Storm Chasing for newbees

[Rob Sermon]

I've read that it is probably a good idea to go on your first chase with an experienced chaser. How does solicit for such? What are the pros, and cons of such an arraingment?

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

There are a number of storm chase tours available. There are members of STORMTRACK that own and operate some of these services. You can use your Google search engine and put in 'storm chasing tours' and get a list from that. You will find about a dozen or so of these tour guides - many of which are members here!

There are insurance waivers that you will need to sign when the deal is done. If you are in LA, you may have to travel to KS when/where the guide directs you. If you look over the membership list here on ST, you can find what you are looking for. No problem...

 

[Rob Sermon]

Travel isn't a problem. A tour guides' itinerary might be. A down day might find me and a camera in the middle of nowhere shooting some desert dwelling lizard, rather than sitting in a truckstop, eyeballing internet weather.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Travel isn't a problem. A tour guides' itinerary might be. A down day might find me and a camera in the middle of nowhere shooting some desert dwelling lizard, rather than sitting in a truckstop, eyeballing internet weather.

If you have the laptop and GR3; then you need the internet via a cellphone tethered to your laptop - like the Alltel data plan. If you have your ride and gas/lodging funds and understand reading radar and the four basic principles of storms, moisture, instability, shear, and lift - you are more than halfway there!
IMHO
http://weather.adamsphotogallery.com/class/page1.htm

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

If you have the laptop and GR3; then you need the internet via a cellphone tethered to your laptop - like the Alltel data plan. If you have your ride and gas/lodging funds and understand reading radar and the four basic principles of storms, moisture, instability, shear, and lift - you are more than halfway there!
IMHO
http://weather.adamsphotogallery.com/class/page1.htm

I'm scratching my head a little over this one. Maybe it's just the time that has past since May 25, 2004(day of some class by Roger Hill as it says on that page) and I'm forgetting something. Those are all mine though...zero mention as such on there.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I don't see any of your images anywhere else on that guy's site, so maybe that was just him lifting one of your tutorials to try to educate people. Kinda cruddy that he didn't credit, though.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I e-mailed the guy and got a reply. I guess Roger did a class for one of their tours. He most likely mentioned doing that to me, I really don't recall. Either way that isn't a big deal to me in the least. Just a group of people going on a tour after all. I guess this guy recorded it and typed it up then put it on there for personal use/reference. Guess it's not directly linked to on the site anyway(though seems odd to need to put it online for personal use).

Nothing big obviously, just funny at times when you find your stuff on some site like that. I'm mostly surprised I had them on there before the next day, the 25th, lol.

 

[STurner]

**** Yeah Rob I have a lot of catching up to do myself in learning about the ingredients needed to produce tornadoes. I actually now feel I can read and understand the SPC forecasts without feeling lost. It seems like during the winter months the ingredients dont have to be as extreme during the spring months to produce a massive tornado outbreak. I would feel more comfortable chasing with an experienced chaser before going at it myself.

 

[Mike Krzywonski]

I've read that it is probably a good idea to go on your first chase with an experienced chaser. How does solicit for such? What are the pros, and cons of such an arraingment?

A more affordable option is to post on the Chase Partner thread next spring. Some chasers are willing to have you team up w/ them as long as you share expenses.

Pros: You will be w/ someone who has experience. They may be willing to mentor you & teach you the basics of chasing. It is an opportunity to befriend fellow chasers, whom you may opt to chase w/ again in the future. Since most of your chasing time is spent driving to your target area, which can be several hours, a companion & driving partner can be preferrable. Also, expenses are shared, making it less expensive than chasing alone.

Cons: Depending on who you partner w/, there's always the chance of personality conflicts, etc. If you are in someone else's vehicle, you will basically be along for the ride. They may not be flexible when it comes to choices of music, dining, lodging, smoking, & activities during calm days. You will need to plan around their schedule, not yours.

Also, they may take risks that you aren't comfortable w/ while chasing. It's good to find all this out beforehand in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

In light of all this, the pros outweigh the cons due to the challenging nature of successful chasing, not to mention the element of danger.

I would recommend a reputable tour group if you can afford it. You will be in the hands of an experienced & well-established guide who caters to you as a paying customer, thus eliminating some of the cons associated w/ a chase partner.

 

[Rob Sermon]

Rob, I've got a good grip on weather. Skew T, Log P, and surface analysis chart is a pilots best friend. Laptop and accessories are for Christmas. Do you prefer cellular internet, vs satellite?

Mike H., I gather the photos are yours. WOW! Kudos. Perhaps you can give me pointers on digital photography.

