What makes an elite chaser?

[Rich Thompson]

The recent discussion about chasers, V2, etc. got me thinking about what it takes to become an "elite" chaser. I don't mean an "elitist" chaser, just one who tends to be more successful than most.

Here's my impression:

1. Intense interest in meteorology that may extend beyond tornadoes. It's clear you have to be passionate about the weather to be a really good chaser, and that passion drives your forecast ability. To be a great chaser you need to be at least a good forecaster, and you need to be motivated.

2. "Hopeless" optimist. This is an important attribute. Personally, I spend lots of time on the "cost-benefit analysis" such that I'm prone to skip days that end up being nice tornado producers. The very best chasers apply a cost-benefit analysis to the most marginal situations, but they don't let it stop them from chasing most days and most distances.

3. Available to chase. This also makes a great chaser. Chasing all the time helps fine-tune your decision making for those days when it matters most. It's also easier to live with the risk that goes along with aggressive targeting decisions when you know you'll have many opportunities to make up for any mistakes.

4. Aggressive and decisive. To win the prize you have to be willing to accept risk. The most successful chasers do this by not let hail cores, poor roads, distance, etc., stand in their way of tornadoes. They also don't let their own original forecasts stand in the way of changing targets when they need to change. Sometimes the aggressiveness is manifest as crazy driving (I certainly don't advocate this approach), but mostly it's the willingness to do what it takes to be successful.

Lastly, you could add 5) the ability to document the chase and share with others. A keen eye w.r.t. photos or video can really drive home your success, and it makes it much easier for others to believe you're good when you've got the images to show for it!

Assessing myself, I think I'm decent on 1), marginal on 2), poor on 3), and getting better on 4). I guess that makes me a middle-of-the-pack chaser, in line with my 5-10 tornadoes per year average. I've been working on 5), but I doubt I'll ever be better than the upper half of the pack.

 

[Shane Adams]

(1) - I'm pretty bad about science and knowledge and interest beyond tornadoes.

(2) - I'm world-class at optimism and believing that "today could be THE day" and most of all, passion. In fact for passion I don't think anyone can beat me.

(3) - I'm middle of the road on this one. I build my life around chasing, but my income is what it is; I always run out of money before I run out of days off from work. So I guess you could say I'm as dedicated as I can be and still survive day-to-day beyond chasing. If I lived like a normal person would at my income level, I couldn't afford to chase at all.

(4) - I'm pretty good at this one, although I won't risk ruining the entire day over a questionable road or situation early on. The further into the chase day I go (especially with no results) the more risks I'll take. But I put "being there for the next one" over "whatever it takes to get this one" every time. IMO, tornadoes all look the same from 100 yards away.

(5) - I'm exceptional on this one, as one of the few chasers left who still has a true, stand-alone website (not a blog I call a website). I've always been meticulous about documentation, mainly for my own personal enjoyment and posterity. However when you're as opinionated as I am about something and you voice your opinions often and publicly, it doesn't hurt to have a resume out there proving I can back up my mouth when it comes to storm chasing. Nobody likes an asshole with no experience.

So using this system, I would have to say I fall short as an elite chaser. IMO what it comes down to is time, money, and resources = opportunity. The guys who kill are the ones who only have to worry about chasing. It's tough trying to stay on top of the weather day after day, balance your checkbook, worry about bills, wondering how you're gonna pay rent, worrying about having to pick days off 3-4 days in advance with zonal flow and outflow boundaries, keeping your 17-year-old car with 250,000 miles running, and keep your "regular life" from falling apart because you chased too many crappy setups. But I'm not complaining. It is what it is.

I'd rate myself a 6 out of 10, and on my best day, an 8. I'll never be the best forecaster, the most-successful, the best videographer or photographer, or be able to chase the most days. But when it comes to passion, the love of chasing, and the extremes I'll endure to chase as much as I can without putting myself on the street, nobody can touch me.

