How It Feels to Not Be Chasing

[Bob Hartig]

Hope you don't mind a shameless link to my blog. I just don't feel like duplicating what I've already written, and I have an idea that some of you will be able to relate. In a nutshell, it really sucks to be missing out on the action as a good system does its thing, and here's how I feel about it. A bit of catharsis, and I'll bet I'm not the only one who feels this way at times.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

Hang in there Bob. (I don't presume to know your situation, but ...) I feel like Michigan was the first state to sink down the tubes of the recession and we'll probably be the last to climb out. I know plenty of people in this state that are in survival mode; just trying to cut back to only what they absolutely need. Things have to get better around here eventually.

 

[Steven Howell]

Bob, I know exactly what you mean. The models are showing some storms possibly here in Central Texas in the next few hours and I cant afford to go and buy gas to drive an hour or 2 NW of here to go and chase. I am benched as well. This sucks! Gas at almost $4 a gallon and one income to put food on the table and keep paying the mortgage.

Hang in there brother, there are many more out here in your situation as well, and its very frustrating. I share in your misery, watching my friends out chasing on these systems and I cant afford to go put gas in my truck to go chase because I have to have it to get back and forth to work this week, and payday is next week.

 

[Zach Young]

I finally got a financial windfall recently, but it went entirely to pay down/off credit cards. I desperately want to go out, but if I take time off from work too much and spend a lot of money on chases, all my progress will be for naught. I'll have to wait for the High Plains upslope days to set up, I suppose. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to afford some big action

 

[Nikki Johnson]

Hey Bob! I used to live in GR 6 years ago. I feel your pain but on a slightly different level. I'm a total newbie. Had my first chase in Okie in April and now I'm hooked. I don't really have the knowledge or tools to follow a storm safely, so here I sit watching the clouds go by tempted to just go anyway. Boo hoo! I need some friends here that know what they're doing so I can take some pictures. I just uploaded a few from my chase in April if you or anyone wants to check them out! Cheers!

 

[Chris Nuttall]

I even had a three-day weekend to chase this system, so I feel the frustration, too. However, I'm in the middle of a move, and had an appointment on Friday, so that prevented me getting out. I would have considered going Saturday, but then developed an eye issue that has resulted in some pretty bad light sensitivity until it heals. Not very many chase opportunities present themselves during a scheduled three-day weekend. I'm young. There will be others.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

I can understand the frustration, Bob. I was just commenting to my wife that I call myself a storm chaser, yet on the other side of the state storms are going severe and tornado warned at this moment. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I've spent this weekend agonizing over a job opportunity that would take me pretty much out of the chase game except for one week vacations and such. I can say that not being able to chase has had some effect on my decision, but it has definitely taken me out of the game this week, one of the most active yet in the southern plains. It's so tough to have to watch from afar, and especially frustrating when finances keep you from doing what you love. The last couple of years I've finally had a chance to chase the amount I want, with the first 10 years filled with having a family, going through divorce and rebuilding all over again. Hang in there, the storms will always be there waiting for you.

 

[Bob Hartig]

I decided to take what was available, so I drove out to the lakeshore to wait for storm to roll in across the waters from the Chicago area. That turned into a fiasco, and I wound up driving back home. Now I'm sitting here at the edge of my little town of Caledonia at the far end of a church parking lot overlooking a corn field, watching lightning flicker in the distance. I'm trying to get a few photos as a compensations prize. You know: it's the old adage about making lemonade from a lemon. So far, though, all this day has given me is lemon concentrate. I need a good night's sleep and an attitude adjustment.

 

[Dan Robinson]

The economy has put a crunch on my chasing since the middle of last year, and it's especially tough as a freelancer (I do freelance and contract web development) when business is down. I finally gave in and did the unthinkable - got a 'real' job this month. I'm thankful I live in the Midwest now, or I'd be fairly empty-handed this year now and in the future due to my tight 'chase leash'.

Times like these, along with the increasing traffic crisis out west, forced me to evaluate how important chasing really was to me, and I discovered it really isn't worth the worry and suffering I put myself through when I'm missing something. If I was "there" and got the tornadoes, I'd soon forget about them (same way the rest of the world does) in months. All the incredible tornadoes I've seen in past years aren't lifting a finger to help me now, why exactly do they deserve so much of my life again? For example, Mulvane - awesome tornado, absolutely no benefit to me now aside from some bragging rights.

Don't get me wrong - I love chasing and will always do it when I can - but I reached an epiphany through this downtime that has resulted in a permanent unwillingness to sacrifice for storms and tornadoes. That includes sacrifices in the form of finances & personal relationships when I can chase, or psychological distress when I can't.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Well, Bob, if it's any consolation, sometimes the storms will come to you. I had posted last year about Jan 21, 2010 and my considering giving up chasing for good that day, only to have an EF-2 come right up my street that afternoon.

