Three stormchasers killed last week (year, California, Colorado, Kansas)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm a big weather enthusiast and am on most stormchasing pages, so I was curious if anyone here knows why there is such radio silence regarding this incident.
I understand not wanting to speak ill of the dead if you are in the stormchasing community, but it's rather strange to me that no news station has brought it up that two of the stormchasers killed were Weather Channel contractors that ran a stop sign and killed another stormchaser in a Jeep.
Lots of boohoo about the Weather Channel contractors, but none that I can find on the kid they killed.
begs the question - are these chasers endangering other people in their quest to see a tornado?
I have watched live feeds from some of the chasers, I used to use TVN, Reed Timmer's project, but it's defunct, now use Severe Studios. It's disconcerting to see them converge on the map within a couple miles of your home.
I have personally been nearly run off the road by two chasers on US 62 in an extreme hurry to get to where the action was west of me. I have also watched their live feeds and seen reckless driving; once, a chaser's feed in the DFW area had him (or her) driving through a very heavy rain event at a high speed. I timed it as the chaser drove past one exit on I-30 to another, 1 1/4 miles, but that's not precise. ~95 mph timed, maybe ~80 realistic. Too fast for those conditions. Then there are the stop signs and red lights; watched one the spring near Oklahoma City at a red light go around a left turning car in front, across the intersection, to the other car's left. Then there's a lot of stop signs being ignored. I don't mean slow to a crawl and go, the so-called California Stop, but I am talking about a 50 mph blast through a rural road intersection. Kelley Williamson even did one in the Dodge City, Kansas area last year live on TWC. This past week, during the big outbreak on Thursday, while I was at a conference in OKC, we watched Channel 9 up there and saw two examples of chasers behaving badly.
It happens, and while it's not all of them, in fact likely it's a small minority, it is a blot on the profession.
Well, I'm sad for the deaths. But who the heck didn't expect this to happen?
I mean, every time there's a warned storm, every idiot with a video camera is suddenly a self-appointed storm chaser. So now, rather than there being a few people out there actually knowing what they're doing, there are traffic jams. I mean, tour vans.
Look at the El Reno storm. Even three seasoned chasers were caught flat-footed by a rapidly-intensifying and unpredictable storm. But if you look at other chase footage, there were dozens and dozens of chasers who barely escaped dying by the grace of God or dumb luck, take your pick. All because they didn't know what they were doing.
And if you look at the dash cam footage of these guys, entertaining is it is, you see all kinds of insane risks undertaken by these guys while driving.
Don't get me wrong. I understand the fascination. I am amazed by the footage. But too much of it is taken by someone who has no idea what he is doing, endangering himself and the lives of others while he's doing it.
I have watched live feeds from some of the chasers, I used to use TVN, Reed Timmer's project, but it's defunct, now use Severe Studios. It's disconcerting to see them converge on the map within a couple miles of your home.
I have personally been nearly run off the road by two chasers on US 62 in an extreme hurry to get to where the action was west of me. I have also watched their live feeds and seen reckless driving; once, a chaser's feed in the DFW area had him (or her) driving through a very heavy rain event at a high speed. I timed it as the chaser drove past one exit on I-30 to another, 1 1/4 miles, but that's not precise. ~95 mph timed, maybe ~80 realistic. Too fast for those conditions. Then there are the stop signs and red lights; watched one the spring near Oklahoma City at a red light go around a left turning car in front, across the intersection, to the other car's left. Then there's a lot of stop signs being ignored. I don't mean slow to a crawl and go, the so-called California Stop, but I am talking about a 50 mph blast through a rural road intersection. Kelley Williamson even did one in the Dodge City, Kansas area last year live on TWC. This past week, during the big outbreak on Thursday, while I was at a conference in OKC, we watched Channel 9 up there and saw two examples of chasers behaving badly.
It happens, and while it's not all of them, in fact likely it's a small minority, it is a blot on the profession.
Sorry for the long delay in replying to this, but I just read it. I had to comment, that if you think the above driving is bad, you should see me during a major snow storm. I have even driven through the wake of a line of snow plows clearing the freeway at 60 MPH+, with a rear-wheel drive car on multiple occasions. I also have on occasion come up on someone's rear bumper so close during heavy snow/blizzard events that I've forced them to drive thru red lights to avoid getting rear-ended.
Sorry for the long delay in replying to this, but I just read it. I had to comment, that if you think the above driving is bad, you should see me during a major snow storm. I have even driven through the wake of a line of snow plows clearing the freeway at 60 MPH+, with a rear-wheel drive car on multiple occasions. I also have on occasion come up on someone's rear bumper so close during heavy snow/blizzard events that I've forced them to drive thru red lights to avoid getting rear-ended.
Now storm chasers don't seem so bad, do they?
You're talking about snow, not storm chasers choosing to follow a mesocyclonic storm, trying to get pictures of a tornado.
You're talking about snow, not storm chasers choosing to follow a mesocyclonic storm, trying to get pictures of a tornado.
Try to stay on topic.
Who says one cannot chase snow storms? It's very similar to chasing Hurricanes.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
