I found this thread when it was only 4-5 comments long and haven't been back since only to see how it exploded into a 9 page thread. Wow.
For those who don't know me I run a website comparing storm chasing tours (stormchasingusa.com) and I think it is safe to say that there is no one in the world who have chased with more tour companies than I (8 as of today, including SLT). I have been active in the storm chasing tour industry through my website and I am in constant contact with nearly all tour companies throughout the year as well as read the reviews tour guests post on my website after the tours. I also tend to talk a whole lot with other tour guests while chasing. So, in conclusion, I believe I have a very good view of how the tour industry works from a tour guest perspective. I am also affiliated with a few companies so I guess I could be biased in my opinion, but I will try to stay as objective as possible. I chased with SLT last year on the very same tour that got hit this year and I really like Roger and Caryn. The 30 minutes or so after I read about the accident until I knew they were OK were not very pleasant.
There are a few points and clarifications I would like to make:
- All storm chasing tour companies say they have safety as their number one priority but this is obviously a grey area as of the whole discussion on how close is really safe. I often ask how close they get to the tornadoes but often get the response that it depends on the situation, and of course it does. I would say all tour companies I have chased with have more or less the same style of chasing in terms of safety vs aggressiveness. In the end some would typically stay 1/4 mile further away than the other but it is difficult to say as I would have to have been in the almost exact same situation with every tour company to determine that.
- I have been in incidents or situations where we took risks with nearly every single tour company I have been with. I have been 10 seconds away from getting hit by a (very weak) tornado that changed path, I have been chasing in the rain with no visibility only to find out there was a tornado in the storm close to us that we did not see, I have been close to a rotating wall cloud on foot (although with a safety plan), I have been underneath the base of an elephant trunk tornado at night that we were clueless about until we were under it (it was touching down further away, in the dark), I have been in RFD in the dark/rain with radar couplets all over and no good road options, I have been (somewhat) close to flip the van after the driver dodged a deer driving very fast towards a tornado warned storm, and I have been chasing in vans where seat belts were not enforced (putting all others at harm, especially considering what happened to SLT) to name examples from each tour company I have been with without naming anyone. Out of ignorance and adrenaline I have, in fact, enjoyed every single event to be honest (at least afterwards) - with the exception of the driving/car related events.
My point is, ALL tour companies take risks or put their tour guests at risk in one way or another. You cannot, as a storm chaser or a tour guide have 100% control of the situation all the time and you never have 100% of the information. You can only rely on probabilities and in most of these cases (at least weather related) there was some sort of risk assessment where the tour guide would have to determine the amount of risk taken but sometimes the tour guide just lost focus, although only for a short period of time. You cannot run a tour with a nullified risk (10 mile away from storms) unless it is a storm structure photography tour where you constantly stay away from the bases - but then you still have the lightning risk.
- Yes, the vast majority of tour guests DO want to get up and close to tornadoes and into hail and most tour guests have NO idea of the risks they are taking but rely completely on the tour guide to know that, of course. I have definitely been a part of the tour crowd wanting to get closer to the action, especially after several down days - something I am not too proud of today. I have also talked to tour guests who was not at all happy about ending up in one of the situations mentioned above but they are generally few and never ever the young tour guests.
For example, the event Blake Knapp mentioned experiencing as a tour guest with ETT, I asked him how the sentiment was in the van after they got into that tornado and it was, as you may expect, ecstatic. The tour guests want to come home with great stories and great photos and every single one expect to survive. Then again, how could they not? They see videos on social media almost every day of close encounters and even chasers being inside tornadoes who return to tell their (amazing) story. These kind of spectacular videos is what draws many tour guests into storm chasing as they are the ones who go most viral.
- Some tour companies (mainly the larger ones, including SLT) have a very thorough safety introduction on the arrival day. Some do it more ad hoc or not at all. This is merely about how the tour guests should act around severe weather (such as the importance of getting back to the van when they are called back). This has, however, nothing to do with how the tour company in fact chase, other than perhaps clarifying how they chase.
I haven't obviously been in the same kind of situations with every tour company so I don't know how every single tour company would act in any given situation. Then again, some (larger) tour companies hire different tour guides who may have different chase styles as well.
- The larger the tour company is, the higher the risk you are exposed to for two reasons. For companies like SLT, ETT, TT etc , you run 2-3 vans on almost every tour throughout April to July which means you expose yourself to a greater risk (just by a matter of numbers) of actually getting impacted by an event. Also, in my opinion it gets riskier driving several vans as you have to wait for one another and one slow tour guest could slow the entire caravan down. I do not think this was the case during the discussed event but I am just saying that there is a small inherent risk in that compared to the more flexible small SUV tour companies.
- Roger does run a "Close encounter" tour where the aim is to get as close as safely possible. It is a one van tour where they take risks higher than the other tours (the one impacted was not the Close Encounter tour though). My impression from chasing with him is that he knows VERY well what he is doing and he also knows how and when to be more aggressive (as in the mentioned tour ) and when to stay further away to cater for higher safety and also the concerns of the ones who do not want to be THAT up and close. Still, as we have just seen, every tour has a certain risk because you could end up in a bad spot if you just lose focus or are unaware of quick situation changes at some point - and, as mentioned, I would say all tour companies I have been chasing with are guilty of that. It is just human nature. And again, I have no clue to whether this was what happened with SLT, I am just saying that no tour company is perfect. No tour guide will only sit and govern the radar, the surroundings etc for safety reasons but rather spend quite some time on filming/shooting the tornado.
- One last thing that is mostly related to running tours that I hope this event will highlight is the general car safety rules. Every tour company allow tour guests to have lots of loose, hard items (such as cameras, laptops) in the van - which of course is very difficult to regulate. No tour company (as far as I remember) have a safety net guarding the luggage in the back to not fly onto the tour guests in case of a car crash (or tornado impact). Far too many drivers spend a whole lot of time looking at radar and their cell phone while driving (although this is getting much better). The tour companies that drive vans typically do not have neck rests which could be very unsafe in terms of whiplash in a crash or event. Some tour companies do not enforce the use of seat belts.
I obviously have no clue about HOW the SLT tour guests were injured when the vans flipped but I would not be surprised that many of the minor injuries were caused by cameras, laptops etc flying around in the van. If someone was not wearing his/her seat belt he/she could have hurt himself, and others!, a whole lot as well.
Events like the one with SLT will happen again because of the nature of storm chasing and the human nature as well but it is generally a matter of making choices that will reduce the risk of it happening and the impacts of it when it happens.
Despite the incidents I have been a part of I would still go back and chase (and recommend) with every single active tour company I have chased with as I have not seen anything that would deter me from chasing with them in terms of very unsafe practices, this includes SLT as well. I do however try to enforce them to improve their service, both in terms of safety issues like the ones explained as well as the general storm chasing experience.
I do not think this event will affect the storm chasing tour industry much at all but I hope it brings more attention to tour companies having the right insurance. I really hope Roger and Caryn all the best and that they recover from this.
