How chasing has changed

[Chris Lott]

I happened to find this video on youtube. I saw the actual program years ago and was glad I found it. It's funny, but also great as far as technology is concerned, to see how chasing has changed over the years: cell phones vs. calling on a payphone to get updates, TOTO vs. tornado probes, the internet, etc. Oh, and the part of the video where the guys are arguing about where they are, and now with GPS capabilities. I found it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2t8IYocyi4

 

[Shane Adams]

Those were the days. Gimme that program over Discovery any damn day. That's chasing reality.

 

[Brian Stertz]

amen to that

Yeah true Shane...back in those days if you saw 5 chaser vehicles in one given spot, that was chaser convergence. Now that falls into the 50-100 range. I don't think there are many "Alaskas" out there for storm chasers anymore. I remember the Laverne OK tornado back in May '91 and seeing four chasers and thinking wow that was an oddity. Since then we have had the movie Twister...VORTEX...the DOW/TIV deal...a up-welling of chase tours and college groups...Storm Chaser series...and now VORTEX-2. Next thing may be helicopters....or personal hover crafts...LOL

Good to see Lou Wicker, Bill McCaul..Lans Rothfusz and others from OU. I was always all eyes and ears when they got into the chase think tank in the old map room. Thats where I cut my teeth as a forecaster.

 

[David Drummond]

Man! Some memories there. Wonder how many people chasing today would give it up if they had to chase with those resources? It wasn't easy...

 

[Dan Robinson]

Very very cool. I haven't seen that since it aired when I was a kid, I vividly remember watching that on TV (NOVA?). That (along with some repetitively-checked out books at the library) is significantly responsible for me doing what I'm doing today.

 

[Danny Neal]

NOVA and the old school TLC programs were a requirement before bed when I was a little kid. Pre-Twister, pre - everything else, I had to have my NOVA. Really loved it, soaked up a lot of information no matter the quality. The #1 memory I have was from TVC #1 when they deployed TOTO in OK. Never forget watching that with my mouth wide open.

 

[Matt Sellers]

Thanks for posting that link, Chris. First time I've ever seen that episode of NOVA. I remember seeing promos for it in the late 80s (as reruns) but was never able to watch at that time... and NOVA was by far my favorite weekly TV show as a kid.

 

[Chris Lott]

I was always interested in this show. Watching the way they chased back then, no laptop, no internet, just using their eyes. I think it's in part 3 of this same series where a group of chasers are sitting on the side of the road deploying a balloon and listening to NOAA weather radio.

 

[Jason Foster]

Ah...the memories.

That show aired almost every year on WETA...the DC areas PBS station. I remember paying particular attention to it after I was in a tornado in Maryland back in 1990. It was the only show I remember like that back then. I know a few more came out a few years later and by 1995, TWC had their chaser series on videos. I didn't really understand the chasing part until the Warren Faidley part of the TWC series. The earlier shows strictly showed it as researchers only. At the same time I found stuff on the internet, and through Skywarn...whom I took classes for non-chaser related interests in 1995.

That documentary rocks....I have it on VHS, and have not yet bought a DVD version (if it exists).

Two things stand out. First....Howie using the C&P (Ma Bell) telephone. The second things is that while a large portion of the footage in from 1981...the documentary wasn't completed until 1984 and aired in 1985. That wouldn't happen in today's fast paced media and television.

 

[Rich Thompson]

The NOVA special coincided with my freshman year at OU, the year I first attempted to storm chase.

Chasing has changed a bunch. Like Brian S. mentioned, chaser convergence used to be a handful of vehicles. Chances were you knew most of the people in the group because there just weren't that many (maybe a few hundred chasers). Now we have more than 1000 members on ST alone, and probably 2000+ that chase a few times a year. None of this counts the chase tours which add perhaps 50-100 additional people to the Plains each year.

The forecasting was the key to success back then because you had mainly your experience and eyeballs as a guide. If you missed the preferred target by more than the distance you could see, you probably weren't going to succeed that day. Tornado warnings were based much more on reports, and you had to rely on commercial radio or weather radio for that info in the field. There were no hourly forecasts of simulated reflectivity, no forecast soundings, no GR2/3, no ThreatNet, no cell phones, and no instant access to SELS (SPC) products or NWS warning decision information. You also didn't immediately know what you might have missed, and some impressive storms were not observed by any chasers.

The chances of seeing a tornado are greater today given all the technological advances, plus the "trickle down" of meteorological understanding during the past 20 years. The downside of all this, IMHO, is that almost anyone can pick up chasing on a whim now, resulting in ever-increasing numbers of chasers. Chasing has gone mainstream

 

[Stephen Locke]

Why did the SPC move from KC to OKC?

 

[Jay McCoy]

Now that brings back some memories. At times I miss the "old days" where it was up to luck and forecasting skills to catch anything. 5 tornados in a year was a great year and if you ran into anybody it was pure chance. Now I dont think there is a servere storm in the plains that at least 5-10 chasers arent on and if its a mod/high risk area then 50-100 chasers on each cell. Just finding a place to pull over and get a bit of video is almost impossible now.

