Leach chasers – it has to stop.

[Stuart Robinson]

The events of the last few days have been irritating but events today around Greensburg have simply left me stunned!

Why do some (I assume novice chasers) think that is OK to follow other chasers around like leaches and assume that it does not offend. After leaving Greensburg today and stream of vehicles followed behind. Fair enough a cell had gone up south of town and we all wanted to be on it so a stream of cars behind is not unexpected.


So I pull over, so do SIX cars behind. I pull away, so Do SIX cars behind. I stop again – so do SIX cars behind.

Finally to prove a point I went North and then U turned just south of 183 / 400 junction, West of Greensburg – SIX Cars did the same U-Turn all in a line. I drove South for two miles and U turned again – you guessed it, the same SIX cars did the same manoeuvre again.

This leach behaviour has to stop – not least, if you were following me today, you missed the Pratt tornadoes after getting beaten up by hail – (today was not my finest chase day).

I guess that it a free country and I can’t stop anyone from following but come on guys (you know who you are) work out your own route around the storms.

Anyway rant over – congratulations to those who cought the Pratt tornado today. Commiserations to those who were leaching – you all missed it !!!

 

[David Draun]

LOL, I saw that going on! Sorry Stuart that you had to deal with that. A lot of guys follow the TIV and the DOWs too, I've noticed. Yes chaser convergence is going to happen, but the guys who followed you and did the U-turns too were just totally uncalled for. I wonder if there were yahoos in that bunch.

That nader was pretty awesome BTW

 

[Joey Ketcham]

You should have just kept doing U-Turns on that same stretch of road, heh.

Unless the persons following you was obviously a chaser (antenna's or mobile mesonet) I would almost bet that it was probably just a bunch of locals wanting to see a tornado and was following you to the action. I've been fortunate to only had 1 incident in the 90's where a local followed me.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Stuart, you read my mind on creating this thread.

After the last several days of chasing, I am convinced someone is going to be killed by a tornado very soon because there are a ton of wannabe chasers who have zero clue about basic supercell structure. More than a ton of times this past weekend, I saw people pulled over on the road filming areas of the storm that were not even close to being tornadic.

Not only that, but I also experienced a ton of leeches as well as local yahoos. Of course, I was also passed by a POS black chevy going 90-100 today as well as I TOPPED a hill. I got that one on film and might share it.

Either way, I want to highlight a few good things this weekend as well. We were all newbs at one time and I met a few guys that were definitely less experienced this past weekend that were awesome guys and were doing everything right in terms of following the storms and keeping a safe distance and filming a rotating wall cloud (and not a shelf cloud ).

Even though I only have 6 years on me (a lot less compared to a lot of you other guys I know) I kind of am feeling a bit of responsibility for the newbs and rooks out there running around. All in all...I really think this past weekend was a bit out of hand in terms of "yahooness."

EDIT: This doesn't include some interactions with locals wanting to be storm chasers...Saturday was especially bad. You'd almost think there was a game or something going on with all the tailgating I saw

 

[Joey Ketcham]

You'd almost think there was a game or something going on with all the tailgating I saw

Well... I saw people tailgating as well but the person being tailgated was also doing 40MPH in a 65.

 

[David Drummond]

Well, some of us chaser actually film other parts of the storm other than just tornadic stuff. heh

I had a bunch following me one time like 10 cars and I think many were locals. I was desperately trying to find a place way out in the country to take a leak and couldn't get any privacy from them. I ended up taking a big round about way snaking around a bunch of back roads, acting like I was going some place important just to go to a convenience store to pee. I am betting those were some pissed folks.

 

[Adam Penney]

Stuart, It was good to run into you today, as well as all of the other SLT folks. I feel compelled to pull my name/vehicle out of the hat of "leaches" today, as when i went to start up my car at the Quick Stop gas station that myself as well as you and 465 other chasers were at, my car battery had died. Needless to say my entire chase was therefore ruined. I had to get someone to jump my car and then had to drive straight back to KC without turning off the engine. It was such a downer. Just wanted to say though, I was not one of the leaches today. I have too much respect for the people that have done this way before me to pull one like that.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Well, some of us chaser actually film other parts of the storm other than just tornadic stuff. heh

I was going to make a comment on that myself but didn't. I've seen others make similar comments about not filming the right part of the storm, I'm not really sure what that's suppose to mean. Unless a tornado is developing or has developed, I will sometimes purposely film other parts of the storm that doesn't include the wall cloud, that's just me though as I've always been very fascinated by storm structures and sometimes I find other areas of the storm to be more interesting than the weak, disorganized wall cloud that the 20 other chasers are taping. Just my .02 cents.

