Over-Competative Chasers...

[Kem Poyner]

I agree with Jim Hawkins...well said. I too have had a few brush-offs when just making conversation with chasers while waiting for something to pop. I have driven out from arizona every season for over 20 years. I have learned just by body language who is sociable and who would probably best to avoid. For example, passengers of a tour group on the last day of their vacation when it was a bust. Also if I see a couple of young ,clean shaven grad students chasing together (with two laptops on their laps, ...the chip on the shoulder scale goes up...no disrespect to them, just my observation. One more thing, usually the more expensive the big chase truck, the less friendly the chaser...Subaru Forester chasers are really friendly...am I profiling? Shame on me! I like to converse with chasers after the fact..to see what they experienced and maybe brag alittle or vent frustration.

 

[AndyGabrielson]

Chasers and spotters who haven't had much time in the field get over-excited about what they see. One or even two years of experience someimes isn't enough. I question myself sometimes even though I know what i'm looking at.

If that's the case why is this thread here? I really am not trying to be rude because you could come talk to me on almost any day and I would be happy to chat unless theres a tornado warning or a tornado happening... but to criticize someone in one thread about not knowing what they are saying and saying it's inexcusable and then creating a thread about not knowing what YOU are seeing is certainly a unique route to take...

 

[Joe Schaub]

If that's the case why is this thread here? I really am not trying to be rude because you could come talk to me on almost any day and I would be happy to chat unless theres a tornado warning or a tornado happening... but to criticize someone in one thread about not knowing what they are saying and saying it's inexcusable and then creating a thread about not knowing what YOU are seeing is certainly a unique route to take...

Maybe she just needs someone to reassure her that what she is thinking or seeing is indeed what she thinks it is. I can relate to her as I have done that many times in my job as a mechanic. Often times I am nearly certain I have it right but will ask a person who has been a mechanic longer than me (8 years myself) to do two things: One make sure what I did was right and Two to reaffirm myself that I am thinking right.

All of us who follow the weather, do spotting or chasing should be more than helpful with those who ask us a question about it. It's a sad commentary on society when people are so disrespectful towards others looking for help or information.

 

[terra seright]

If that's the case why is this thread here? I really am not trying to be rude because you could come talk to me on almost any day and I would be happy to chat unless theres a tornado warning or a tornado happening... but to criticize someone in one thread about not knowing what they are saying and saying it's inexcusable and then creating a thread about not knowing what YOU are seeing is certainly a unique route to take...

Did you not read the whole thread?

Did the girl in the other thread ask any questions before posting something that she was over-excited about? I would not expect her to keep to herself about things that she wasn't absolutely sure about if I couldn't do that myself.

Yes, I question what I am seeing sometimes, because I am calling in my reports directly to the NWS. I am out there on behalf of the NWS. I don't want to make the mistake of reporting something wrong. I was one of two NWS spotters out there on that storm...and the other spotter (who is more experienced than I am) was farther north-west of my location, so I couldn't ask him about it.

I had to teach myself for the first 7 years. I had to do it by reading books, watching youtube, and examining every cloud that came along. I didn't have the benefit of a college education, so I had to do it from scratch. Over the past two years, I have been to multiple spotter classes, conferences, picked the brain of every spotter I could find, read these forums like crazy, and gone out to chase every little storm that came along, in order to educate myself about it. Our ARES group requires that spotters "shadow" other spotters before going out on their own in the first place, but there weren't enough spotters then, and there aren't now.

I know what I'm looking at...the issue I had here was what did everyone else see that I did not see. This storm had already produced a couple of tornadoes, and was warned. All I wanted was for someone to point their finger.

This is not a thread about me not knowing anything and needing help, and not getting it. This is a thread about asking a question and being treated like a nerd who dared to speak to the head cheer leader. I am not the only one who has encountered this issue, I'm just the only one that I know of who is willing to speak out and show aggravation about it.

Just like Joe just stated, it hurts no one to be helpful and not disrespectful to others.

 

[Chris Campbell]

No, I am not rolling all chasers into one stereotype. This is why I my opening statement was "There are some chasers...."

You are assuming that most people can read. Based on my experiences on the various Internets, that assumption only leads to frustration.

 

[Jason Boggs]

How many of you have either refused to answer questions, or given a crappy answer to someone who was asking?

It all depends on when you ask the question. If I'm in the middle of videotaping or taking pictures, I might not want to talk at that moment. Also, if I'm on the phone calling in a report or doing a phoner, I'll ignore someone until I get off the phone.

I've had people come up me wanting to talk when I was on the phone, and I had to ignore them. They may have thought I was snobbing them off, but I was just busy at that particular time.

