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Chasers! Please be SAFE! Report PLEASE! #Skywarn @NWSNorman @NWSWichita @NWSTulsa @TrooperBenKHP @OHPDPS

Posted: 14 Apr 2021 10:21 AM PDT http://kc5fm.blogspot.com/2019/03/chasers-please-be-safe-report-please.html

First, setting the record straight, this is NOT ANTI-CHASER. It IS
pro-safety.

The GOAL is a reduction in the loss of life and property. While the
numbers have trended down over the decades, there's never been a year where
a storm doesn't injure or kill someone somewhere.
CHASERS! The goal includes a reduction in the loss of life and property, including you, your friends, your chase vehicle.
In 2011, this note was sent by an emergency manager:
To: The WX-CHASE list
Since I'm not around ground zero this afternoon, I took some time towatch
some of the video samples available on the various videostreams.
I observed speed too fast for conditions (wet roads and hail),following too close (can't you count one-one thousand, twoone-thousand after you pass a yellow line or pothole?), inattentivedriving (at least two left of center),
one busted a red light, acouple or three almost rear-ended the car in front. Folks, if you are going to tell the world you are safely operatingyour
motor vehicle, the pictures need to match. If you are going toput a
picture of you in the car driving, it helps if you pay attentionto what you
do instead of dinking on the PC, talking on the radio, digfor something on
the floor or in the back seat, etc. Don't you allhave partners?
Maybe it would be a better practice to NOT show video while you arebreaking
the law. After all, these end up on TV and you don't getpaid.
I'm getting the idea that this is too hard for some but, please, TRYto be
SAFE out there. Tomorrow you are in Oklahoma. I will be toobusy to watch
but I bet someone in a clearly marked car will be.
Fast forward to a recent Skywarn safety talk by the National Weather
Service office in Norman and the National Weather Service office in
Wichita. The goal is reinforced every year.

The Wichita Eagle reports:


As storm chasing grows in popularity, so do the problems
There was hope this year at ChaserCon where folks from the Kansas and
Oklahoma Highway Patrol joined a panel to talk about vehicle safety in
storms.
There were positive results; one could hope they continue.
Then a ham radio fellow posted a video of a chaser willingly driving into debris in his effort to be a "free lance photographer". The individual was
not reporting anything to anyone who could actually warn the public.
The online discussion went downhill from there.
At any rate, for #Skywarn ACES is Awareness, Communication, Escape Routes,
Safe Zones. https://t.co/pkKFwPtydk is the training site. #wrn
@WRNAmbassadors @Kia pic.twitter.com/2hcZ2mdCfl— kc5fm February 26, 2019 AwarenessCommunicationEscape RoutesSafe Zones
All that's included in the online Skywarn class.
As one emergency manager once said more than once "Situational Awareness is
a TERRIBLE thing to lose."
Willingly driving into an active debris field is dangerous and speaks to
the loss of situational awareness. Being in the area of a tornado and
filming it, certainly speaks volumes to the lack of community spirit, when
the tornado goes unreported.
"We're all going to DIE" are the last recorded words of one veteran chaser crew. Friends, if it can happen to them, it's pretty apparent we are ALL
not bullet-proof.
For nearly 60 years, the only known chaser deaths were driving-related. The first was Christopher Phillips, a University of Oklahoma undergraduate
student, killed in a hydroplaning accident when swerving to miss a rabbit
in 1984.[26] Three other incidents occurred when Jeff Wear was driving home from a hurricane chase in 2005,[27] when Fabian Guerra swerved to miss a
deer while driving to a chase in 2009,[28] and when a wrong-way driver
resulted in a head-on collision that killed Andy Gabrielson returning from
a chase in 2012.[29] On 31 May 2013, an extreme event led to the first
known chaser deaths inflicted directly by weather when the widest tornado
ever recorded struck near El Reno, Oklahoma. Engineer Tim Samaras, his photographer son Paul, and meteorologist Carl Young were killed doing in
situ probe and infrasonic field research by an exceptional combination of events in which an already large and rain-obscured tornado swelled within
less than a minute to 2.6 miles (4.2 km) wide simultaneously as it changed direction and accelerated.[30][31] Several other chasers were also struck
and some injured by this tornado and its parent supercell's rear flank downdraft.[32] Three chasers were killed, two in one vehicle and one in another, when their vehicles collided in West Texas in 2017, bringing the
total number of known traffic related fatalities to 7.[33] There are other incidents in which chasers were injured by automobile accidents, lightning strikes, and tornado impacts.[citation needed] While chasing a tornado
outbreak on 13 March 1990, KWTV television photographer Bill Merickel was
shot and injured near Lindsay, Oklahoma.[34][35]
Friends from Germany come to the USA to study storms and share mutually beneficial techniques in Skywarn. These folks are very comfortable with autobahn speeds. The reports received from them indicate more of a concern
for chasers than for the storm itself.
A former volunteer (still friend) turned tornado tour guide offers similar observations.

The current average lead-time for tornado warnings is 13 minutes.

How would you like to live in a community where the lead time went from
seven minutes to ZERO because a chaser is spending time videoing, without reporting, the tornado seven minutes away from the community that got NO
lead time? There's a video proving that.
To rephrase the goal from a retired emergency manager, "NO one dies on my shift". One of these days, he'll quit caring if you arrive alive or not.
Until then, please memorize this photo:
Your Official Oklahoma Highway Patrol Tornado Chaser Chase Vehicle
BE SAFE


Y'all know I love when you send weather pics, but PLEASE don't take them
while driving. I don't share pics that were clearly taken while driving; I would encourage other Mets to do the same. The likes/shares you may get are
NOT worth risking the safety of everyone on the road. pic.twitter.com/GIwEvbtFnq— Hannah Strong (@WxStrong) June 1, 2019

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