This is what amazes me. I’ve been in a helicopter in strong winds and did not like it one bit. In a storm that produces tornadoes, it seems crazy to be up there.
This is how people kept track of tornadoes prior to Doppler radar, and communication was done by ham radio operators. And tornado chasers know when to get away and don’t drive up right next to them, as some of these reporters seem to do. :smack:
If a reporter is actually killed on say, the Weather Channel, Fox will rush in and have one of their reporters similarly sacrificed in order to remain Fair and Balanced,
Isn’t there a ‘drone for that’ (© ™)
“Upset”? Many people watch with the hope of that happening.
In 1986 in a northern suburb of Minneapolis, an NBC news helicopter was in the air when a tornado struck. The pilot flew hideously close to it, and the cameraman trained his gyro-stabilized lens on the destruction below; it was pretty impressive footage. The local affiliate milked it for all it was worth, building a half-hour special program around the footage, including a music video. At one point the pilot says they are within 3/4 mile of the tornado. That’s pretty damn close.
That happened to be the only tornado I’ve ever seen in person. It was far away, but it still freaked me out. I can’t imagine daring to fly a helicopter anywhere near something like that.
I know, those weren’t the kind of people I was talking about.
It reminds me of when those horiffic videos of captives in Iraq having their heads cut off were doing the rounds. I had a conversation more than once with someone who specifically went searching for them, watched one, then said they were having nightmares about how awful it was…it was a video of someone being slowly decapitated, wtf did you expect, fluffy bunnies, flowers and kittens?
I have no sympathy or respect for either of these kinds of people.
Also on a sidenote if a delay is introduced then a program isn’t really live is it?
That’s mesmerizing video. If you can separate the personal destruction aspect, the power and fury are simply amazing.
While I assume that the newest technological advances in radar will give us more insight into the formation and life of a tornado, I know that on-scene video is still very valuable to researchers.
Drones are cheap enough at this point to throw one at every twister that comes along, even sacrificing it if necessary. The movie “Twister” made this big deal of the teams measuring the funnels in various parameters, and the difficulty in doing so.
I think a drone is an excellent choice for this kind of work. I want to see the inside of a tornado, and I want it now!
Sorry, DS. I saw what you did there, and I ran it over. I owe you a Coke!
Dirt-cheap. We’re not talking about a Predator with a range of several hundred miles; all you need is a cheap RC model, a few hundred bucks, with a GoPro camera stuck to it (and maybe a position-indicating beacon for recovery afterwards).
A Trio of Storm Chasers Died in Friday’s Oklahoma Tornadoes
Watch the video from the Weather Channel guys. The camera is torn off their truck but continues recording, and it catches the truck being rolled over by the tornado winds. http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/tornado-hunt-team-takes-direct-hit-tornado-20130531