Terra, if you're really passionate about learning, don't depend on others to do it for you. There are plenty of other tools out there to help you along like the internet and experience.

Terra, I don't mean to sound harsh when I say this, so don't take it that way, but.....if you really need that much help, maybe you should hold off on spotting for the NWS until you get a bit more experience and familiarity with storms and their structure.

EDIT: You mention that some chasers won't let others follow them, or they charge people to ride with them. Here is my take on that: I won't let someone ride with me unless they split the gas with me. Why should I go through the wear and tear on my vehicle and spend gas money and let my partner ride scott free. It's only fair that the passenger/passengers helps with expenses. I f someone wants to follow me, there's nothing I can do to prevent them from doing that.

 

[George Limpert]

Unless there's a very good reason to not be polite, I think it's always a good idea to be respectful of other chasers.

I've been involved in two chasing groups at different universities. Mentoring inexperienced chasers is a great way to help them get a better understanding of meteorology. I chased with 12 other students on Friday and for many of them, it was their first chase. Upon returning to Lincoln, many of them commented about how much they thought it was a great experience. It's a great way to encourage them to continue chasing and get them excited about the science. It might mean taking some time away from taking pictures to explain things, but I think it's worthwhile. I'd feel the same way if a chaser from outside of the group came up and asked questions.

There's only three reasons I can think of that I'd refuse to answer. One reason is if someone asks me to look up something on my laptop that's not relevant to the current situation (yes, it has happened). If there's imminent danger, then I doubt I'd take the time to answer. And if I'm reporting something to the NWS, I doubt I'd want to be bugged while I'm on the phone. Otherwise, I can't see a good reason not to answer. Hopefully that's fair enough...

 

[Chris C Sanner]

It all depends on when you ask the question. If I'm in the middle of videotaping or taking pictures, I might not want to talk at that moment. Also, if I'm on the phone calling in a report or doing a phoner, I'll ignore someone until I get off the phone.

I've had people come up me wanting to talk when I was on the phone, and I had to ignore them. They may have thought I was snobbing them off, but I was just busy at that particular time.

Terra, if you're really passionate about learning, don't depend on others to do it for you. There are plenty of other tools out there to help you along like the internet and experience.

Terra, I don't mean to sound harsh when I say this, so don't take it that way, but.....if you really need that much help, maybe you should hold off on spotting for the NWS until you get a bit more experience and familiarity with storms and their structure.

EDIT: You mention that some chasers won't let others follow them, or they charge people to ride with them. Here is my take on that: I won't let someone ride with me unless they split the gas with me. Why should I go through the wear and tear on my vehicle and spend gas money and let my partner ride scott free. It's only fair that the passenger/passengers helps with expenses. I f someone wants to follow me, there's nothing I can do to prevent them from doing that.

I agree with you 100% Jason. I'd also like to add I don't feel it's my job to hold chasers hands who don't know what they are seeing or what they are doing. While I won't mind helping chasers when I get into a target area (especially LEOs and EMS peeps), while I'm on a storm I don't feel I should be having to tell any chasers how to chase. If you can't figure it out, then you need to work more on educating yourself while hanging back away from the action so you aren't in any trouble. Too many people are expecting their hand to be held out there while relying solely on places like Stormtrack and the SPC to frame their targets while not doing any work of their own. I'm not saying you can't chase, but I'm just saying don't be shocked if someone doesn't want to help you if you have no idea what you are doing because they may be busy doing something more important than helping out someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

Chasers chase for different reasons. There are people who are out there for the science, people out there to help warn and educate the public, and there are people out there to photograph storms and enjoy mother nature. But no one HAS to help anyone else and to say anyone should is simply a sense of entitlement which is neither deserved nor earned.

EDIT: I just noticed I misspelled a word or two. I'm just putting my college education to work I suppose

 

[Brandon Goforth]

How many of you have either refused to answer questions, or given a crappy answer to someone who was asking? When you won't let someone ride with you or follow you (some won't unless they get paid), and you won't answer questions they may have when they run into you, how can you expect to have no mistakes or false reports?

Perhaps a better question would be why people feel everyone owes them something? I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm out there for myself and to enjoy the awesomeness of nature and severe weather, and when a tornado is in progress or developing, I'm focusing on what my next move will be...I don't have time to give a free spotter training course to someone who has no idea what they're doing (and probably shouldn't be there to begin with)...so while I don't mind answering a question or two, I will pretty much ignore anyone who gets really annoying with tons of questions. I don't see a problem with this. Perhaps the inexperienced people out there should show a little common courtesy themselves and educate themselves before trying to chase so that they won't have to bother everyone else who are trying to enjoy the storm without a million distractions. And Jason is right, if you don't know what you're doing, why would you be spotting for NWS or even thinking about it at this point? This thread just doesn't make sense to me. But the large amount of new chasers who want everyone to do everything for them from picking a chase target to showing them what and where to look in a storm is just getting annoying in itself. I wish all the experienced chasers would stop posting specific targets here and on facebook/twitter cause everyone is just leaching those anymore.

