Novice Forecast Board...

[Ryan McGinnis]

The real reason why the FCST and NOW threads have become more and more void of posts is that to many people are using them to figure out where to go with out knowing how to forecast themselves. Many of the more experienced chasers are getting sick of being followed around after posting their thoughts and target locations. It is getting so bad now that I am not going to turn my SN icon on until I get onto a storm. Just the other day when Scott Bennett and I left Ardmore, well before any storms fired, we started to notice a line of four or so chasers start to follow us. When we dropped out icons at a casino off the side of the road and kept on driving that line of SN icons stopped there too.

I think the FCST threads are responsible for very, very little of this sort of thing. Spotter Network is almost 100% responsible for the followers. If you post your GPS coordinates every 2 minutes online and you are known for being a talented chaser, you are going to get followed. The only ways to mitigate this is to either (as you said) just not turn on your SN reporting until you need it for actual reporting or to make sure your chase vehicle looks like any other vehicle -- no stickers, no lightbars, no antennafarm, no weather station whizzing away atop the vehicle. Nobody follows an unmarked Subaru.

Or, you can chase upslope Colorado storms on days when there is a high risk in Oklahoma.

In May, it almost doesn't matter since you're going to find a horde near any good storm on the Plains. This year my mind is blown whenever I turn on the spotter locations in Radarscope to see where everyone is. It's like an ant farm.

I don't see much harm in making the FCST threads public -- I like that they are restricted (for posting) to users who can follow the rules and know at least a little bit about forecasting, but there is nothing really confidential about what goes on in there.

 

[bill mudd]

So Tim has summed it up "intro weather and chasing".
There is plenty left to the season. Lets give it a shot. Its bound to bring in the weather pro's, especially if someone is way off the target mark.
It doesn't always have to be about large tornado forecasts either(granted it helps), severe can be just as rewarding to anyone with a camera.

 

[Jeff Wright]

I would have thought gas prices would have culled a lot of folks who are less than serious. I stay broke, so you won't have any congestion from me here in Alabama. In fact, after what happened to my neighbors, I'm actually about sick of seeing tornadoes, so I'll give them back to you folks on the plains Right now I'm trying not to melt. In terms of novice forcasting--the way this years been, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a repeat of the Edmonton event if things don't get better...