… or just a bunch of dumbasses with a camera and a sign on their car?
Starting to encounter these folks now that it’s storm season here in the midsouth. I see some sort of “Stormchaser” bumper sticker, and occasionally a sign (and a few extra antennae).
Do they have any sort of official standing or legitimacy? Or are they (as I suspect) just thrillseekers with cameras racing down the highway, possibly impeding the work of legitimate first-responders?
The NWS, and some others, provide training and assign reporting IDs, to “Skywarn” members. They are often ham radio operators who will find a good location and watch for and report severe weather conditions. We are smarter than to go chasing after the storms though.
Skywarn reflective sign. Did it look like this?
No, it actually said “Storm Chaser” on a (approx) 12 X 24 inch sign on the door. The symbol was a series of stylized concentric circles that sorta depicted a tornado. The bumper sticker actually said StormChaser as well (but I didn’t get a closer look at its symbol).
on edit: It was actually two words on the sign, and one concatenated word on the bumper (iirc).
There is a big difference between a “Storm Spotter” (SkyWarn) and a Storm Chaser.
Storm spotters receive training from the National Weather Service in how to read clouds and severe weather and receive certificates of training. During storms these spotters send in reports and data to the NWS, giving them many more eyes on the ground.
Trained Storm Chasers actually try and move in close to or in front of the storm path. Many chasers are highly trained professionals using high tech equipment and heavily modified vehicles. The information they gather helps meteorologists understand severe weather tendencies and develop better emergency alerts through their predictions. The time between a warning and the storm actually hitting a community is what saves lives. Professional storm chasers gather the information that will aid in better warning time, so I like to not call this group Dumb Asses.
There are groups of amateur ill trained people with little or no training or equipment who like to chase storms for the thrill of it. Putting little Storm Chaser signs on an unmodified vehicles and driving like hell to get in front of a tornado path does indeed qualify as a Dumb Ass.
Was it this?
There’s no official standing for storm chasers, even “official” NWS Skywarn members, except their information is given more credence than a non trained person reporting severe weather. Many meteorologists and weather researchers do go out and chase storms, and their information is pretty important for warning people about what’s happening, but some are thrillseekers with cameras and they do impede the work of legitimate first-responders. It may be a little draconian but there’s been debate on whether law enforcement should start ticketing or arresting them for this reason.
There will probably be more debate soon. Tim Samaras was killed this weekend, along with his son and his driver. He was a long time and well respected chaser. He was on the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers” show, which wasn’t that well respected but was well known. If even the pros can get in trouble, maybe the amateurs need to stay home.
I guess the OP’s question is whether or not a person can “get certified” or “be licensed” with some sort of formal Storm Chaser certificate for which people can apply and be evaluated as to their competency. Seems the previous responses are indicating that there is no such thing. What would such a certification involve if it existed? Are there any informal industry training programs for aspiring storm chasers that could be used to start developing a competency framework? E.g. must pass written exam on <topics>, must pass vehicle driving obstacle course, etc.
What Fubaya said. Radar can give indications of severe weather, but a trained observer can provide confirmation of what’s actually happening.
The better storm chasers did research. Tim Samaras had over twenty years experience and was one of the most respected. He designed a lot of equipment for measuring and photographing storms. He died in a Oklahoma tornado two days ago.
On a dark & rainy night, you want to ticket people with the wrong bumper sticker?
People chase fire trucks.
People rubber neck at any & all accident / disaster sites.
Storm chasers do a lot less to hamper first responders than looters & rubber necks.
If you are driving sort towards a storm to get home to save the kids yoiu get a ticket & you are golden if you are driving too fast going away from a storm?
You all want the LEO’s to spend their time with theses folks instead of those who need help right now?
You really need to educate & change peoples habits & instincts with PSA & forget about adding more laws.
YMMV
I’m not for adding more laws, but it is a problem. You have chasers creating traffic jams not after the storm but before when people are trying to evacuate. It’s only a matter of time before they get someone killed.
I have heard that the amateurs are denigrated by the pros as “bunny chasers”, after the Energizer Bunny ads a few years back.
Respected by whom exactly? The Discovery Channel and the Weather Channel? I see that, yes, the National Geographic Society sponsored him, but it looks like he just gave them interviews and pictures in return. I have seen the work on studying hurricanes and how to prevent destruction by them- and that has led to building code changes, beach and wetland restoration, etc. Not so much for tornados other than mandating shelters for schools that I know of.
I came in to start this exact thread, pullin. I attempted to look up Tim Samaras’s research and contributions and my conclusion is that it doesn’t exist- or I don’t know how to look for it as it isn’t my field of expertise. His own website says “research research research” but not a single conclusion or result is mentioned or linked to. So my conclusion is:
storm chaser is to meteorology as astrologer is to astronomy
He/they are simply attention whores who achieved the ultimate score- “martyrdom” for the cause. I would love to be proven wrong
I still have trouble believing that there are any kind of professional chasers. Unless someone is paying you to do that, I would put you in the ‘dumbass’ catergory.
To me, a professional would have to be:
Is this the case with the ‘pros’? Is there a category of legitmacy that I’m missing?
I knew a storm chaser back in Texas, and while I’m not completely certain, I don’t think he had any official status. We both worked together in the campus library at university. He was a meteorology major. A nice guy, certainly didn’t strike me as a dumbass. Said he and some of his fellow majors would do this. Maybe unofficially for a local TV station? He really got off on it, but at least from listening to him it sounded like he had a good handle on safety.
Well, they receive grants and funding from institutions like NatGeo. I’d say they are professionals. The ones like Samaras at any rate.
The elder Samaras was found still in his car with his seatbelt on. His son and the other partner were apparently sucked from their vehicle, with one of them found a half mile away.
The major news networks in OKC have pro chasers. Channel 4 uses the modified armored cars of one of the guys who was on the Storm Chasers show, Ch 9 uses cars. Both also have very good chopper pilots who get close to the storms to film.
The people on the ground and in the sky do a very good job of pinpointing the storm to a better extent than the radar. They easily get locations down to the section roads (1 mile squares).
The Twistex wiki page has links to 17 research papers his team wrote for the American Meteorological Society.
Most meteorologists chase, or people on their team do, when severe weather is in their area. If they’re off work when it hits, they often see that as an opportunity to chase and report to the people at the studio. As mentioned, some stations have dedicated chase teams. The Weather Channel has chasers (one had his vehicle tossed 200 yards Friday).
The NWS doesn’t chase but I’ve heard accounts of some who were off work and decided to chase and report what they saw to the office.
Researchers, meteorology majors like Siam Sam’s friend.
The chasers that you’ve heard of are the ones who are in the limelight for some reason. They’re on that Discovery show or whatever. What you don’t see is that just about anyone who works in meteorology chases or has chased. They just don’t do it in homebuilt tanks on a TV show, they use their cars (or if they’re smart, a rental) and only talk to their office or quietly gather data for whatever they’re working on.