 

[terra seright]

I guess I need to edit my OP to include all of my other posts...

 

[Chris C Sanner]

I guess I need to edit my OP to include all of my other posts...

I think you perhaps, need to realize that complaining about people not taking time out of their chasing to help you reeks of a sense of entitlement. The people reacting negatively to your original post are doing so because they see someone complaining about something which shouldn't be an issue. If you don't know what you are looking at, you shouldn't be out there in the first place. At the very least, you should prepare more to chase before you head out.

Would you consider it a necessary move for everyone to quit playing a game of basketball if one person couldn't shoot the ball? Should everyone just quit playing the game and wait until that person has been explained to fully on the proper mechanics of shooting?

The answer is no. You take your lumps, you do your own work, and you figure out what's going on. If that means you waste a crapload of gas money and time in chasing (or missing a lot of shots in basketball), then so be it. Most of us who have been chasing for 8+ years had to do this without Stormtrack and without much technological help at first. No one has to help you do anything, so quit complaining about it when someone who doesn't care to help you doesn't. There are people who will gladly take time out of their chase to help you I'm sure, but to imply everyone should is both wrong and reeks of entitlement. You have all the info in the world at your fingertips on how to chase, use the search button and a bit of Google skills and you'll figure a few things out the old fashioned way

 

[Tim Millspaugh]

I have worked on the Emergency Services side of tornadoes for 31 years now in Sedgwick County Kansas. I worked many storms including 2 Haysville tornadoes, the Greensburg tornado, the inland hurricane through Sedgwick County and many other high wind and tornado events.
I have done some chasing and photography in the past and for a while it was OK, here of late I see a lot of arrogance on the side of those who stick their noses in the air because they are meteorology students and I have seen a lot of people who shouldnt be allowed to drive much less chase storms. I will say that these comments are not aimed at all meteorology students and storm chasers because many are decent people so dont take it as a slam unless you are a totally arrogant meteorology student or a rude sob or just plain stupid.
I dont go chasing much anymore because I dont want to be associated with so many of these people who just simply get in the way and are strictly out to make a name for themselves. Anyways, the chases are too crowded and way too popular, not a healthy thing for the future of storm chasing. I will bet in less than 5 years a storm chaser will cause an accident that will result in multiple fatalities somewhere, sometime,, sooner than later,,..

 

[Lanny Dean]

The last time was out on the highway north of Allanreed...and all I asked was what part was of biggest concern. I saw plenty of rotation, clear slot, etc., and nothing really stood out to me. Yet everyone was looking in one direction. I asked some guys, and no one said a word. They all just stood there and grinned. Then I went and asked another group and they pointed it out for me......

But those of you who have invested that kind of dough in your chase equipment look like you know quite a bit about what you are doing...so you will be the ones that I (or others like me) talk to first for information when I don't see what everyone is looking at. Maybe this is just something that everyone could keep in mind while they're out there...

Ok, so I think I know who you are now and I believe it was myself and maybe Chad Berryhill who kinda gave you the "cold shoulder" near Allanreed on Thursday. That said I would like to clear up your statement....we did reply to you it was just not what you wanted to hear.
Fact of the matter was that I had many, many, many guests on tour as well as full media following us. I simply did not have time to stand and explain to you what in my opinion you should have already known seeing that you are a "spotter". I was in the process of explaining and educating my guests as to what was going on. All you had to do was stand back and listen. Instead you got mad and departed.
I believe your first question was "where is the funnel at exactly"? Followed by "I just don't see a wall cloud" And for the record, everybody was grinning becuase we were working on tornado number 6 and all the guests were happy!

If you are indeed the same person who asked us all the questions then shame on you. I will go ahead and say what most others are already thinking but might be to afraid to say.... Learn the basics before you go out so you don't have to play 20 questions with those around you. After all, some of us do have more important things that we would like to do with our time instead of trying to educate someone who probably should not be out there to begin with.

And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

 

[David Drummond]

I will say the other day on the 22nd out in western Texas near Matador a number of chasers came up to my window and I had to shoo them away. I was live on the air with my tv station the whole time, and I am sure they didn't know that and thought I was being rude. If it was any one of you I am sorry, but they had me live on a tornado warned storm and that took priority. Being rude was not my intention.

 

[JSmith]

I have a few pictures that I have basically released into public domain, and that angered a few "chasers" that I've talked to...