OK, I’ve been waiting to write this all chase season long…. so here goes…..
It seems that every year, more and more media and production crews are flocking to Tornado Alley to feast upon the thrills and dramatic video clips of storm chasers and tornado chasers — chasing violent weather.
Unfortunately, things have gotten out of hand. Unless you are in the tornado or so close you can spit on it — the media passes.
Unlike other adventurous pursuits, storm chasing is still a rather new entity. This means the evolution has not risen above the ranks to define the individual reasons why people chase storms. We are all still lumped into a single category, “storm chasers.” God knows I have tried for years to separate what I do for a living from the chasers who go out for a few weeks then return to their regular lives.
The media and production crews simply have not figured it out. An idiot who purposely places himself, herself or others in danger, for no real reason, is not what storm chasing is all about. Some of these fringe element chasers are eventually going to die, be disabled, or kill someone else, either by a tornado, or some other Darwinian filter. Mark my word on this — the Grim Reaper is grooving on bad behavior in Tornado Alley now days. (I thought I passed him near Wichita…. but it was some goth kid hiding in a car wash from hail).
1 response so far ↓
1 Jay // Jun 23, 2008 at 4:48 pm
im a spotter in Canada and Before i started to chase/spot severe weather i did my research talked to some highly trained and well known chasers and took a government spotter course and learned how to spot and report safely. for anyone wanting to do this type of thing please do your homework and take a storm spotter course.
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