In light of the recent tornado that swept through N IL, and a few subsequent things since then, I am really questioning in my head whether storm chasing is ethical. Most of the talk I have seen from the various chasers centers around the great video they captured. What made something else painfully obvious by a mistake I made in putting together a video was that this is about money. It is money for them, money for the news shows, fame and notoriety for the person who can get the best shot. Is it ethical to profit off the misery and loss of others?
I see on their pages that they post their analysis of the storm, their chase log, and videos and pictures they got of the tornado. It reminds me how the big game hunters have their picture taken with the endangered animal they just killed. The one thing I am not seeing is the concern for you, the people of Northern Illinois, who were affected by this storm. We are here living it day by day. It is the people of this community and very gracious outside organizations that have come in to really do the dirty work of helping recover. Meanwhile, these chasers are analyzing when the next great disaster is so they can be there, get the money shot and their faces on TV.
I must confess, I have been there. On May 25th, 2008 I was there when an F5 tornado ripped through Parkersburg Iowa. Not long afterwards I was approached by television people who were making a documentary on tornadoes and wanted to use some of my footage from Parkersburg. I agreed and was paid. Frankly, it felt a little uneasy. People had died. A town had been wiped off the face of the map. The survivors lives would be forever changed. Here I was, some outsider who just swooped in, left, and took blood money for others to gawk at, ooh and ahh over the misery on the TV screen.
I was painfully reminded of that with the recent tornado, especially in getting my lesson in storm chase economics for mistakenly putting together a timeline of events. The bottom line is that chasers feel that they are owed the compensation for their time and efforts for documenting the misery and disaster. They feel that they "own" their little slice of the disaster and they compete with each other over who can get the best shot that will pay them the most. I wonder though, can anyone "own" a disaster? Did they create the tornado? Did they cause it to do what it did? No. All they did was follow a computer screen and turn on a camera.
In various video I saw, there were chasers driving in the wrong lanes, running stop signs, passing by blown over homes, glorying in the catch as homes were being destroyed. In only one chaser video did I hear anyone even mention 911. The hard part for me, is that I also have to look in the mirror. I've thought about it, but I guess I have a different perspective now since it hit my area. I know people and of people directly affected. I know now what it is like to have all these outsiders come in for a thrill ride, leave, and profit themselves while we remain and dig out from under the rubble.
Chasers often claim they are helping keep the public safe. I've used that line to justify myself. They claim they give important ground truth to the weather service. They can if they call in. We also have other people for that though. They are called spotters and they work with/for local authority to do the work of spotting severe weather and reporting it so the public remains safe. Our Policemen and Firemen are often out spotting our counties and cities as well. We really don't need outsiders for that.
Chasers often claim that they are doing scientific research. I can't say I've used that, but I did not see one video out there where there was any evidence of scientific research going on. A couple of the videos seemed that they had people they had brought along with them. Whether paid or not, I don't know, but taking people on "tours" has become a popular industry. I think there is a legitimate place for research, but certainly the majority are not out there doing that.
This really leaves on thing left. They are ambulance chasers. They make their money chasing down disaster so the evening news can have their dirty laundry. Their main agenda, promoting themselves. Some seen to want to do this too by running others down. They have their little clicks and the gang will all come down and bully you if you don't do things their way. In the past few days, I have been called names, bullied, and threatened by gangs of chasers. Some of them when I engaged them, did not even know why they were doing so, only that someone had told them bad things about me.
I've been watching these antics grow for a long time. It started when Twister came out and made storm chasing cool. The there was Reed Timmer and the exploits of his TV show that brought on the "extreme" chasers and the taking of unnecessary risks just to get the big money shot. Since then that seems to be the trend. Storm chase teams with fancy names and cars filled with their logos and light bars began popping up all over the place competing with each other for the big money and the fame.
This started catching up in 2012 on the April 14th, 2012 tornado chase. Everyone and their brother was out that day and their were major traffic jams on rural roads, people ignoring police, speeding, parking one the roadways, arguing with officials, people hanging out of vehicles screaming like schoolchildren... it was a horrible mess and an embarrassment.
