Should Chasers Report, and If So - How?

[David Drummond]

Well, gee whiz, Dave, I must have been putting gas in the rental car when the dewpoint class was being held. This will be my 18th year of chasing, and I don't believe I've ever awakened in my motel room a single morning and wondered what the "expected dewpoint high for that day" was.
Venturing out into severe weather has nothing to do with dewpoint numbers or any of the techno-gibberish the "seasoned chasers" like to prattle about.

Wow....just wow. I guess you got me there dude....I can't even retort that.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Well, gee whiz, Dave, I must have been putting gas in the rental car when the dewpoint class was being held. This will be my 18th year of chasing, and I don't believe I've ever awakened in my motel room a single morning and wondered what the "expected dewpoint high for that day" was.
Venturing out into severe weather has nothing to do with dewpoint numbers or any of the techno-gibberish the "seasoned chasers" like to prattle about.

Dewpoint certainly can't be important...since at the very least the lifted condensation level, deep moisture convergence, evapotranspiration, warm air advection are all related in one way or another to the measurement of the dewpoint...and lets see...the four primary ingredients for severe convection... moisture, instability, lift, shear...hmmm.... moisture. Do I hear dewpoint? Can't be that important to be one of the top four.

Let's throw out our sling psychrometers folks....no need for those! I'll be watching for those Dewpoint Alerts.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

William, I'm sorry buddy, but that is phenomenal. If you don't ever pay attention to something as fundamental as the dewpoint when chasing tornadoes, then I have no clue how you could ever be successful. Moisture is kind of high up on the list when it comes to ingredients for tornadoes.
I'm sorry. I was just poking around reading threads and I had to chime in even though I desperately want to stay out of this.

 

[Craig Maire II]

I call in spotter reports all the time while chasing and say that I'm a "mobile" spotter/chaser, I have never had any problems getting my reports through to the NWS and they usually use those reports.

 

[fplowman]

Me i just blindfold myself and throw a dart at a map of the US.. then go there and hope for the best.

 

[William Rayner]

In re the dewpoint flap.

I think some people are failing to grasp the difference between storm CHASING and storm FORECASTING.

There are lots of you smart folks in Stormtrack who do all the brainwork and provide daily clues to what's going on. So, even if I do know the difference between convection, advection and vivisection, I leave the forecasting to the pros.

But when I'm heading for that supercell on the horizon, my experience and a wx radio tuned to local conditions usually gets me to the wall cloud and --- hopefully --- the tornado.

Oh, all right, I sometimes stop and asked that spotter parked in the cornfield what's going on. (The baryonic dewpoint ratio is 77.8, he sez.)

 

[SteveCarter]

I KNOW I should NOT even post this, but "gee whiz", this is like spotting a supercell on the horizon...i have to go for it...lol

First off, the dewpoints can be ignored if you want to simply leave out some of the pieces to the puzzle, but for me, the dewpoints ARE important, just like all the other ingrediants. I could also ignore the shear, since it's only a variable in a possible formation of a tornado, or I could ignore the CAPE too, etc etc etc. 2+.3+.5+.1+1.1=4 When you start leaving out things, even the most minute details, it can throw things off, especially on a banner day, where you need to decide which storm you should chase. Of course, you don't HAVE to use anything to chase if you want to just "wing" it either. But for anyone to slam anyone else for using what is easily available to them, in the pursuit of the elusive tornado, is really kinda amusing..at best. Also, I believe one of the posts said that MOST chasers have ham radios or scanners. Well, that IS true. Most do. And as far as a cell phone? Personally, I wouldn't chase without one..or two actually. That doesn't mean you HAVE to call in reports either way. I started out chasing with CB, and a weather scanner...period. I now have those, but also a couple of cells, and a laptop, XM, and will add the XM weather package soon. I probably don't NEED it, but like the dewpoints, it helps to use what is available.

The chasers vs spotters vs NWS. Like I posted a few days ago, I have two decals on my car. One is a picture of a tornado, with SKYWARN under it. (I'm a trained spotter) The other one is a picture of a tornado with CHASER under it. I'm a chaser first and foremost. Like some of the most recent posts have stated.....why can't we be both with a little training? If I HAD to be categorized as either a chaser, or a spotter, I'd rather be "labeled" as a chaser, because I CHASE, I don't "spot". After talking directly with the NWS, I sincerely believe they welcome the chasers reports, but would rather take a report from a spotter, because they are logged in their system already. Other than that, there isn't that much difference. BTW...I'm attending the advanced SKYWARN training session next month.