I can live with that.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Rich-

These are great points, but to me it seems "skewed" to TORNADO chasers. The main criteria seem to be:

1. Average of tornadoes per year
2. The idea that the number of tornadoes "caught" defines how "good" you are.

If this is the scale of what defines an "Elite" chaser - or one that is "better than most" - then perhaps those of us who are structure freaks and chase all things storm related - and actually and intentionally place the TORNADO itself as icing on the cake instead of the goal of all goals - are placed in an entirely different - and lower, bracket - or this is how it seems.

Perhaps this is an excellent scale and representation of those who are primarily and solely defined and categorized as TORNADO chasers. However, it does not, at large, represent those who are structure-chasers or storm-chasers and are content with the storm environment in general. Maybe I'm off base here, but if tornado aggressiveness is the definition of an elite chaser, I'll never be one, and I'm not sure that's who I am or ever will be as a STORM chaser. My happiest moments are those with full structure. Sure I get dissapointed if I do not get a tornado - and others may judge that a failure on my part. I do not (though it is dissapointing, I will absolutely admit.)

Just my two cents - otherwise for tornado chasers, this is right on the mark and the money.

 

[Jeff Passner]

Very good description Rich. I'll just point out one thing that you only indirectly said --- you need money. To be on the road 50 days a year, you need a source of money.

I also think experience is a major factor... Tour guides get the most experience in chasing because they MUST chase as often as they can to please the "customer." Tour guides also get experience with different situations -- they can chase a Caprock storm on Monday, an upslope day or the Denver cyclone on Tuesday, a warm front in South Dakota on Wednesday, and then a dryline storm on Thursday in Kansas.

While you don't mention it --- part of chasing is not just science, but it's also "art" in which you just develop some intuition for storm types and storm motion.

Equipment also is a factor these days. Good data in your car is a huge plus. It's much easier to chase if you know what you're chasing. Are you chasing an outflow boundary or the intersection of two boundaries? Knowing the difference can help you decide how to approach the storm. Data can give you some clues as to how to approach the storm.

The key point is number 1 on your list and you state it well. You must be able to forecast. That means you forecast in Novemeber, you forecast in January, you check the models almost every day so you learn how to understand advection and the day-to-day biases of the models. The most mundane day in October is still a good day to check the soundings. Part of being a good forecaster also means you read....You want to chase Wyoming; read their forecast discussion. Those forecasters know the area and trends better than someone from Norman would, so learn from them.

Another key is to know WHY you are chasing. What are your goals? Are you trying to see an EF5 or just happy to see a nice, structured storm? To be really good at chasing I think you need to take the approach that ANY supercell is worth seing. You also make that point, but it's true. Good chasers just love being there; the wind from the east, the dark skies, lightning; it's everything about weather. If your goal is to see the biggest tornado then you probably won't be very good or enjoy it as much.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Ive always said that chasing a storm doesn't make you a storm chaser. More less how I play softball a couple times a year with friends, I sure as hell aint a softball player. It takes more than just partaking in the activity to truly earn the title IMO

To me it is a person whos life really does revolve around it. They ignore the traditional values set by society, they endure the struggle to become somewhat successful, and it is what they are known most for...not necessarily famous...but at least within their own personal network of friends and family. Those friends and family understand no matter what, that chasing is season driven, and they are ok with you skipping out on functions that can easily be planned or made up at another time of the year. The weather doesn't wait.

Passion driven yes, no doubt about it. A true passionate person is willing to sacrifice a lifestyle of riches and would be happy living in a small house or trailer so long as they can do what they love. Props to you if you can achieve both!

They contribute to all aspects of chasing. They warn, report, help out citizens when needed. Anyone who speeds to a storm and gets their video and speeds home is not a true chaser IMO. A true chaser honors the minimal requirements expected by the NWS and the communities.

