Storm Chaser Ranking

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jamie Lahowetz
  • Start date Start date
Just for fun, I redid the ranking test, except this time, I checked every box in the education/equipment/contact/special qualifications sections and left the experience and desire fields completely blank.

I was a Storm Chasing God

I'm thinking a little tweakin' is needed on this test :wink:
 
Seems to be a problem with the script and my version of Netscape. No matter what buttons or how many I click it never changes from 0=general public
 
There must be a hidden option of subtract 200 from your score if you're not using Internet Exploder as all I get is a 0 as well.
 
Fun idea, but not very very accurate... there's a lot of emphasis on gear... I am a simple chaser. But anyways, I got 102, Amateur Storm Chaser. That was checking the You know Doswell and Sebenste questions... I've heard of them, seen their sites, but do not know them personally. If I uncheck those, I get 96, Advanced Spotter.
 
125 Here, and I haven't even "caught" a Tornado yet, only witnessed one that happened to be in the same place I was, same time too (what a concept huh?).
 
Score: 115

Your chaser ranking is:

Amateur Storm Chaser


Heh, since I consider myself an amateur as of yet, it was accurate for me!! :D

I did the test for David, too. I don't mind running IE on mine briefly. :lol:

David's score:
Score: 238

Your chaser ranking is:

Storm Chaser God
 
I think the test should deduct points for hi-tech equipment in the car because that means using less storm chasing ability and knowing how to use more technology. I got weather spotter which I hope is wrong.
 
That's good stuff...but I think the test is biased to the author j/k. :) I was a little surprised to not see "Been through a tornado" as an option.
 
I think the test should deduct points for hi-tech equipment in the car because that means using less storm chasing ability and knowing how to use more technology. I got weather spotter which I hope is wrong.

That is not entirely true Pete. I have lots of equipment. On the other hand I have had many chases with a bare minimum of it and had roughly about the same success. While the equipment WILL help you keep abreast of rapidly changing conditions, and alert you to a cell that popped 50 miles away and is going nuts that you can't see from all the haze and might have missed without downloading that radar shot on the cell phone, what it won't do for you is help you read a storm and navigate your way around it (save for GPS), interprete what you think it's going to do, and try to stay in a position of best viewing. Only knowledge and experience can do that for you.

Tech stuff alone won't increase your chasing ability. It also won't help you a bit if you don't know what to do with the info you receive using it. How many have plotted out on a map a watch box strictly by listening to NOAA WX Radio coordinates? How many times has technology told anyone in the field that this storm looks mushy while this one over here looks firm and crisp and rapidly building, while they both might look about the same on radar? Only you experience would tell you that the storm to be on most likely is the firm one. Just an example. Technology isn't cheating on the test, it only suppliments your knowledge. You still have to know what to do with it.
 
I agree that having a ton of technology is unnecessary. I think that a true "Storm Chasing God" or whatever you want to call someone who consitently does well, would be able to go out there without the convenience of having WiFi or any of that junk and still do just as well as those who do. While technology is very nice to have, I have a lot more admiration for those who go out there and consistently do well without the extra equipment than those who do.

But no need to get bent out of shape over this cliched debate; this little quiz thing was a joke to begin with.
 
I think the test should deduct points for hi-tech equipment in the car because that means using less storm chasing ability and knowing how to use more technology. I got weather spotter which I hope is wrong.

That is not entirely true Pete. I have lots of equipement. On the other hand I have had many chases with a bare minimum of it and had roughly about the same success. While the equipment WILL help you keep abreast of rapidly changing conditions, and alert you to a cell that popped 50 miles away and is going nuts that you can't see from all the haze and might have missed without downloading that radar shot on the cell phone, what it won't do for you is help you read a storm and navigate your way around it (save for GPS), interprete what you think it's going to do, and try to stay in a position of best viewing. Only knowledge and experience can do that for you.

Tech stuff alone won't increase your chasing ability. It also won't help you a bit if you don't know what to do with the info you receive using it. How many have plotted out on a map a watch box strictly by listening to NOAA WX Radio coordinates? How many times has technology told anyone in the field that this storm looks mushy while this one over here looks firm and crisp and rapidly building, while they both might look about the same on radar? Only you experience would tell you that the storm to be on most likely is the firm one. Just an example. Technology isn't cheating on the test, it only suppliments your knowledge. You still have to know what to do with it.

While high tech equipment may not necessarily mean you are worse storm chaser, I still think from Shane's posts that this quiz does probably take the technology/contact portion and weighs it too much. Obviously, I don't think you can be a "Storm Chaser God" without motivation and lots of experience. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video and actually seeing things in motion speaks volumes, whether you really understand at the time what is going on or not. You learn most by experience, and knowledge about storm structure and dynamics helps a great deal.

But this is only a quiz made for fun, so eh, who really cares. It's not supposed to be taken seirously. But if I think of a storm chaser god, it could very well easily be someone with as little technology as a simple weather radio or HAM that finds his/her way using data from ASOS reports and from remembering the situation from that morning (the setup) onto a nice, cyclic supercell. In short, what I am saying is that the amount of technology used by a chaser is independent of his or her ability to chase.

I'm not too interested in actually taking the quiz, I usually chase with friends and we pool resources and split the bill, and each learn a new lesson each time we decide to go out. And those combined lessons make you a better storm chaser over time :)
 
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