Stormtrack 20 years ago

[Tim Vasquez]

Since we're still in the winter doldrums I thought I'd share a scan of the January 31, 1992 front page of Stormtrack, which would have been arriving in mailboxes exactly 20 years ago.

Just the usual sources of anxiety: how to hook into the motel telephones to get data, how to even get data in a motel if one doesn't have a laptop, and where to get affordable maps. And of course to keep abreast of recent events, there was Storm Data. It's amazing how much the Internet has changed pretty much all of this.

 

[Chris Hayes]

I wish we still had the paperback version of Stormtrack. I subscribed to it from 1997 till it ended. I got the CD with all the issues on it, but I really miss the paper version.

 

[Jacob Ferden]

Maybe I'm just weird, but I still never go out without a paper map of each state I'm going to be chasing in. I also bring AAA TourBooks along on my chase vacation. I've just been burned too many times by my GPS showing roads, hotels, or gas stations that are either closed or weren't there in the first place. So I like to have alternates to refer to.

 

[craig buchanan]

Actually, Jacob, I am the same. I make my living in public safety computer systems but there are quite a bit of times that having my atlas has provided insight that the computer just couldn't. In full disclosure, however, I find myself pining for the old writing in Storm Track. Listing to highinstability the other night I was reminded how powerful having a report in English (as opposed to Science) could be and take you there, even if there were no pictures. So, long story longer... I might just be showing my age...

 

[Mike Ridgeway]

Getting up early to watch A.M. Weather on PBS. What a great start to the day that was. I saved all of my Stormtrack issues, I'll have to go back and read them again. Some of the information is priceless.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

It's funny to me that you'd have to WRITE into those companies to get their information. Geez, I'd have to get my parents to drive me to a library to check out something in a 15-year-old encyclopedia set if I had questions about the weather that couldn't be solved by referencing the few weather books I had at the time. I don't think I've actually written into a company for anything in 15 years. Well, "written" as in USPS-delivered info, not as in email-delivered, obviously.

Paper maps certainly still have their place in the world of storm chasing. I'd argue that the GPS is top piece of electronics I could most afford to do without if necessary. Sure, it's nice to have when you're on small dirt roads in a rural area, but it's only in the "nice to have" category for me. Then again, most electronics are in the "nice to have" category -- it's not that difficult to chase without laptops, GPS, handheld anemometers or weather units, etc. There are always a couple of chases each year for which I am caught off-guard in terms of packing chasing gear in the car, and it's nice sometimes to just get out there with a paper map, an amateur radio (partly for wx radio info and partly for spotter/Skywarn info), and a camera or two.

Having mobile internet access is nice, but I had success back-in-the-day before the days of the Ositech Jack of Hearts (or was it Jack of Spades?) that'd drop the connection to my Nokia 5160 cell phone every 20 seconds. Man, that Ositech card was both the greatest and the worst thing in the world at the time. It sure beat having to hunt down an open computer in some small-town library (if that computer even had internet access), even if it was incredibly frustrating and slow most of the time.