US Storm Chasing 2010

[jamie]

darn it. I missed it. who is the brittish person?

[tgsnoopy]

Doh, just watching final credits with a nado roping out. blast.

[Weetbicks]

Stuart Robinson, I think I've heard the name before as a Severe Studios live streamer. Basically he & Roger Hill met up in Taiwan to chase a Typhoon and get into the eye, which they missed. Then it switched to tornado chasing in the states where he was one of the drivers for Rogers tour company, not much interesting stuff though. I'm watching the recording now so that's all I've seen but looks like he is now going to go and chase a hurricane with Roger in the states.

This guy must be bloody loaded though, he just up and leaves at the hint of a storm, booked his flights to Taiwan and was there the next day, goes storm chasing every year in the states, books flights over there for hurricanes too, dunno where he gets the money.

The show focused on his storm obsession basically & how his wife has to put up with his obsession. Jeez when him & Roger get together it was like a love fest.

Had to laugh when they got stuck in a mesocyclone near a tornado and after they drove out him & Roger were basically saying in front of the tour group "boy I thought we were dead" .... yeah that's what you want to hear from your trusted tour guides

[Willoughby]

Check out the structure / tornado Roger Hill caught in Broadus, Montana two days ago!
http://www.silverliningtours.com/Home/t ... fault.aspx
(Scroll down a bit)

Couple of tornadoes reported today in IA and the WY/NE border.

Big day tomorrow in store for Chicago to southern Ontario including the southern half of Michigan with a strong tornado or two looking quite possible!

[jamie]

Oh yep ive met Stu. He chases with Roger every year. Im not sure on the details of how their partnership works.

Yea he has been taking tours all spring since 1998 i believe. The company is taking in a bloody ton of money each year when you look at tour prices X number of tours X 15-25 people each tour. Then there are the on call tours they do outside of the standard tours as well as on call tours that join up with the main tour when a big outbreak is occurring. Then there are the on call hurricane chases. So the company must gross a HUGE amount. But i rekon the cost of the tours can be justified if you go every couple of years and not every year. He gets you right in there on every storm and will get you close. The odd chance your in real danger but that is very very rare.

In the off season he works for discovery, or maybe its weather channel? (i think, im not sure why i think this but i do for some reason). Oh and he also does the odd on call snow chase during the winter.

I was getting frequent email updates from Roger when they went and chased that Typhoon. I think Roger said he would never do it again because of the difficulty, cost ect.

[NZstorm]

Yes, the story of Stuart Robinson/Roger Hill on prime last night was interesting. Robinsons wife was barely tolerant of his chasing, well thats the story they put across. Chasing at least only happens at one time of the year, USA Spring.

The 2010 chase season in the US keeps going! I will seriously consider chasing later season next year.

[Nev]

Interesting little story about storm-chasing in the US from the NZ Herald...

'Tornado paparazzi create havoc on Midwest highways'

[NZstorm]

That story is a bit of a beat up. It states storm chasers have been killed, the truth is no storm chaser has ever been killed chaing a storm. It suggests the numbers of chasers could be in the tens of thousands! Nothing like that number, a few thousand over the entire season I would say. It suggests storm chasers have blocked the way for emergency vehicles, I doubt that has never happened. If it ever did it would have been well publicized. I could go on.

[Tornado Tim]

Some feedback on the Cable TV Emergency Override in the States this year!

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wZJdhmsfbPg&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wZJdhmsfbPg&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/youtube]

What do ya think about some ppl who get wrapped up in TV shows eh!

[Weetbicks]

lol hehehe funny stuff, if only the tornado lifted off her roof near the end of the call

[Nev]

...the truth is no storm chaser has ever been killed chaing a storm.

Below is the ref cited by the AP writer of that NZ Herald story...

National Association of Storm Chasers and Spotters
...There are currently three known fatalities involving chasers or spotters. A storm chaser killed two years ago while returning from a hurricane chase, a police office killed while spotting the Greensburg tornado in 2007 and most recently, a volunteer firefighter killed while while spotting.

There have been a few instances of storm-chasers being killed in normal road accidents either en route to or from a storm, rather than being killed by the storm itself. However, the deaths of the police officer and firefighter cited above do appear to have been a direct result of the tornado or associated storm they were spotting at the time. They've been fairly well documented. Below are a couple of examples...

