Recently in Weather AND Not Category
During this year's storm intercept vacation from 5-21 Jun, I used a LandAir Sea (LAS) GPS tracking device (web link) -- intended by the manufacturer for fleet vehicle monitoring. Apparently it often is used to track truck drivers. If an employee goes through that liquor store drive-through when on the job, this will show it, given the 2.5 m tracking resolution. Zoom in far enough in Google-Earth, and you will see the driver's track into that parking lot or off the road. It also gives max speed in mph (and location of that speed).
We used it for self-surveillance: to track chase routes and stops, and the timing thereof. It was a gift, so why not? I know many storm observers instead employ mapping software and a GPS puck to do basically the same thing, but this device has very useful Google-Earth output (more below), and also will be used to keep track of my soon-to-be-driving teenager's vehicular whereabouts.
In short, it's worthwhile if you have multiple uses in different vehicles, such as tracking your own storm observing and the driving of someone else.
Some things to know: You will need to be still for more than about 5-7 minutes for the output to show a stop, but because of two factors, we still get useful output, even for quick "pull-outs" to photograph a storm:
1. High spatial resolution: Pulling safely off the road, as storm chasers are supposed to do when performing photography, shows up on the tracking at highest (2.5 m) resolution as a knob or bump on the path. If you back a few m into a pull-off, side path or driveway, this ensures the "bump" will show on Google-Earth.
2. High temporal resolution: The raw (.las) log file shows the times and locations, so one can see when one was stopped even for brief "stop-n-shoot-fast" situations.
The device is weather sealed and has an intense magnet that should secure its place anywhere inside the car. I wouldn't trust it on the outside, given what we do, because it still could get knocked loose by, say, a tumbleweed or hailstone that smacks it while driving at 60 mph. I stuck the tracker to the inner top/back window frame of my sedan, and its reception was almost flawless. I can't speak for its reception when placed in more surreptitious locations in a vehicle; but others have posted glowing reviews on sites like Amazon.
My favorite aspect of the LAS Tracker is that its output can be set to upload directly into Google-Earth, and saved as a "kmz" file, so we can have all chase routes stored quickly and permanently. We also can use the "kmz" file to match all our photo locations to the landmarks around the shoot. A photographer can derive very precise directional and positioning info this way, in combination with the EXIF data from the camera that shows the lens' focal length, to better locate a distant subject, in addition to himself.
LAS Tracker has three minor nuisances, all involving the batteries.
1. One has to unscrew the battery compartment to turn it on and off. I realize this was designed deliberately, so the subject of surveillance can't just switch it off. [My subject will lose driving privileges if any harm comes to the device, or its signal is interrupted for any reason.] But the battery compartment's screws are tiny, and therefore, easily fumbled, dropped and lost by someone like me with large hands.
2. The battery compartment is too deep for the batteries, which on rough and shaky roads, may pop loose from the terminals while still within the compartment. I jerry-rigged a solution by folding up a piece of #2 plastic between the compartment door and the battery slots, to hold them in place.
3. Battery life is far below what's advertised. When using Ni-metal hydride (rechargeable) batteries, I had to change them out every day. When I tried to leave them in two days, the batteries (new Energizers, BTW) ran out during the evening of day-2.
I don't use its own mapping software; so I can't say one way or another about that. I've read that it has old, crappy mapping, but it doesn't matter if you've got Google-Earth anyway.
All in all, I do recommend the tracker, as long as you are willing to change/charge batteries daily, and to build that into your nightly equipment unloading and debriefing routine.
I've got an amazing family and I thank God all the time for them. Another birthday comes and goes, with thoughtful gestures and presents from my beautiful bride Elke and both kids. I would be happy just with their wishes and thoughts, because that's what matters. But they got me some great gifts that were inexpensive -- just the way I like it. How did David and Donna know I would like little buckets of microwave pork rinds and a framed Roger Staubach card from 7-11? That's fantastic. They couldn't have spent ten times as much and made me any happier, because it truly is the thought that counts. The best part is that I'm living with three people who are generous of heart and time -- far more important than money or material goods.
