Storm Chasing Hates?

[Chris Sokol]

*Continuing to chase a major tornado that went through your neighborhood 5 minutes earlier, and not knowing if you still have a house or not.

*Texas Turkeys!!!!

*Driving a vehicle laden with weather instrumentation, 11 antennas, light bar, etc...and having people come up and ask "Hey...are you a stormchaser?"

*Same as above, but they ask while you are filming a tornado.

*People who get to chase on days that I have to work.

*Eastern Oklahoma/Arkansas/Missouri chases.

*People who talk crap about the SPC forecasters because they bust.

*People who talk crap about other chasers forecasts because they bust.

*People who criticize other chasers choice of equipment, stating that it is either stupid or not proper, simply because it differs from their beliefs.

*People who criticize other chasers techniques because it is different from theirs.

*Whiners.

 

[Tony Laubach]

*Driving a vehicle laden with weather instrumentation, 11 antennas, light bar, etc...and having people come up and ask "Hey...are you a stormchaser?"

Even better when it's SPELLED OUT FOR THEM! That's not counting the "STORM CHASER" I have on the lip of my trunk. :lol:

 

[cdcollura]

There is a long list of storm chasing pet peeves for me!

1 Seeing a storm in front of you and being stuck in traffic.

2 Road blocks / construction.

3 Speeding tickets.

4) Yahoos (irresponsible storm chasers).

5 Insurance (any).

6 People who steal chase gear.

7 No data / computer or electronic issues.

8 Playing "catch-up" with a good storm and missing the action.

9 Not being able to find accomodations (grad nites, memorial day).

10 Price gouging with hotels (such as $129 per-person PLUS TAX at Trinidad, CO Holiday Inn Express).

11 Running out of gas.

12 The "cap" (bustola!)

13 Run-down motels with prostitutes, midgets, and weekly rates.

14 Copyright violations.

15 The five-letter "R" word: R-I-D-G-E

16 Antenna-napping (stealing your antennas).

17 Eastern Oklahoma / West Arkansas chasing.

18 Seeing FL in slight-risk more than you in the central USA!

19 Farting in the chase vehicle.

20 Rex blocks.

 

[Chris Sokol]

13 Run-down motels with prostitutes, midgets, and weekly rates.

But think of the highlight video opportunities!!!

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

"Pulling a Fabian" -Slang : Pressing pause instead of record during the best tornado footage you managed to get this year.

Chasing 6-7 hours from home only to have tornadoes tough down in your home county. Although this has happened on numerous occations, "chase grace" was on my side on 4-20-04 as I was home due to a vehicle breakdown which kept me from chasing out of state.
Jerry Funfsinn

 

[David Drummond]

Being mother natures lightning rod.....'nuff said.

 

[Carla Bisby]

1. the 2005 chase season
2. changing your target and ending up with a bust while your original target area sees all the action
3. traveling out of state and busting while your hometown area sees all the action
4. running out of film at the worst time possible
5. trying to watch roads, maps, storm, etc at the same time while chasing solo
6. deer dodging
7. Missouri hills and trees
8. limited road options that can’t get you to the exact location you need to be in
9. HPs (rain, rain, and more rain, ugh)
10. HPs when you forgot to Rain-X your windshield
11. having to sit out on chase days due to work schedules or high gas prices
12. sitting out on a chase day that ends up being a tornado-fest
13. not being able to get anything but country music stations on the radio
14. people who look at you like you’re crazy when you’re pulled off a road and they stop and ask if everything’s ok and you tell them “yes, I’m just watching the storm†(I don’t mind them stopping cause that’s thoughtful of them but please don’t look at me like I’m nuts)
15. storms that move too fast to chase
16. trying to get out of a major metro area in rush hour traffic
17. lack of healthy food when out on the road
18. toll booths in KS and OK
19. changing locations to try to get a better view only to end up with a worse view

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Man reading all these is making me remember a ton I should have mentioned. Here is another I remember while sitting here having cold feet, reading the net.

-My car's AC system. 2 parts
-A: The AC kicks off if I'm stopped idling somewhere. Not good for summer chasing around here.
-B: The damn vent setup for my car's AC. I must have poor blood circulation as my feet are always cold as hell. Well, I wear sandals 99.9% of the time when it is not snowing out. So I always have sandals on when chasing. I have the vent set to blow out just the dash ones, to the face and not set on the floor at all. Well that stupid thing blows out the floor ones anyway, right on the gas pedal. I always swear I'll remember socks the next time and never do. So my AC all around is an annoyance. I can often be seen moving down the interstate, cruise on, and rubbing my right foot in my lap to warm it up. Goal for 2006, fix both those problems.