In 2013 I was down in Lawton OK and the storm chasers were so thick that you could not stop anywhere as the sides of the roads were all filled. Off in the field was a little F0 rotation and it veered right towards that road. Suddenly cars were all trying to pull out in the road and get out of the way. I nearly got hit a couple times. The circulation came over us and moved on. I remember telling a friend that this is exactly how someone was going to get killed in a tornado. Then there was the El Reno disaster later that year. Most people know of the traffic nightmares that occurred there and the deaths of 3 of the biggest names in the field, and a 4th chaser as well.
I look at my page too. I have had a lot of newcomers and many of these based solely on the tornadic event. I don't really want to gain followers from the exploitation of this event. It happened in part because I did show videos taken of the event. The drama that followed was a result of the same. I'm not so sure I like the world that chasing has become. Drama, competition, lies, bullying, profit off misery. My pages goal was to be able to keep friends and family informed about the local weather and related activity. That is the focus I want to maintain.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are some good players out there who chase for the right reasons and do the right things. I am finding they are far and few between. All of this has me at the point of hanging up my car keys. And the question still lingers on my mind.... Is it right to profit off the misery of others?
Showing posts with label tornadic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tornadic. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Friday, April 4, 2014
1974 Super Outbreak
This last week has had a major weather anniversary for the weather enthusiast, and a scary memory for quite a few middle aged folks. On April 3rd & 4th, 1974; 148 tornadoes ripped across much of the heartland of America, bringing death and destruction. 315 people died that day and thousands more were injured. Billions of dollars in property was leveled. It has since been dubbed the super outbreak. Nobody was prepared for it or expected it, but by the end of it, it would change the course of weather forecasting forever.
Back in those days, we did not have all of the sophisticated equipment or the super computers that we have today. We did not have all the satellites in the sky either. We were pretty much flying blind. While there had been some research done on tornadoes, they were still very mysterious and no one really had a clue about their formation, or the conditions that caused them to form. The radar being used was designed to spot enemy planes, not tornadoes. The teletype machines could not type out all the warnings fast enough, nor could it prioritize tornado warnings over other forecasts. As a result, warnings would go out after the fact. These days changes all of that.
As a result of the massive loss of life and property, many pressed the government to take action. Funding for the national weather service increased. Grants to the scientific study of weather increased. Scientists began going out into the field to study severe weather and tornadoes by observation. NASA was involved in the effort putting satellites into orbit to monitor and measure the weather from space. Computer companies lent their expertise to come up with more powerful computers to help predict, forecast, and warn the public. An all out effort was made by all that in the last 40 years that has changed lead time from being after the fact to sometimes knowing days in advance of severe weather outbreaks and actual lead times in warnings of 20 minutes or more.
In April of 2011, on the 25th through the 28th, all of the learning and knowledge; all of the advancements in technology got put to the test. Days in advance, computer modeling was showing that another super outbreak was about to occur. It was one that would eclipse the 1974 record outbreak. Over those 3 days there were 358 confirmed tornadoes across 21 US states. There were 211 alone on the 27th. 324 people died as a result of those tornadoes. While this is close to the same as 1974, the number of tornadoes was double. We should have expected going on 800. The 2011 storms seemed to hit much more populated areas as compared to 1974 as well.
All of the technology worked. All of the years of study and effort did pay off. Lives were saved as a result. There is still a lot we don't know about tornadoes. Today we have an armada of researchers out there still trying to collect data that will help us further decode the tornado. Some day it is hoped that we will be able to tell the difference between which storms only produce small tornadoes, and which ones will go on to produce those killer, massive EF 4s and 5s.
Back in those days, we did not have all of the sophisticated equipment or the super computers that we have today. We did not have all the satellites in the sky either. We were pretty much flying blind. While there had been some research done on tornadoes, they were still very mysterious and no one really had a clue about their formation, or the conditions that caused them to form. The radar being used was designed to spot enemy planes, not tornadoes. The teletype machines could not type out all the warnings fast enough, nor could it prioritize tornado warnings over other forecasts. As a result, warnings would go out after the fact. These days changes all of that.
As a result of the massive loss of life and property, many pressed the government to take action. Funding for the national weather service increased. Grants to the scientific study of weather increased. Scientists began going out into the field to study severe weather and tornadoes by observation. NASA was involved in the effort putting satellites into orbit to monitor and measure the weather from space. Computer companies lent their expertise to come up with more powerful computers to help predict, forecast, and warn the public. An all out effort was made by all that in the last 40 years that has changed lead time from being after the fact to sometimes knowing days in advance of severe weather outbreaks and actual lead times in warnings of 20 minutes or more.
