Leach chasers – it has to stop.

[Dick McGowan]

That reminds me - - what was the new 'mini-DOW' thing? It wasn't far from the TIV when we saw it ... just wondered who it belonged to. Kind of looked like "honey, I shrunk the DOW."

It's either the phased array radar team with Howie Bluestein, or the dual-pole radar. I think Jeff Snyder and Dan Dawson are part of that group so I will let them comment further. I thought the same thing last year when we saw them near Protection, KS on May 4th...

 

[Jeff Snyder]

That reminds me - - what was the new 'mini-DOW' thing? It wasn't far from the TIV when we saw it ... just wondered who it belonged to. Kind of looked like "honey, I shrunk the DOW."

We have several radars out with our group ("our" being Howie Bluestein and his graduate students) -- two from the University of Mass. at Amherst (a relatively small W-band and a larger X-band), and the MWR-05XP mobile phased array (which is on a large truck platform). We, however, don't have any "support" vehicles, so you won't find us as part of a caravan (unless we're behind or otherwise injected into "the" caravan). The trucks are marked as either UMass / MIRSL or ProSensing / Naval Postgraduate School. The W-band (which operates near 95 GHz) is actually a cloud-sensing radar, but we (in particular, Robin T., since she often operates it) use it to scan tornadoes, wall-clouds, etc, given its extremely high resolution. The X-Pol antenna is smaller than the DOW's and is mounted on a smaller truck, so that's probably what you are referring to. The people who operate and help with these radars (myself, along with fellow Stormtrack'ers Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, Mike French, etc) have been chasing for a while... We make every effort to pull completely off the road and only deploy where others can pass by safely. If you notice "stupid driving" behavior with these vehicles, please feel free to PM me to let me know.

I post this to caution against generalizing the various mobile radar research groups too broadly. FWIW, we also ran across some stupid driving behavior by some in the Discovery Channel convoy (doing K-turns on a relatively busy highway, completely blocking traffic in both directions, etc), but it sounded like another vehicle in their convoy called them out for doing so, which I was very pleased to hear. There are also some very experienced chasers in the Discovery Channel / DOW armada, but there are a lot of vehicles that are largely just production folks that have little chasing experience.

EDIT: I'm not saying anyone is "calling out" our group -- I just wanted to explain our radars and the folks who work with them a bit.

 

[Andrew Stoller]

I drive a regular car and don't have a single antenna nor any stickers, I don't want anyone to know that I'm storm chasing and we never have any problems. BTW, which tour company drives 3 full-sized, white vans with Colorado and Texas tags?

From Colorado - likely Roger Hill and Silver Lining Tours.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I rarely get bothered when out chasing. My vehicle has 2 antenna's on it, one is for my ham radio and the other is for my data card which it looks like a standard extenal cell phone antenna so it's not too terribly noticable. I have a magnet mount anemometer but I don't use it much.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

I drive a regular car and don't have a single antenna nor any stickers, I don't want anyone to know that I'm storm chasing and we never have any problems. BTW, which tour company drives 3 full-sized, white vans with Colorado and Texas tags?

I don't know. But if it is the same group I think, that is some of the most rude and idiotic acting so-called "professionals" I have seen out here. I would guess there are not too many with the Colorado plates.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

We have several radars out with our group -- two from UMass (a relatively small W-band and a larger X-band), and the MWR-05XP mobile phased array.

Ahh, cool. Was just curious - first time I had come across it. That may have even been you that we saw.

Don't worry, you were parked courteously and no convoy around. (Unlike some of the jumbo DOWs, who are evidently authorized to block roads these days.)

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

We have several radars out with our group -- two from UMass

Didn't mean anything perjorative about the work 'kid'--'kids' have been schooling me for years and I'm grateful

 

[Dick McGowan]

I don't know. But if it is the same group I think, that is some of the most rude and idiotic acting so-called "professionals" I have seen out here. I would guess there are not too many with the Colorado plates.

I agree, as I'm sure many chasers found out what they "did" on Highway 4 east of Shields or near Utica on Friday. You should have seen all of their faces after we got through with them!

 

[Andrew Stoller]

According to Silverlining Tours website, they have a silver Ford van.

But their mailing address is now in TX. Used to be totally based out of the Denver area I think.

