How chasing has changed

[Fritz Kruse]

I started chasing back in High School in 1972 but did not know squat about what I was doing. So this really dates me. It was difficult to chase in Wisconsin with lots of hills and trees...at least that was my excuse. NOVA was my all time favorite show and of course the Wizard of Oz scene of the tornado. Always fascinated as a kid about severe weather and especially tornados I told myself that I wanted to chase tornados and get paid for it. That came true after college when I got invited to the NOAA/ERL/PROFS program in Boulder, CO. to field test the new Dopplers in 1985 as a paid storm chaser for I believe GS-3 pay. NOVA showed up that year and I told the director I would do anything to be on NOVA as it was my favorite show. They let me sit at the old AFOS console as they were filming and sure enough I got on for about 5 seconds. Jee mom look...I am on TV!! So my ultimate goals came to life that year. Gene Moore was also one of the chasers, and I picked his brain for a few months while chasing with him. That year the old light bulb started coming on as I learned an enormous amount from that field excercise, seeing the Doppler images after chase and discussing the details of each storm with people like Don Burgess and many other forecasters and chasers.

Back to what I was going to say...about the future of storm chasing and what I think may be on the horizon after reading David Ewoldt's post. I think we will see High Def storm chasing TV/Internet on demand through a paid subscription. Along with dual doppler displays and maybe someday newer displays from Lidar type radars filling in gaps at shorter ranges. So you can sit back in your easy chair at home and watch the storms unfold from your High Def TV or Laptop.

 

[Paul Harrop]

Can I count that I started chasing in 1984 because it was the year in which I was born? My father (as his father and grandfather) was a storm chaser. He would take my mother and I along for the ride. They were both hams and active in CD. When I got my ham license at 15, I had to have my mom drive me out spotting/chasing since my Ham license came a year before my driver's license.

Later in my teen years, I would go out with just a map, a ham radio and a video camera.
I couldn't afford all the techno-toys and really earned my stripes as a chaser with just visual observation and the NWS radar updates over the radio. I saw a number of tornadoes that way.

I find that I enjoy my chases much more when I am 'bare bones'. There is something very rewarding about seeing a tornado when armed with just a big atlas and a 2m radio. I now work full time and chase for a TV station - so I have all the technology one could ever want at my fingertips. As fun as it is navigating for a driver that has never chased before, all the while maintaining a video stream and trying to nowcast on the fly; I am much more relaxed after a day of bare bones chasing than I am with a full radio stack and a laptop - chasing "on-air".

 

[Stephen Levine]

Within the past five days, I posted a sharing about how my chasing has evolved over the last 30 years, and it has vanished from this thread. It felt so wonderful to share it as well as read the rest of the stories. What happened to my post?

 

[J West]

It was difficult to chase in Wisconsin with lots of hills and trees...at least that was my excuse.

Don't worry, it still is...that hasn't changed.

 

[Glenn Dixon]

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

Thanks a lot - I got stuck on YouTube watching old weather video and storm footage for almost two hours.

 

[Jeff Passner]

The biggest difference is distance... When I began chasing in 1982 it was almost unheard of to stay out there for more than a day. WE did not have the data.. the way it worked was to look over the morning data and chase within 0-250 miles of "home." You called back to the map room or someone who had TV radar. That's how it was done. You did not wake up in a hotel room in NOrth Platte and move on to Iowa later that day. The limits have expanded because we can. The thoughts of an Oklahoma chaser going to South Dakota were unheard of. You'd go to Hobart or maybe Amarillo but you'd never go to Spencer, SD. A few risky chasers would head to Kansas or Lubbock but your limit was one day, 250-300 miles from home. The thought of someone coming from Oregon to chase storms just did not exist.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

The thought of someone coming from Oregon to chase storms just did not exist.

Weren't folks like Dave Hoadley and Jim Leonard traveling great distances (Virginia and Florida, respectively) to chase back in the early 1980s, and even earlier?

One perception that I have after 23 seasons of Plains chasing is that more people are traveling much greater distances (8-12+ hours) to chase more marginal and less certain situations, especially outside-peak season events.

