Let's talk chasing old school (no internet) - issues, tools, benefits

[Rob H]

Pick a data service provider, buy a phone, figure out how to tether or enable hotspot, buy a hotspot, get a cell phone amplifier, get a power inverter, cigarette adapter melts so hardwire inverter to fuse, mount gps device, square wave inverter doesn't charge your new netbook/table, have cords hanging every where, OS crashes, blah blah blah

Technology is amazing, but how many times have you been chasing and have shouted in frustration "I wish this crap just worked!"

I started chasing in an era where it was assumed that you would be using the latest and greatest technology in your car to enable situational awareness. I've wanted to start going to a more natural style of chasing for the challenge/rewards/"purity" and thought some of the old timers here might have tips, suggestions, and gripes. Some initial thoughts:

• How do you handle navigation? Offline mapping application? Full on paper maps? What are the recommended maps to use and why?
• If you use non-electronic maps, how do you track your location?
• How do you handle initiation? Sit at a McDonalds and use Wifi or just sit on a hill and watch for towers?
• Forecasting obviously becomes more important, so what changes in your process?
• How do you track surface features? I think NOAA weather radio still reads off METARs. What other options are there? Do you plot these out on a piece of paper?

Feel free to answer these questions, or add your own questions/insights!

 

[Skip Talbot]

• How do you handle navigation? Offline mapping application? Full on paper maps? What are the recommended maps to use and why?

The gazetteer maps. Show the roads and the road types in detail. (I don't actually have any with me now as I rely fully on digital mapping).

• If you use non-electronic maps, how do you track your location?

Transparency and a marker. Wouldn't recommend for solo chasing.

• How do you handle initiation? Sit at a McDonalds and use Wifi or just sit on a hill and watch for towers?

Watch the sky. Towering cu? Are boundaries visible? WX Radio.

• Forecasting obviously becomes more important, so what changes in your process?

I think you learn to commit to one area more. There's probably less second guessing yourself, and you probably wind up on secondary storms than the storm of the day more often than not.

• How do you track surface features? I think NOAA weather radio still reads off METARs. What other options are there? Do you plot these out on a piece of paper?

The veterans pros swear by hand analysis. I'm sure if you're going out there with no tech it's practically a requirement.

*Disclaimer, I am very much a techno chaser, but started out very non techno: wx radio, paper maps.

 

[Jeff House]

You are taking me back, lol! Sometimes country music stations offer better commentary than NOAA wx radio, but we always had the latter with us.

It was also acceptable to call a knowledgeable friend from a payphone for nowcast and/or radar interpretation. I had a calling card with me to avoid outrageous payphone tolls because often we were calling long distance. Remember local toll calls?

Try storm chasing without high-res model guidance. It was crap 20 years ago and/or did not exist. Forecast from home base using only operational low-res models. Quality target is very important, because there were no second chances. Forecast where the OFB, DL and other boundaries will intersect.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Oh, yes, some of the country music radio stations made quite a production of covering severe weather. I remember one in particular, KFDI out of Wichita, that would dramatically break into regular programming when a warning was issued. They had different alert tones for different warnings - sounded similar, but with a few subtle differences such that if you listened to them often enough you knew when it was a tornado before the announcer even spoke. This was back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. They had early versions of spotter/chasers except we knew them a "mobile units." Mobile unit 1, mobile unit 2, etc. who spoke in authentic cb radio jargon. I'm not really sure they knew what they were looking at, at least in terms of today's understanding of storm features, but were quite colorful in their descriptions. (Some would say too colorful; yes there was "hype" back then, too.)

 

[Marcus Diaz]

June 18, 2010 was my last full old school day. No computer, cell phone, navigation, nothing but my eyes and knowledge of the road network out here. It was tough as I drove straight into a vault workout realizing it. But still managed to intercept a nice supercell near Groom, Texas. It was probably the least stressful (minus the hail) I've been on. It was very enjoyable for me.

 

[Dan Robinson]

In the mid-late 90s, I used the DeLorme Gazetteers to navigate, a scanner programmed with all of the NOAA weather radio frequencies and AM radio to gauge lightning flash rates. In the late 90s, the local NWS offices were pretty good about updating the broadcast with statements about what storms were doing and where they were headed. That was harder to come by each year after 2000, when the broadcasts would be more of the standard rotation (forecasts, obs). I had a small cooler for my Pentax K1000 and extra rolls of film. Tripod, cable release, flashlight and umbrella. I got my radar either at home on the internet or on the TWC local forecasts if I could find a place with a TV. One I was on the road, I was flying blind other than whatever updates the weather radio would provide. The most indispensable help came from friends who could act as nowcasters via telephone. I also spent many an evening at home returning the favor nowcasting for friends.

2004 was the first year I made the jump into chase technology: laptop, WxWorx, StreetAtlas and WIFI. Libraries were a more reliable way to get early-in-the-day data than WIFI, as hotspots were hard to find prior to 2008-2009. After getting WxWorx, I never needed NOAA weather radio or a nowcaster again.

