All original images (C) Steve Douglass unless otherwise noted.

All original images (C) Steve Douglass unless otherwise noted. Permission required for commercial use or publishing.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Rant: Tornado Tourists Suck!



Me thinks there are too many stupid amateur storm chasing junkies who know just enough about storms to be dangerous.

Its getting so bad now that I have seen traffic jams caused by gawkers who will do anything to get close to a tornado, including those dumb enough to pay good money to go on a "tornado tours" with yahoos who follow the Vortex trucks.

Mark my words, one of these van-loads of tornado tourists is going to get rolled and these idiots will become front page news or in their haste to get away (because they were stupid enough to get themselves trapped between a softball-sized hail core and a twister) they will cause others to die in a fiery head-on collision.

I hesitate to post a link to this video, because:

A: It's not very good.

B: Only encourages the yahoos but - what you see here is an example of what NOT to do.

Unfortunately, someone is going to die and their demise will be caught on High-Def video (and then widely distributed by the media or on YouTube ) for your entertainment pleasure.

I've been a NWS certified storm spotter for over 15 years and I have never seen it this bad.


Author's note: Shortly after I posted this, a relative of mine thought (for some unknown reason) this rant was a reference to her. She occasionally goes out with her husband and photographs storms and took offense to my post.

I want to sing "You're So Vain" but the truth is this rant was in response to the dozens of chasers I've encountered this season.

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