 

[Jason Foster]

One perception that I have after 23 seasons of Plains chasing is that more people are traveling much greater distances (8-12+ hours) to chase more marginal and less certain situations, especially outside-peak season events.

I know many observations have been mentioned in this thread already, but I too have certainly found the diversity of what is chased and when is way more broad than ever before. I can't say weather this is a matter of inexperience, experience, technology and forecasting skill, focus, or obsessiveness about storms. I'll leave that for another thread.

Myself, I tend to keep to the classic set-ups and I tend to stay on the Plains. I don't do Indiana or the Dakotas. I guess the way Tim Marshall described chasing back in the early/mid 90s in the printed Stormtrack editions kinda stuck with me.

 

[Wes Carter]

Within the past five days, I posted a sharing about how my chasing has evolved over the last 30 years, and it has vanished from this thread. It felt so wonderful to share it as well as read the rest of the stories. What happened to my post?

Stephen,

I was wondering the same thing until I found there are two similar threads. I thought I read a post from you in the other one so I looked. It was there. It's in this thread.

 

[Benjamin Rock]

Man, I remember watching this on tv and saying"that's awesome" now I'm out there as well. I love the payphone and weather maps that were printed out. Now it's "hand me the WiFi and laptop, hook the GPS up, give me the cell phone and let's stop up here and talk the thousand other chasers about the set up." Man it's changed. Even in the last 16 years that I've been chasing. When i started out, we were still using a lot of what they were. I remember when the "fancy stuff" came out. It was like, "what does this do? How do we use this? Will this even work?" Now it's second nature. It's sad in a way, but really friggin cool too.

 

[David Hoadley]

Have just recently read this topic and need to respond to a few comments about my chase style, which is very much "old school." Coming from Virginia is a 1,500 mile journey each way before even reaching storm country. I average 4-5 trips a year for 25-35,000 miles (820,000 since beginning in 1956). The most important equipment is a laptop for morning data in a motel, and I still plot hourly surface maps to pick a target forecast. On the road, I only use weather radio and local newscasts, along with paper road maps --don't have GPS or a wireless card for the laptop. I am a low-tech guy from an earlier generation (now 70+), that is intimidated and frustrated by high tech equipment --which isn’t always that helpful.

Case in point: While recently considering purchase of a new cell phone and subscribing to weather radar, I decided to study the last 10 years and see how much difference it really would have made. Looking closely at 42 tornado days, if I had access to this data, I would likely have seen photogenic tornadoes on 4 additional days. However, I could also have *missed* three others ( ! ) for a net gain of only one.

Days likely to have missed -- (1) 6/26/05; I taped 1 or 2 backlit rope tornadoes in Sioux County, ND from the east side of the Missouri River, on the ground 10 minutes before a distinguished chase tour arrived, too late, from three weak tornadoes near Aberdeen. I saw that activity building to the east but preferred the bubbling boundary on the western horizon, long before it went up. Radar from Aberdeen might have taken me there. (2) 5/20/01; Jeff Piotrowski and I were within two miles of the Dustin tornado, while many were in southeast Oklahoma, pursuing other storms. Dustin was one of the best that day. Again, radar might have taken me elsewhere. (3) 5/29/01; coming from the west I had to decide between the White Deer, TX cell and an equally impressive one to the south. It was a tough call, but I chose White Deer, along with several others. Radar could have taken me to the obvious hook near Conway and a few brief tornadoes but missing the main feature. Thus, at least for this season, I am taking a pass on cell phone radar.

If you made a good morning forecast, it should not in most cases need major revision due to transient afternoon data, even the latest radar scan. Those blips that look good at 3 o'clock don’t necessarily tell where the best storms will be three hours later. Sometimes, experience matters (10 last year) and sometimes the old ways work pretty good.

 

[Warren Faidley]

I also limit myself to the essentials. I have found over the years that three things will ruin a good chase forecast. 1: Overload of data. 2: Listening to too many opinions. 3: Not going with gut instincts. I have missed several, great tornado events by not trusting my own experience, while listening to others. The biggest bust was likely the wild Pampa day on June 8, 1995. I still have the map with the big red X over Pampa I made in Woodward that morning, but diverted when everyone said to go north, despite my gut feeling the storms would run north into the front, which they did and Pampa was ground zero.