Really, there's only so many things you can buy for a dad who doesn't care much for "stuff" and who is about as anti-materialistic as it gets in modern America. What do most folks get for dads... High-end electronics? Don't need them. Ties? Don't own or want any, unless one is strong enough to double as a tow rope. Tools? Got all I need, most for free or at great discount. Fishing gear? I've got what I need for a good while. Storm chase gizmos? Nahh...that stuff usually ends up being frustrating and failure-prone out of proportion to usefulness, with just a very few exceptions. I've heard I'm pretty damned hard to buy for, so most of my friends simply don't. And you know what? I'm absolutely cool with that. Good wishes and good times are OK with me. I don't think anybody ever will go wrong with giving me Dallas Cowboys stuff, though. ;-)
Speaking of the Cowboys, I got another birthday gift yesterday, this one from the sports pages. Marion Barber and Terence Newman each inked long term deals that ensures two more members of the Boys' young offensive and defensive nuclei remain in place. It wasn't cheap, but who expected it to be with either of these guys?
The risk with Barber in particular is that his confrontational and relentless running style -- which I admire, actually -- will wear him down prematurely. Given that, the length of the deal is just about right, perhaps a year long since The Barbarian will turn 31 before contract expiration. [This signing actually makes me all the more glad for drafting both Felix Jones and Tashard Choice.] Terence Newman already is one of the top corners in the NFL, so his deal was on par with market value. That may be overinflated for all players, but Jerry has to deal the deck he's given.
I like the idea of reshuffling the balance sheets on Tony Romo's contract to accommodate this, such that he actually gets more up-front money in the form of a signing bonus and counts far less against the upcoming seasons' cap. I've had problems with the way Jerry has handled the salary cap in the past, especially when he overpaid the back end of veteran contracts in the 90s (a boneheaded strategy that ended up imploding the Greatest Team Ever). By contrast, this and several other deals the past 2-3 years provide considerable confidence that he not only has figured it out, but mastered the shell game. Jerry has led Cowboys fans to the height of elation (3 Super Bowl crowns in 4 years) and frustration (the idiotic ways he fired both Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson, and his egomaniacal mismanagement of the team in the mid-late 90s). Let's hope these maneuvers keep things on the upswing this time.
Now the attention turns to some of the other core players, like Chris Canty, Ken Hamlin, Terrell Owens and especially DeMarcus Ware. I don't care if Jerry has to wear pink leotards and bend over backward into a barrel of Hawaiian Punch while donning snorkeling gear and waving a copy of the VHS tape of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. DeMarcus Ware must be signed, priority one! He is an absolute terror for opposing offenses, one of the top two or three defensive players in the league at any position, and indispensable to the teams' hope of winning another Super Bowl. Pay him top dollar. Others will restructure to accommodate Ware because everyone and their mom knows he's the best player on that or just about any defense.
Owens? Well, I went on record before he came as being against his presence, but I will admit that (so far!) T.O. has proved me wrong. I hope he continues to, because the Cowboys' lack of depth at wideout has made them far too dependent on him. So get him signed. The guy is a workout warrior and will keep his body in amazing shape for even an NFL player, and wants to bask in the brilliant glory of JerryWorld when that facility opens, but at some point he will lose a step. At least he finally seems to have a quarterback he respects and likes, professionally as well as personally. He's saying all the right things so far also, unlike in his contract years in his previous stations. I say, a 3 year deal with incentives out to 5 is good for his situation.
Canty? Underrated and improving, a surefire Pro Bowler in the future. He can rush from the end or collapse the pocket, blocks passes, and is getting better versus the run every year. He's far better than Marcus Spears, but gives out vibes of wanting to test the market. Ken Hamlin? Another top-5 position player (safety) in the NFL, now that he's healthy again. He is another must-sign. Fortunately he seems to want to stay in Dallas.