 

[David Drummond]

Argggghhh Mike, you reminded me of one...

People wearing sandels while chasing. I fuss at Graham all the time about it. Part is a thing with me that I just really don't want to see other people's feet yech! LOL Put in practicality, how do you guys do it with sometimes mud on the side of the road, all variety of biting insects, most notably CHIGGERS and all other hazards that chasing can bring to the feet. Scares me to thing of wearing sandels, the car breaks down and you end up walking 20 miles in to town with sandels.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Put in practicality, how do you guys do it with sometimes mud on the side of the road, all variety of biting insects, most notably CHIGGERS and all other hazards that chasing can bring to the feet.

The only time I'll be worried about mud on roads and sandals is when I'm stuck in that crap. Twice this has happened and man were my feet muddy. At least us folks wearing sandals getting air on our feet likely have much better smelling feet than those wearing shoes and socks. Too bad I don't have the vid cap online of my muddy feet and sandals from that day or I'd show you my feet, lol. As for chiggers, I've yet to have a chigger bite on my feet and I get them ALL the time in other places. I always walk my parents dogs in tall grass wearing sandals, and this is when I get them all over me, but never have I had any on my feet. Hmmmm. I bet if I had shoes and socks on I would.

 

[Steven Williams]

The things that irritated me,
-the cow pens in Texas that stink the car out.
-spending the afternoon photographing mediocre clouds and then running out of battery power when the real show starts!
-having to backtrack because of flooded roads.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

My biggest chase irritations so far have been:

1. Chase partners getting scared about being too close and moving away from a tornado.

2. The best opportunity for close-up footage of a tornado is prevented by a bridge out (6/12/04).

3. The 2nd best opportunity for close-up footage of a tornado is squandered by ordinary citizens driving well below the speed limit (5/4/03 near Aurora, MO).

People wearing sandels while chasing. I fuss at Graham all the time about it. Part is a thing with me that I just really don't want to see other people's feet yech!

I think of it more logistically, actually...like Mike said about muddy roads, that can be a real pain. More importantly, in the unlikely event that I should be the first on-scene at significant tornado damage, I have no desire to be wearing sandals during the search and rescue effort.

Gabe

 

[Jonathan Merage]

Good ones, guys!
Mike, I think your starting points pretty much speak for EVERY chaser who's been at it for more than like--a year.
Anthony, your post (1st one) got me laughing so freggin' hard I almost FELL over my desk :lol: !!

Try this one: Driving from Denver to Dalhart, TX, thinking you're set, only to realize the next morning (at noon) that the target area shifted all the way down freggin' past LBB, then FINALLY making it down to Floydada by 8:30 after watching the WxWorx shear SCITs go nuts on the ONE FREGGIN' STORM u know you just can't get to, getting slapped by a TX trooper in a last-minute hope-against-hope run, then realizing you have over 600 mi. to drive back (on Sunday night :cry: ). To top it all off, getting back home & seeing pics of the 8 awesome 'naders you totally missed out on because u were constantly stuck on the OTHER SIDE of the storms. Anyone guess the date??
June 12.
Yep, that's definitely the closest I've ever come to a complete breakdown.
MAD props to my chase partner Sean Mullen for stickin' thru it all!

Praying for an awesome season '06--BRING IT ON!!
BTW, Dave, I think I'm obsessed with your avatar :lol:

 

[Rob_Davis]

getting slapped by a TX trooper in a last-minute hope-against-hope run...

And Texas troopers add insult to injury. Instead of just letting you sit in your car and stew, they make you stand on the side of the road in the friggin' fire ants while they spend 20 minutes writing your ticket. :?

 

[Bob Schafer]

Try this one: Driving from Denver to Dalhart, TX, thinking you're set, only to realize the next morning (at noon) that the target area shifted all the way down freggin' past LBB, then FINALLY making it down to Floydada by 8:30 after watching the WxWorx shear SCITs go nuts on the ONE FREGGIN' STORM u know you just can't get to, getting slapped by a TX trooper in a last-minute hope-against-hope run, then realizing you have over 600 mi. to drive back (on Sunday night :cry: ). To top it all off, getting back home & seeing pics of the 8 awesome 'naders you totally missed out on

Oh yeah, that reminds me of one that I don't think has been mentioned:

Since I live in N NM, I generally won't leave home and drive 500 miles one way to get to a target unless the chase will afford at least two risk days. That's how I missed May 29, 2004. So,

I hate risk days that have nothing happening for a couple days before and after and are marathon drives to get there and back so I don't go and are huge events

LOL

Bob