What is the purpose of having a livecam?

[Shane Adams]

They are actually on live, with Larry King, right now on CNN.

That would explain their absence from this thread. Anyone else laughing maniacally right now?

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Using the "old radar data" or "rain wrapped" excuses are nothing more than that - excuses.

Before the OAX radar went down, the storm showed an obvious couplet. You can, based on linear interpolation, estimate where the potential tornado may be when it crosses your path. If you're not getting data and you're not sure where the tornado is, get the hell out of the way!! Having no radar data is a very poor excuse for common sense. If I know there's a potential rain-wrapped tornado moving my way, I'm going to get the hell out of the way and not wait for it to hit me when I know I can't see it - whether I have radar data or not. Find a north-south road and go south 5-10 miles...guess what? If the tornado is rain-wrapped you're not going to see it anyway.

I was in that situation a few years back and place the blame on no one but myself. No excuses except the fact that I made a poor decision. Yes, I had no data, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse as to why I was in a tornadic circulation. If you want to place yourself in the direct path of a rain-wrapped tornado (data or not) you'll get no sympathy from me if you disable for the remainder of your life.

 

[Mark Sefried]

Using the "old radar data" or "rain wrapped" excuses are nothing more than that - excuses.

Before the OAX radar went down, the storm showed an obvious couplet. You can, based on linear interpolation, estimate where the potential tornado may be when it crosses your path. If you're not getting data and you're not sure where the tornado is, get the hell out of the way!! Having no radar data is a very piss poor excuse for common sense. If I know there's a potential rain-wrapped tornado moving my way, I'm going to get the hell out of the way and not wait for it to hit me when I know I can't see it - whether I have radar data or not. Find a north-south road and go south 5-10 miles...guess what? If the tornado is rain-wrapped your not going to see it anyway - and neither is your webcam.

I was in that situation a few years back and place the blame on no one but myself. No excuses except the fact that I made a poor decision. Yes, I had no data, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse as to why I was in a tornadic circulation. If you want to place yourself in the direct path of a rain-wrapped tornado (data or not) you'll get no sympathy from me if you disable for the remainder of your life.

You took the words right out of my mouth and I agree with you 100%

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Wow, I saw that Larry King interview, those two guys (can't remember their names) sure took a beating, couple different times Larry suggested that there may be some stupidity involved, and then the CNN meteorologist said he was watching the live feed and said he even called them out as they were making a wrong move, I almost felt sorry for those two guys as the interview kind of turned against them....

As for the argument of Live Cams being strictly for helping the public, that kind of goes out the window after a couple of streamers go and rush video of them being hit by a tornado in which they walk away to the media. I have nothing against it, I'll be the first to agree its nice to get a little funding to cover some chases, but I won't be fooled into believing most stream live, with public wellbeing their #1 concern....

 

[Jason Boggs]

In my opinion, I would have been a lot more forgiving if the guys had just swept the little incident under the rug and considered it a mistake in which to learn from. I have a hard time when a chaser gets into a bad situation (life and death) and then makes a run to the nearest TV outlet to get some recognition.

I think the recognition needs to occur when a chaser does something for the public. For instance, what a lot of guys and gals on this forum did after the Greensburg tornado. That's the recognition we deserve...not something that makes us look bad.

Guys, I'm not bashing you. I'm glad your ok. That's more important than anything. I have been in some bad situations before and it's not fun. I just hope you learned from your mistake so you can be a better chaser next time your out.

 

[Van DeWald]

Hard to sweep it under the rug when it happens on live network TV with no delay.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Guys, I'm not bashing you. I'm glad your ok. That's more important than anything. I have been in some bad situations before and it's not fun. I just hope you learned from your mistake so you can be a better chaser next time your out.

While I'm sure they're well aware, I second that, those two were SUPER lucky, (remember that security camera footage from a month or so ago?) I'm just not so sure going national with video in which someone gets hit by a tornado and then walks away unharmed is a great idea, might tend to leave the public with a false sense of security. Though perhaps the intentions/goal of going national with the video is nothing more than an attempt to raise funds to help/assist in improving the means of helping the public in the future...

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

There were a couple of comments made on another posting forum that it's possible that this was simply very strong RFD and not a tornado, based on the direction of the wind. Any thoughts on this?

<flame protection on>

Melanie

 

[beaudodson]

1. I don't remember hearing them ask for sympathy? Someone please post that. I doubt they want sympathy. ")

2. I am sure they would admit it was stupid - bad call - and so on. It is what it is - as some would say!

3. If it was for fame and glory then more power to them. Apparently they got what they were supposedly looking for. No offense to anyone on the forum (we all have our own opinions on this subject) but why do we care if it was for fame and glory? This is America - the land of fame and glory! Is there something fundamentally wrong with fame and glory? I don't understand the "outrage" towards any of this.

4. Waiting for someone to say they should donate the money to the scouts (whatever "money" they may or may not be making off this).

