The good old days

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I thought it would interesting to hear from some of the "old timers" of chasing. It would be interesting to see how a chase day evolved over the course of a few days etc. back in say 1981. If you were a chaser ack in the late 70s and early 80s...what did you do for data.... Has the new technolgy over the past even 10 years made chasing ALOT more easy?
It would be intersting to see an essay (or even a journal) written by a chaser from like 1975-1985 on how they went about chasing storms. Even on long distances....not just seeing storms nerby and chasing them...but how a chase day would have evolved without internet...mobile radar...GPS...
This would be a good read i think especially for the much newer chasers. I Began chasing in 1992 and remember jsut using scanners and the TV and a point and shoot camera. I stayed pretty close to home initially however.
Even types of cameras and scanners radios that were used in the old days would be interesting....were there some gadgets some used that werent used by alot but were considered "high tech" stuff back in the day?
Anyone who chased before lets say 1990......lets hear your story....

 

[Christopher E. Kincaid]

You ought to try and find some of the original StormTrack magazenes. These would give you what you are looking for I think. I remember chasing in the middle 80's. I chased the "red" and I chased dark clouds when I heard thunder. lol... I finally got a 486DX-100 Dell laptop in the mid-90's. I used a MegaHertz cell modem and a very expensive Accu-weather subscription. $1.00 a minute during the day and ~4K bits download speeds on the road... very expensive.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Id like to hear this from the men themselves. May be awhile to get them out of hiding since its after the main season. I want to hear from guys who workd at NWS....spotters....but mostly the hard core back in the day chasers. I subscribed to Stormtrack and got their backissues before they even hit the net. I would like more personal logs even if they are just detailing how a chase day went down in say 1981. Again this will be great to show the newbies the hard work stormchasing used to from jsut the forecasting and gathering of data. I know alot of guys would call NWS for data....but whom did you talk to? Where the people willing to "nowcast" for ya old school by stopping at payphones here and there? If you were close to NWS could you go in and maybe get some better forecast maps from those guys freely?
When ya had to use jsut your eyes driving to central Kansas....not knowing at all the forecast...how did ya go about it?
If anyone wants to pm me and send me any info or even links to old video old journals maybe that our now online etc. I want it all......jsut let me know.....I think www.highinstabilty.com needs to have an entire show this season dedicated to this idea. The history of stormchasing need to told....and now just who used to do it....but why they did it....how they did it and with what tools did they use to do it....
I want this forum to be kinda something that a reporter would ask about chasing from 1975-1985. Altho any other older versions are more than welcome and Ill look at anything up to 1990.
Well my net connecton is crap today.....so lets let the good times roll.....the old good times. Id even like to see more chasers take one or 2 chases a year where they only use equipment from 1985. Maybe not the cameras but the means to find the beasts.

 

[Shane Adams]

When ya had to use jsut your eyes driving to central Kansas....not knowing at all the forecast...how did ya go about it?

We got in the truck and took off. We hoped we'd see storms. Most times we didn't. That's about it.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I'm a long-term storm observer, but wouldn't consider myself a hard-core chaser. Much of my experience came from intercept attempts that took place in areas I'd traveled into for work.

I used to stop in WSO's, and since I was even dumber than I looked, forecasters sometimes took pity on me and explained situations that were possibilities during a 24-hour period. That was as far in advance as I could get; I had to rely heavily on radio and television cues to launch an intercept. Nowcasting was not even on my wishlist.

This may seem like a dumb point, but to me it's more daunting now, due to the sheer numbers of cars driving around storms, sometimes with no one aboard doing sufficient visual observation. In the late 1970s, I didn't know that other people chased storms. Later a WFO guy in Indiana handed me a paper copy of ST and I wrote to David Hoadley for a subscription and back issues (about a year's worth, IIRC).

There were a lot of times when I just parked and watched, hoping I was on a good cell. Often, there was not even any traffic, let alone other chasers. I do remember one time in eastern Oklahoma when I'd been watching a lovely CB working slowly NE while the sunset was firing up behind it. Then I looked down and noted that a number of tarantulas had come out of hiding and were moving around. I finished that observation in the rental car...

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

It would be interesting to see someones journal (if one even exists) from say the NSSL from 4/10/79 that chased and intercepted those cells. I think what im looking for really doesnt exist unless I were to jsut sit down and talk with someone who actually did it in order to get the details id like to get. If they didnt make some kind of journal......shame on ya.
I think if you have all the bells and whistles the chance of a total bust nowdays are alot lower than they used to be. It can be a bit overwhelming keeping up with radar...cameras....storms positions....others positions.....the road....etc. all at one time. I think nowdays tho some rookies can get a bit of a big head nailing one storm that delivers and if they didnt have radar never would have known storms were even a possibilty that day. Saying that however.....ive probably had the same feeling....being on a supercell on a slight risk day and no chasers around for miles with a 2% tornado risk watchin a twister rip accross some open field...then looking over and realizing im just follwoing the pretty colors on the screen. Maybe im just too hard on myself ;-).
Actually I guess ill put out a call......anyone who chased in the 70s and 80s...(actually CHASED storms.....from state to state....not spotting or happen to come accross a storm in the neighborhood) let me know by PM if I can contact you via email or even a phone call and get your story on the subject. Not sure why im so darn intrigued by this but I am....
Thx
Jay

 

[Chris Lott]

What happened to where you could access the Stormtrack library? I used to find a lot of info in there. You could also go to Sam Barricklow's page, where there is tons of info on there from old chases. You can check it out at www.k5kj.net.