Isn't it Amazing...

[Jeff Miller]

...Just how far technology has become for weather forecasting.

I was just sitting here thinking how easy it is to pull up virtually any meteorological data you want - from models to ensembles to upper air - to satellites of all types (visible, infrared, water vapor, etc). Then to be able to look at the severe weather algorithmic models and the many different models that are processed by supercomputers 3 to 4 times a day.... we have it so lucky.

Every one of us on this forum has so much more information then any Weather Service forecaster had in the 1900-2000 time period. We can sit at our computers and look at the same doppler radars, and many of us are skilled enough to make our own forecasts - some with excellent skill, and many who never even went to college learned enough through hands on experience to make a darn good forecast.

And how this relates to chasing is incredible. Who would have thought 30 to 40 years ago the plethora of information available to a chaser. A cell phone for a nowcaster who has total access to every meteoroogical data anywhere. A laptop with full satellite internet access for full data practically anywhere. GPS, WXWorks - it's absolutely incredible! And now with live streaming video technology non chasers or armchair chasers can many times watch a chase live - and at no cost.

I think it's safe to say - for the weather enthusiasts of the world -

*pops open a cold one, takes a drink*

it just doesn't get any better than this.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I think about this quite often, it's amazing how much technology has changed, even since I first began storm spotting/chasing in the mid 90's. Quite often I think about my first few years of storm chasing going out armed with only a cell phone, scanner, paper maps, and a camera. I would also print out whatever weather data was available at the time.

I remember hearing about how storm chasers would have to make stops at the National Weather Service just to get information when out chasing, I can't imagine having to do that today. What's even more scary is that technology is always advancing and becoming better and better, it's hard to imagine what things will be like even 5-10 years from now.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I'm also thankful that the speed limits aren't any longer a federally-mandated maximum 55 mph, too! Imagine trying to get from one end of The Alley to another, and back again, with those speed limits. It wasn't until 1995 that that changed, which wasn't so long ago.

Here come the lectures...

 

[David Drummond]

I'm also thankful that the speed limits aren't any longer a federally-mandated maximum 55 mph, too! Imagine trying to get from one end of The Alley to another, and back again, with those speed limits. It wasn't until 1995 that that changed, which wasn't so long ago.

Here come the lectures...

Of course we didn't obey them any better in those days than we do now.

I remember no less than about 8 or 9 years ago stopping at Allsups along the way and sweet talking a clerk in to letting me hook my data modem up to their phone line for 5 minutes to dial in to an 800 number I had to pay hourly to use.

I also remember filling up at Allsups at one time for less than $1.00/gal.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Hell I remember days when once you left the house that was it for data. No cell phones. No laptops, No wx worx. Just maps and charts from your morning analysis and a cb or scanner. Also AM radio so you could get wx cut ins.

It was fun but a major challenge back in the mid 80's.

 

[Bob Hall]

David… that brings back some memories. 1999 was the first year I started to go after storms. I had a laptop that a pilot friend of mine loaded with some DUATS software that dialed an 800 number and downloaded the full USA ASOS observations in about 3-4 minutes at 9600 BAUD. I carried a 100 foot RJ-11 cord that I would drag into motel lobbies or gas stations and beg for a connection. Worked remarkably well actually.

Looking back that strikes me as really funny in a British sitcom sort of way.

 

[David Drummond]

Yeah I remember listening to the weather radio and plotting out the observations by hand.

How's this, taking storm photos with a Polaroid camera before I got a "real" camera! Probably some young folks on here that never even saw a Polaroid photo develop in front of your eyes.

 

[Forrest lambert]

I remember when my dad had those camera's. i still have alot of pics that he took of me when i was younger. do they still make them?

 

[Joey Ketcham]

How's this, taking storm photos with a Polaroid camera before I got a "real" camera! Probably some young folks on here that never even saw a Polaroid photo develop in front of your eyes.

I loved those Polaroid cameras when I was younger and you could buy them at Wal-Mart, I had one for the longest time during the early to mid 90's, but never used one for storm photography. I started out just using a cheap 35MM I got from wal-mart and think it was in 2000 when I got my first digital camera.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

What memories---but if I hadn't stopped at a WSO in Indiana that day in the early 1980s, I'd have never heard of Stormtrack. Even though ST didn't figure in daily forecasts, it sure pulled together a range of ideas and techniques (along with publishing experiences in detail) that made subsequent chases more organized, especially for those of us operating outside of the met world.

I do recall how helpful all those folks at the WSO offices were. I think they were still amazed that anyone would be driving so far just to watch storms.

Re the original topic--absolutely yes. Every time I turn on GRL3 I think of how lucky I am for this alone.

 

[Jay McCoy]

1st camera I used for chasing was a cheap Kodak 110!! Pop in the roll. make sure its not upside down and forward it 2 pics. Didnt get a video camera until 1992.

What suprises me is all the years David D. and I chased in the same area but I dont remember meeting him until 2000. Hard to imagine chasing 15 years in the same area and never talking to each other! Ofcourse my vehicle didnt look much like a chase vehicle back then and I kept to myslef most of the time. I am sure we saw each other just never made the chasing connection.

 

[David Drummond]

I think I saw a lot of people back then chasing and didn't know they were chasing. I am sure they didn't know I was. I chased in a beat up white chevy pickup for a while, probably looked like a farmer. Had an old beige Impala for a while and a grey Buick. None of which looked like a "chase car" but then again, not much did in those days.

 

[Blake Michaleski]

Yeah I remember listening to the weather radio and plotting out the observations by hand.

I remember doing that alot back in 2000-2001...

It is a good skill to have to be able to plot out a full station plot as the conditions are being read...works real well for when your laptop HD decides to give it up.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Makes you wonder what we'll have in another 10 years. A morning plot of all the tornadoes that will touch down that day? Good for the public but bad for chaser convergence.

My first data out on the road in the early 90s was a 5" B&W TV and a handheld WX radio to get any nearby stations.

Then for awhile in the late 90s it was stopping by the side of the road and pointing the DirectTV dish to get 'local on the 8s' radar off TWC.

We used to dream about something like WXWORXs or mobile internet - and now we have it.

Even with all that you can still be on the wrong side of a rainshaft and miss the tornado of the day!

 

[David Drummond]

I remember the first really GOOD data setup I got going. Using DirecPC which at that time required a phone line for the UP side. I was able to get that working through cell phone (ANALOG!) and use the high speed down through the satellite. I actually got this guy involved that made dish mounts for RVs to make me a prototype for the larger DPC dish to mount on the trailer hitch.

It worked great but of course had to be pointed manually, which wasn't bad, I was pretty good at that.

It was the very first time I felt like I had the full capabilities of the Internet out in the middle of nowhere and it was GREAT! I remember driving way out in the boonies with nothing but fields all around to test that and thinking just how cool it was to be able to connect to anything in the world out in the middle of nowhere.