Stormtrack
05-11-2007, 09:55 AM
(from FireFighterCloseCalls.com)
...We have been advised that Tim Buckman, a Stafford County (Kansas) Fire/EMS member and a Macksville police officer died in the line of duty this morning. He was injured last Friday when his vehicle was struck and LIFTED by the tornado while he was serving as a storm spotter. The force of the storm lifted Buckman's vehicle and flung it 70 yards from the highway, according to Jason Bolt, Stafford County Emergency Service director.

WildlandFire.com
05-12-2008, 22:05
...Tyler Casey, a volunteer Seneca area firefighter, was called out to go storm spotting with other firefighters in Newton County on Saturday evening. Casey was spotting near the intersection of Highway 43 and Iris Road. Some spotters say Casey may have been the first spotter in Newton County to see, and relay, his report of a large tornado headed east-southeast. At this point, the tornado was an EF-4 tornado. We were unable to confirm reports that he may have left his vehicle to warn families living in the area. What we do know is that when he was in his pick-up truck, the vehicle was tossed by the tornado, and he sustained serious injuries. He was taken to Freeman Hospital and placed on life support. On Monday he was taken off life support, and died at 1:35 p.m.

...He was a trained storm spotter. Since he was storm spotting as a firefighter, sent out by other emergency personnel in Newton County, his death will be considered a line-of-duty-death. Meteorologists rely tremendously on the information gathered by storm spotters during severe storms like we had on Saturday. Tyler Casey's work helped us get critical information to the public.

[Andrew Massie]

Some feedback on the Cable TV Emergency Override in the States this year!

What do ya think about some ppl who get wrapped up in TV shows eh!

Priceless!

[spwill]

So just the one storm chaser killed while returning from a Hurricane chase. You do wonder how long it will be before a storm chaser is killed while chasing a storm going by some of the footage appearing on youtube but most of the storm chasing is done by very experienced people so quite safe.
Storm chasers clogging roads would be rare.

[NZstorm]

NO storm chasers have ever been killed storm chasing.

Most storm spotters are not storm chasing.

[Nev]

I agree, the numbers of chasers chasing storms in that NZ Herald story does sound a bit exaggerated. Just simply clarifying the story's references to fatalities. Those chasers I mentioned en route to or from a storm were:

Christopher Phillips - died on April 26th, 1984 while chasing a storm near Guthrie. He swerved to avoid a rabbit and rolled his car into a ditch (the first "in the field" chaser death).

Jeffery Wear - died on July 11, 2005. He lost control of his car on rain-slicked roads and hydroplaned into oncoming traffic near Kilgore TX while returning from a chase to intercept Hurricane Dennis.

Fabian Guerra - died on June 6, 2009. He lost his life in a car accident apparently caused by a deer that ran out in front of him in Iowa. He was on his way to meet up with friends prior to a weekend of storm chasing.

[Weetbicks]

To be fair that is an AP story that the Herald obviously just picked up on and pasted onto their site, so not really a Herald article.

[NZstorm]

What would be the definition of a storm chasing fatality?! If someone is killed on the way home from a fishing trip its not recorded as a fishing accident.

That article appeared on stormtrack some days ago.

[Weetbicks]

True, but the act of fishing itself doesn't involve a car, I think storm chasing is a bit different to that analogy. A storm chasing fatality would be someone in the act of driving to a storm or following a storm. It wouldn't be on the drive home afterwards or the drive to some location beforehand.

[NZstorm]

A storm chasing fatality would be someone in the act of driving to a storm or following a storm. It wouldn't be on the drive home afterwards or the drive to some location beforehand.

yes, thats my point. The article above suggests chasers are killing themselves as they compete for the best photos. Really puts the respectable hobby in a bad light.

[tgsnoopy]

Typical media sensationalism

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I get annoyed in holiday WE's when they say that the holiday road-toll stands at 3 for example. What say one of the fatalities was a person on his or her way to work over the so called holiday period.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Tornado Tim]

Mike Hollingshead has some absolutely fantastic footage of the Dupree Tornadoes on the 16th June, 2010

Near the end is the best with the lightning show it put on!!!

The shear amount of lightning strikes is truly amazing!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ivuVO0 ... ure=digest

[Weetbicks]

A good stream going right now @ tornadovideos.net live streaming page from a tornado warned cell in North Dakota, looks like it is trying very hard to produce.

[Weetbicks]

[Weetbicks]

Kory Hartman is now also streaming the same cell over @ severestudios