Stormtrack: Celebrating 40-Years of Community

[Michael Towers]

Congrats on 40 ST, not only the best single resource for chasers but so much more. Thanks to all who have contributed and a special thanks to those whose extraordinary efforts created, cultivated and developed ST into what it is today. Cheers!

 

[Paul Knightley]

Echo (nice radar term there!) all the above sentiments, and also add my thanks to the founders, and all members since then for the amazing volume of work. I first got into the original online stuff (including submitting some UK chase accounts) back in the '90s. I really used to enjoy reading the accounts (text only - no pics then!) at that time, as I'd not been state-side then, and so imagination played a key part in picturing these chases. Indeed, they were written in a very desriptive way as there were no pics to illustrate (for most, anyway). I think with the explosion of pics these days, sometimes our write-ups are short and not so descriptive - it's nice to write such stuff now and again!

 

[Paul Knightley]

As an aside, I couldn't get the attachments to work - might be a browser issue my end, of course.

 

[Jeff Hawkins]

When I began chasing, I wanted to see if there were others who chased storms, and if so, learn how to be safe and smart doing it. Stormtrack is where I found all of that and more. People who had a passion for weather and chasing, even an obsession, and wanted to share that passion with others. I've had several times where things I've learned here helped me avoid danger, and live to chase another day. I wonder if those who are the experts here realize how many lives you may have saved by providing such great education and guidance on how to chase responsibly and have fun doing it. Thanks to David Hoadley, Tim Marshall, Tim Vasquez, and Steve Miller, and all of you who made and continue to make this community the go-to source for storm chasing!

 

[Dan Robinson]

It's really remarkable for any institution to survive this long, migrating across multiple platforms and highs/lows as technology and the hobby evolve. I joined the party a little late (in 2004) but since then, rarely has a day gone by that I haven't stopped in here at least once. ST for me has always been a valuable place for learning and communicating. With the dedicated leadership and user groups we've had and continue to have, I'm optimistic that we'll see ST last for at least another 40 years!

 

[Shane Adams]

StormTrack has been my online chasing home for almost twenty years now, including 14 on this very forum. I've had great conversations, I've shared, and I've learned. Throughout the ever-changing online climate ST has endured. Recently I have realized that, though times may change, this forum has always been and will continue to always be as great a resource as its users allow. I am going to do my part moving forward.

 

[Sarah B. Wood]

Thank you for 40 years, and here's to another 40! Although I am still a noob, I have been a weather enthusiast my entire life (44 years now!). I remember hearing about Tim Marshall, Tim Vasquez, David Hoadley, as well as others back in the '80s when I was just starting to pursue my passion for weather. Thanks again, and keep up the excellent work!

 

[Drew Terril]

Still fairly new here relative to a lot of the guys. I definitely wish I'd known about this when I started out, but I didn't hear about ST till I started meeting other chasers about 5 or 6 years in. Almost certainly would have helped the learning curve a bit, and I still learn stuff just seeing what others do.

 

[Jeff House]

Thank you all who keep Stormtrack possible, up and running! Stormtrack is the first board I joined and frankly the only one that matters. While some social media is a compliment in the field, on the fly and/or trying to meet up, Stormtrack is the only place for quality discussion. Nothing can replace the level of discussion on Stormtrack, from seasonal outlooks to Target Area forecasts. Target Area is a truly special place!

 

[Ethan Lang]

Thank you to all who made and continue to make this all possible!

 

[JamesCaruso]

Much gratitude and respect to Dave Hoadley, Tim Marshall and Tim Vasquez, who were much more than the founders of a publication; they founded a community, and were the pioneers of storm chasing itself.

I first subscribed to the paper ST a couple years before I started chasing in 1996. I feel so much nostalgia thinking back to the simple black-and-white publication. It legitimized the hobby while also emphasizing that it was a somewhat exclusive niche of adventurers, with the same small list of names coming up over and over. Those original chasers almost seemed famous to me. I remember I had signed up to go on my first storm chasing tour with Marty Feely’s Whirlwind Tours, one of the original tour companies. I didn’t know this guy from Adam, but felt he must have credibility because he was mentioned in ST. LOL, you wouldn’t get the same the level of assurance today just because you saw someone mentioned in social media, or quite frankly even if you saw them mentioned on here.

In the mid 90s and 2000s the WX-CHASE listserv was another popular medium. As someone mentioned above, both the ST publication and WX-CHASE relied much more on text than pictures and video. I miss both reading and writing those long narratives, which included details of every road traveled at every time of day so that you actually had an easier time recreating the event and comparing your position and sightings to others’, harder to do today even with all the information available. It’s not just the pictures and video that killed off the narratives, it’s the overall texting and social media culture.

Thanks to Steve and the crew for keeping the current iteration of ST alive. I really just can’t understand how it is that every chaser is not on here. In fact, I wish Dave Hoadley, Tim Marshall and Tim Vasquez would post more (actually Tim Marshall never does; Dave Hoadley and Tim Vasquez once in a great while). I wish all the pioneers and veterans would come back. I heard CFDG is defunct now anyway, so where are they all? Facebook and other social media platforms are just no substitute, it is just a mixed stream of chasing and non-chasing stuff, there is no organization or curation whatsoever. Let’s keep ST going another 40 years!!!!


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