Pac-Man? Don't get me started. I trust this guy way less even than T.O., for reasons that are well publicized. He's been an irresponsible, reckless punk and thug, a seeping lesion on the face of society, and I do not expect this leopard to shed his spots. But we've got him, like it or not. Get what we can out of his amazing on-field talents before he starts hitting any of the thousands of strip joints in the Metroplex and gets hauled off to the can again. But don't get dependent on him, because that's exactly when he'll get busted for the last time as an NFL player. At least he comes cheap, with lots to prove, and one last chance.
Geez, I went on another Cowboys tangent. It's why I don't BLOG about them that much. There's way too much to cover about your five-time Super Bowl champions and too little time for it all.
Weatherwise, there won't be any tornadoes for my birthday. It falls on a bizarre and inexplicable climatological minimum in nationwide tornadoes for the month of May (As Doswell 2007 illustrated in his Fig. 3, green line). I'll be on evening and nights shifts through early June, but maybe I can treat Elke to another birthday tornado for her, this year on the day our chase vacation begins. It's the least I could do, atmosphere willing. That amazing woman puts up with me all the time, which surely qualifies her for sainthood.
On 10 May 2008, a long-track, violent (EF-4) tornado crossed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri, and laid further waste to much of the old mining town of Picher, barely south of the Kansas-Oklahoma line. NWS Tulsa has a nice, concise, online briefing about the tornado, which killed six people and injured at least 150 others in Picher before causing even more casualties in Missouri.
The tornado only has hastened the inevitable demise of Picher (AP story). Once sporting a population of 20,000, only around 800 folks remain. Picher lies inside the notorious Tar Creek Superfund site (more information here and here). Federal and state officials are doing the right thing by not funding any rebuilding, and instead directing relief toward relocation of the folks who remain.
While I still wish they had taken this approach on a larger scale with New Orleans, post-Katrina, it seems the lesson has been learned to some extent. Common sense and rational thought prevail over sentimentality, as it should. Government buyouts of homes already were underway, and should accelerate. Evacuating and demolishing the town now is the simplest and most prudent solution.
Now I only will grieve for those whose lives were lost, because I grieved for the long-dying town itself long ago, on my first and only daylight visit. Steve Corfidi and I were on a storm chase trip from Kansas City, back in March 1996, on the way to the Nowata area. As we zigzagged through town, we sat aghast at the deplorable state of Picher. Though it was just a few minutes from 12 years ago, those mental images linger vividly today.
Ramshackle frame houses abounded, some abandoned, others occupied. A few of the occupied homes were in worse conditions than those long vacant, with busted windows, peeling paint, rotting wood, torn screen doors, animals running hither and yon, some porch overhangs leaning downward on the verge of collapse. One entire house had a roof displaced noticeably sideways from the foundation, its walls leaning in the direction of the displacement, clothes on a clothesline in the yard, the glow of a TV shining from within. The only thriving businesses we saw were a bar and a convenience store. We since have talked often of the extreme disrepair and poverty we witnessed, and the status of Picher as part of the Superfund site.
Perhaps the saddest sight was the dirty, shirtless children playing in the yellowish mud that had drained directly off a big heap of mine tailings looming behind one house. This rock detritus (locally known as "chat") comprises mini-mountains in the countryside around Picher, as well as in portions of the town itself. The "chat piles" contain residue of the materials for which they were extracted: lead and zinc, as well as cadmium. The lead, in particular, has been the focus of concern because of its drainage from the tailings piles and into soil, as well as airborne dust contamination, and elevated lead levels in children and adults there.
Whomever that whomever wishes to blame for the situation, the fact is that the area is highly toxic. It needs to be evacuated and remediated, not lived within. Those poor townsfolk have been residing in a festering wasteland (literally!) for decades, and now a substantial chunk of the town is blown to smithereens by a big fat tornado. Some folks didn't want to leave, but I hope this changes their minds. I applaud the notion of just helping the citizens of Picher to get the hell out and never return. Leave whatever's left of the town to the bulldozer and environmental mitigation process. The abandonment of Picher should have happened long ago, and it's terrible that it appears to take a killer tornado to finish off the town, effectively.
