You know you're a storm chaser when...

[Tony Laubach]

if you fly out to a target on the day of the outbreak and fly back in time to go to work the next day..

if hail dents are trophies..

if you know how long to the minute to drive from one place to another in tornado alley..

if you know the Oasis..

if you have eaten at a restaurant in Hays more times than you've eaten at a restaurant back home..

if hotel managers know you by name in small towns..

 

[Dave Gallaher]

When in a grocery store you forget what you came for, you call for nowcasting.

You see Rohrschach test-type faces and symbols in reflectivity returns.

You'd rather watch scud than anything on television.

You keep repairing and replacing VHS players to re-view old chaser videos.

David Hoadley's birthday is circled on your calendar as a holy day of obligated worship.

While driving through the core, you find yourself laughing and aren't sure why.

When an invisible whirlwind grabs your vehicle on a clear day, you automatically look overhead for a cloud.

When you take off your shoes at night, they are caked in four different colors of mud.

When excitedly typing a quick report, you spell things like 'torando,' 'trondao,' 'trandono' etc.

When F3 no longer refers to your sixth grade report card.

When you drop off your rental car with an apology note in the middle of the night.

When hydroplaning on a blacktop highway is actually an improvement in safety, traction and handling over recently traveled unimproved farm roads.

When you chase in the Deep South and are parked on the side of the road with cameras, you are still mannerly to the thirty-fourth motorist who pulls over and says "Do you need help? There's a tornado coming!"

Sitting at a baseball game, you get smacked by a foul ball because you were staring at the CB off to the north of the stadium.

You install a micro-Doppler system on your shower curtain rod to measure toilet vortices.

When you've spent twenty-six consecutive nights in motels without a single reservation.

 

[Melissa Jablonski]

if you think Twister was the greatest comedy ever filmed.

If you can eat a burrito, shoot video and drive at the same time.


If you can give directions to every convenience mart in Kansas from anywhere west of cleveland.

If you can't get lost even if you try

 

[scott r currens]

...you plan your career around your hobby.

 

[Dean Baron]

Sitting at a baseball game, you get smacked by a foul ball because you were staring at the CB off to the north of the stadium.

But it doesnt hurt because you've been hit by hail twice the size and at twice the speed.

 

[Tony Laubach]

...you plan your career around your hobby.

Haha.. yeah, I finding more and more this is becoming the case.. LOL

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

you know your a chaser when.......

1. A High Risk day turns you on more than the hottest girl in the world.

2. Youd rather sleep with RosieODonnel than see a Slight,Mod or high Risk day bust. (you know youd admit it, lol)

3. You notice the snow has melted all the way and see cumulus and get excited.

 

[Chris Vagasky]

You look at the "Last Played" column on iTunes and know what events (ie. Greensburg, Super Tuesday) happened on the day you last listened to that song.

 

[Susan Strom]

AM radio. You like that lightning popping noise.

You know where the real Yellow Brick Road is, and you’ve followed it.

Hitting tumbleweeds and watching them splinter. Strangely satisfying and you don’t know why.

You look forward to transformers blowing up. Will they be red or green?

Starbucks. Please come out with a patch.

When you’re a girl and a friend says, “Let’s go shopping” and you get excited because it means Radio Shack, the CB store and Wide World of Maps. But she really meant Nordstrom, The Limited and DSW shoes. Damn.

You have the mother of all driver tans.

Your geek strap knows no rival. Two watches. Current time+UTC.

Bra in the desert heat=expendable.

Kansas Wizard of Oz souvenirs. Proudly displayed in your home.

Pets: Thor, Tesla, Fujita, Scud.

WX radio=every room.

You know where Floydada is.

You can say "haboob" with a straight face.

CAPE. Not a poncho.

Cell phone bill=large as the tornado probability spike on Memorial Day.

You’ve heard the dreaded scrape of antennas in the drive-thru.

You’ve seen motels you’d rather not talk about, and slept with your boots on, the light on, and your knife in your pocket.

You've kept your print version of Storm Track.

Letter to Santa includes Tesla coil.

Big bugs. The fear is long gone.

You think of towns where it might be really handy to take an apartment for two months.

You have perfected the Nebraska two-lane finger wave.

Sonic. Two functions…good food, hail shelter.

Arkansas = #%$&*. Suckered by an MCS. You never learn.

You’ve been to Carhenge.

When your season is over, friends in Australia and Argentina suddenly hear from you.

And finally… in late June, you head for the “Chasing the Southwestern Monsoon” thread. “Arizona…should I or shouldn’t I? It’s only a day’s drive…”

You get up, wander to the computer, and dig up silly notes like these and post them.

 

[Danny Neal]

....When you think you can drive (from Chicago) to Kansas, chase, and drive back all in one day/night and refuse to stop for a rest until the pink dancing elephant on the side of the road tells you too.

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

You can tell your co-workers what the T/Td spread is in Mobeetie, when intitiation will be in Coffeyville, storm motions in Sabetha...but unless you're in a box as well, you don't know what the weather is outside your office!

 

[Chris Lott]

Your cellphone ringtone sounds like a severe weather alert.

 

[Karla Dorman]

... You KNOW you're a chaser when ...

... your whole LIFE revolves around weather.

... you'd rather NOT see a bust.

... your whole time on the computer revolves around ST and NOAA forecasts/nowcasts.

 

[Karen St John]

When you are disappointed that a convection oven is for baking pizzas, and not the forecast for today...

 

[Maggie Kahman]

...When you hear the sirens go off, you run OUTSIDE, even when you know its just a test... I did that today actually. Thats when i found out how loud Thunderbolts really are