In April of 2011, on the 25th through the 28th, all of the learning and knowledge; all of the advancements in technology got put to the test. Days in advance, computer modeling was showing that another super outbreak was about to occur. It was one that would eclipse the 1974 record outbreak. Over those 3 days there were 358 confirmed tornadoes across 21 US states. There were 211 alone on the 27th. 324 people died as a result of those tornadoes. While this is close to the same as 1974, the number of tornadoes was double. We should have expected going on 800. The 2011 storms seemed to hit much more populated areas as compared to 1974 as well.
All of the technology worked. All of the years of study and effort did pay off. Lives were saved as a result. There is still a lot we don't know about tornadoes. Today we have an armada of researchers out there still trying to collect data that will help us further decode the tornado. Some day it is hoped that we will be able to tell the difference between which storms only produce small tornadoes, and which ones will go on to produce those killer, massive EF 4s and 5s.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tornado Outbreak Nov. 17th, 2013
This was the lead story last weekend. A tornado outbreak strikes the midwest and Great Lakes region. 81 reports of tornadoes in 6 states damaging dozens of town and leveling several. Also hundreds of reports of severe wind and hail we recieved causing sporadic damage and power outages over hundreds of miles. In Illinois there were 2 F4 tornadoes, the first time such large tornadoes had struck the state in November since records have been kept.
As early as the previous Wednesday and Thursday, there was talk of a severe weather event coming together in that region. The storm prediction center even put out a graphic 4 days in advance for severe potential. As we got into Friday and Saturday, the potential for severe weather became more and more sure, and also more and more ominous. All the ingredients seemed to be coming together for a major tornado outbreak. It became so sure by Saturday that a High risk area was posted, which is a rare event. On Sunday morning they expanded the risk areas a bit. Anybody who was into weather knew... this was a seriously dangerous situation about to unfold.
All the ingredients were there, a strong low pressure system creating lots of wind, moisture flowing in from the south, a strong jet stream flying overhead from the west creating crosswinds at different heights in the air. Along with the moisture you had enough warmth at the surface and cold air aloft. The cold front coming off the low was bowed a bit forward rather than dragging behind with a sharp contrast in temperatures and wind direction. It wasn't a matter of if, but when would they begin to fire.
By 9am the storms had already begun to fire. There was a line in N IL near Rockford, and SW of Peoria some more storms had just formed. There were a couple of tornado warnings on the north storms for spotted funnel clouds, but they were soon robbed of energy by the southern storms as they developed. At 11:55am the first confirmed tornado was spotted by Pekin IL, just south of Peoria. It did some damage and moved on to East Peoria by 12:00pm and damaged up to 80 homes there. The storm intensified more before it moved into Washington by 12:05, a full blown F4 tornado that you saw at the open of the blog. As time moved on, more storms developed and more tornadoes formed and towns hit. It was truly a scary afternoon.
I was already on the road by the time the first torndao reports started coming in. The first tornado was on the ground for 46 miles and lasted 41 minutes (notice the speed? over 60mph). It lifted at about 12:36 or shortly thereafter. Very shortly after that I was arriving at Morris on the NE corner of the storm. All kinds of debris was raining down from the sky. Mostly it was construction material; insulation, shingles, little bits of wood. I knew something bad had happened, and that also I was not in a good location. It seemed to take forever to get out of there as there was traffic lights to work through and I got them all red and thinking, there is a tornado coming at me and I am stuck at this light.
I proceeded east to stay ahead of the storm, also hoping I could work into a good location. Then the storm began dropping new tornadoes. Braidwood, Coal City, Wilmington, Manhattan, then Frankfort. Each time the reports were moving NE and I was on a direct collision course with the tornado. I knew I was in the slot, with rains to my north and ominous steep rising clouds to my SW. The tornado I knew was just behind the feature to my SW, being abscured by rain from my view. The whole time I heard the sound of tornado sirens blaring into the afternoon sky. I just couldn't make any progress against this fast moving storm. I finally had to bail as traffic had become too slow to outrun the storm and I did not want to be stuck in my car if it hit. Good thing too. The map I am looking at shows the last report only 2 km to my south. How many miles is a km? That was at 2pm in Frankfort.
