Nathan Edwards
EF2
Hello,
I was in pretty much the same situation as you a couple of years ago, Sam. Very keen on storms, but not much happenening over here on the east coast of North Yorkshire
I'd been following this forum for a couple of years by that point pretty much exclusively lurking but learning all the time. I followed pretty much every severe weather event during the first 5 months of 2006 after been made redundant from a previous job and finding I actually had the time to invest in this itnerest. I dowloaded GrLevel 3, followed live streams, and took part in 'virtual chases' online to test my skills. Only getting a new job which started in early May stopped me from actually chasing that year. I learnt an awful lot from those months, mainly from the great posts from some members of this forum.
I offered advice to a team chasing later that year, and things went very well despite it being a quiet few weeks.'Nowcasting' is great fun, and most teams appreciate extra data whilst out in the field. My choice of starting areas was spot on more often than not adn to my surprise, the team actually took into account some of my suggestions. Finally bit the bullet and joined in with an organised tour in 2007 (through the www.Netweather.tv forums joining the guys I'd been helping out the previous year). That gave me a great insight to how chasing works - preparation, positioning, organisation etc. which you don't get from 'virtual chasing'. This year, I went over on my own, spending 3 weeks chasing in the first part of May. I had a blast, despite timing my trip to end right before the spectacular end of May Tornado-Fest. I had a great time and met up with lots of fellow chasers out in the plains, but doing this sort of thing on your own is pretty damned expensive
. The problem for me is I prefer the longer chase trips to give you more chance of avoiding a deathridge situation and blowing an enitre vacation That gets even more expensive on organised tours where you need to book 2 back to back tours essentially.
The way to go is obviously to find a group of like minded individuals where at least a couple of members have good experience and split the costs. It was 2.5 grand for my trip there abouts, but one extra person would only add the cost of a plane ticket to the budget to split it 2 ways. (Most rooms were doubles and gas/car hire etc doesn't go up drastically with an extra person in the car) 4 people would need an extra room per night but cut other costs by 4 per person. This is what I hope to do eventually. I'm not sure I have the experience to lead a group after just one trip solo though. I'm unsure how I'll go next year. I have a friend who wants to tour parts of America but he isn't sure he'll be into Storm Chasing and has a short attention span, so he might not be the best partner
Eventually I'd like to do a tour myself, albeit nothing official. It wouldn't be for profit for isntance, but taking lesser knowledged but keen storm fanatics from the UK over just to help lower costs for my own trip. Again, I will not do this until I feel 100% confident in my skills however... Whilst this years was incident free with the exception of a handful of hail dents, I'm not sure I'd want the responsibilty to keep people safe whilst I am still learning myself.
If you want to chat about these sort of things at any time, feel free to pm me either here or over at Netweather.tv (Username: Gorky!). I cannot reccommend getting over to the US for the chase season in some way or another. It's become the highlight of the year for me
Cheers!
I was in pretty much the same situation as you a couple of years ago, Sam. Very keen on storms, but not much happenening over here on the east coast of North Yorkshire
I'd been following this forum for a couple of years by that point pretty much exclusively lurking but learning all the time. I followed pretty much every severe weather event during the first 5 months of 2006 after been made redundant from a previous job and finding I actually had the time to invest in this itnerest. I dowloaded GrLevel 3, followed live streams, and took part in 'virtual chases' online to test my skills. Only getting a new job which started in early May stopped me from actually chasing that year. I learnt an awful lot from those months, mainly from the great posts from some members of this forum. I offered advice to a team chasing later that year, and things went very well despite it being a quiet few weeks.'Nowcasting' is great fun, and most teams appreciate extra data whilst out in the field. My choice of starting areas was spot on more often than not adn to my surprise, the team actually took into account some of my suggestions. Finally bit the bullet and joined in with an organised tour in 2007 (through the www.Netweather.tv forums joining the guys I'd been helping out the previous year). That gave me a great insight to how chasing works - preparation, positioning, organisation etc. which you don't get from 'virtual chasing'. This year, I went over on my own, spending 3 weeks chasing in the first part of May. I had a blast, despite timing my trip to end right before the spectacular end of May Tornado-Fest. I had a great time and met up with lots of fellow chasers out in the plains, but doing this sort of thing on your own is pretty damned expensive
. The problem for me is I prefer the longer chase trips to give you more chance of avoiding a deathridge situation and blowing an enitre vacation That gets even more expensive on organised tours where you need to book 2 back to back tours essentially.The way to go is obviously to find a group of like minded individuals where at least a couple of members have good experience and split the costs. It was 2.5 grand for my trip there abouts, but one extra person would only add the cost of a plane ticket to the budget to split it 2 ways. (Most rooms were doubles and gas/car hire etc doesn't go up drastically with an extra person in the car
) 4 people would need an extra room per night but cut other costs by 4 per person. This is what I hope to do eventually. I'm not sure I have the experience to lead a group after just one trip solo though. I'm unsure how I'll go next year. I have a friend who wants to tour parts of America but he isn't sure he'll be into Storm Chasing and has a short attention span, so he might not be the best partner Eventually I'd like to do a tour myself, albeit nothing official. It wouldn't be for profit for isntance, but taking lesser knowledged but keen storm fanatics from the UK over just to help lower costs for my own trip. Again, I will not do this until I feel 100% confident in my skills however... Whilst this years was incident free with the exception of a handful of hail dents, I'm not sure I'd want the responsibilty to keep people safe whilst I am still learning myself.
If you want to chat about these sort of things at any time, feel free to pm me either here or over at Netweather.tv (Username: Gorky!). I cannot reccommend getting over to the US for the chase season in some way or another. It's become the highlight of the year for me
Cheers!