I still plot my own maps every AM with colored pencils. They are quite simple, but are as accurate as they used to be, even with all the new data sources. The basics still apply, like the dryline, surface wind directions, boundaries, surface lows, surface temps., etc. By personally plotting this data every hour, I begin to see a 3D picture in my mind of what I think will happen. I do use more complex data for long range decisions. I use my iPhone browser for watching convective trends, e.g., satellite images, MSD's, watches and discussions while mobile.

I use a portable, high-end GPS (Garmin) with Doppler overlay, but it's more of a safety gizmo than a chase thing, especially at NIGHT when trying to avoid or escape storms. (I do not like too much electronic gear in the driving compartment for safety reasons). I have found that relying too much on more exotic radar systems tends to cause more frequent indecisions because radar does not always pick the right storm initially, or the returns can be misleading. I have also found (as have others) that relying on radar exclusively to navigate in critical areas can also be midleading. I generally know when I'm on the right storm by visual aspects. Then again, I'm very selective about the storms I'm seeking now days and I'll take a big chance on a long shot isolated storm over an HP if given the opportunity. This also has pitfalls.

Regardless, I think it's a personal choice. I've got my chasing equipment down to a minimum so I can focus on the visuals.

Warren

 

[joewalters]

it would be great to see how many of the people that chase these days would continue to chase if they could not use their fancy cell phones, laptops, gps etc. and instead had to revert back to the technology of the 90's. I personally think that you would lose a whole lot of the crowd.

 

[CZandbergen]

As a total newbie who bagged my first tornado yesterday on my second chase I can say there is no way I would have been able to do it without the technology side of things. I did a lot of research before I got into this and as a tech guy even I was amazed at the technology and more important the integration of different technologies available off the shelf for a chaser that is willing to do the home work and spend a fairly small amount of money.

The real trick that I think makes the difference is bridging the forecast to what is happening real time during the chase. With GR3 and Allisonhouse overlays it was amazing to see the cells pop right where the CAPE areas were favorable and see them crap out right where the Td's, etc said the conditions were not so great. It allowed me to find the cell I wanted. Chase it for 100 miles and then call off the chase at the right time because it wasn't going to produce in the environment it had moved in to.

I do my own forecasting using various online models and then check the SPC and see what they think. So far we have been in agreement. What has really surprised me (having spotter network integrated with GR3) is all the people that seem to be punching cores when there are other options available. But I guess to each their own. It was nice to see that I was the lead car in the run to catch the cell that left Medford and eventually made a tube up by Arkansas City. Pretty funny to look out the back window and see the convoy behind me moving very fast towards I35 and seeing all the icons marching along via the spotter network overlay. Maybe I was just the first one to get scared and run?

But seriously, while I have the utmost respect for those that were able to chase when the tech wasn't available, why would one not make use of what is available now? Keeping your head stuck down in the radar is obviously a bad idea, but system integration is a very powerful thing and should be used where it makes sense. It seems to me as a fairly new guy that the chase community has done an outstanding job of this and I hope my contributions help in the future.

What I have noticed in just a couple of chases is it seems like there are a ton of people chasing the chasers that have data when they have none. You can see it by watching who moves where and when. The cars that were slowing the line down east of Medford on Monday didn't have data and as soon as they were off the road, a line of us shot of and made the intercept.

New guy just saying...

 

[Dan Robinson]

I think if the technology wasn't there, you'd probably see roughly the same numbers out there today. I think the effect would be that the crowds would be more spread out, IE less people on the same storm and in the same place. More people busting and less convergence on the storm of the day, and less people out on marginal days.

I could be wrong, but I don't think technology is what motivates someone to chase, or to keep chasing - at least the majority of us. A lot of us started out without all the gadgets, and later spent the money as we discovered it would benefit something we already had set in our minds to do. I think that's true of even a lot of newcomers today.

I will say though, I was floored by all of the Spotter Network icons out on an iffy March chase day like Monday. Either everyone is using SN now, or there are a *huge* number of newcomers!