 

[Marc Austin]

We had a guy follow us the other day near Perry, Oklahoma. It was his very first storm chase and I could tell he had little to no experience. I didn't mind just him following along. He only did so for about 30 minutes anyway. If it had been a dangerous or fast paced chase, I would have been more frustrated, but things seemed to be winding down. I was much more annoyed by the number of yahoos and locals on the road. Many of them stopped in the middle of the road or cut us off while we were attempting to turn around with a tornado drawing near. I've never seen so many locals out hoping to capture a tornado!

 

[Chris C Sanner]

I was going to make a comment on that myself but didn't. I've seen others make similar comments about not filming the right part of the storm, I'm not really sure what that's suppose to mean. Unless a tornado is developing or has developed, I will sometimes purposely film other parts of the storm that doesn't include the wall cloud, that's just me though as I've always been very fascinated by storm structures and sometimes I find other areas of the storm to be more interesting than the weak, disorganized wall cloud that the 20 other chasers are taping. Just my .02 cents.

Well, I do understand that. I guess it's a case of 'you had to be there' on what I am talking about. I am just as guilty of filming other sections of the storm as well but it was pretty apparent some of them just didn't have a clue. Either way, I'm not going to confront anyone directly about a lack of knowledge, when I was just starting out I always tried to avoid chaser gatherings outside of ST because I didn't want to sound clueless (still working on that part sometimes ).

Anyways, to reel this thing back onto the true topic at hand I wonder if we will ever see the day where some local, etc. tries to sue a chaser for "leading" them into some baseball hail? You never know....

 

[Susan Strom]

Yahooness can take other forms too aside from following chasers' vehicles around physically.

One type is the person who desires to come along but is not willing to learn about the aspects of it, the forecasting, equipment, not much of anything. This person might want to look at paying for a tour.

Yahooish as well is the photographer who does not find his own vantage points but simply copies even the hard won compositions of others. This person needs to get in touch with his/her own creativity.

A third type is someone who rings the cell phones of other chasers off the hook in search of key information, but has no data to mind of his own and not much desire to learn. He is the airwaves yahoo.

 

[Kem Poyner]

leaches

There are many advantages to making your chase vehicle not look like a stormchasers vehicle. I try to stay in stealth mode. No light bars, no stickers, no whirly gigs and one small antenna. I use WxWorx too, nobody sees that. It also helps keep thieves from knowing I have expensive video and radio gear on board. One more advantage, it keeps the locals from asking "are we gonna get a tornado today?" which in itself I don't mind. Its the following drawn out stories of their tornado encounters. Just when I am trying to get gas as fast as I can and stay with a storm.

 

[Mark Farnik]

I agree totally with Kem on the advantages of having a stealth storm chasing vehicle. I do admit to having two storm chasing bumper stickers on the back of my Subaru Forester and a mag mount cell antenna on the roof, and soon I plan on installing two thin LED lightbars behind my grille and in my back window for emergency situations, but other than that I am totally stealth. I have a wireless card for my laptop and I use GRLevel 3, so that helps with maintaining the stealth mode. Nonetheless, my bumper stickers got people's attention and I think I was asked more questions about storm chasing in western Kansas on Thursday and Friday than I have in my entire life to this point. I don't mind answering people's questions when I'm just sitting around waiting for initiation, but if I'm on a storm or trying to get to a target before initiation, it does get extremely annoying in a very rapid fashion.

Another reason to keep it low key is law enforcement. Unless you take a close look at the bumper stickers on the back of my car or look inside and see my laptop perched on its mount, it's a typical black Subaru Forester with Colorado plates. I figure the less obvious it is that I'm a chaser, the less likely I am to get pulled over for no good reason by a LEO.

 

[fplowman]

it keeps the locals from asking "are we gonna get a tornado today?" which in itself I don't mind. Its the following drawn out stories of their tornado encounters. Just when I am trying to get gas as fast as I can and stay with a storm.

This has of course happened to me dozens of times as a chaser as Im sure it has everyone else. As a salesperson I use simple techniques I have learned to cut it short. Yesterday in Pratt a truck driver was talking my ear off and followed me "on foot" from the Sinclair gas station in Pratt to the Super 8 Motel next door where we were all waiting for our target to materialize.

I was kind, spoke to him for a few minutes and realized this is going on waaaayyy too long. I stopped him mid sentence asked him his name and introduced myself, shook his hand and said, hey man nice meeting you. I need to get my head wrapped back around what Im doing over here... He understood and smiled and went on his way.

 

[Steve Burre]

Ah...memories of the late 1970s/early 80s. Going out to a storm and the only other group you *might* see would be the NSSL2 (if you were NSSL1) and maybe Howie and the OU chase team or perhaps a few others like Gene Moore. Those were the days even if we had to do most things visually with occasional telephone calls back to the lab.