened if you were stuck in a line of cars heading north with the RFD to your west and the storm shifted to the right? There were very few road options going to the east, and anyone who did need to turn would have caused the line of cars to all slow down. There's no way that many tightly-spaced cars could make a U-Turn.

I'll go back out again, but perhaps not when storm motions are expected to be so fast. On this day, there were plenty of storms, so arguably I was witnessing a "small crowd." The worst part of it is although the "convoys" make me uncomfortable, there's no real solution, so I'm just venting here. It would be hypocritical to seriously complain about others doing exactly the same thing I was doing!

 

[joel ewing]

Storm chasing has been going on since the 1950s... There were only a couple of chasers then, but it was NOT 1972 that it started. A guy from Dallas (Jensen??) started chasing in the '50s and Dave Hoadley began chasing in the 1960s... Much of the early problems were the lack of population in the Plains. I started chasing in the early 1980s and it was wonderful only having 5-10 cars out there. I agree, today is not as bad as some people make it out to be. Saturday was fine... A young chaser from Colorado mouthed off at me for not giving enough room, but he had more than enough room to make his left turn on to some remote stupid road that only slowed his progress near Woodward.... Chasers need to learn --- when the storms are moving fast stay off the dirt roads.. They slow you down. Oh, the things we learned in the 1980s..

Just FYI Jeff.....If I'm not mistaken, I think that Roger Jensen was from North Dakota. Of course....Dave Hoadley was too. A small point about Jensen, but I thought nobody would mind if I threw that in there. Thanks

 

[Warren Faidley]

These types of potentially deadly traffic antics, by people who say they are "professionals" needs to be reported immediately to the local Sheriff and/or Highway Patrol. Provide the license plate and vehicle description. In most cases, the reports will be followed up on and drivers licenses will be suspended. I know for a fact that the State Patrol in Oklahoma is aware of specific individuals who continue to drive in a dangerous manner as I have been contacted twice via my website for information and video footage. It seems that so many people complain here, but little is actually done. The idiots will eventually kill someone and ruin it for everyone, including spotters, researchers and those of us who simply enjoy chasing.

W.

 

[Jeff Passner]

You might be right about Roger Jensen being from ND... I thought he moved to Texas later in life, but I can't recall exactly.. Dave Hoadley was chasing before most of the people here were born.

 

[James Hilger]

On June 12 2009 for much of Arkansas it mentions winds to 105 and hail to 3".

 

[Rick Schmidt]

I was chasing in the late '70's, before I knew there was such a thing, and I thought I was the only one out there at that time. I got the idea from Perry Riddle, a photo-journalist with the Topeka Capital-Journal. He followed and documented the June 8, 1966 tornado through Topeka.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I'm the same as Rick: started chasing on trips to the midwest in the late 70s, and remember very clearly my stop at a weather station in Indiana where the guy handed me a paper copy of StormTrack. I was dumbfounded, and thrilled.

 

[David Hoadley]

For Roger Jensen's history, see Storm Track, Vol. 24, No. 4; May-June, 2001. A brief summary: Roger has been credited with being the first storm chaser and photographer, having begun in 1953 from his parent's farm near Fargo, ND. I began in 1956 from my parent's home in Bismarck. We didn't know each other then and didn't become acquainted by mail until the 1980s. About that time, he was slowed by diabetes and moved into a Detroit Lakes nursing home. In 1996, he moved into a Texas nursing home and enjoyed both southern plains weather and chaser visits for several more years, until he died in 2001. At 73, I am still chasing (every year since but 1966, when I saved leave for a honeymoon); most recent was 3 weeks ago to within 2 miles of the Geneseo-Marquette, KS tornado. - - - Dave (old bones) Hoadley

 

[joel ewing]

Ahhhhh...God Bless 'ya Dave. It does my heart good to see you weigh in here from time to time. And chasing strong at 73...magnificent. Godspeed and keep it up!