GoBoB Chasing

I grew up in Minnesota and saw one tornado in the 17 years that I lived there. It was actually my first chase on July 18th, 1986. I was working at a camera store and our NOAA weather radio said it was about 8 miles from our location. A coworker and I decided to give chase. The tornado was very small but lasted over 30 minutes and was captured by the KARE helicopter and broadcast live (they were returning from shooting a story and an astute pilot simply turned on the camera and chased). I look back on this somewhat reminiscently as Minnesota has been fairly active of late and could really be under the gun this afternoon.

It seems so strange that Minnesota has had preferable tornadogenesis characteristics than Oklahoma this year.

1986 was also the year Kodak lost the patent suit to Polaroid and stopped making instant cameras (yeah I remember those lively conversations around the camera store). Kind of like light bars on chase vehicles.

My first chase was approximately 16 miles and netted about 15 minutes of tornado time. My 2005 season has been thousands of miles and 0 minutes of tornado time. What a crummy season.

I enjoy prognosticating as much as the next chaser. Recently an individual posted on www.stormtrack.org asking what chasing will be in ten years. 2005 marks 20 years after my graduation from high school. Twenty years ago I though I knew everything when I was 18. It is kind of funny how the older yet get the smarter your parents are. I have lived in Tulsa, OK 13 years. I’m using these periods to better scope my prediction so bear with me.

I have scared myself and others have greatly scared me this season. There are a lot of people in pursuit of atmospheric fury™ that probably should not be. I won’t go into particulars, but I have seen a lot of stupidity.

I truly believe that we are on a collision course. A chaser will kill another chaser or even worse a civilian. This will likely not be a shooting or stabbing. It will happen on a rain slicked road and an unsafe driving decision that will end tragically. Someone will die, not by atmospheric fury ™, but because of a driving mistake. We call them accidents for a reason. Accidents can be prevented. I think we all need to examine our driving and probably back it down a notch.

This forecasted death will unleash a media firestorm and consummate legislative action. There will be a rush to judgment to identify the responsible from the thrill seekers. Those that enjoy this hobby should consider how they can prove that they are responsible. In some sick way I welcome this big brother era. It will reduce the congestion. I have, can ,and will, take, and pass; federal, state, and local licensure requirements.

In 2015, the Department of Public Safety will have authority over pursuit of atmospheric fury™. Clean up our act or it will happen. Prior to chasing, I was an active skydiver with a class A USPAA/FAA License. It too was a time consuming and expensive hobby. Skydiving has one additional feature. It is a self cleaning oven. About fifty people die each year because they were stupid. The FAA is fairly conservative in where they locate drop zones so as not to kill civilians. Until you have mastered the art of skydiving , a drop master is technically in charge of you. Upon successful completing a series of progressively harder obstacles you will be granted your license. You are then 100% responsible for you. As a chaser, you are 100% responsible for you. You are unlikely to kill someone else as a skydiver. You are somewhat likely to kill someone as a chaser.

As Phil Esterhaus adjourned the roll call each week on Hill Street Blues “And, hey – let’s be careful out there.”

Should I try one more time?

Chasing storms is hard. It was a really tough season and to have lost every single game is a really hard pill to swallow. I have over relied on quantitative products and should have used my qualitative gut instinct. There is a lot of art and science involved in detailed weather prediction. There needs to be a balance of left brain and right brain thinking. I have enjoyed chasing with some great people, and I have the best chase partner in the world. Tomorrow probably marks the last day of the Spring season. I will be back in the Fall.

I have tried to use this blog to educate, inform, and share a little bit of what it is like to chase. Ultimately you are responsible for you and it is not a Nerf world. I would never encourage someone to chase. It is a potentially dangerous, expensive hobby that tends to attract a bunch of weirdoes who are about as socially adept as Charles Manson and as in touch with societal norms as Michael Jackson. There are elders that pioneered this hobby and I would love buy them dinner and drinks. It will never happen, because they are so sick of what they have seen their passion become.

Blogging is forcing me to write and it feels good. I can’t believe that this gets 30-50 hit’s a day. Please feel free to post comments. Congrats to all who did well this year. I’m dusting off the books and polishing up the Magic-8 Ball. I have also been geo-caching a bunch of treasures on the plains.

Thanks for reading
-Bob

I’m sitting here at 1:00 PM and deciding if I can possibly take another trip 412 to Enid, OK. Steve and I have been on this road so much the Jeep can almost drive itself. There are currently pretty impressive dew points out there. Here is a 1:00 PM view from the Oklahoma Mesonet. We will monitor and see how things mix out this afternoon. Tomorrow also has a possibility of severe weather. I am frantically trying to get all of the things that I need to get done at work.
Monster storms over a Buffalo, OK. Our friend Charles Allison has probably bagged six tornadoes. We did a quick chase to Coweta (28 Miles) and then the promissing cell crashed. Ready for another MCS. I can’t express with mere words how much I HATE Mesoscale Convective Systems. They are the carp of storms. They are not interesting, and you hate bending over to even get them off your hook.