What is the purpose of having a livecam?

[MatthewCarman]

I wonder if people are going to start purposely hitting tornadoes just so they can get on the news. I am sure there is a few glory chasers out there that would do this. (This is not pointed at any one person)

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I wonder if people are going to start purposely hitting tornadoes just so they can get on the news. I am sure there is a few glory chasers out there that would do this. (This is not pointed at any one person)

I doubt it (aside from the TIV, which isn't doing it for news so much as to get a shot). Still even if you're right, this seems like the kind of problem that would eventually solve itself.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

For someone who's not in it for the fame or glory sure is spending a lot of time on TV, just today they were on:

Larry King Live (CNN)
Fox Report with Shepard Smith (Fox News Channel)
Nightline (ABC)
CNN Headline News
WOWT in Omaha, NE

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, just had to laugh at the "not for fame and glory" comment when Kory has been on almost every national news media to exist not including all the local media.

I have seen one thing with alot of this discussion that is fairly strange. The people who are fussing the most are the ones who keep posting about the guy's television appearances / interviews. They must have an extreme interest in it, to channel surf and see how many stories they can find on it and then they make comments on what was said and done. It appears that what they are fussing about is exactly the purpose of what the TV station are after. And that is to get attention and viewers. This is not only aimed at the post above, but just as an example of what the people here are doing. Watch as much as you can, read as much as you can about it, then complain.
Also, I think it was David Drummond who made a comment like, that if this was done by some of the longer time or well known chasers, nothing much would be said. When one of the posters here purposedly ran into a field to film one, it drew no where near as much controversy and that was done on purpose. When the TIV crew and ST groupies follow them around and get their pictures made with it, that must be OK. Yet, they are doing it all for the attention and to go into a tornado as close as possible with film crews and groupies in tow.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

I'd have to concurr on this one. The whole line looked like a giant squall (which is was), and I kept wondering why the heck they were issuing tornado warnings for it, as even 5 miles out, I could see nothing that looked even remotely like structure I'd associate with tornadoes. And then I pulled off onto an exit, sat atop a bridge, and blammo -- a large rotating walll cloud comes into view a mile or so away to the southwest. Returned from whence I came pretty fast. I don't have much experience chasing embedded supercells, and if that's what they're like, they're not much fun and real nailbiters.

I'm certainly not anything close to even being in the "armchair" category yet, but I'll take a guess as to what happened. When I read the hodographs for RUC in as many places I could find near and east of the Missouri between Nebraska Falls and Sioux Falls, they all spoke the same story - nice and round, then a bit less round, then a bit messy, then linear later around nightfall. The CINH and MLCINH went bye-bye for every single one of those hodo's between 21z and 24z, speaking to me of the possibility of rapid N-S development since the north had the tendency to break through rapidly and all at once. My only hope for discrete action was a RUC prog of a small area of higher vertical velocity in Southeast Nebraska while CINH was still there in the southern target. I waited near some trash dump just to the southeast of Blair to see my hopes realized for oh fifteen minutes or so.

But even though they all formed a chorus line from South Dakota to the more isolated action in Kansas, they were all still ("semi-") discrete sups with nothing more than clouds and a bit of rain to connect them. On radar they were all indeed in a line, but they all had the "scorpion" or "flying eagle" look to them, with no interconnecting piece that took the linear/bow shape you see in squalls. In Iowa's area they all had a N/NE movement, and trained along the conveyor belt of the cold front with the tendency to circle the low, like a poor impression of a hurricane. They headed east when the low migrated a bit quicker at dusk, and died a linear death shortly thereafter. From my understainding, an imbedded supercell is a supercell included in a squall line or bow echo. You can tell these by seeing a straight, narrow, long line of higher DBZ interrupted by the previously mentioned "matchflame" shape that gives away the embedded supe. Thus, even though these were in a line, the fact that all of the area (at first) belonged to one of the supercells means these weren't embedded, but semi-discrete.