Upon my return home, I stopped back and checked out some of the debris that had fallen. Mostly it was construction material. I found a fragment of a hand written note and a piece of a bill from 1991. About 40 miles from Washington I found a piece of wall board about 3ft square. Hard to imagine that frisbeeing for 40 miles, but there it was. There was also a lot of sporadic damage from non tornadic winds; trees down, power poles snapped, garbage cans and such strewn about. It was also on my way home I began to hear the reports of what I already had known from the falling debris. Towns had been hit and severely damaged by tornadoes.
One of the oddities of the tornadoes that day was there seemingly targeting places named Washington. There was the town of Washington IL that was severely damaged by an F4, and further downstate another F4 struck Washington county. AND, the town of Washington Indiana was hit by a tornado also.
My prayers go out to those affected, and calls go out again for assistance to anyone within my reach. If you give cash to the Red Cross, you can designate it to be for tornado relief. I have to hand it to the communities though. They have very quickly sprung into action with their emergency plans they had in place and the relief efforts so far have been very organized and quick. Kudos to the communities, and the surrounding communities and businesses who have all pitched in to help. I hope it has been like that in all the communities hit Sunday. There were many.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
How God Saved America
The year was 1814. The United States was once again at war with Great Britain. While the early years of the war had gone fairly well for the US, they had not gotten a victory over the British. Most of Britians focus had been on the war with Napoleon at the beginning, but with Napoleon’s defeat, thousands of troops, already battle hardened, were coming ashore in the States and things had taken a turn for the worse for the fledgling nation.
By August, British forces had landed 5,000 strong and were making their way towards the capital. On the 24th of August they met up with the American forces that were 7000 strong. Despite being outnumbered, the Americans were not very well organized and were quickly defeated and the road to the capital lay uncontested.
By august 25th, 1814, the British had set out to make an example of the city and was burning all the government buildings. The capital, library of congress, treasury, state department, etc, were all set ablaze. The fires began burning out of control, and threatened to burn the entire city to the ground. With the capital gone and the British in control, the new nation would once again be subjects of the King of Britian. But, God had other plans.
Unknown to everyone around, and well in advance of the conquering troops even arriving, God was preparing a storm; a Hurricane to be precise. While the British had stormed in from the north, God was about to hit them with a real storm from the south, on the very same day, August 25th, 1814.
As described by http://historicaldigression.com
The driving rain put out most of the fires threatening the city. The storm was so fierce that it tore buildings apart, literally lifting them off their foundations. The winds uprooted trees and knocked men to the ground. A number of houses collapsed, killing the British soldiers taking shelter therein. One British officer reported seeing cannons lifted off the ground and thrown through the air. Redcoats out on the streets of Washington, trying to enforce a curfew, were forced to lie prostrate in the mud.
Based on the first hand accounts, weather historians generally agree that the storm that struck Washington on August 25, 1814 sparked one or more tornadoes. I can’t possibly imagine being one of these soldiers, completely exposed, with no choice but to cling to mother earth in the midst of a tornado.
As the storm began to subside, one of the British officers in command of the invasion emerged from his shelter and said to one of the inhabitants of Washington, “Great God, Madam, is this the kind of storm to which you are accustomed in this infernal country?!”
She responded, “No, sir, this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from the city.”
Three tornadoes struck near Washington that day. It was later reported that one landed to the northwest, another in the high country [which is now called Georgetown], and the one that struck the Capitol Hill area. Whether there was a single tornado taking a southeasterly course or a tornado swarm, it will never be known. What can be said for certain is that a powerful tornado with destructive winds did hit downtown Washington at a crucial time; forcing the British out of the city, and saving what was left of our Capitol.
And drive them from the city it did. Troops had been scattered, injured, and
killed. Their equipment scattered to the
winds like children’s toys rendered unusable.
Many British had already fled and what remained scampered off utterly
demoralized and defeated without an American shot being fired. The next day when American troops arrived in
DC to fight for their city, they found no British to fight and simply walked
back in unabated. This was the true
story of how God saved our nation.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Big Mistakes!
Big News Friday night was the coverage of tornadoes in the Oklahoma city area once again. A tornado emergency was declared and multiple tornadoes were reported in the area, as well as large hail, and as much as a foot of rain. It was a really horrid situation in an area already massively hit in the last two weeks.
Another issue was exposed Friday, and one that has bothered me for a few years now. This is the problem of the new storm chasers. Since the program Storm chasers aired and became popular, we have seen an explosion in the number of people who storm chase. It has gone from something a few weather geeks like myself and a few scientists do, to a mainstream extreme sport.
The chasers today are a different breed. They make group names for themselves, paint their vehicles up in fancy paint jobs with all kinds of lights and instruments, kind of a pimp my ride for weather geeks. The attitudes are not of sober concern, but of wild excitement, screaming like little girls while hanging out car windows. They disregard traffic laws and ignore law enforcement. Rather than being concerned with safety and reporting for the public, they are all out to be the one to get the great shot that will make the TV news and to be famous and rich.
This bravado has underestimated the danger involved and I think a sense that their own skills were superior enough to toy with death and walk away unscathed time after time. While no one died today, a number of these chasers got caught in today's tornadoes and nearly lost their lives in the process. It just emphasizes the exact thing that I had been concerned about for a long time. The Weather channel crew amazing survived relatively unscathed after being thrown across a field the length of two football field, crushing their vehicle. Other chasers were reporting damages to their vehicles and injuries to themselves, thankfully nothing too serious.
I've seen these guys clog roads, disobey traffic laws, argue with authorities, block emergency personnel, and behave like idiots. They park in the roadways, speed past other vehicles, stand in the roadways, block off streets, cut off drivers, and other such dangerous behaviors. They can turn and empty rural road into a bumper to bumper traffic jam in minutes. Once I came around a blind curve to find a tornado chasing tour group scattered about the road. Had I not been following the speed limit, it would have been disaster.
Something has to be done to curb this dangerous behavior. I am not sure exactly what the answer is and how to weed out the good safe and serious chasers and researchers from the yahoos, glory seekers, profiteers, egomaniacs, and ignorant. How do we reign in the madness in such a serious and dangerous activity?
In this video, the chasers got too close to the storm and the tornado did some unpredictable things, leaving them in a deadly drive for their lives. They should have been farther off to begin with and this could have been avoided. Instead, in the hunt for glory and money, they nearly lost their lives.
In this shot, we see The Weather Channel crew making some poor decisions that nearly got them killed as their vehicle was thrown across a field the length of two football fields, tumbling and rolling, crushing their vehicle, and somehow escaping practically unscathed.
TWC Vehicle hit by tornado
This is a video of what happened as a result of bad advice by members of the weather media who told people to escape the oncoming tornadoes by driving south. This advice clogged roadways and made people sitting ducks in metal coffins unable to do anything about it. Those on the local media and at the weather channel who propose this should be fired immediately. 50 people were injured and 5 dead, almost all in vehicles.
Stuck in traffic Jam during tornado warning
I remember having a hat my Dad gave me from his job. On it were the words, safety pays in many ways. That is a motto that many of today's chasers need to learn. Another saying is this, discretion is the better part of valor.
Another issue was exposed Friday, and one that has bothered me for a few years now. This is the problem of the new storm chasers. Since the program Storm chasers aired and became popular, we have seen an explosion in the number of people who storm chase. It has gone from something a few weather geeks like myself and a few scientists do, to a mainstream extreme sport.
The chasers today are a different breed. They make group names for themselves, paint their vehicles up in fancy paint jobs with all kinds of lights and instruments, kind of a pimp my ride for weather geeks. The attitudes are not of sober concern, but of wild excitement, screaming like little girls while hanging out car windows. They disregard traffic laws and ignore law enforcement. Rather than being concerned with safety and reporting for the public, they are all out to be the one to get the great shot that will make the TV news and to be famous and rich.
This bravado has underestimated the danger involved and I think a sense that their own skills were superior enough to toy with death and walk away unscathed time after time. While no one died today, a number of these chasers got caught in today's tornadoes and nearly lost their lives in the process. It just emphasizes the exact thing that I had been concerned about for a long time. The Weather channel crew amazing survived relatively unscathed after being thrown across a field the length of two football field, crushing their vehicle. Other chasers were reporting damages to their vehicles and injuries to themselves, thankfully nothing too serious.