But even as I miss the old days I do enjoy having cell phones and real time radar in my truck (I'm not crazy). It does make it much easier and cost effective but the challenge and reward ratio has dropped. I still get excited but dont feel near the "reward" of catching a tornado as I did 25 yrs ago. Its like fishing with a reel compared to fishing with a hand grenade..lol

 

[Linda Kitchen]

Those were good days! I remember our first chase (1994), everyone gathered at the NWS offices for maps and discussion. They were really good to us. The Amarillo NWS and several others printed up pamplets for stormchasers. That went on for years. I bet they get lonely now, no one needs them anymore. We would always take donuts to them, as a thank you. You could also be on a storm all by yourself, but finding the right storm was much harder!

 

[Dave Ewoldt]

As a person that started storm chasing in 1982 - later than a lot, earlier than most - I have to say that I will take how we chase today over the "early years". Don't get me wrong... there are a great number of good and bad times, fun times, and overall learning experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything. But, the technology of today has allowed me to see a LOT more than I think I would have back in the 80's.

It's fun to watch the program and think how cool it would be to chase like that again. However, that is a one hour program and as soon as it was over, I was able to look at the latest run of the GFS in the comfort of my home. I'm not having to drive back a few hours, wondering what is happening, and learning that a storm I could have reached, produced a tornado a couple of hours earlier. The bottom line is we spend a lot of time and money on the chase... it's only natural to expect the maximum return on our efforts.

I suspect that there will be a time - 10 or 20 years from now - that we look back and wonder, "how in the world did we ever chase in 2009?" I don't know what the new toys will be... but they WILL be there. I could even see a day in the future - WAY in the future, but - where seeing a tornado can be so easy that the appeal drops off. Not necessarily for a hardcore chaser, but the people that are paying to see them. They may have moved on to the latest, greatest, big adventure.

Yes, the technological advances have been great. I remember trying to report a tornado while on a storm chase in 1987. I was run out of the bar - which was the only place we saw that might have a phone - because I wasn't old enough to be in there. The tornado went unreported and no warning was ever issued. It was an F2 that damaged or destroyed almost 50 homes. OUN would have enjoyed having 88D data, I would have enjoyed GPS to know exactly where we were... and we all would have for sure been glad if I had a cell phone to report the event. Some things have improved.

As far as the number of chasers on the road... that's a tough one. I think it boils down to how each of us enjoy the "company" of others. I'm the kind of guy that shops at Walmart at 3 a.m. No offense, but, I don't like people. Not storm chasers per se... people in general. As such, I have had to make adjustments to my chasing. Different routes, parking further down the road, picking different storms, whatever. If you like folks... you probably enjoy everyone gathering around you to watch a storm. If I have ever said that there are too many chasers on the road - I will retract that here. I started with a desire to observe storms/tornadoes and verify my own forecasts. There are hundreds of reasons that people would want to be out among the storms - and none of them give them more or less of a right to do so than me. I'll make my adjustments and go on...

The documentary of topic is nothing less than outstanding. Many recent productions depict storm chasing as "drive fast and aim for the red spot on the radar." This one actually taught the audience about what the purpose of storm observing was for the subjects... what we believed we knew... and what we were looking to learn. Someone paying attention would have a heck of a lot better understanding of how a tornado forms after watching this show than some of the recent ones. Great show... thanks for the trip down amnesia lane.

 

[Dan Robinson]

My primary subject through the years has been lightning, and even that pursuit has changed tremendously. Up until 2004 (when I got my WxWorx system), things were fairly primitive in my vehicle.

Before 1997, I was completely data-less except for AM radio. Before then (starting in '93) I chased reactively whenever storms would arrive or develop in the area visually. After 1997, I finally had internet at home and discovered online radar. I used to print out the latest image on a dot matrix printer and take it with me, trying to extrapolate storm motions. I got fairly good at interpreting lightning signatures on AM radio, estimating storm distances and intensities. I could tell whether a storm I was after was dying, and turn around early rather than drive all night.

After finally getting a scanner, the hourly nowcasts read by the NWSFO were very useful for a few years. They'd give a summary of radar, giving the position and movement of cells and lines, even during non-severe events. I could usually chase solely on that information. Sadly they stopped doing that (at least at RLX).

After making chasing friends online via the venerable Lightning List, the advent of nowcasting really made a difference from around 1998 onward. From 1998 to 2004, my methods stayed pretty much the same - online radar pre-chase, then NWR, AM radio and occasionally nowcasting help during.

WxWorx changed all that in 2004. It made me completely self-sufficient and I no longer needed any of the other tools I'd used before. It took the guesswork out of positioning after I left that final internet radar image at home.

In a way, I miss the old ways of chasing - the taped voices on NWR, followed by the era of "Mr. Roboto", the crackles of the AM radio as I drove toward my target at dusk, hoping they'd keep going. But man has today's technology helped my success rates! Without it, my good image/video catch per dollar spent would be ten times less.