• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Vintage video clips

Joined
Dec 4, 2003
Messages
3,411
Here's my second chase where we actually had a camcorder, March 28 1988. It features myself and Gene Rhoden going after a supercell in the Quanah/Lawton area (no obvious tornado). We were both about 20 at the time.

http://www.stormtrack.org/tim/88mar28.wmv (22.1 MB, 9:27)

The clip opens with AM Weather for that morning, then has about 4 minutes of vintage chase footage. It closes with that evening's weathercasts: Channel 8's Troy Dungan and Channel 5's Harold Taft, showing the storms on radar and satellite.

It was only two years later when chase footage truly became popular, in the wake of the 3/13/90 and 4/26/91 outbreaks and with the next wave of high-quality consumer equipment taking root. Up until this point storm video was sort of experimental, equipment was for the most part crappy, and it was considered inferior to still photography, though interesting.

Below are some screen caps for anyone who doesn't want to download the clip.

Tim

88mar28a.jpg
88mar28b.jpg

88mar28c.jpg
88mar28f.jpg

88mar28d.jpg
88mar28e.jpg
 
I really like the "old school" graphics. They were straight to the point and easy to read. Now things are so smoothed over and dumbed down, it actually makes it harder to read (well, harder to sit through at least :lol:). At this rate, I wonder where things will be in 10 years... Probably won't even be any broadcast meteorology - everyone will just open their personal computing unit (like a PDA) and pull up the 15-day forecast.

Thanks for the links Tim, very interesting.
 
Yeah, from what I've read 3/28 was about the only day in 1988 with decent tornadic supercells in the Plains. Neat stuff. 8)
 
Tim,

Thanks for the AM Weather flashback. It still brings back great memories of severe weather days gone by. I can remember waking up at 6:45 to see the SWODY 1.

I find it hard to believe that, only 15 years ago, we had such rudimentary graphics.
 
Wonder where Joan van Ahn (?sp) and Carl Weiss from AM Weather ended up?
 
There was a monster of a supercell that rolled across the south half of Oklahoma City on March 28, 1988. It produced a lot of 2 to 4 inch hail and a couple of small tornadoes. I snapped a pic of the NSSL doppler display as the hook was wrapping up just west and southwest of Will Rogers Airport. Looking back at it now, I still wonder how the city escaped "the big one" that day.
http://www.okweatherwatch.com/032888a.jpg
 
Back
Top