French Chasers

[T. Mosley]

http://www.thunderstorm-chaser.com/

Who'da thunk it?

So much for that old expression 'shaking like a Frenchman in a thunderstorm'.

Heh - I'd give a dollar to watch one of these frogeaters come upon a great Plains EF-5. Some really good photos, though.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

There are weather enthusiasts all over the world. Don't be hatin' on our European bros just because there aren't dryline setups in their neck of the woods.

 

[Karen Politte]

What is your point exactly??

Moreover - I think that Christophe is a member here - perhaps he can comment further.

Curiously - there are those amongst us who pursue all forms of severe weather, and - if anything - those international members of our community have a passion far superior to our own, as they chase for the love of convective castles in the sky and amazing lightning shows......not "da monsta wedge".

Darned coweaters......

Oh - and I'd just like to add that Christophe and some of his colleagues have some of the finest lightning shots from elevation that I have ever seen!

KL

 

[Paul Knightley]

Good call, Karen - just because us guys over the "Pond" don't have severe thunderstorms coming out of our ears doesn't mean we don't understand how to act around them and chase them.

 

[Warren Faidley]

They have some really insane lightning pics on that site. Very nice.

Warren

 

[Bill Hark]

I really enjoyed looking at the website. I have seen some really nice storm images out of Europe. Maybe not many huge tornadoes but great storms. In addition to some our member's Arizona images, I would rank those by Christophe Suarez as some of my favorite. I really like the perspective.

Bill Hark

 

[scott r currens]

Shooting from high elevations sure highlights 3-dimentional nature of lightning. It also makes humans look as tiny and insignificant as we really are.

Absolutely stunning photography! I'd trade half the tornadoes I've seen for a shot like this one.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Looking at that image it is evident how little influence we can have on 'attracting' something so big with tiny things like Ipods, earrings, tripods and car antennas. It's gonna hit where it's gonna hit.

 

[Craig Maire II]

I've had the privilige of meeting and speaking with chasers from as far away as Italy and England while storm chasing during the spring and I'm pretty sure that there are some "foreign" chasers who have seen more tornados and severe storms this year than some chasers who actually live in this country (not to knock anyone so please don't take this wrong). Just because a person may not live in tornado alley doesn't mean they can't travel here and bag theyr'e fair share of tornados and storms.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I'm also interested in the exact point of this thread. Does it really surprise you that much that there are French people that are interested in storms and storm chasing?

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Shooting from high elevations sure highlights 3-dimentional nature of lightning.

No doubt -- I'm jealous now of those who don't live in areas as flat as most of the Plains... The lightning pictures look so much more majestic and awesome when either shot from an elevated surface (on a mtn) or shot against an elevated surface (i.e. mountain in the background, or in the mountains).

I assume the original poster didn't mean to infer that anyone not in the Plains can't take storm/tornado/lightning pictures... It may be more interesting to refocus this thread to international chasing, international weather photography, and related topics... Some of our members from France and Italy have shot some amazing photographs of lightning and storm structure. Heck, we had a member from Switzerland (Dean Gill) that posted some pictures from a mountain of stratus beneath him that were absolutely some of the most fascinating pictures I've seen (see HERE for his post; I particularly love THIS photo).

It would be interesting to formulate a list of all countries represented by members on Stormtrack... I know we have several Europeans, at least one from Argentina, a few Australians, one from South Africa, and, IIRC, at least one from east Asia (China, I think.... can't remember that person's name, though). It's a good reminder of how universal lightning, thunderstorms, and supercells really are.

 

[T. Mosley]

Well, it's like this.....

I started this thread merely to showcase that French thunderstorm-chaser site for the membership here, as I doubt anyone else had ever seen it. I had not. There is obvious interest in it, and I found the URL on http://frogsmoke.com/, one of my favorite websites. I had never thought about French chasers before, so it is a real revelation for me.

There was no French-bashing or offense intended, but all my life I have heard the phrase "shaking like a Frenchman in a thunderstorm", so it is good to at least put that one to rest. What I meant at the end was, if these guys get so excited about mere thunderstorms and lightning displays, imagine them being up close and personal with a a mile-wide EF-5 in Oklahoma, replete with softball-sized hail.

Good idea about the international chase and photo scene; as I had said, these are some fine photos on that French site.

 

[Marc Remillard]

It is clear that people who are interested in weather phenomenons and who can't get the strongest storms will find a way to make some outstanding shots with smaller storms.

The amazing Christophe Suarez's lightning shot could be taken from a small storm that produced 10 strikes, then died, but he got them!

It is clear that most of the time, you guys will probably sleep in front of our thunderstorms here in Quebec, but most of our population don't understand the difference between an hurricane and a tornado, because they just don't care about what they'll never see. There is only a couple of tornadoes per year here, and when it occurs, if you watch the local news, they will talk about a "mini-tornado", even if it was an F2 tornado. Why? Because for them, tornadoes only occurs in "Twister" and maybe in a "legend" about some real tornadoes in the US plains.

Anyway, I wanted to say I spoke to many french people from Europe, and there is real chasers. The problem is that they have to chase only with their eyes. There is no real good data available. Chasseursdorages.com is a big community, and they are proud of their shots, but most of them agree that their dream is to chase on the US plains.

 

[Doug Lee]

There was no French-bashing or offense intended, but all my life I have heard the phrase "shaking like a Frenchman in a thunderstorm", so it is good to at least put that one to rest. What I meant at the end was, if these guys get so excited about mere thunderstorms and lightning displays, imagine them being up close and personal with a a mile-wide EF-5 in Oklahoma, replete with softball-sized hail.

I had never heard of this expression. I think it may refer to Cajuns, and considering how close Houston is to Louisiana, I'm sure many have migrated to your area.
The Cajuns are stereotyped as uneducated, and uneducated people are stereotyped as fearful of the unknown. The earliest Cajuns might have been fearful, for their ancestors in France and French Canada probably did not encounter many thunderstorms as severe as those encountered by the Cajuns as they settled in Louisiana. I'm sure the Cajuns overcame this fear as they experienced not only more thunderstorms, but hurricanes as well.

Of course most people know of the French connection to Louisiana. What many might not know is that the French explored and settled throughout much of the western Mississippi Valley. This is reflected in French place names such as Arkansas (state and river), Chouteau and Poteau OK (Poteau is in Leflore County).
These explorers and early settlers must have been brave enough to do what they did, which tells us that stereotypes aren't always true. My humanities instructor in community college once said that a stereotype is an image that needs more information. This probably illustrates what she was talking about.

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

The website mentioned and the photography within is simply amazing. The photo also displayed in this thread has to be one of my favorites. The dimensions in the photo are spectacular and very motivating for a person like myself. It is so interesting to see photography from other parts of the world. From Australia to Europe and even Saudi Arabia, there are many stormchasers/weather photographers doing what we all love, "Chasing storms and sharing the photos with the rest of the world". Here in Idaho I've seen & chased one tornado warned storm and photographed tons of lightning photo's. My goal is just that, showcasing the types of storms my area gets. A tornado would be a plus, but I am still 100% pleased with the outcome of every photograph and every storm experienced. Chasing the plains will come later in life for myself. For now my passion keeps me happy with what I get.

BTW- Who wrote the Storm chasing Bible and made the first Amendment a requirement that states "You Must Only Encounter the United States Great Plains to be considered a Storm Chaser". lol.... no pun intended...