Colored-pencil-chaser vs. Digerati... both have different skills but both will get there, wherever they are going.
I wasn't bend all out of shape, I just thing there are some misconceptions about what all the technology is for by those that don't use it or use much of it. I say that anyone that says they can go complete visual 100% of the time without looking at anything but the sky after they leave home and have a successful intercept every time (given storms that day) are full of it. Many days there is too much moisture or low level grunge, etc. to even see towers going up 50 miles away. You could be that close and not even see the stuff. Sure it's easier to go fully visual once your on a storm, but.....
Sure we can all read a paper map. A map on a computer still must be read. Do those plots by hand with a colored pencil? Sure, I do it all the time. Where do you GET those maps though? Did you call up each and every station and ask for the data so you could painstakingly plot all that out by hand? No! You got them from some place off the internet, or the NWS or something and then plotted them. You used technology.
I love to hand plot with a colored pencil when I have time. Sometimes I might get up in a motel in Wichita, KS and my target area that was in northern OK the night before has now moved to Wichita Falls, TX overnight and I don't have TIME to hand plot things, so I rely on plots done by the computer.
All of that data we get on the road STILL has to be processed with your own reasoning and skills. Do you know how many times I have seen a 6000 bullseye of cape down around Hobbs, NM on storm days? Are things going to blow up there? Should I rush right down there because that is the highest cape in the area? No. Because I
know that often is wrong when I see it. Could be said for a ton of other factors.
My point is, way too many things can evolve from when you first did that morning forecast (using technology) until peak heating, cap breaking time. The only thing that stuff in the field lets you do is refine your forecast as the day goes on using those same skills you used to forecast early that morning, with updated data. Looking at a radar, sat image in the field, PARTICULARLY on grungy and very high humidy, or smokey days can help you see something starting to show up 50-75 miles away that you couldn't visually see. Technology in and of itself is NOT going to get you more storms. Nothing is going to tell you in advance, "hey dude, go 4.5 miles east of Beaver, OK and the best storm of the day will form there", only your skills will get you there, and even then sometimes mother nature still fools you.
This precludes those of course that bought the WXWORXS and run around chasing all the little swirly indicators on it, and those that go out and chase when the warning has been issued. It has it's place in the data tree, but I do personally know of a couple of people that don't have a clue about how to chase a storm do this. Of course the same people were proudly claiming their prize dangly, scud picture as the tornado of the day, but that is beside the point
Not bend out of shape, just presenting some more for discussion. :wink:
