It was shown that yesterday's tornados in OK. where people who tried to escape by car resulted in death and injury. Even one of those storm chasers got nailed and the guy escaped getting killed but his hands are messed up.
escaping a tornado by car can be a death sentence
- Thread starter ottotheclown
- Start date
- Status
Originally Posted By: Gabe
Do you think those people would have been safer in their trailer park homes??
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
Do you think those people would have been safer in their trailer park homes??
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: Gabe
Do you think those people would have been safer in their trailer park homes??
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
As a stormchaser, I concur. Some of these guys trying to get the best video, are one upping each other to death. It's only a matter of time before a chaser gets killed. I personally think some of these guys are insane, but what do I know. I chase very conservatively because I like to do it more then once, year after year!
Here is some video from yesterdays display of insanity.
Originally Posted By: Gabe
Do you think those people would have been safer in their trailer park homes??
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
As a stormchaser, I concur. Some of these guys trying to get the best video, are one upping each other to death. It's only a matter of time before a chaser gets killed. I personally think some of these guys are insane, but what do I know. I chase very conservatively because I like to do it more then once, year after year!
Here is some video from yesterdays display of insanity.
Overpasses are also not a good idea - wind tunnel affect.
MolaKule
Staff member
Quote:
As a stormchaser, I concur. Some of these guys trying to get the best video, are one upping each other to death. It's only a matter of time before a chaser gets killed. I personally think some of these guys are insane, but what do I know. I chase very conservatively because I like to do it more then once, year after year!
I chase as a volunteer Storm Spotter for the NWS and for our local EM Weather group. Luckily, our local EM Weather group has a high resolution aviaation weather radar set such that the radar OP can direct us to hot spots.
You have to be trained to recognize movement, etc and how to manuever out of the way of tornado paths.
Many of the more violent tornados we have seen lately are of the multi-vortex type, which can spin up behind or even on top of you.
Keeping a safe distance and the use of binoculars is the safer way to do it.
Too many chasers get too close and the chances of an amateur chaser getting killed is higher than for a trained spotter.
Quote:
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
The Weather Channel, Discoery and others are partly responsible for glorifying unsafe tornado chasing practices.
As a stormchaser, I concur. Some of these guys trying to get the best video, are one upping each other to death. It's only a matter of time before a chaser gets killed. I personally think some of these guys are insane, but what do I know. I chase very conservatively because I like to do it more then once, year after year!
I chase as a volunteer Storm Spotter for the NWS and for our local EM Weather group. Luckily, our local EM Weather group has a high resolution aviaation weather radar set such that the radar OP can direct us to hot spots.
You have to be trained to recognize movement, etc and how to manuever out of the way of tornado paths.
Many of the more violent tornados we have seen lately are of the multi-vortex type, which can spin up behind or even on top of you.
Keeping a safe distance and the use of binoculars is the safer way to do it.
Too many chasers get too close and the chances of an amateur chaser getting killed is higher than for a trained spotter.
Quote:
Living in a tornado belt, maybe I can speak for Otto when he says it's stupid to try to chase a tornado in a car just so you can make a few bucks off of some fabulous film clip.
The Weather Channel, Discoery and others are partly responsible for glorifying unsafe tornado chasing practices.
Last edited:
Most skywarn or "trained spotters" I've met, who don't storm chase regularly, or are not interested in meteorology enough to even know how to storm chase, are much more ignorant about severe storms than hard core chasers.
It's not the amateurs who are likely to get killed as they don't have the data, knowledge, or resources to get as close as the morons did yesterday; it's the newcomers with all the latest technology and the desire to get the best, most lucrative footage, who will probably get killed one of these days because they are the ones purposely driving into tornadoes!
It's not the amateurs who are likely to get killed as they don't have the data, knowledge, or resources to get as close as the morons did yesterday; it's the newcomers with all the latest technology and the desire to get the best, most lucrative footage, who will probably get killed one of these days because they are the ones purposely driving into tornadoes!
Last edited:
They said in yesterdays storm even the experienced well seasoned storm chasers would not go out into that mess...way too dangerous conditions.
No problem...just Mother Nature cleaning the gene pool....
The one I got caught in last week was part of a line that was pointing northeast, moving almost due east. I was trying to get north west of the storm, behind it. If I had continued on after getting hit with a roof, I would have been able to get mine from a safe distance and there would have been no chance of it getting to me.
I have had reasonable luck as long as I'm behind the front. Here in CNY, we see funnels that rarely touch down more than anything - and the occasional EF0 or EF1.
Originally Posted By: Blaze
They said in yesterdays storm even the experienced well seasoned storm chasers would not go out into that mess...way too dangerous conditions.
One of the local meterologists is going with a group of proessional chasers this week. They evacuated the area and made sure they were a few hours south of the worst of it.
I have had reasonable luck as long as I'm behind the front. Here in CNY, we see funnels that rarely touch down more than anything - and the occasional EF0 or EF1.
Originally Posted By: Blaze
They said in yesterdays storm even the experienced well seasoned storm chasers would not go out into that mess...way too dangerous conditions.
One of the local meterologists is going with a group of proessional chasers this week. They evacuated the area and made sure they were a few hours south of the worst of it.
Last edited:
for all of the millions of hours of effort of storm chasing over the last 20 years, I have never yet seen a clear HD high resolution video of a well developed tornado taking out property in a highly populated area
why are they always grainy video or else in an empty cow field, W-T-F? - storm chasing is a waste except where it gets warning to people faster in some instances
why are they always grainy video or else in an empty cow field, W-T-F? - storm chasing is a waste except where it gets warning to people faster in some instances
I think reality TV and movies like Twister cause idiots with video recorders to put themselves in harms way.
Having spent all my life on the edge of tornado alley, I don't understand the macabre fascination with these things.
They kill randomly and virtually without warning, cause enormous property damage, and drown people in floods.
I don't see any entertainment value in them whatsoever.
They kill randomly and virtually without warning, cause enormous property damage, and drown people in floods.
I don't see any entertainment value in them whatsoever.
Originally Posted By: LScowboy
for all of the millions of hours of effort of storm chasing over the last 20 years, I have never yet seen a clear HD high resolution video of a well developed tornado taking out property in a highly populated area
why are they always grainy video or else in an empty cow field, W-T-F? - storm chasing is a waste except where it gets warning to people faster in some instances
It's really dark so the camera needs to bump up its gain and there's usually dust and debris between the lens and the heart of the storm. TV stations have gotten pretty good video from stationary anchored "tower cams".
for all of the millions of hours of effort of storm chasing over the last 20 years, I have never yet seen a clear HD high resolution video of a well developed tornado taking out property in a highly populated area
why are they always grainy video or else in an empty cow field, W-T-F? - storm chasing is a waste except where it gets warning to people faster in some instances
It's really dark so the camera needs to bump up its gain and there's usually dust and debris between the lens and the heart of the storm. TV stations have gotten pretty good video from stationary anchored "tower cams".
I was in a tornado one time. When we lived in Alabama, one came down the other side of our street. I was working out in my garden way on the backside of my property. Got stormy and windy and I headed to the house, made it far enough to get on the east side of the house as the storm came from the west. I stood as close to the house as possible for protection and watched as it tore the tin roof off my neighbor's house. Limbs and branches were flying through the air and the color of the sky was green. It really does sound like a freight train. It only lasted a couple of minutes but it seemed like forever. The odd thing was it was right across the road and did a little damage to our side of the road, (some shingles and branches) but the other side of the road looked like a bomb went off. Probably the oddest event in the storm was my neighbor, (the one who lost his roof) had a rain barrel behind his house to catch rain water. It was gone. It landed two miles down the road in the parking lot of a gas station. It landed upright as though it had been set there and didn't have a scratch on it.
MolaKule
Staff member
Quote:
Most skywarn or "trained spotters" I've met, who don't storm chase regularly, or are not interested in meteorology enough to even know how to storm chase, are much more ignorant about severe storms than hard core chasers.
That has not been my experience. I guess we mingle with different groups.
One of the reasons for poor images is that the tornadoes are rain wrapped.
When I was kid in Michigan we had tornadoes all the time in the spring and summer.
One afternoon we were playing ball at the school grounds and my Dad was umping, and then all of a sudden he started yelling and screaming to go home and called the game.
I looked up and about a three-fourths of a mile from us a tornado was coming.
We got to the house just in time. I looked out the basement window and the tornado was coming down the street right for us. At the last minute it turned left from our vantage point and hit the house caddy-corner across the street, stripping off the shingles.
It appeared to be about an F0, but boy did it kick up a lot of dust and debris. It went on to the school where we were playing and took out most of the windows on the west side.
Darn it, no summer school.
Most skywarn or "trained spotters" I've met, who don't storm chase regularly, or are not interested in meteorology enough to even know how to storm chase, are much more ignorant about severe storms than hard core chasers.
That has not been my experience. I guess we mingle with different groups.
One of the reasons for poor images is that the tornadoes are rain wrapped.
When I was kid in Michigan we had tornadoes all the time in the spring and summer.
One afternoon we were playing ball at the school grounds and my Dad was umping, and then all of a sudden he started yelling and screaming to go home and called the game.
I looked up and about a three-fourths of a mile from us a tornado was coming.
We got to the house just in time. I looked out the basement window and the tornado was coming down the street right for us. At the last minute it turned left from our vantage point and hit the house caddy-corner across the street, stripping off the shingles.
It appeared to be about an F0, but boy did it kick up a lot of dust and debris. It went on to the school where we were playing and took out most of the windows on the west side.
Darn it, no summer school.
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: ottotheclown
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=810813
Samaras said that tornadoes had fascinated since childhood, in an interview with National Geographic last month.
"I watched 'The Wizard of Oz' when I was a kid and vowed to myself, 'I'm going to see that tornado one day." he said.
Well...I guess his day finally arrived.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=810813
Samaras said that tornadoes had fascinated since childhood, in an interview with National Geographic last month.
"I watched 'The Wizard of Oz' when I was a kid and vowed to myself, 'I'm going to see that tornado one day." he said.
Well...I guess his day finally arrived.
I live in the OKC/Moore area. I too question the need for storm chasers in large metro areas. My reasoning, just about each t.v. station has their own helicopter and they do a fantastic job of showing you where the twisters are at. Between the live broadcast coverage, all other media coverage, gps accuracy, etc. etc. I just don't see why chasers are needed in large cities. Also, you have limited manuerving in those congested areas. They were showing live helicopter shots all evening on Friday and I 40, 35, 240 and 44 were all literally parking lots. Headlights sitting their for miles. Just imagine you sitting in your car, listening, seeing and smelling the weather knowing a tornado is brewing down your neck, is scary.
- Status
Similar threads