Although I'm still nothing close to a good forecaster, I picked up hints that (finally!!!) made me guess correctly as to what would eventually happen. Excellent, prepared forecasters probably nailed the day to the wall, and knew what to expect when they hit the chase - yes, later in the day when it approaches visually you might see the dreaded overhang and "shelf blue" behind it that would otherwise make you reach for a jacket and some tissue on which to weep, but even without a radar you'd have guessed you might be looking at the wrong end of one in many connected LPs, with a much less cold and far more dangerous notch of "capable of producing" headed your way quickly from your SW.

As for cameras, again, yes, some will use them for profit. Good for them! It's their choice and the choice of the hosting company to do so. Hopefully, though, they won't count too much on profit, unless they've been contracted out already by a TV station or something. Mother nature is the biggest critic, and a constant critic at that.

But just like non-realtime footage, it's still just the media and only the media that will be your source of profit. As innovative as it is, the fact remains that only the "juiciest" part of a chase will be sought after. Certainly the media will eat up the new median and certainly the NWS will appreciate the live information they receive (as well as any TV stations potentially broadcasting the feed to public who may be in danger) but I highly doubt there will be a market beyond them, family, and weather enthusiasts who will watch even the clearest live feed of a tornado chase. Public will come in expecting some hair-raising Twister footage, and public will only see hours upon hours of your wipers repetitively clearing off rain, or you stopped for a pitstop at a gas station or sitting on the hood of your car watching clouds. Try putting a chase feed on a garden variety live cam site like Stickam and see how many people stick with it.

As for "chaser image," the longer a thread goes on, the more likely it is someone will be concerned about this. What image? I'll say it again: it was set in the minds of the public and the media by Twister. The recent TV shows are produced for a similar standard of daring, danger, and drama. That's what sells from stormchasing. If our image wasn't tarnished right off the assembly line, then where was the mass media coverage of Mike Scantlin's commendable behavior helping someone and checking up on them after the May 10th storms? Not all over the major networks, like this was. Stormchaser helps and cares for victim? Nah ... Paris Hilton is filling our last time slot today. Oh, wait, chaser gets hit by tornado? SCRAP THE LEAD STORY! This is what is already there amongst the general public, who for the most part will not take the time to read up on chasers and chasing, and who will be vicariously excited watching you nearly lose your life before they finish surfing on over to the newest Nip Tuck episode.

And if it is truly just helping out with warnings and storm information, which is also fine, then take a challenge and don't put your name up there. Put your spotter number up there instead, or like Tornadovideos.net does, make a team label the most apparent rather than your name. Of course that's certainly not a must, but if you want to avoid the limelight, or if you refuse chasing profit on principle, or if you want to provide an anonymous "good Samaritan" service where your name is known only to SS and the offices for who you intend the information, or if you simply wish to cover your butt well when you do something whoopsie, there's your solution.

 

[Robert Dewey]

I wonder if people are going to start purposely hitting tornadoes just so they can get on the news. I am sure there is a few glory chasers out there that would do this. (This is not pointed at any one person)

Close? Maybe. Driving into the tornado? Doubtful.

Like Ryan said, it's a problem that would eventually resolve itself. I'm sure you can figure out why

But to each their own... I don't care what other people do. This whole "reputation" problem is an easy solve - just don't announce you're a chaser. The ones who worry about their reputation are the ones who most likely make it known (brag?) that they are a chaser.

My opinion might be skewed since I'm a local chaser for the time being (I stay within the realm of MI... sometimes OH and IN).

 

[David Drummond]

Jason Brock: **APPLAUSE**

Whatever someone else does has no relevance to me...im not worried about [nor do i care about] my image being ruined by the actions of someone else.

This is so true. Not a single chaser out there has the power to ruin my "chaser image" (whatever that may be, like I have one LOL) because I don't give them that power. So I don't worry about the whole image thing. I have yet to have anyone outside of the chaser community make any comment to me that indicated they judged me based on some other chaser's activities.