Do I feel I have achieved that status...maybe...but what I do know is I am working my ass off to become as successful as I can. I'm not afraid to take criticism from those who think I just want to become famous and am doing it for money. Bring it on I say...because while you're sitting there hating you're daily commute, wondering why you got married and had kids at age 24 while counting down the days till your next vacation, Ill be living a life I love...

Hooray for pipe dreams and delusions

 

[Shane Adams]

I'd like to see chasers rating themselves on this thread via Rich's proposed system instead of a 10-page debate/discussion over storm/tornado chasers and chasing goals. Rich lined everything out nicely, and took a stab at his own system rating himself...which I found interesting. I really hope more people follow suit instead of starting another "why are you out there?" debate (which I can just smell coming around the corner).

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Very interesting discussion... wow.

I have kind of a pragmatic take on this: the ratio of chase expenditure to income and in total number of chase days taken. That pretty much encapsulates the time + money factors, which are the ultimate resources we all have to draw on. So budget chasers like Shane could certainly be classified as elite chasers.

How about
E = C/I*50 + (D/90)*50
where E = elite factor, C = money poured into the hobby, I = income after taxes, D = chase days, assuming a max of 90 days (reduce "90" by one for each day of can't-get-out-of-work or other commitments).

Of course that doesn't really account for some of the fools out there who probably shouldn't be cluttering up the roads, but they probably don't score a high E value to begin with, and if they do, they may be accumulating some degree of specialized knowledge or skill out of whatever time and money they're pouring into chasing. Beyond that I guess we're getting into chase psychology and agreement on chase values.

Safety and courtesy, however... that's almost certainly part of the equation. How about some big fat zeroes for blocking the road.

Tim

 

[Adam Lucio]

I'd like to see chasers rating themselves on this thread via Rich's proposed system instead of a 10-page debate/discussion over storm/tornado chasers and chasing goals. Rich lined everything out nicely, and took a stab at his own system rating himself...which I found interesting. I really hope more people follow suit instead of starting another "why are you out there?" debate (which I can just smell coming around the corner).

My original response was just that, but I deleted it because I didn't want to sound like I was tooting my own horn. Anyways Ill bite again...

#1 - ive always been interested in meteorology. Ive toyed with kits and books since I was a kid. I never pursued it in school though and if people are really that curious they can read my BIO on my website since I dont feel like sharing the sob story of my childhood on ST. This is probably the area I lack the most, because while it does interest me...the chasing comes first.

#2 - I get ridiculed up here by some of my colleagues because I am gung-ho in Feb/March to chase that first insane-o shear setup. "wait till May Adam, theres more cape then" they always say. I never listen...and likewise I have yet to see a tornado before April 22nd yet I still try

#3 - I am most available now because I am recently laid off, but for the previous 6 years I had a normal job, and always used a good 90% of my PTO towards chasing. This one is a bit of an unfair assessment, Im sure if everyone could chase every setup, most would...unfortunately life does get in the way at times.

#4 - The proof is in the pudding, those who chased with me know that agression is my style. I will core punch, hug the bears cage of an HP and take that dirt road that unknowingly ends in a field if I have to. I tend to swear at other drivers who stop-go-swerve-stop-go-swerve-pull half off the shoulder-dart back onto the road all within 5 seconds because they don't know what to do. I HATE THAT.

#5 - I also run a non blog type website. Ive worked very hard to make sure my site is not a blog. How a person choses to document their chases is up to them and shouldn't hold much weight...but as shane mentioned if you are going to talk big talk you better be able to back up your claims in some way.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

1. Intense interest in meteorology that may extend beyond tornadoes.

I'm not very high at all on the whole interest in meteorology deal. Forecasting actually doesn't seem crazy important to me nowadays, as far as people needing it to bad well. Give a person data, SPC outlooks, and any bit of growing storm experiences and they can do quite well without a massive understanding of forecasting. The one thing forecasting knowledge will do is just help in deciding what days to chase and which ones to just sit out. I only now, 11 years into it, feel I'm getting slightly better at that aspect. Targeting on a given day however, I just don't know how important major forecasting knowledge is. It can be pretty dang basic stuff to get it done well enough.