I miss how it used to be out of pure nostalgia, but I had many busts in those days that today's technology would have almost certainly prevented. Conversely, there have been many successes since then that may not have happened without the technology providing critical information at the right time.

 

[Scotty Mitchell]

I started back in the late 80's. Primarily with skywarn. I had 2 meter radio, scanner and paper maps. I also brought with me a battery powered TV. If you were anywhere near the twin cities, you could receive channel 17. Which was about as high tech as you could get.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[Joey Ketcham]

From the mid 90's until 2004, I didn't have anything except a cell phone (not a smartphone either), camera, NOAA Weather Radio, a scanner and paper maps. Prior to a chase, I would print everything off and take it with me. Once I was at my target area, I would stop in at a library to get updates. In 2004 I got my first laptop and started taking it with me on chases, and connect to open WiFi networks at hotels and fast food places. Eventually I went "high tech" and had mobile internet, GPS, laptop mounted and all of that... the last couple years though I've done away with most of that and no longer have a laptop except my work laptop and no GPS.

Last chase I went on here recently in Missouri I took nothing but my cell phone, and it was great.

 

[Todd Rector]

Back in the LATE 70's / EARLY 80's.. (There, I just dated myself) it was a 6-channel 2 meter rig. Us "trained weather spotters" aka "clueless HAM operators who just wanted to help" were "Skywarn Activated" and would take position within repeater range maybe 5-10 miles SW of the Des Moines area and wait for incoming storm cells. I knew what a wall cloud was (after all, I had watched the training video) but I was equally intimidated by scary looking "mothership" shelf clouds, so who knows what actually got called in once the gust front hit and the torrential rain started?

Eh. I was 17 and have long since forgiven myself.

It was local terrain so nobody needed maps. There was little "chasing".. We basically stayed at a decent observation point and made periodic reports until the storm cell(s) passed by. Zig-zagging through country roads following a wall cloud was a completely foreign idea for some reason. It's not like we didn't *know* that tornadoes drop from wall clouds (we were trained spotters, after all) but we just didn't do that. Maybe because we thought the NWS expected us to be at our previously established position rather than move around? I really don't know.

Not exactly a brave, romantic picture of early storm chasing, but we honestly tried to perform a public service as best we knew how.

TR

 

[Stan Rose]

You should try 'old school' chasing some time...and i mean old school. Just make your forecast, pick a target and go there. Then rely on visuals. Turn off your phones, your gps, your radios--leave it all behind.
If you miss the 'big one' somehwere else...who cares. There will be other storms. Just give it a try--I think you'd find it insightful.

 

[cstrunk]

I'd rather chase "old school" any day. My first storm chases were local storms that I saw coming either in the sky or from TV warnings. The only thing I had was an AM/FM radio. I knew some of the roads so I would just take off. It was definitely nerve-racking without radar, but it was way more fun and less stressful than trying to pay attention to GPS/computer/smartphone instead of what the sky was telling you.

 

[rdale]

How much attention are people putting on the gadgets that they can say it is "funner" to do without? Speaking as someone who grew up with nothing more than a ham radio and a NWR receiver in the car, waiting for the hourly radar summary, that's just crazy...

 

[Casey Osburn]

Ah yes, the days of seeing a 20 minute old low-res radar on TV, jumping in my car and heading out without a clue as to how the storm was progressing, except for what I see in the sky.

Sometimes all I had was TWC's national "Digital Radar", which was about as low-res as it can get. But it was the only radar I had access to.

NOAA Wx radio was probably my biggest source prior to the technology days, and I'm talking mid '80s to early '90s. No internet, no models, no radar-on-demand, no SPC statements...all I had was what they read on NOAA.

I really think that's why chasing has become so popular the past 10 years. Back then, you had to really work to get information, and there wasn't that much information accessible to the layperson. Now, anyone can get almost anything, anytime.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Again, I'm nostalgic for the old days, but I don't want to reduce my success rates from 1 tornado every 4-5 chases to one tornado every 10-15 chases just for the sake of going back to the way things were. As distracting, "impure", etc that technology is, it helps me see more storms and tornadoes - which is what chasing is supposed to be about. How I get to the storm is a means to end, not an end in itself. All I really care about ultimately is seeing the storm. If tech helps me do that, there is no reason to eschew it. Doing things the old way for nostalgic/challenging reasons sounds cool, until you miss a Bennington, Rozel or Campo because you didn't see the new satellite image that showed the Cu field building more 100 miles farther south that where you are, or seeing a new tail-end charlie storm on radar while you're staring down the notch of the HP that is about to get its inflow cut off. I'd doubt I'd feel much satisfaction giving up a nice tornado as a direct result of withholding valuable realtime data from myself.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Ah, yes, TWC's early version of national digital radar. It kind of served its purpose when they had it zoomed out to a wide angle. But, every so often, they made the mistake of zooming in to a local area that revealed perfect little circles painted in primary colors. It looked like there was somebody behind the curtains busy with a paint-by-numbers set.