Today, 5/22, I hadn't even looked at weather. Church, then reload and depart for a gig in Birmingham about 90 minutes away. When I was barely outside of Huntsville, I found myself facing a long wall cloud with a pronounced inflow tube from the north. Couldn't believe it, so I whipped out the phone and clicked PKL3. Yep, big cell with two white hail markers in place. As I drove west on I-565 toward it, the wall cloud cleaved; the southern part became a shelf and the northern became a lowered bowl shape. At this point I switched to velocity on PKL3 and spotted the rotation right in my path, so I pulled over. One minute later a tor warning was issued for the cell. My GPS on PKL3 showed me to be right in the hook, so I stayed my ground and the wall 'globe' went just north of me, pulling up scud but not rotating visibly. EDIT: forgot to add that as the wall cloud approached, ground level inflow was from the SSE at about 40mph; after it passed, what passed for a wet RFD came from WNW at 35-40mph with a couple higher gusts.

Frustratingly, neither my camera nor video cam in the phone would operate. Both put up a 'searching for location' tab that I've never seen before, so I got no images of this encounter. But it was fun, and it got a good start on my being late for the gig. The coup de gras in that arena was having to go to one lane on I-65 south due to April 27 debris clean up in Cullman County.

Hang in there, man--it's just a matter of when, not if.

PS--Sorry for hijacking your thread for my 'report.' It's too insignificant to place in one of the threads involving the serious situations in the Plains and upper Midwest, but I didn't know where else to put it, other than Joe's PKL3 thread.

 

[MatthewCarman]

The economy and my job are limiting me to chasing in central Iowa this year. I had a chance to chase yesterday but I had to pick up my mom at 1:30 and by 2:10 when I finally got home I knew the storms were already moving away from me. I saw they were moving slow and debated rushing after them from the west but I was not impressed with the storms and stayed home. Next time I will be more prepared (will make sure my mom has her own car) and this was very dissapointing considering the storms formed just east of my home town. Seeing the needle tornado by Parnell makes me wish I had gone out yesterday but I did not miss much.

If I was not saving up for my own apartment and I had a better paying job I would have no problem chasing every single storm. Those of you that can afford to chase every single storm should be thankfull for that.

 

[BBauer]

All the incredible tornadoes I've seen in past years aren't lifting a finger to help me now, why exactly do they deserve so much of my life again? For example, Mulvane - awesome tornado, absolutely no benefit to me now aside from some bragging rights.

Really? Well I can't exactly say what chasing does for me since I am just stepping into the game. But I have a hypothesis on what it will do for me. Growing up I developed a love for the ocean and did everything I could to get to the beach (40 minutes away). Before I could drive my friends and I would beg and plead with our parents to take us down there to surf. The ocean was one of the most rejuvenating things for me while I was growing up, but I can't fully describe what it exactly does for me. I am also a big fisherman and there is a quote that goes "Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not the fish they are after" -Henry David Thoreau. Now I know there are a variety of reasons people chase, but for me I expect it to have the same effect that surfing and fishing has on me. My wife will never understand why I love the ocean, fishing, and severe weather so much. Even though I am hundreds of miles from the ocean now there is a flame that will never die inside me. I think in a sense I have turned to severe weather to fill the void made by being so far from the ocean. If chasing does not help you in any way, then why would you ever want to do it again? Maybe I can change the fishing quote a little, "Many men/women go chasing all their lives without knowing that it is not the tornadoes they are after". Now, I'm not saying that whatever we (men/women) are after cannot be found in other passions and hobbies, but I'd argue that the effect that the power and beauty of nature has on individuals is what keeps bringing them back in order to fulfill some need that is hard to explain.

 

[SPoling]

Well said, BBauer.

Not much for me to chase as well. I can't blame the economy though. Sometimes you do have to wait for the storm to come to you, but while your waiting, enjoy your other passions in life.

 

[James Clarke]

The last couple of months I have been chasing in a dodge durango V8 and everytime I turn around Im putting gas in it.....5o dollars here..... 20 dollars there and its gone within hours. Im talking about just chasing within 2 to 3 hours of home. I chose to not chase today and hold back until tommorow. The gas prices are killing me.

 

[George Widener]

One thing I have been doing to alleviate the "pain" of not physically chasing is to do it virtually on the web...plenty of resources out there for radar and the like. Once you find a cell that you like many times one can find an online tower cam or perhaps a live TV feed (like the Tuscaloosa/B'Ham event). It certainly doesn't compare to being there in person, but can be fun all the same. I've been trying to learn as much as I can both from ST and other sources so perhaps some day I will feel confident enough to venture out into the plains in search of the monsters. In the meantime I'll just do a little bit of local chasing as time and finances permit...most of our tornadoes here in Wisconsin are of the EF0-1 variety and I'm "comfortable" enough around them to hop in the truck and attempt some positioning. Had a pretty good day yesterday with a small local tor-warned cell. No ground truth, but lots of interesting storm shots.
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