2. "Hopeless" optimist.

I used to be high on this one. Now probably somewhere in the middle. More than anything it's a fear of missing something more than I might think something great is going to happen.

3. Available to chase.

Well money aside, I'm as high on that as is possible. I simply have no desire at all to be the guy that is out EVERY setup. So I guess I'd be a self imposed middle high on that one. With a touch of money imposing in there for sure as well. Doesn't bother me, I like the amount I'm able to chase. Just glad I'm getting a whole lot better and picking days to sit out, or at least just sitting out days in general. This year is funky though because really, just about every single day is a chase day. So will end up with as many as past years anyway.

4. Aggressive and decisive.

High on willing to drive through any core, more than willing I want to. But low when it comes to taking various roads. Like low as it gets now pretty much. Mustang just too easy to get stuck, and getting stuck a few times, well it just makes you want to not have that happen again that much more. I used to take lots of gravel roads. It's rare now. Doesn't seem it is costing me much anyway. Though that is probably just luck of the days. It also seems a good chunk of the bad roads just don't care what you are driving. Seems very often the road either will be passable in a Mustang(or other rear wheel drive) or it's so bad you might not want your 4x4 suv on the thing.

As far as decisive on a given day, hmmm, medium. Often it's clear, often it's not clear. Like June 16 Dupree SD this year was one case, but it seemed pretty clear, given the se storm was directly in the inflow of the one to its nw. What I hate are days when a pair of supercells are close to one another, with the trailing one seeding the lead one a little, but it also kind of moving into/near the air the lead one used. Seems lead one pays off more often than the trailer, but man it is always touch and go on those and the given setup.

I'm bad when it comes to chasing after little to no sleep on questionable days that aren't real close. Real easy to talk myself out of those now, and regret it later. I'm just as bad at waking up rested and having nothing else to do on a given day and going on days I regret going on. Those days now drive me absolutely batty. I just about hate going on dumb days now more than I hate missing good days, as messed up as that may sound. I think it's just the whole 'I should know better deal' now. This isn't a good attribute to have for a chaser.

Lastly, you could add 5) the ability to document the chase and share with others.

I feel fine here. The one thing I've half prided myself on, being able to chase alone and do video and stills both and capture the event. Being in the better viewing locations. This year though, eh, I'm kinda driving myself nuts. Bowdle for example. Sigh for not driving up that stupid ass little hill and hoping for a parking spot and a wedge not killing me there with a bunch of other chasers(which wasn't as bad up there as I figured). I have severe regrets on the Dupree SD deal on the 16th of June recently too. I forget to think harder about what would be a better spot for a closer tornado intercept. Should have tooled south of that town then, and stayed closer to the second wedge when it formed. It's this stuff that far and away drives me the most nuts. Not missing storms, not missing good days, not driving far for crappy days. Just small little positioning errors on the good things you are there to see. I will do some majorly severe self bashing over and over on these. I think it's just because one was given the op and they were there for the show and blew some capturing of it. I will readily forget the good positions I made, like Bowdle just before the part north of town. Screw up a later part and the good stuff is forgotten.

6) could be luck.

Even the greatest of the great out there seem to have their real bad years. Or maybe it is relative and seems bad. But they prove they have higher levels of the other categories, yet still have their bad periods.

2006-2008 I don't know that it is possible for anyone to have a lower luck factor than I. Surely I took home the least out of anyone with as many chases as I had. Essentially ONE daylight tornado out of around 120 chases. Tricky stuff there. It might sound simple to just chalk up bad deals to bad luck. Problem is a turd could have been out there with zero knowledge and no way they'd do half as bad. Those years made me very very certain of the luck aspect. But yeah, it was all caused by bad decisions. Just seems so far into the silly area it has to be something more than just dumb choices. Course luck just tends to mask over what is not luck, for those that are truly good at this.