I've seen these guys clog roads, disobey traffic laws, argue with authorities, block emergency personnel, and behave like idiots. They park in the roadways, speed past other vehicles, stand in the roadways, block off streets, cut off drivers, and other such dangerous behaviors. They can turn and empty rural road into a bumper to bumper traffic jam in minutes. Once I came around a blind curve to find a tornado chasing tour group scattered about the road. Had I not been following the speed limit, it would have been disaster.
Something has to be done to curb this dangerous behavior. I am not sure exactly what the answer is and how to weed out the good safe and serious chasers and researchers from the yahoos, glory seekers, profiteers, egomaniacs, and ignorant. How do we reign in the madness in such a serious and dangerous activity?
In this video, the chasers got too close to the storm and the tornado did some unpredictable things, leaving them in a deadly drive for their lives. They should have been farther off to begin with and this could have been avoided. Instead, in the hunt for glory and money, they nearly lost their lives.
In this video the same thing happens and in their attempt to get away
were nearly impaled by flying debris. they never should have been in
this position.
In this shot, we see The Weather Channel crew making some poor decisions that nearly got them killed as their vehicle was thrown across a field the length of two football fields, tumbling and rolling, crushing their vehicle, and somehow escaping practically unscathed.
TWC Vehicle hit by tornado
This is a video of what happened as a result of bad advice by members of the weather media who told people to escape the oncoming tornadoes by driving south. This advice clogged roadways and made people sitting ducks in metal coffins unable to do anything about it. Those on the local media and at the weather channel who propose this should be fired immediately. 50 people were injured and 5 dead, almost all in vehicles.
Stuck in traffic Jam during tornado warning
I remember having a hat my Dad gave me from his job. On it were the words, safety pays in many ways. That is a motto that many of today's chasers need to learn. Another saying is this, discretion is the better part of valor.
Friday, May 24, 2013
My Stormchase 5/19-20/2013
I left early on a Sunday morning, May 19th, before the sun came up. It was a great sunrise that lit up the sky. Red in the morning, sailors warning as the saying goes. Despite the beautiful sight, I could not help shaking a feeling of dread that had overtaken me. I soon shook it off and made my way towards my destination.
I caught the first storm of the day early in Rapids City Iowa. it wasn't much but did show a little rotation. Hopefully signs of things to come. I left that little storm behind and headed out west. Desmoines was my original target area, but when I got there it was still early enough so I headed south towards Kansas to maybe get on the big game hunt.
I made it down to Kansas city when the first storms in that area began firing in central Kansas, so I headed west for a minute only to realize that the turnpikes in Kansas were a trap. There are no off points. I jogged onto 335 at Topeka and was still trapped until I got to Emporia, Kansas where I stopped to fill up.
On the way I had noticed a small blip SW of Wichita a half hour earlier and thought nothing of it. By the time I got gas, reports were coming in of a big tornado about to enter Wichita. I spent the next hour following these reports and relaying them to a friend in Wichita who was hold up in her basement closet. A tornado did enter Wichita, but it had weakened considerably and it appeared that a disaster had been adverted.
Of course I noticed the direction of the storm and it was heading right up 35 to Emporia, and my location. I was stuck at a train as it approached and shot out of town to the north to try and intercept. That is when another tornado was reported on the ground just west of Emporia. I was, unfortunately, in its path rather than ahead of it to watch it. I kept myself ahead of the storm for a while, fighting the road networks which did not seem to want to allow me to get in proper position.
The tornado warning was cancelled but a severe thunderstorm warning was still in these storms. The storm finally overtook me and I got into some mid size hail of dime to quarter size and winds of 60-70 mph. I had gone a good ways back north so I decided not shoot back south, mainly because I had to work Tuesday. It had gotten dark and late so I pulled off for some much needed sleep.
On Monday, I drifted around Iowa for a while, waiting for storms to fire up. I stopped at a Best Buy to get some cards for my camera, but they had a clearance on the Cannon HF g10 HD camcorder for $750 marked down from $1099. I could not pass it up. As I got back to the car and unpacked the camera, the reports started coming in of a large tornado heading toward Oklahoma city. I followed the other chasers reports as the disaster unfolded. I was shocked at what I was hearing. Could it be happening again? Yes, Moore was struck with a devastating F5 and what really sunk my heart was hearing that grade schools full of children had taken a direct hit.
I did not feel much like chasing any longer and drove sadly home, listening to the accounts of what had unfolded on my radio. I had a sickening feeling in my stomach and then remembered the feeling of dread I had when I had first left home. I actually had a thought that maybe it was time to retire after 25 years chasing these deadly beasts. I reminded myself though that it was others like myself who were out there reporting this, getting the word out to the public to save lives. Now, several days later, I see that it had saved lives. People had taken precautions. The death toll could have been far higher.
This is the real reason why we chase storms. Yes, we get a thrill out of seeing a big storm with big tornadoes, but none of us ever wants to see what happened in Moore on Monday May 20th. We go out there to spot these storms and give early warnings to the public to save lives. We go out there to try and learn and understand tornadoes and severe weather so that we can make better forecasts and give more accurate and timely warning to people to save lives. And, if need be, we can be the ones on the spot initially to try and help those effected by the storms.
Early Iowa storm
Emporia, Ks area, cam 1
Emporia KS area cam 2
I caught the first storm of the day early in Rapids City Iowa. it wasn't much but did show a little rotation. Hopefully signs of things to come. I left that little storm behind and headed out west. Desmoines was my original target area, but when I got there it was still early enough so I headed south towards Kansas to maybe get on the big game hunt.
I made it down to Kansas city when the first storms in that area began firing in central Kansas, so I headed west for a minute only to realize that the turnpikes in Kansas were a trap. There are no off points. I jogged onto 335 at Topeka and was still trapped until I got to Emporia, Kansas where I stopped to fill up.
On the way I had noticed a small blip SW of Wichita a half hour earlier and thought nothing of it. By the time I got gas, reports were coming in of a big tornado about to enter Wichita. I spent the next hour following these reports and relaying them to a friend in Wichita who was hold up in her basement closet. A tornado did enter Wichita, but it had weakened considerably and it appeared that a disaster had been adverted.
Of course I noticed the direction of the storm and it was heading right up 35 to Emporia, and my location. I was stuck at a train as it approached and shot out of town to the north to try and intercept. That is when another tornado was reported on the ground just west of Emporia. I was, unfortunately, in its path rather than ahead of it to watch it. I kept myself ahead of the storm for a while, fighting the road networks which did not seem to want to allow me to get in proper position.
The tornado warning was cancelled but a severe thunderstorm warning was still in these storms. The storm finally overtook me and I got into some mid size hail of dime to quarter size and winds of 60-70 mph. I had gone a good ways back north so I decided not shoot back south, mainly because I had to work Tuesday. It had gotten dark and late so I pulled off for some much needed sleep.
On Monday, I drifted around Iowa for a while, waiting for storms to fire up. I stopped at a Best Buy to get some cards for my camera, but they had a clearance on the Cannon HF g10 HD camcorder for $750 marked down from $1099. I could not pass it up. As I got back to the car and unpacked the camera, the reports started coming in of a large tornado heading toward Oklahoma city. I followed the other chasers reports as the disaster unfolded. I was shocked at what I was hearing. Could it be happening again? Yes, Moore was struck with a devastating F5 and what really sunk my heart was hearing that grade schools full of children had taken a direct hit.
I did not feel much like chasing any longer and drove sadly home, listening to the accounts of what had unfolded on my radio. I had a sickening feeling in my stomach and then remembered the feeling of dread I had when I had first left home. I actually had a thought that maybe it was time to retire after 25 years chasing these deadly beasts. I reminded myself though that it was others like myself who were out there reporting this, getting the word out to the public to save lives. Now, several days later, I see that it had saved lives. People had taken precautions. The death toll could have been far higher.
This is the real reason why we chase storms. Yes, we get a thrill out of seeing a big storm with big tornadoes, but none of us ever wants to see what happened in Moore on Monday May 20th. We go out there to spot these storms and give early warnings to the public to save lives. We go out there to try and learn and understand tornadoes and severe weather so that we can make better forecasts and give more accurate and timely warning to people to save lives. And, if need be, we can be the ones on the spot initially to try and help those effected by the storms.
Early Iowa storm
Emporia, Ks area, cam 1
Emporia KS area cam 2
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