This is not an occasion to celebrate, mind you. People perished! But perhaps some good can come from a bad event -- a blessing in disguise, of sorts. If all goes as hoped, a tornado never again will kill Picher residents, and kids never again will play in lead-contaminated mine waste there.
Here it is the beginning of February, and I realized that I didn't post anything on the BLOG for the whole month of January. I don't recall, but it might be a first in the history of Weather or Not.
There hasn't been much of interest worth discussing, until the last few days, and even then, only marginally worthwhile...but here goes anyway.
Some observant friends have sent me copies of assorted BLOG entries from the sorry, rather predictable world of online whiners, that consists largely of baseless claims about things I've supposedly said or done. Judging by some of the access IPs and pings dredged from the log of this site, it seems these purveyors of paranoid victimhood in the world of digital storm-geekdom have been trolling for material. Troll away! I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.
I stand tall and strong and without apologies behind everything I've written in this BLOG and in my essays. It's all there, and it isn't going anywhere. And neither am I. If anyone hates me for it, their problem...not mine. I consider hate directed toward me because of my steadfast principles as a badge of honor. So I thank those who care enough to hate me for my firm stands on storm-chasing yahoo behavior and any other topics discussed herein.
Earth to whiners: Grow up. Deal with it. Get a life. You don't anger me, because your semi-literate spew is not worth the stress. You don't scare me, because I fear no man, nor do I have a reason to. You don't irritate as much as you amuse me. Simply by your words and deeds, you verify exactly the points I've made about chase yahoos better than I ever could.
One of my steadfast creeds is honesty, so what does bother me are flat-out lies. One was that I did some ugly traffic maneuver on 4 May 2003 somewhere in SE KS or MO. That would be news to me, because I didn't even chase that day. Too bad, too, given how many powerful and photogenic tornadoes occurred in those parts. But when I wish I could have been driving toward that area, instead I was sound asleep here in Norman, coming off a night shift.
There is another patently false claim floating about the rumor mill that I will lay to rest, right here and now. That claim is that I have a "death wish" for yahoo chasers. If those who make this claim actually would bother to look at everything I've written in this BLOG, they won't find any "death wish" written by me. In fact, the last thing I desire to happen is a casualty from reckless behavior, because that will be a terrible thing for everyone involved with storm observing, and most importantly, the families and friends of the person(s) involved.
Do I dread that it will happen? Absolutely. I'm convinced of its inevitability, actually, as more and more meteorological ignoramuses clog the roads, overconfident in their cluelessness about storm behavior, and perform dangerous and illegal driving stunts around storms in the name of making cash off "XTREME VIDEO." In the process, innocent people may be hurt or killed too, which would compound the tragedy most of all.
But I have absolutely, positively no death wish for anyone. That issue is hereby settled...door shut, case closed.
Otherwise, most of the material folks have forwarded to me involves resentment over the private CFDG forum or the so-called "chaser elite" (which is pure myth) and amounts to little more than false martyrdom -- claims of victimhood concocted to evoke a siege mentality and elicit sympathy.
Whatever is written on the outside of such material, the message from within is clear as can be: "WAAAHHHH...I'm an insecure little wuss who wants to cry and moan about something, and today it's about not belonging to that group!"
It's all an act, nothing more, nothing less; and those who engage in it are posers and weaklings. Individuals, desperate for attention and sympathy and some insecure need for belonging, practice this in failing relationships, and it's called manipulation. The Nazis and Soviets practiced this on a large scale, and it was called propaganda. I call it what it is in this context: bullshit.
Back to your regularly scheduled uneventfulness...football season is over, and storm season in the Southern Plains still is a few weeks away, at least.