Most of the time, I don't worry at all about what other chaser are doing, unless it's something that directly affected me in some way (like the time a couple of them ran a stop sign and nearly t-boned me). Other than that, I don't care. I usually like to see what everybody caught for the day. Half the time that means I get to see tornadoes or other cool stuff I would have NEVER seen before, because they too shared their experiences. Sharing the experience with others that enjoy seeing the storms was always one of the fun parts of chasing. Now you can't even hardly do that without having to worry about getting clubbed like a baby seal because you might have done something wrong in someone's eyes.

I remember a time when chasing, alas, even StormTrack, originally was all about sharing your experiences and images with others, making friends with similar interests, being happy for someone when they had a good day when you didn't, and next time it was your turn to have the good day, and they were happy for you. Informative articles written by storm chasers. That part of chasing that I loved unfortunately, in the larger community, has vanished, and I miss it.

Any more around here and in chasing in general, it seems like it's just all about "let's find something some other chaser did to ***** about and cram our own way of doing things down their throat". I have even fell into that mode once or twice, it's infectious. This part that chasing has become, I hate.

 

[David Drummond]

I wonder if people are going to start purposely hitting tornadoes just so they can get on the news. I am sure there is a few glory chasers out there that would do this. (This is not pointed at any one person)

I am sorry Matthew, but that concept is ridiculous. There are far easier and cheaper stunts (and less life risking) you could pull to get yourself on TV than driving into a tornado. Renting a car and driving into a baseball hail core would be one of the easier ones related to chasing.

Getting yourself into a tornado isn't the easiest of things to do on purpose. Just look at the guys trying to get probes in them, or the TIV even. They have a whole team and huge radar machines and still have great difficulty doing it

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Perhaps there may be another thread in which this would be better discussed, though for now this seems like a decent place. Does anyone know to what extent the NWS uses these live streams? I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at the NWS during severe weather events, though from what a couple friends have told me and based on what I have always imagined it must be quite chaotic, enough so that if there is anything worth seeing on a live stream I would assume that they are to busy to take the time to watch it anyway, though based on some of what I am hearing it sounds as though that may not be the case?? I have considered streaming, I know much of my family and friends would like to see what I’m up to, though I am always shunned away by the fear of the time and effort that it must take to keep stuff up an running, I seem to get my fill of keeping the technology going the way it is, and I fear adding to it would only cause me to be spending the majority of my effort keeping stuff running as opposed to watching the storms. For those who have now been streaming awhile, does it become a headache and do you often find yourself having to screw with the streaming stuff or does it remain business as usual for the most part?

 

[Steve Miller TX]

Thank goodness they didn't have an amber lightbar or they REALLY would catch hell. LOL

 

[Tyler Allison]

wow! took 10 pages to get to lightbars

 

[Mark Sudduth]

I have a question. When hurricane Charley hit SW Florida in 2004 and many hurricane chasers put themselves in the core of that category 4 hurricane ON PURPOSE (I was one of them), were people on Stormtrack "upset" about it as they are this tornado event? I mean, several well known hurricane chasers had all the weather data in the world available to them and nailed Charley and its ferocious core in and around Punta Gorda. Most of them were shaken to say the least and some had vehicles almost destroyed. Many made a lot of money, a lot! So, were people debating whether or not that was a good idea here on Stormtrack? If the same happened again this season in some coastal city, would there be a similar debate about how close one should get to hurricanes? Or, are they different enough so that it is not fair to compare the two phenomenon? I just think it's interesting that some people here are questioning the judgement of the SevereStudios guys and how they ended up trapped in that tornado. When at the same time we have lots of hurricane chasers who do that very thing in lethal hurricanes (wind and surge) but that goes off without too much questioning- at least not that I have seen.

Thoughts?

