Yet another article on the large numbers of storm chasers, dangers and the effect on scientific studies.

Ben Holcomb said:
Would the researchers/academia types speaking out 2 decades ago really have changed anything? Lets be honest.
Click to expand...

Storm Chasers started in 2007 so it was not that long ago. I truly believe if they (researchers and others) had taken a more aggressive stance towards the issue, it would have helped. The main problem at the time, which still exists today, is that no counter-point of chasing philosophy was ever presented to the public and future chasers. It was all about misleading reasoning for chasing and getting into the circulation at all costs. No other viewpoint was ever presented on Storm Chasers, on TWC, etc. If it was, it was a sidebar to the reckless behavior. Some people were standing up, but the media ignored it. TWC partially destroyed my career when I took a stand -- but time proved me right.

I am living proof that "forcing someone to eat a poop sandwich" works. About 20 years ago, the New York Times illegally used one of my tornado illustrations and re-captioned it as a "real image," from Oklahoma. I took a pounding from the chase community and the NSSL (It was connected to a story about the NSSL). Although it was not my fault, I had my agent destroy every single illustration / artwork in their files. Now days, when people do far worse, there is NO maltreatment, so they are encouraged to continue their actions and influence others.
 
Maybe I am an exception to the rule, but nothing I saw on storm chasers or TWC or any of these other places made me want to get closer. It was your images back in the 90s that got me interested in wanting to chase storms, but I was already interested in weather before then. I always thought the TIV (was a big deal along with the show as I was getting into chasing in 2007/2008) was a coffin on wheels.

Then I got close with another chaser, And then by myself. And I lived through both. Then the Bowdle field incident, and I just keep getting closer and closer. I'm not trying to influence anyone. I'm not trying to sell video - much to the contrary, i'll give everything away for free with a reverse embargo that if they use my video they can't buy any from other chasers, only use the free stuff. I don't have an agent or anything else. I just enjoy angry violent weather up close.
 
Ben Holcomb said:
Maybe I am an exception to the rule, but nothing I saw on storm chasers or TWC or any of these other places made me want to get closer. It was your images back in the 90s that got me interested in wanting to chase storms, but I was already interested in weather before then. I always thought the TIV (was a big deal along with the show as I was getting into chasing in 2007/2008) was a coffin on wheels.

Then I got close with another chaser, And then by myself. And I lived through both. Then the Bowdle field incident, and I just keep getting closer and closer. I'm not trying to influence anyone. I'm not trying to sell video - much to the contrary, i'll give everything away for free with a reverse embargo that if they use my video they can't buy any from other chasers, only use the free stuff. I don't have an agent or anything else. I just enjoy angry violent weather up close.
Click to expand...

Yes, but from what I've seen you know what you are doing. You are also honest about what you do. You are like a number of experienced chasers who can get as close as they want and unless something happens beyond your control you will survive. You would not be the kind of chaser trying to promote getting too close for the wrong reasons. I don't have a problem with that but I hope you don't get injured or killed (by a tornado or explosives...lol). My problem is with social media chasers who have perfected the "Fake it till you make it," technique. If they would simply come out and say: "I just love getting close because it's exciting." 'It gets me attention because I feed on attention and publicity makes me money." "I acknowledge it encourages others to do the same thing in a competitive manner and may kill people" (or already has). "Science is a sideline to make me look legitimate so I'm special." "Becuase I'm special I've got priority over other chasers and deserve to be at the front of the line." That is the distortion that is currently encouraging more people to chase for the wrong reasons. Until the people with the power to voice their opinions (including researchers) address and chastise the idiots, nothing will happen. Simply blaming every chaser is unfair.
 
Last edited:
Well there are definitely a lot of those out there without any tornado pictures who dub themselves on social media as extreme chasers, blah blah blah. I guess I'm a pretty live and let live guy if it's not affecting other people. Obviously I wouldn't bring a van load of tour guests with me.

I also don't really want to be in others' way, but at the same time I pay my taxes, and it sure is a lot more than most chasers I know since they are always broke/poor and can't hold a job for long. I know that's extremely generalizing, but it's been my experience so far.

I truly think the only real recourse we have is to run dashcams/etc and call out the reckless behaviors.... but the real last call out was the CSWR DOW truck passing on a double yellow line.... So really who are we angry at again?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top