In checking the activity log for this BLOG, I've noticed dozens upon dozens of searches for "Darwin" over the past several weeks, appearing out of nowhere. That's interesting, because when such a search is performed, all that comes up (until this post, anyway) is a brief mention of a quote from a storm chasing lecture by Chuck Doswell embedded within a broader tribute to David Hoadley.
So what should a good BLOGger do when pinged so much for such scant and surely insufficient material? Given the sudden and unexpected surge in interest on the topic of "Darwin" amongst site searchers here, and my current benevolent and helpful mood, what other choice is there but to provide the reader with a good source for all things Darwin? At least now, when searching this site for that name, something useful should show up!
My initial assumption was that the searches are related to British naturalist Charles Darwin. I haven't said much about Darwinism on this site, but this is a logical place to begin. There certainly is no shortage of information available regarding that old, dead dude, so here are just a few of the highlights:
CHARLES DARWIN: Wikipedia article | The Complete Work of Charles Darwin online | Charles Darwin In His Own Words (pictorial bio by Danny Vendramini) | 1871 editorial cartoon by Thomas Nast | Amazon.com books by and about Charles Darwin | Darwin's bibliography | Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandpaw) | George Darwin (Charles' son, a mathematician)
It is probable that my initial assumption may be true, but given the single-word nature of the searches, that may not be the case, necessarily. So here are what I hope will be valuable resources for other Darwin related seekers also.
DARWIN, AUSTRALIA: Wikipedia (great lightning photo of "west season storm at night" there!) | Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre | Tourism | Interactive Google map | latest weather obs from Autralian BoM | Darwin City Council | Annual Beer Can Regatta
DANNY DARWIN: This former Texas Rangers pitcher has some online information, including... Baseball Referencestats | SI stats |Wiki bio
DARWIN SPEARING: Author of geology books for laymen, including Roadside Geology of Texas (Amazon listing and E-pinions review) | Roadside Geology of Wyoming (with David Lageson, Amazon listing) | Roadside Geology of Louisiana (Amazon listing)
OTHER THINGS DARWIN: The Darwin Awards | Apple's Darwin source code releases (open-source Unix version for Mac OS) | The ESA's Darwin space telescopes | Darwin College at Cambridge University (England) | Darwin Calculus theorem prover | Darwin Professional Underwriters (no endorsement implied) | Darwin Chambers Co. (no endorsement implied) |World's largest ball of twine, Darwin, Minnesota | Darwin Brewery (U.K.) | Darwin's Stained Glass and Antique Slot Machines
There's no guarantee on the longevity or freshness of these links; but they're good as of 0413 CST, 8 Dec 7. I do hope these resources help those who are on the quest for Darwin related information of all sorts.
1. SPRINKLIN' IN THE RAIN: The sprinklers alongside Jenkins Ave., at the National Weather Center, were blasting water at full force in the rain as Tropical Storm Erin moved by. Yes, rain was in the local forecast, even if most folks didn't expect the 7-10 inch storm totals we got across Norman. This comes just a few weeks after they were left on for most of a weekend, saturating soil and causing untold hundreds -- perhaps thousands - of gallons of water waste down the parking lot. I love that building, but there clearly still are some problems to iron out!
2. GLAD I MARRIED A SMART BLOND! Stated by the attractive but self-evidently ignorant Kate Godwin of KOCO Channel 5 in OKC, on the night of Aug. 18: "Water is accumulating on tree limbs and these limbs are now falling on power lines." There's no adjective in my vocabulary that does justice to the monumental absurdity of that. It speaks for itself! Thanks MADman for showing me the video.
3. JUSTICE DEPT. SNOOPING ON LIL' OL' ME? Grab your pencils, conspiracy freaks. According to my activity log, a newly installed feature as of today, the domain 149.101.1.129 of the US Dept. of Justice (via nameserver JUSTICE2.USDOJ.GOV) ran a search for "accuweather" on my BLOG at about 1525 EDT (Washington time), 22 Aug 2007. How long has this been going on? Make of it what you will.
