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*New Users. Meet and Greet Area*

I am new, Name is Joe and live in Columbia Hghts, MN. I have been interested in weather for most of my young live ( currently in the mid 20's) and chased storms once I got my license. I generally chase in the southern Minnesota area as I am a NWS storm spotter member. I work Part time, and i attend school full time to pursue a degree in engineering (civil). I chase only a a hobby, and try to take pictures during an event but it is hard to when seeing a weather event in its entirety, but I have been lucky before using a 6 megapixel camera. Use internet with wireless card for on the road chasing using NWS site.

Nice to meet fellow chasers,

Joseph (Joe is fine)

Hello Joe from right up the street! Welcome to the forum!
 
My name is Jennifer Palmer, and I am a new member of Stormtrack, but I'm a long time lurker here! I am hoping to accomplish my dream of going on my first chase. This is something I've wanted to do for about 10 years, but just kept putting off educating myself thinking, "I'll do it someday." Well, the time has come for me to take action!

I've signed up for spotter training, and I plan on spotting this year so that I can learn more about storm structure before I go on my first actual chase. I'm also looking for education on forecasting, because that has been the hardest thing for me to learn on my own. I have been trying to teach myself using the internet, but I'm probably going to have to break down and buy a good textbook.

Anyway.. You probably won't hear too much from me, since mostly I'm going to be reading and trying to learn stuff, unless I have questions... :)

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this community!
 
Welcome, Jennifer

There is no better way to learn how to chase than to just get out there and do it. Definitely go to Spotter Training and study up on the books, but I've learned far more about storm structure from actively seeking it out, and forecasting makes much more sense when you see it verify in person.
 
Thanks for the welcome, Skip! Hands on experience is usually the best way to learn! I'm definitely more of a visual learner.

I'm really excited and I hope I get my chance to go out this year!
 
Hey, my name is Chris Koelzer. I've lurked on ST for quite awhile, but I thought I would stop by and introduce myself. I am really looking forward to the 2010 season...I have spent the last few days browsing threads and learning as much as I can. I'm from Omaha, so it goes without saying that severe weather has always been a big part of my life ever since I was a little kid. I have always loved watching storms, but have never been organized about it.

This year I have decided to take the full plunge and have been working on getting equipment situated and setup (thanks tax return!), learning how to understand storm structure and forcast maps. I am hoping for a more active season this year and hopefully the chance to experience at least a couple good storms. Just waiting on getting my Ham license here in the next couple weeks, and going to a spotter class in March.

Anyways I hope to see a few of you out there this year - good luck and be safe!

Chris
 
Long time lurker here, I guess its time to introduce myself, before the 2010 season.

I live in the DFW area and have chased in the last two seasons. I'm currently attending UTDallas this year being my last (finally). Along with being a student I am currently serving the in United States Army Reserves as a Military Police officer. I see storm chasing as another way to give back to the community trough early warning efforts. I hope to learn as much as I can from experienced chasers on these boards.
 
Josh,

Welcome to StormTrack. Since you say you've been a long time lurker, you may have had a chance to look at the thread 'A List Of Learning Resources' in the Educational Forum. If not, it's a great place to start learning concepts. As you are aware, Dallas is a pretty good place to start chasing once you get out of town.

Nice avatar by the way. We have a number of military backgrounds here.
 
Hello Everyone!

I have been a lurker since last chase season. Never got around to posting yet on here though I have been wanting to change that and get into discussions on here as well as get connected with many of you.

Grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. My passion for weather started when I was very young, saw a funnel cloud when i was around 8 years old on a road trip out in western Nebraska. I was always curious about weather before that, but after that happened it was my true passion. I wanted to learn and do everything I could that dealt with weather. Watched all the tornado videos I could, looked up all the info I could find, knew I wanted to storm chase.

Recently i've been making that happen. My first official chase was in 2008 with my best friend who also has loved weather since he was young. Only went on the one chase that year as I was only back in Nebraska for one week. I live in Arizona now. Last year was my first close to full year chasing though, I flew to Kansas and stayed with my friend there for a month. That month being May and leaving just before June came around. So I didn't get to many good chases last year. However I did see my first tornado last year, the Kirksville tornado.

Sadly my best friend wasn't with me on that chase as he had finals, so I was with two other friends of mine, but I didn't trust them very much. Especially the driver, so I was on edge the entire time once I saw the tornado. So not only was it my first tornado and being in aw of that, but not trusting my driver to be smart about the situation was another thing that was distracting me. Anyways, it ended up me messing up the recording of the tornado when we stopped and got out of the car to shoot it from down the road as it crossed behind us. I was barking orders, thought I had stopped recording but never did stop recording. So when i got out of the car to record the rest of it, I pushed the record button again and that stopped it insted of what i thought was starting it again. Looked great to. :(
So yeah, that was my first experience with a tornado, learned a ton from that.

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming season, i've been preparing myself in many ways. Finally getting a website up, getting some more gear, will be attending chaser con 2010 in Denver this weekend. Hoping to have a wonderful experience there. Can't wait for that! :D

Anyway, i'll wrap up for now, lol. Looking forward to talking/posting with a lot of you!
 
Hello!

I have been viewing Stormtrack forums for a year or so now and have recently decided to become a member. I am a very amateur storm chaser, having chased two seasons in the Northern Illinois area, with each chase getting a bit more organized and safer. I am a 19 year old college student studying music education, though I already know that my summer vacations will be spent chasing. I plan to learn more about forecasting/nowcasting and how to use the different gear by reading and posting on this forum.

- George
 
George,

Welcome to Stormtrack as a registered user. If you've been looking around here for a year, you know that most of the folks are friendly and helpful most of the time. Stormtrack is a great place to increase your knowledge about chasing and what is involved.

To help with learning about posting and deleting, click on FAQs/Rules in the bar at the top of the page. Scroll down to the very bottom of that page and there will be a listing "Reading and Posting Messages" that should cover what you need to do.

Good Luck!
 
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