Shane, please keep plugin' away learning about the weather. The more you understand the ingredience of the benign, the better you will understand awesome. Check out the NOAA website, or STORMTRACK. If you run across something you don't understand, Google the heck out of it. If I can help, drop a line.

Mike K, I thank you for your insite. Chase Partner thread sounds great. Unfortunately, I have to request my "preferred vacation" time tomorrow. I will be in Dodge City, KS, or Hays, KS, on the 21st of May. From there it will be a wing and a prayer until the 8th of June, when I return to Benton, LA. Perhaps someone reading this post will have a schedule that works.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Rob, I've got a good grip on weather. Skew T, Log P, and surface analysis chart is a pilots best friend. Laptop and accessories are for Christmas. Do you prefer cellular internet, vs satellite?

I don't if there has been a thread that directly asks this question - 'feasability' of cellular vs satellite - but I'd like to find it and read it.
Cellular is inexpensive - but that has changed this year - unfortunately...
You've got your pilot's license?
Forget I said anything then...

 

[Rob Sermon]

Flying is great fun, Rob. Great transport, also. I'll dig into cell v sat and give you what I find. A Buff driver I know has sat. He gets GPS, and WX in a niffty package. I won't forget anything you tell me. Aircraft fly around violent weather; cars gotta stay on the road.

 

[John Erwin]

Do you prefer cellular internet, vs satellite?

There's been extensive discussions on this in the past. Basically there's still no economically viable mobile satellite internet available yet, although that could change anytime in the near future. Essentially cellular is the way to go for mobile internet. You may be thinking of pure weather data delivered by satellite; a fair number of folks here are using XM weather delivered to Baron's Weatherworx package; it's expensive and you don't get any internet with it, however it works pretty well anywhere which is a big plus for some. Being a pilot you may have seen some of the aeronautical products being offered that use XM weather too. There's also a few mobile GPS products out there (Garmin comes to mind) that can display this product as well.

Personally I prefer using cell-based internet for my access.

 

[Rob Sermon]

John, please forgive me, as I have no clue. Is cell-based internet as fast, or faster than sat? I would utilize the laptop exclusively for GPS and weather. Com will be cell, and Citizens Band.

The Buff driver I wrote of earlier, uses his laptop in "steam gauge" aircraft, with the exception of his B-52, (it's nav suite is probably tops). He has loaded aviation, and street-level GPS, and a program called WXWorx. The Nexrad data provided is 5 minutes old, but gives a good stratigic outlook.

While cellular service has improved, I've driven in the middle of nowhere and lose signal. Is that an issue of concern?

Thanks, Rob

 

[John Erwin]

John, please forgive me, as I have no clue. Is cell-based internet as fast, or faster than sat? I would utilize the laptop exclusively for GPS and weather. Com will be cell, and Citizens Band.

The Buff driver I wrote of earlier, uses his laptop in "steam gauge" aircraft, with the exception of his B-52, (it's nav suite is probably tops). He has loaded aviation, and street-level GPS, and a program called WXWorx. The Nexrad data provided is 5 minutes old, but gives a good stratigic outlook.

While cellular service has improved, I've driven in the middle of nowhere and lose signal. Is that an issue of concern?

Hi Rob,

I should clarify what I was saying earlier. There is no mobile satellite internet service available currently, at least not at a price that would be affordable by most folk (somebody correct me if I'm wrong here). While there has been announcements by several companies on this, so far I haven't seen anything come to fruition. There is satellite internet available that requires you to park your vehicle (mostly aimed at RV users), however you cannot be moving to use that service.

So what this means is that cell-based internet is the only real mobile choice at the moment. I would expect there to be changes in this area given the demand for mobile internet, however this is the way it is at the moment.

Your friend has the aeronautical version of WxWorx; you can get this product for mobile use too (quite a few people have used it here). You should be aware that it does NOT provide internet functionality however... so the weather (and map display) is all you get with it. Like I said earlier it's benefit is that you can generally pick up a signal for it anywhere.

For successful cellular-based internet to be effective you need to be aware of it's limitations. Most people seem to agree that CDMA based cell services (Alltel-Verizon-Sprint) seem to have the edge over most of chase-alley, however there are still some dead spots. GSM based cell service (AT&T) generally doesn't fare as well, except in some localized areas where it may work better than CDMA.

You can mitigate some of the problems associated with signal level by the use of a cellular amplifier and external antenna; they will extend your range considerably.

Hopefully this answers a few of your questions; since I haven't used WxWorx I can't speak too much in that department so perhaps others can weigh the benefits of using it vs. a cell connection and other sources of wx data.