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I'm not skimming what I've missed in the last 5 pages so someone may have mentioned this on the issue of the severestudios guys...

But if you're attempting to get a look at a tornado in the notch of an HP... why are you relying on radar data?

When you are attempting to do something as risky as get in the notch of an HP and attempt to see the tornado it's just plain stupid to be relying on radar data... because things like that happen. You can't trust it the entire time, obviously.

If you think you're talented enough to be in that situation you need to be chasing visually. If you're unable to do so at that time for any given reason, you shouldn't be there, period.

 

[Shane Adams]

I have a question. When hurricane Charley hit SW Florida in 2004 and many hurricane chasers put themselves in the core of that category 4 hurricane ON PURPOSE (I was one of them), were people on Stormtrack "upset" about it as they are this tornado event? I mean, several well known hurricane chasers had all the weather data in the world available to them and nailed Charley and its ferocious core in and around Punta Gorda. Most of them were shaken to say the least and some had vehicles almost destroyed. Many made a lot of money, a lot! So, were people debating whether or not that was a good idea here on Stormtrack? If the same happened again this season in some coastal city, would there be a similar debate about how close one should get to hurricanes? Or, are they different enough so that it is not fair to compare the two phenomenon? I just think it's interesting that some people here are questioning the judgement of the SevereStudios guys and how they ended up trapped in that tornado. When at the same time we have lots of hurricane chasers who do that very thing in lethal hurricanes (wind and surge) but that goes off without too much questioning- at least not that I have seen.

Thoughts?

FYI, I think hurricane chasers are f***in' nuts.

Anyone else notice on the video clip that the vehicle was still rolling even after the outer edge of the circulation was visible? You'd think a slamming of the brakes would be warranted in that situation, but what we see is a gentle roll to a stop, definitely not panic...in fact I'd say it was almost an attempt to target the tornado. But what do I know, I'm just watching the video.

Again, I could care less if they did it on purpose or not. But they sure as hell aren't all over television the past few days because they're worried about serving the public. How many times do I have to say it? Do what you want out there, pimp yourself to whoever you wish, but keep it real. Don't be a puppet on-camera and give the generic, typical "we're trying to save lives" BS interview because we know that ain't why you're out there.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Its obvious we have to many "chaser police" and not enough chasers on ST nowadays. Especially those that have been in the same situation but were lauded for their "accomplishments" on gettting the close shot.

It is trully sad how far ST has fallen in the past few years.

We have all had close calls. Some by accident and some on purpose. Who cares if they were able to sell some of the video afterward. If I had the video, be it on accident or intentionally, I would show it to everybody if only to show what not to do. We all have video of that oh soo close lightning strike or debris flying by our car. It all depends on your name or status whether you get praised or roasted for the event. we have had events earlier this year and also last year where people in the same situation were praised for their "survival" even though they had alot better visibility and experience.

As Shane has siad about 1000 times. As long as it doesnt interfere with your chasing then let it go people.. take a breath and let it go.

 

[Mark Sefried]

With live cams going everyone including law enforcement, representatives, anyone and everyone will be watching. For the chasers that are in it mostly for the fame and glory just to get a good chunk of change, they may take risks that may be past most safety comfort zones for most chasers. If there were two chasers using livecams and one chaser was 3 miles away from the tornado playing it safe and the other was pratically in an inflow jet, what video do you think CNN will run on thier newscast? I don't think that I will ever run a livecam because I will admit it yes I do break traffic laws while in intercept mode. If I am out in the open country with little traffic and a dry road, I am usually a good 15+ mph or so over the speed limit. However I rarely will speed through town or if the pavement is wet. What I am trying to get at for the few that will attempt to do crazy ass things while running a live cam like nearly getting into an inflow jet of a tornado or flying through town while running red lights, it may be a very bad image for chasers. I hope that people using livecams chase responsibly and so far for the most part they are and hopefully they continue to do so.