Ok, luck just has to be a dumb category. I was just a moron for 3 years. The rest of the time I'm 50% moron. That is what bugs me. I might catch a few cool things, but I'm just way way low on the totem pole when it comes to percent of chases done well.

What Roger Hill and Andy Gabrielson have done this year will be hard to top. Timmer and crew right up there with them, but I think right now those two guys are standing mostly on their own. And I can't stand it when something like that is chalked up to being able to chase all the time. Many others are also chasing all the time and just falling short of that stuff.

 

[Wes Carter]

1. I do have an intense interest in meteorology, however I am pretty new at forecasting and still learning a lot. I'm getting better at interpreting the models and knowing when to pay attention to them and ignore them thanks to the discussions I read right here on ST. But I would say I'm still a novice in this area, so I'll give myself a 4 here.

2. I am a hopeless optimist to a fault and suffer from the Adam Lucio Syndrome I also tend to get all excited in March and burn some gas early in the season. I'd call me a 7 or 8.

3. I work 5 days on, 5 days off. That sounds like I should be able to get 50% of everything. Well, I live in Middle Tennessee so I have to budget my money and time to get the most bang for the buck. This causes conflict with number 2 above, the optimism. So here I'm a 4 at best.

4. Here I have to be a 9 or 10. I know the people I chase with sometimes have to get annoyed at my do or die mentality. I really think that when chasing you have to be able to make a quick decision and commit to it many times. You have a choice of A or B. If you pick the wrong one you miss the show. Oh well, you learn from it. But if you spend too much time trying to decide A or B you will likely miss both. I am willing to adjust as needed, but if I'm past the point of no return I'll stick with it and take what I can get. Which is often rain or blue skies. I hate indecisiveness that impedes my chasing, and I never want to get in someone else's way out there. I'm with Adam on hating people who block traffic trying to decide what to do.

5) I suck at this. Give me a 1. I'm trying to learn the chasing part still. I have some video and photos, but for the most part they suck. I'd rather learn the ropes then get more into documenting everything. Maybe documenting everything will help me learn. That's something I need to work on in a big way. But I don't claim to be something I'm not, so I don't really need to prove I ain't sh** as a chaser. Everyone tends to believe me on that one

4+7+4+9+1=25
25/5=5
I guess that makes me a 5 at best using that scale. But looking at people like Shane that scored himself a 6, I don't think I'm just one point away from being where Shane is at.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

#1- I have no formal training, and have learned/picked up things from a few people (David Drummond, Shane, Rob Dale) but most of my 'forecast ability' (no matter how crappy it is) has come from reading, and learning. I don't understand much scientific or technical things. I liken it to a computer user. I work in IT, and know computers inside and out and can throw commands at you all day long. Most people just know how to use a computer and make it do what they want. I don't understand how to calculate helicity, I don't know equations to figure things out.

#2- I will chase just about anything I can, and short of being fired from my job, will skip anything for a storm chase, no matter how much of a longshot it is.

#3- I work a pretty flexible job, and have been able to mostly get off when I want. Like Adam used to, I save up most/all of my PTO during the year to burn from April till July. I missed some very good setups in the last month because my boss simply said 'sorry, I can't let you go chase' and then because 'Hey, I need you to cover days x y and z'. I'm always willing to cover days for people, especially in the off season. I worked 60 hours the week of Christmas, I covered some third shifts/midnights, and worked second shift (afternoons) for quite a few months last fall.

#4- I specifically bought a F-150 (yeah Kris.. DRINK) with good all terrain tires so that I could drive through just about anything. While I TRIED to avoid hail cores this year, hail didn't stop me from coring a couple storms anyway. I only cringed while it was bouncing off my truck. I have always had a pretty hard time speeding, and got caught in Mississippi earlier this year when I wasn't leading our 'caravan' for 79 in a 55. That stung really bad, and it's painful for me to do more than 5-7 over. I have also found that my aggressiveness has caused me to miss targets before. I can't sit patiently at a morning target and get drawn somewhere else and miss tornadoes at my target. I've done that a couple times this year, and missed some HUGE events because of it.