After I dropped off my son at camp on July 8, I headed NW from Tyler to Lake Texoma, knowing that it was bursting at the seams with record flooding. This was not a disappointment, except that part which was a sad social commentary.
Texoma was overtopping its emergency spillway for only the third time in its history, and and this was with the nearby and very separate floodgates cranked wide open. The latter was absolutely amazing: a thunderous, full-throttle torrent that I never will forget. We often lose sense of the power of water until we see something like that! It made me feel awfully small, witnessing the deafening roar of water many times deeper than I am tall booming out of that dam with a power that reverberated through all senses. The Red River below more resembled the Niagara River below the falls, with whitewater rapids that would spook the most extreme daredevil kayaker. If you want to see what one of the biggest U.S. reservoirs is like in wide-open emergency release, I finally have posted those shots.
Folks were well behaved at the spillway, perhaps because it was fairly tame -- just a few inches of water over a broad and gentle concrete slope. So what were several amongst a huge throng of beer-swilling rednecks doing at the floodgates a mile to the north? Dangling over and/or sitting astride the retaining fence as if it were a rodeo horse, absolutely unconcerned that they were seconds from plunging to a horrible death in the explosive deluge unfolding 20 feet below them. I mean, the ground was rumbling from the percussion of enough water blasting past us to fill three Olympic-size pools per second.
I didn't take pictures of those boneheads performing their drunken stunts, so as not to encourage them any further. I was atypically apprehensive even while shooting from behind and alongside the railing. It required carrying both camera equipment and a substantial measure of trust -- that the expert engineering of the spillway retaining wall was all that saved many square blocks of land from tearing off and going downriver faster than any escape would be conceivable. Such close access allowed me some good photography, but the cops really should have had the area next to those floodgates cordoned off. Folks with lots of brew and nothing else to do can't be trusted to keep out of the jaws of danger.
Another impression I took home was that the Corps of Engineers did a good job designing and building Denison Dam!
Unfortunately we've just witnessed the result of not so robust engineering and/or construction, at least of any structure that should last more than 40 years...
Since she needed our sedan yesterday afternoon to pick up the kids, Elke took me to work. That's nothing unusual, and neither was the backside of a heavy rain core in what has been a very wet year so far. While waiting for a turn onto westbound Constitution from southbound 12th Ave., we noticed something wrong with the garbage truck in front of us, also waiting to turn right: smoke wafting from the top. After some other vehicles did their maneuvering, we ended up directly behind a trash truck whose contents were on fire, in the light rain!
One person in a tiny car pulled beside the cab briefly in apparent attempt to inform the driver that his cargo was ablaze, but after a brief stop by both, the trash truck continued on its merry way, smoke billowing forth ever more profusely out of the open top of the hold. A few seconds later, a fire truck came our way on Constitution, siren blaring, lights flashing, compelling all to pull over but the flaming garbage truck, which merely slowed down slightly.
The fire truck then drove right past the moving container of blazing rubbish and kept on going, turning on 12th and heading away from where I was going. [This will matter even more in a moment.]
As we approached the fire station, I thought the driver might pull in for help, that being a logical place to get a fire extinguished. Alas, he didn't; indeed, he kept on going toward Jenkins, leaving a big plume of smoke in his wake. I hope nobody discarded toxic chemicals into their trash yesterday, because some of that smoke got through my car's vents and into our lungs.
Shortly after turning S at the fire station to head to work, I noticed more people than usual streaming out of the National Weather Center building for the time of day (a few minutes 'til 4 p.m.). Upon exiting the car, I could hear a howling, stereophonic cacophony of fire alarms blaring from every part and parcel of the building.
Though there was no smoke around, I wondered briefly, "Did the garbage truck, which ought to be shooting flames now that it's not raining, go down Jenkins and park on the other side of the building somewhere?" For a minute I wondered whether to go inside or stay out, speaking with a couple of colleagues and my supervisor, before we decided there was no imminent danger and I could head inside to relieve the day shift.
