Chasing has passed me by ...

This morning, in the wake of the news about deaths from tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas, I found my FaceBook status messages filled with chasers crowing about their great chase days, shaky video showing chasers getting close to large tornadoes, and -- as an afterthought -- comments like "our thoughts and prayers are with CityXX."

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of my very first serious storm chase (on 18 April 1972). In the time that's passed since then, chasing has grown far beyond anything I could have imagined back then. Unfortunately, I may have had something to do with that growth, in my youthful ignorance of the consequences of extolling the virtues of chasing during interviews for crockumentaries about tornadoes and chasers. It's quite evident to me that chasing as a "sport" has passed by me, on its way to whatever destiny the future holds for it. I've become a gripy old curmudgeon, well removed from the "cutting edge" of storm chasing. I can't say I have any wish whatsoever to seek to keep up with what chasing has become, however.

I look at the videos people claim are fantastic on FB but I see almost no quality video. Most of it is the "edgy" sort of "reality video" that's all the rage these days. People cheering and having "stormgasms" while they bounce down some road on the way to a close encounter. In those close encounters, for the most part, the video sucks (by my standards). In fact, it's my opinion that seeing a tornado up close is not the most dramatic or exciting visual content. What's so spectacular about dust and debris filling the viewfinder as it flies by? I could get that in a microburst or gust front! No, the standard for video is now to get the "dramatic" shot -- OMG! We're in the $%#@ing tornado! We're in the tornado! We're in the tornado! -- even when the video shows clearly that they're not in the tornado. Clearly, this reflects the fact that for most chasers today, it's about them and not about the storms. Look at me! I'm doing something fantastic! Pay attention to me!! Such chasers are quite evidently immature and have little or no real appreciation for the atmospheric spectacle they're ostensibly seeking.

I've seen video from in tornadoes and -- no surprise here -- it shows little or nothing! Air filled with dust and debris in very dim light. Big whup! The desire to see inside a tornado may have its roots in some interviews with tornado survivors in the 1950s, whose accounts strike me today as likely to be pure fabrication, or at the very least, wildly exaggerated. Many of us have expected the view inside a tornado to be a disappointment, and what evidence exists seems to confirm this. It really has little point outside of those who are trying to gather scientific observations close to and within tornadoes. It's just a stunt, otherwise. But such stunts sell well in the media, of course. They make movies and "reality" series about pointless stunts, and there's fame and fortune to be had ...

A while ago, I posted some thoughts about my feelings after the 24 May 1973 Union City, Oklahoma tornado (see item #32 here). Doing the damage survey brought home the reality that tornadoes do devastating things to people. This feeling was reinforced after the 03 May 1999 tornadoes. If I'm going to be excited about seeing these, I had to come to terms with this aspect of tornado reality. Whatever excitement I feel about seeing a tornado needs to be kept to myself and never given voice in any medium where tornado victims might be present. Stormgasms on video aired publicly sullies the image of all storm chasers, reinforcing the impression that all chasers are thoughtless idiots. Come to think of it, this impression is apparently in the process of becoming more and more representative!

My feelings as an atheist are that prayers have essentially zero substance and can't be shown to have any effect. Offering your prayers for tornado victims is to offer them nothing! If you can't do anything more meaningful than offer prayers, I'd rather you kept your mouth shut. I suppose it amounts to an expression of sympathy, and if taken as that, it nevertheless remains valueless for the victims. Empathy (i.e., knowing how someone feels because you've experienced what they've experienced) is more meaningful, and might lead someone to do something more substantive than offer your "thoughts and prayers". Most chasers have not experienced the devastation brought about by a tornado, and so are incapable of empathy. I detest it when infantile chasers are bragging about their exciting chase day and then throw away a "thoughts and prayers" comment at the end of their exultation over seeing devastating storms. A statement of this sort at the end of a stormgasm in a public medium like FB or TV rings hollow and hypocritical. Chasers need to think this one through quite a bit more thoroughly.

Nowadays, some chasers attempt to get involved in search and rescue efforts after tornadoes pass through towns. If someone is injured and you're right there, by all means do whatever you can to help. But going into tornado-damaged areas to "help" is misguided. Most chasers are ill-equipped (both materially and in terms of training) to be of much assistance to first responders, so it's likely that those who do this are only going to get in the way of professionals (i.e., first responders) and are likely to cause more harm than good. Further, these amateurs may be injured themselves -- there's considerable danger in walking through piles of tornado debris, especially for untrained, ill-equipped folks -- thereby creating more work for the professionals. Chasers doing this may believe they're helping, but it's unlikely that they can be of much help. Think it through, people. Stay out of tornado damage tracks and let the professionals do their job. Personally, I think a lot of this is motivated by guilt feelings after a stormgasm, but whatever the motivation, I think it's an inappropriate response.

Yep -- chasing has passed me by -- and I pulled over and let it do so.