#5- Working in IT, and specifically webhosting, I'd say I do a pretty good job. During chases I 'advertise' myself on facebook and twitter. I usually post about what I got during the chase. I report regularly on SpotterNetwork. Videos and chase accounts get posted to my site. Detailed chase accounts. I made a whole template in Drupal so that I just have to input a few things and it lays the chase accounts out prettily.

So I suck at 1, 2,3,4 I'm doing ok and 5 I think I've done a real good job at, although I've got a lot of 'busts' to show for it that's for sure...

 

[Jeff Duda]

1) My interest and passion for meteorology, including both severe weather and other aspects, is very high. I yearn to learn more and more about the subject every day. I enjoy forecasting. It feels great to nail a forecast and it feels crappy to completely blow one.

2) I've gotten worse this season on being optimistic, but I do that so that I don't feel as bad when I do bust. If I do go out to chase, I will battle until it is pretty clear to me that I would be wasting my time and/or money to continue. I take pride in the ability to know when to cut off a chase due to low probability of seeing anything or otherwise.

3) Being a grad student based in Iowa, I'm pretty available to chase during the season, but I'm generally not willing to drive hundreds of miles away to a target. I am geographically biased and rarely chase south of the KS-OK border, or west of about central Nebraska/Kansas. To me it's just not worth it to drive that far out unless the threat is high, especially because I don't seek to make any money from any chasing I do.

4) I'm definitely decisive when it comes to chasing. However, I could probably stand to be a bit more aggressive. I'm generally not willing to punch cores that I suspect will have severe sized hail. Since I only have one vehicle and not enough money to purchase another, I am not willing to risk damaging my car significantly due to hail/tornadoes/etc. I have punched cores with small hail, though. I'm also not willing to punch cores of HP supercells since I figure it would be difficult to see what is going on once I get through and don't want to risk driving into a tornado.

5) I have a video camera (not a very good one, but it gets the job done), and I just bought a Nikon D40 DSLR, so my documentation has gone up. I was just using a Kodak C633 digital camera for the past 2.5 years or so. I usually only have enough attention to give or enough hands to only operate one or the other. Since I don't have a dash mount or anything like that for a video camera while driving (I do have a tripod), it's hard for me to get both good pictures and video of an event.

I'm upgrading on the technology slowly. This is the first year I have been able to use GPS and get data while on the road.

 

[J West]

1.) Interest in Meteorology? Absolutely, although it's primarily a convective intererest. I would love to be one of the people here with any number of degrees on the subject, but I's be honest: I don't have the tolerence for the math. I took several meteorology classes in college, but left it at that. Beyond that, I am self-taught with the help of, experience, mentors, published books and the like.

2.) Hopeless optimist? No, but I'll explain myself. 16 years ago when I started chasing, I was that hopeless optimist. I chased any and everything, sometimes it work but most of the time it didn't. I am still an optimist but as my skill has improved, I will do the cost/benny analysis and will turn down setups that have burned me in the past.

3.) Available? Yep, I can take time off almost any time with little to no advanced planning. I can call my boss and take that same day off if needed, but I usually schedule it a day or two in advance based on how a setup looks.

4.) Agressive? Yes. I'm not driving 100's of miles to not see anything, and as such I will make agressive moves if needed. Hail doesn't concern me until it's grapefruit sized and luckily that doesn't happen much up here. Decisive? It's getting better. I was extremely happy with myself that I pegged a good target area on 6/17, which made my decision to not head out a lot more tolerable. If I can keep that up, I'll be good to go.