 

[Mark Sudduth]

Funny thing happened in 2004. I went out to the May 29 outbreak with Jesse Bass and John Van Pelt purely on a whim with virtually no chasing experience at all (Jesse had one year or so under his belt, as did John- for tornadoes, that is). We had an un-marked rental SUV with no antennae of any kind. Nothing to indicate we were there to chase. All we had was laptops with Mobile ThreatNet running. We actually had at least two people stop and ask US if they could follow US. How funny is that? Talk about blind leading the blind. We did okay that day- ended up on the Harper county tornado that was simply awesome to see. Just reading the original post in this thread reminded me of that day and how someone actually wanted to follow us, of all people. I cannot imagine how things must be out there these days with TIVs, DOWs and vans full of experienced chasers- all with lots of people trailing behind from time to time. Good luck with that, not sure of how one would handle such a phenomenon.

 

[jeremy wilson]

I have lied several times this year to get these annoying flies away from me. I'll tell them the storm is going to crap and they should shoot south to catch the tornadic beast 50 miles away. When they fall for it I dont feel bad cause I realize thier lack of knowledge and passion to learn allows them to fall for it.

Also, I was on highway 9 west of Mangum yesterday when another moron was parked halfway in the road right on the other side of a hill in a 65 mph zone. Later, After my wife and I had core punched, I came over a hill and lo and behold, in the blinding rain and hail was the same morons standing in the middle of the road waving me down. I skidded on the wet roads to avoid one of them and nearly ended up flipped in the ditch. turned out they had a flat and needed a jack. apparently they didnt mind killing us to borrow our jack. I controlled my temper and helped them out. When it turned out my lug wrench wouldnt fit there tire i offered a ride to Mangum. They said no and nothing else. No thank you or anything. They were in a white p.o.s. car and had an NBC sticker on the side. I introduced myself but they refused to give me thier names. Wannabes.

If my wife or myself or one of my buddies ever end up with even a scratch because of the tag-a-longs or rude morons who park in the road, I will hurt you. I will not be able to control my temper then. So if you see a white full size ford pickup, gold toyota echo, or black ford ranger and you value your extremities, get out of my way and dont follow anymore.

 

[Chris Rice]

I'm a newbie already thinking guerilla tactics for chasing...

After Ness City, KS on 5-23-2008 - I now see what everyone is talking about when they say chaser convergence. It really throws a new spin on things. Anticipate the storm, anticipate what other chasers might do, and then come up with a game plan that is different on the fly... Whew!!!

Tip #1 - Monitor DOW/TIV radio traffic to stay clear of them when on the same storm. It worked great for me last night in Pratt.

Tip #2 - Unless you're willing to live with consequences. Don't turn your Spotter Network beacon on until last minute.

Tip #3 - Always use alternate roads when possible to avoid the masses.

Tip #4 - Hams use alternate frequency other than the common 146.550.

Tip #5 - This is non related - but carry toilet paper...

Chris Rice
www.stormchaselive.com

 

[Mark Sefried]

I was on the Pratt storm and managed to film the rain wrapped tornado a little East of there. U.S. 54 was like a freakin circus. It was as if everyone in town was going Eastbound just to catch a glimpse of what was going on. From what I could tell most of the vehicles that I saw were local yokels and it was like a rush hour in a major city or something. I can't wait until I get back home and chase the Midwest again later this week. I rarely see any locals driving out of town to catch a glimpse of the storm.

 

[Ben Prusia]

A good option to get rid of leachers...don't drive an Xterra! Many chasers, including myself, drive one and these things are leach magnets.

Certainly one can follow me, the way this year has been going, the closest he or she is going to get within a tornado is a good 5 miles and even then it will be low contrast.

 

[Roger Hill]

Dick McGowan or whomever,

Not sure WHICH tour company you are referring to, but we had NO run in with you or anyone else. You could be referring to Todd Thorn or many others who run multiple white vans. We certainly are not idiots and do nothing unsafe or dangerous. Many other chasers, not tour companies can be unsafe or do ridiculous things, hence the reason Stuart started this thread (Stu was with US!). Don't flame if you don't know WHO you are talking about. I have been chasing for 22 years, never an incident, and plan on keeping it that way.

Enough said. Watch who you accuse unless you KNOW what you are taling about.

Roger Hill