Critical operations must continue in a national center, and there quite obviously was no real fire...so we carried on despite the commotion and noise. I spent the first half hour or so working under blaring, flashing wall alarms, but it wasn't a big deal, really. The tough streets of inner-city East Dallas offered similar auditory experiences on quite a few nights when I was a kid, and I still managed to go about my work or sleep or other activities.
I found out later that the NWC fire alarms had been triggered by a lightning strike (leading to evacuation that's mandatory for most of the building's tenants). This is quite ironic considering the facility was full of hundreds of meteorologists. I hope lightning doesn't set off those alarms often, considering that we do get thunderstorms in these parts, and that the building is the highest object for at least a mile radius until one gets to the stadium and the taller OU dorm towers.
The whole ordeal made for one of the most bizarre non storm-chasing related hours I've experienced in a long, long time.
After a long and fun early-mid June vacation, we're back home and getting caught up with a great deal of matters that accumulated in our absence.
This year I just didn't get in the mood for much BLOGging while on the road, probably because we were either back to our lodging late and in tired condition, or because we were doing fun outdoor things such as storm observing, outdoor photography and exploration, and fishing.
Yes, I "finally* remembered to take my fishin' tackle with me on chase vacation this year. Caught my first northern pike (in North Platte NE), as well as some other nice fish too, including some bass, crappie, rainbow trout, and perhaps funniest, a 28-inch channel cat on a spinnerbait in Emporia KS. Go figure...
Anyway, as time permits over the next few weeks, I'll post chase accounts with pictures to our Storms Observed This Year BLOG. We saw a couple of tornadoes, photographed another few suspicious "maybenado" lowerings in the distance, and missed a few other tornadoes because of being on a different storm. That's how it goes!
Once again it was a rejuvenating and rewarding time out there on the Great Plains, as always, for us both, and in many senses (photographic, aesthetic, immersive, and even spiritual).
Until I start to load up some of the chase accounts from May 31 onward, please check out this entry from the website of my former NSSL director and fellow severe storms scientist Bob Maddox regarding the RAOB Replacement System (with Tucson as the poster child). If you believe the new NWS sounding systems are "good to go," think again. Bob's got news for you...
===== Roger =====
Two moderately well known storm chasers* from Minnesota have decided to sell out to the slimy, grimy underbelly of all mass media, "reality" TV. Specifically, I mean to the producers of a "reality" TV show slated to air on "WE tv," a rather obscure specialty network that features such thought provoking fare as, "Adventures in Doggie Day Care," "Wife, Mom, Bounty Hunter," and "America's Cutest Puppies." Storm chasing is the setting for what appears to be yet another stupid "reality" TV trashfest, among many that have shamelessly soiled the airwaves since this inane fad began several years ago.
Here's an excerpt from the web page the two chasers have set up on the project, for which they will act as tour guides:
- We 're looking for couples (or groups of 3 or 4) who have an interesting motive for going on a storm chasing vacation beyond just hoping to see a tornado . We want at least one of you to see this tour as a chance to confront some personal issue or take your relationship to a new level.
Wow. It has come to this. I'm not surprised, actually, but instead disappointed.
Whatever the stated motive of WEtv or of the two chasers involved, ultimately all "reality" TV is about airing cheap, tawdry dirty laundry publicly, exploiting gullible individuals (who are, admittedly, willing to let themselves be used in this way) so some production company and network can rake in some cashola. This means making it as "shock-and-awe" as possible. Why? Apparently enough people are willing to watch that crap. And the chasers themselves are willing to allow themselves be exploited by the producers in return for some payola and media exposure.
Sad.
Perhaps the most germane question is this: Exactly how is such a project going to benefit storm observing?
* Who the chasers are is irrelevant to the principle of this discussion, so I'm neither naming them nor providing a link to the production. It's not about them, it's about the issue.
