Tornado Chasers - fame over chase ?

me and julian had a very brief chat about, some tornado chasers, seeming to choose fame over the fundementals of a tornado chase now...

im not talking behind anyones back or anything like that, but this year, some of the "known chasers" ie reed timmer, joel taylor etc, when watching there live streams, either have the camera pointed to them, or dont seem as chase orientated as before. It doesnt seem as much on a personal level anymore, last year, watching the streams, there seemed to be far more live footage of the weather, and tornados, now it seems from watching the TVN streams, not as much as as there was, if you get me...i know the season hasnt been as good yet, but when reed is out, the camera seems to be on him, or, not at all...even when other chasers are around him you can see there feed fine.

maybe its down to the discovery channel wanting all the footage? who knows...

where as, chasertv..is great! loads of chasers out, the cameras are always facing out the window, you hardly ever see a person on them! david drummond seemed to hit the nail on the head, let us the public see thefeeds, then let newscrews licence the footage..win win situation

where as the likes of tvn...seems to be a reed timmer fan club (quote julian )

over the last 3 years, since storm chasers came onto the discovery channel, its brought the tornado and storm chaser to become a household name for the likes of us here in england, which is grea,t but you can see the change when people realise they are becoming, in brackets, famous...

fame going to everyones head?

to be honust, storm chasers on the discovery channel, leaves so many new questions unasnwered, do we know what reed timmer and tvn are out to achieve?

or are they genuinly, still, just storm fanatics like we first began to know them as...

i know this sounds like im knocking tvn but im not...just its not the sort of thing we can chat about freely without sounding like we are criticising tvn...which is a great site, and has brought storm chasing to a new level for me...and others!

Mark a very well presented piece that will indeed warrant some discussion certainly from myself and i hope a few others as well.

Will be returning to put my point of view soon.

Perhaps a suggestion could be made to Reed through his site simply asking if the streams could show more weather and less of the human element. Thing is, we don't know if there are contractual issues re this - there probably isn't - but having yourself in the video at least puts one's face out there. Kinda odd, as Reed is a household name so agreed there should be more weather footage than of any chase member smack bang in the middle of the shot...we all know his voice, so he's safe on that score!

to be honest i hardly ever watch reed's stream due to the fact that the camera never changes position and i've only ever seen two tornadoes on his stream.
i always tend to watch the others that are'nt featured on stormchasers. for example last night kicked ass with verne carlson, the camera was everywhere and i seen all 6 tornadoes he captured and he tells you what he's seeing and what he's doing.

i think in the heat of the moment reed just forgets about the stream and is concentrating on radar, talking to discovery and yelling at chris (he is very excitable and is always posting on FB whats going on, on other peoples streams)

It also raises the question about why Joel was getting a little pee'd off last year with Reed and I quote him saying something along the lines of "this is not what I want to do, I want to chase".

ill be putting a few more points on here over the next couple of days that i have thought about....

I remember when I first heard about TVN, before "Storm Chasers" and it was Reed and a few friends from college catching tornadoes for DVD's and to sell to news networks, I think it developed a genuine want to find out how they're formed and how to prevent so many lives being lost as he said in an interview from 1999. Later he started his PhD in short-term climate variability and its economic impacts.

I don't doubt his research, he puts a lot of his own money into storm chasing such as the $50,000 for his radar, so the fact that Discovery probably enabled him to do that is great, along with the RC plane and now the canons on the Dominator. He has got a good few "firsts" for science and hopefully will continue gathering data.

I do see what you mean about the "fame" aspect of it all, I don't know the last time Reed posted on the TVN forum like he used to or how he's treated like some sort of Storm God by a certain fanbase and website. I just don't understand the rivalry between storm chasers these days, especially recently on facebook - more drama than high school musical. It's crazy to think most are supposed to be grown men with families when they act like teenage girls. I think many have forgotten the reason that some chase, i've never seen such hatred for Vortex2 before and Josh Wurman, granted Josh can be...well i'll not say it, ha! But he's out there trying to save lives, not for a sheer adrenaline rush like so many who complain about him.

I don't know if it's Discovery that limit what Reed can show or not, I have noticed the number of tornadoes seen on his stream going down or his stream cutting off anytime something major is happening although I did see the massive wedge on his last night. I remember he didn't stream the Yazoo tornado even though he caught amazing footage of it on camera. The thing is, if it is Discovery wanting all the footage, I don't think he'd be able to put so much on youtube as it seems to contradict that.

Well said Marianne, totally agree.

He's deffo doing good out in the field, and putting his own money into saving lives is really great in anyones books. And yes I've heard a lot about his feeds cutting off. Strange that.

The rivalry has gone way too far as you say. Thing is they're all out there doing the same thing, so makes you wonder why there isn't more team spirit between all chasers? You've only got to look at David Drummonds latest threat and think "WTF"?

I actually feel sorry for David, and I don't blame him for being angry. Being threatened to "watch your back when out alone" is something no-one should hear. David's always been nice to me and taken time to explain some weather related stuff I was confused about. After 26 years of chasing it's sad that it's come down to this.

I get asked all the time by media if storm chasing is competitive, in fact most seasoned chasers I've heard interviewed on radio interstate get asked the same thing. The answer is always with some hesitation - 'yes.'

If a region has more of something else than say lightning then the wow factor increases and of course media jump on it because it makes news - particularly if things get demolished in the process.

