Tornado Chasers on the Discovery channel?

[kastein]

Kind of reminds me of a dog chasing cars. What do you do once you catch one?

get spun around a lot, wadded up, and thrown to the side of the road, it appears.

Admittedly my view of storm chasers is somewhat tinged by the fact that I first encountered them as a ham radio nerd (99% of people who do storm chasing/skywarn etc as ham ops are completely useless and have no idea what they are doing), but... what the hell are they thinking?

 

[bjoehandley]

with all the respct due to samaras...who i really liked watching tornado chasers...

I am really surprised considering samaras reputation for caution and safety that his rig was not caged.

that's a total shame, and a serious over-sight.

I wish they would have caged that rig. It could have made the difference.

Hope the storm chasing community takes this into consideration.

Edit: I'm editing this, but I'll leave my original text above since it still counts.....I was under the impression that the rig shown in this thread was Samaras....it's the weather channel rig correct? I see the occupants made it out of that one, eh? they're DAMN lucky!

Now that I see the samaras rig.....i dunno how someone survives damage like that, cage or otherwise. damn shame.

After these deaths and the Weather Channel rig getting torn up like that did, that might be seriously considered as well as a good set of racing belts.

 

[bjoehandley]

get spun around a lot, wadded up, and thrown to the side of the road, it appears.

Admittedly my view of storm chasers is somewhat tinged by the fact that I first encountered them as a ham radio nerd (99% of people who do storm chasing/skywarn etc as ham ops are completely useless and have no idea what they are doing), but... what the hell are they thinking?

The same could be said for firefighters, cops, and soldiers. Those guys help spot these incoming storms and can even confirm what radar is telling then call in a confirmation so those of us that live in the more tornado prone areas a chance to get someplace safe.

 

[kastein]

I have no problem with people doing it, I just think they should be better equipped (roll cage, anyone?) and trained (AKA not a bunch of nerds with no idea what the hell they're up against driving around and getting in the way and calling in 300 reports of heavy rain per hour.)

The guys that do it well, do it well. And then there are a bunch of wackjobs who are literally putting themselves and anyone else they happen to get in the way of in danger without collecting good info.

 

[GSequoia]

And then there are a bunch of wackjobs who are literally putting themselves and anyone else they happen to get in the way of in danger without collecting good info.

XJ drivers?

 

[scoobyxj]

And then there are a bunch of wackjobs who are literally putting themselves and anyone else they happen to get in the way of in danger without collecting good info.

XJ drivers?

:thumbup:

 

[SonicCougar99]

This storm did some things that were very, very unusual, and that is why so many chasers got caught off guard. Most tornadoes move in a SW -> NE direction. At the time, the chasers were just NE of the storm, and this one appeared to be moving due east. As it approached, it intensified dramatically and made a hard right turn to the south. The chasers were along a N/S road, heading south, and were in good shape to do what they do (deploy probes and instruments in front of it, move south, let the storm pass by, then go back and retrieve their equipment). As they headed south, the storm quickly intensified and grew dramatically (NWS has recorded this tornado as being 2.6 MILES WIDE!) They saw the intensification, and realized they needed to get moving. Unfortunately, the tornado also turned south and overran them as they thought they were getting out of the way. These guys were following all the normal "rules of tornado chasing". Get south, and you will be fine. This storm went south, and that is what resulted in this tragedy.

 

[Beezil]

not seeing the hard right turn

 

[bigalpha]

Maybe he meant that it was a hard turn to the north.

 

[SonicCougar99]

Yeah, I was mistaken, it was the hard north turn that it took that caught the chasers. They were following the southern movement, and when it turned right at them, they got caught. That is also where it was at its widest and most intense, as it crossed Hwy 81 which I believe is the road the chasers were on, but I'm not sure. I was watching the live streaming of KFOR as it happened an on radar, the cell made a very distinct south turn, but that is apparently where it actually tightened up and touched down (the cell was already making the hard south turn before it touched down, hence why the path starts off heading SE). But it was the north turn that caught the chasers, my mistake.

 

[tbburg]

Overall it was a bad week for all the professionals working the tornado shift.
The Discovery Tornado hunter crew got hit and torn up by a F3,..
The Tornado Chasers TIV-II got nailed by a F4. They got out OK, but took damage,..
The Twistex truck got chewed up and spit back out by god knows what, some people have said is was the largest tornado measured,..

I guess if you try to put yourself in front of a tornado, eventually one will find you. 'Lot of people hitting the lottery this year.