5.) Documentation for me is in the form of stills. I do not own a video camera, nor do I have the ability to stream video from the car. I have nice digital Nikon camera to get photos with, but I don't have a website or a blog because I really have no need for one. I host my photos on Flickr and leave it at that. I had a blog but stopped using it shortly after it's inception because I don't feel a need to share my thoughts with the world on a regular basis. When I chase, I'm out to see the scenery and the weather. I photograph things of interest (storm or not) and enjoy the ride. I guess I need the 'recreational chaser" avatar then...

How about
E = C/I*50 + (D/90)*50
where E = elite factor, C = money poured into the hobby, I = income after taxes, D = chase days, assuming a max of 90 days (reduce "90" by one for each day of can't-get-out-of-work or other commitments).

E=7.515

I have a small number, what can I say...

 

[Ric Burney]

1) I'm a self-study in meteorology with a huge regret that I didn't take advantage of my college years to take met courses. I'm trying to make up for that in absorbing all the material I can get my hands on related to weather. Sites such as this one and many others are excellent resources full of good information. Although I haven't missed on too many events I'm still ever learning to be a better forecaster.

2) I have to consider myself a cautious optimist when it come to the weather, it changes you know. I like all types of weather, not just severe and look forward to each event. I'll stay on an event until it shows me solid, valid reasons to abandon.

3) My work situation is fairly flexible. Currently I cram 42 hours a week into three nights. This does appear to leave a big chunk of time for chasing but life does tend to cause schedule conflicts from time to time. Most opportunities to chase will be taken as my schedule and resources allow.

4) I would have to say I hold an aggressive stance when chasing. Some things are just too good to pass up and I'm willing to take a few risks to see what I want to see. I need to hone my decisiveness. I've learned a few hard and valuable lessons this year by changing my mind in the middle of a chase. Sticking with your initial gut instincts is not a bad thing. Refer back to #1.

5) I document my chases on my still very sparse website. Most of the time I run both analog and digital video recorders in the vehicle, stream live video, take stills and record radar images when possible. Running solo most of the time I do my best one-armed paper-hanger impersonation. I'm sure I miss a few details here and there but my attention is totally focused on the storm as that's the whole reason I'm out there in the first place.

1) = 6
2) = 8
3) = 6
4) = 6
5) = 8
34/5 = 6.8 What can I say.. I'm still learning and hopefully will never stop.

 

[James Gustina]

1) I lack a wide perspective for meteorology outside of thunderstorms and other spring weather. I'm still sitting as a high school student so my experience with meteorology as a whole is pretty low. I can keep pace forecasting wise but i'm nowhere near as good as most others on here.

2) I am ok in this department except I've fallen into a bad habit of pessimism with setups around here. Having Ohio weather to work with has sent me into a bad pattern which i need to fix if i ever hope to be successful on the Plains. I never see chase opportunities around here as being amazing but I do pick out days(even marginal ones) because i can't be waiting to have the "big one" handed to me on a silver platter. Optimism is something I don't have a lot of with chasing around here. Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's not.

3) My chasing opportunities are severely limited. Lack of a vehicle or range prevents me from chasing a lot of the time because i simply can't get to a target area. I chase usually only on weekends right now.

4) I am slightly aggressive with how i chase. I rarely core punch because I know I don't have the experience to extricate myself from a sticky situation "safely". But I will pursue other means to get to the updraft. I have issues with being decisive though. I can flip flop so much when picking a target area, I scare myself I do better during a chase though with road decisions and such.

5) I chase all visual because it seems to me that going right for the technology just hurts you when you get to the big league. I learn more on how to interpret a storm's structure and what exactly it means without having the radar on my laptop help me with it. I'm also not in this to be "Mr. big shot with a tornado tank" like a lot of people my age are these days. I've got a different mindset in general from newer chasers. Not to say y'all can't call me a complete n00b still

Overall i'm a mediocre chaser but i still love doing it anyways. I'm in my early years and still have monumental building blocks in weather to come and never enough knowledge.