5. If they did it for the public service then more power to them - according to media and officials their live reports were helpful (from reading/hearing stories today). Could they have done the same thing from further away? Who knows. Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps their reports saved lives. Rain wrapped tornado? NWS radar down? Without some live reports it could have been a lot worse. Nobody will ever know.

6. Sometimes I think envy is the root of all evil (not saying that is what is going on in this thread but it certainly does raise its head from time to time - and we are all guilty on occasion) - other times I think it might be money. Unsure.

7. I wonder how many chasers on this thread have gone over the speed limit in order to catch a storm - thus putting the lives of other people (and themselves) in danger? Is that ill advised? Yes. In light of the value of human life it is. Hail = glass houses = err stones? Either way!

Short list - I won't feel sorry if someone dies while...

Jumping out of a plane
Jumping off a bridge with a chord wrapped around their feet
Chasing a tornado


Nor would I ever ask anyone at my funeral to feel sorry for me (course I will be dead so just know ahead of time that I died doing what I love).

On another note

I love the stormcams. This gives a whole new meaning to "armchair" chasing! Television stations have been doing it for years. Now we have individual free lance chasers doing the same.

 

[David Drummond]

As for the argument of Live Cams being strictly for helping the public, that kind of goes out the window after a couple of streamers go and rush video of them being hit by a tornado in which they walk away to the media. I have nothing against it, I'll be the first to agree its nice to get a little funding to cover some chases, but I won't be fooled into believing most stream live, with public wellbeing their #1 concern....

I can tell you from experience, you don't have to "rush" anything to the media. I know for a fact they frequent these forums daily during big severe weather events looking for a story, and they will hunt you down. Your phone rings non stop for a while. Some news directors and assignment editors have a regular list of chasers they call during each decent sized event asking if they got anything or know anyone who does. All it takes is one place picking up something they think is a good story and then all the rest want to do the story too. A couple of days with little to no sleep, having to rush around and meet schedules, get your brains bashed out by those you considered friends and peers. No, it's not all that glorious actually.

 

[Steve Miller]

Melanie said:

There were a couple of comments made on another posting forum that it's possible that this was simply very strong RFD and not a tornado, based on the direction of the wind. Any thoughts on this?

Half of what chasers call tornadoes these days is just RFD kicking around some dust so I would say that's possible...

 

[David Drummond]

Also, some of the posts in this thread are venturing into snark/attack territory. The mods are reviewing the thread for possible infractions. Caution is advised.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I can tell you from experience, you don't have to "rush" anything to the media.

A couple of days with little to no sleep, having to rush around and meet schedules

OK..... What point are you trying to make, 'your not telling me anything I'm not more than well aware of, I more than know how it works; I still don't see how the question as to rather or not working with the media is glorifying has anything to do with the question of what is the main purpose of streaming video.... Perhaps many/most set out with their main goal providing images for the NWS and warning outlets, though I have a crazy intuition thats not always the case, and I don't care if your just trying to make money thats great as long as you still keep public interest a priority, per reviewing the severe studios website it appears THEY do a good job of doing such.

 

[beaudodson]

Melanie said:
Half of what chasers call tornadoes these days is just RFD kicking around some dust so I would say that's possible...

That is an interesting comment. I wondered that myself. It is hard to tell from the video what is going on. I am sure someone has a higher resolution video than what youtube and other sites have. Unsure but perhaps they will chime in - at some point - when they are finished with their world tour! lol

 

[David Drummond]

OK..... What point are you trying to make, 'your not telling me anything I'm not more than well aware of, I more than know how it works; I still don't see how the question as to rather or not working with the media is glorifying has anything to do with the question of what is the main purpose of streaming video.... Perhaps many/most set out with their main goal providing images for the NWS and warning outlets, though I have a crazy intuition thats not the case, and I don't care if your just trying to make money thats great.

My point was you had said "steamers rushing video to the media" and it's isn't necessarily rushing, as them coming to you.

Why can't the streams have multiple goals anyway? They aren't exactly a free thing to put out there, they have their expense.

The rest is not specifically a reply to you Dustin, just to the thread in general...

I'm not going to judge them on what happened....because I wasn't there myself, in that situation, to make a judgment call on how things should or could have been handled. IHMO no one has the right to judge anyone on an event like that 99% of the time because THEY WEREN'T there.

I've seen entire groups of chasers get caught in the far outer circulation of a tornado, get massively cored or other such things. Too many times I've been in situations I certainly didn't want to happen or plan to happen, but simply either let my guard down, had a failed plan of attack/escape, or something. Just like in life, **** happens when your chasing sometimes. You put on enough miles, something negative, sooner or later, WILL happen to you. If you can take that experience and pay for all or part your chase season with it with the high costs of gas, food and lodging these days, I say MORE POWER TO YOU.

It's easy to sit back and judge people from afar when you weren't there, regardless of what the activity is, and say what should or should not have been done.

That diagram Steve posted earlier is so true it's not even funny. Had this same event happened, with any one of a couple dozen of "big name chasers" this thread would have an entirely different tone! Don't believe me? Do some digging in the archives on this forum. It's happened before, but because of who was involved, it was quietly and gently discussed and mostly swept away.