On the slate at the NSWW

[Jody Radzik]

I got an email announcing this year's National Severe Weather Workshop in Norman, OK. On the slate are various topics, one of which caught my eye:

Storm Chasers: The Good, The Irresponsible and The Stupid.

That's 2 to 1 against us!

It actually speaks to two kinds of chasers. One would be the average Stormtrack denizen, almost always an amateur meteorologist – at times a quite good one – as well as being equipped, prepared, strategic and safe in their vehicles during their time on the chase, all while in communication with weather and emergency personnel as required. Contrasted with this are the thrill chasers: poorly equipped, not really meteorologically savvy and usually driving crazy in party mode.

Outside of forming vigilante teams and going after bad chasers, I don't see what can be done other than a law enforcement crackdown, which is going to catch many, if not most of us as well. That is going to be a bummer.

I'm SKYWARN trained in New Mexico, so, I'd probably get a pass from the police here if I wasn't misbehaving. But if I'm in KS or OK, I won't have that excuse.

Can anything be done to prevent a L.E. crackdown on chasers if things begin to get even more out-of-hand?

 

[Shane Adams]

I got an email announcing this year's National Severe Weather Workshop in Norman, OK. On the slate are various topics, one of which caught my eye:

Storm Chasers: The Good, The Irresponsible and The Stupid.

That almost sounds interesting enough to go for, but I'd just get pissed off.

How about following it up with Storm Spotters: The Good, The Ignorant, and The Narrow-Minded.

 

[Jody Radzik]

That almost sounds interesting enough to go for, but I'd just get pissed off.

How about following it up with Storm Spotters: The Good, The Ignorant, and The Narrow-Minded.

Clearly, the author of the title has something against chasers. But with so many on the road, some not being very safe in dangerous situations, there appears to be a cause for concern.

But maybe this kind of thing just magnifies the problem. I've only really chased for two seasons, and while I've been on the road with a lot of other chasers, I've never really had a problem with anyone's driving. It may be just the sheer numbers of chasers on a big day frustrating the emergency folk, causing them to have an overall negative view of chasing in general.

Hopefully there will be some chasers there to speak up for the community.

 

[Shane Adams]

Hopefully there will be some chasers there to speak up for the community.

That sounds good to say, but I see that becoming a few guys who try to argue the speaker's points (be they right or wrong) and basically turning themselves into the bad guys the speaker is talking about in the first place. When you fill a room with people with the notion of "good, irresponsible, and stupid" that's what the room is going to think of it...and anyone standing there who opposes it is going to be the goat (IMO).

I agree with you that merely bringing the topic up adds to the problem as much as what's being talked about. Nothing is going to change how people chase out there in the heat of battle. Seems the best way to "fight" this issue is on an individual, person-to-person basis. We've done the internet thing, the TESSA thing, all of that. Whoever speaks will have the room in their hands like putty for the duration of the event, and then everyone will leave and everyone will keep chasing how they please. It changes nothing.

All I see out of this is simply adding to the public perception that all chasers are irresponsible and stupid. You mention those two adjectives together and the "good" kinda gets lost on people. Just having that item on the agenda (IMO) means chasers have already lost another PR battle. Keep the "bad" issues within the community; a general public stage should be reserved for "The Good, The Good, and The Good" IMO.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is this comes on the heels of the release of "Storms Of 2007", which features some of the chasers who will no doubt be examples during this event. In the midst of a huge marketing campaign to push the SO2007, seems like a really bad PR move to gather a large group of people (many of whom are general public potential buyers) and talk about chasers in a negative way. Maybe they can sell everyone a copy on their way in the door before that event happens.

 

[Rick Smith]

Before people get too excited about the title of this presentation, you should know that the intent of this talk is to highlight some of the positive contributions of storm chasers, and is being presented by Chuck Doswell.

Rick

 

[Jody Radzik]

Before people get too excited about the title of this presentation, you should know that the intent of this talk is to highlight some of the positive contributions of storm chasers, and is being presented by Chuck Doswell.

Hi Rick.

Thanks for this info. I think most of the Stormtrack chaser-types want to and are making positive contributions. But nonetheless, the title of the talk can be construed as being somewhat inflammatory. Chuck may want to consider changing it slightly if he's to talk about chasing in a positive light.

 

[Danny Cheresnick]

All I see out of this is simply adding to the public perception that all chasers are irresponsible and stupid. You mention those two adjectives together and the "good" kinda gets lost on people. Just having that item on the agenda (IMO) means chasers have already lost another PR battle. Keep the "bad" issues within the community; a general public stage should be reserved for "The Good, The Good, and The Good" IMO.

The general public does not really attend this conference, and really doesn't even know about it. So there is no need to worry about this harming the perception of chasers in the general public.

 

[David Drummond]

No, instead it's Emergency Management and other government types that we would like to have a positive relationship with.

 

[jladue]

No, instead it's Emergency Management and other government types that we would like to have a positive relationship with.

Another thing to do is to promote S of 2007 to those newspapers that ran articles in KS portraying the negative impact of some chasers. We did just this. But wouldn't there be much more impact to contact those newspapers when the next negative story comes out so that we can tell the positive side?

Jim