Contractual rights play some part but in reality the footage is owned by those that take it and whilst Discovery may have some exclusivity to it - those that capture footage can use it wherever they like afterward. It's quite possible that his contract dictates that any tornado footage is to be shown by Discovery first and then shown elsewhere, but to my thinking that would defeat the whole purpose of making money from the video - there would be no point streaming, selling it to the networks if that stipulation was put upon him because that's the name of the game - to get the footage to the networks quickly to obtain live and exclusive rights to the events.

I'm pretty well sick of all the beat up notions about Wurman and Co with people continually whining about how they should not get right of passage etc. Well here's some facts why they should.

People have the opinion that their tax dollars are being spent on this project and that they should not get any special treatment? That's just plain BS.

The Vortex team are funded by the Government and private sponsorship to do a job and that's collect data. If in fact my own tax dollars were contributing to this then I would have no hesitation in pulling over and letting them by, at least my tax dollars would be seen to be being put to good use in front of me.

They are in fact also an emergency vehicle - whereby they can instantly notify the authorities, local town police etc of imminent tornado threats well in advance of the NWS at times because they are there waiting. They are trying to save lives. Period. They need to get to the target areas in advance and on time, collect the relevant data to write and present their findings to NOAA, NWS and the SPC. Now it's not rocket science to work out how valuable that is.

Those that continually rubbish the Vortex team obviously need a little reality check and remove their blinkers. It's not Wurman that has created the traffic jams, nor is it Reed or the TIV2. It's purely those media documentary shows that are highlighting storm chasing and that's it. People have always followed the DOW and Reed for years, just not in the numbers they have today.

Liken it to having police caught in traffic jams knowing they can't complete their job - and they're the only ones with the technology on board to complete it?

I can bet you money that if these so-called chasers whining online about everyone actually stopped and saw the DOW idle in traffic, would they have the guts to get out and say it to his face - knowing what Josh is doing is vital to tornado research? You'd look like an idiot because you're way out of your league when it comes to the knowledge they have.

Frankly, I don't give a damn about what others say. You're either pro-active in the attitude to what these guys are doing and support them or you shut up. If you whinge and complain about them voicing their frustrations then don't chase, don't follow the DOW, don't follow Reed or the TIV2 and find your own damn storms and take an alternate target area.

People have to think outside the square when it comes to these guys. They are not simply chasing to get a nice photo for the newspapers. Their sole purpose is to collect data. A direction which Reed has taken strongly of late with those canons on the 'Exterminator'. So you have 200 vehicles banked up all heading for a target location - 98% of those would not be experienced chasers at all because only a small proportion of chasers actually have bragging rights to being 'storm chasers' in the true meaning of the term.

The traffic jams are somewhat proof that this 'chasing' thing is competitive. Add curiosity, amateurs, tour vans, media, mum and dad, innocent travelers and businesses that get caught up in this mayhem and you have a recipe for chaos.

What I'm scared of is that storm chasing will not be exclusive has it always has been because many have no clue on what they are doing - any fool can get a video of a tornado or supercell, unfortunately the real dangers are lurking not far away. I spoke to a chaser last week in the US who told me that he's sick and tired of seeing young people out on the plains chasing supercells without any idea of what is happening. These 15 year old kids were parked on the side of the road taking video of a supercell - he immediately stopped and told them to get the hell out of there because inside this lovely photographic supercell was a deadly EF4 tornado rain wrapped inside the core. It became tornado warned well before he stumbled upon these kids. The tornado passed directly through the exact area he met these 'chasers' prior to them following him to a safe location.

These stories aren't new, they aren't miraculously appearing. Seasoned chasers are now ending up being baby sitters for these uneducated, inexperienced wanna-be's who have nothing more than 'Want to get a tornado, must be a supercell' mentality. I'm sick of it and so are seasoned chasers. They pose a real danger to themselves and others - like taking mum and dad storm chasing because they aren't old enough to have a license to drive - yet because mum and dad don't understand the dynamics of supercells they trust their sibling to get them near the storm and out quickly just by him or her looking at some bloody radar image on the laptop!! Give me a break! I hope your funeral plan is paid up.

I'm all for educating and helping new storm chase enthusiasts...sadly, just from the amount of questions I get the percentage of actual commonsense is pathetic with regards to their mentality re what chasing is and what is expected. They honestly believe that simply knowing how to look at upper air winds, humidity and temperature they can forecast tornadoes and actually GIVE ADVICE to people how to GET THERE!!!! Like, these people actually driving on someone else's advice and they are only 14 is akin to sticking your head into a lion's mouth because the trainer told you it's safe.

The intake of university applications for meteorology is through the roof at the moment in the states. Sure it's good for them, but what type of people are actually coming out of all this? To chase one thing and one thing only. Tornadoes. Thankfully, those that complete even the first semester suddenly realise that Met is so overwhelming and complex that their deluded notion of becoming an expert tornado chaser is suddenly squashed and commonsense prevails with those that graduate. And when you do, the pay is so bad that there are many chasers with a Met degree who can't find work!

So yes, it is competitive (I got side-tracked a bit sorry). You want that lightning shot, that storm shot, that tornado shot that nobody else can get - that's the nature of the beast. Luckily where I'm from the chances of someone getting the same shot as me is less than 1% - in the US? Well by the look of the recent photos it's like pick another state or county to chase in, better still, get to the target area two days prior to any expected severe weather.

That's my rant and I'm sticking to it.

what happened with Drummond????

Ed: Okay I found out on his FB page....this is exactly what this f^%$#ing mess has caused...freaks and weirdo's coming out of the woodwork for exclusivity for tornadoes....Good God..

That's probably one of the best rants i've ever read.

I also totally agree with everything you say, things have just gone too far.

That was a good rant! Actually enjoyed reading it!

Perfectly explained tho.