Severe Weather - Wed May 19

[SB Shock]

Pretty pronounced changed from the Day 2,3 to the Day 1. Looks like a huge outbreak in Central OK with Southern KS on the periphery.





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[wsushox1]

This will probably end up being a left over convection type of event where we get very heavy rain tonight. Thats about all I see.

Turn Around and Don't Drown

[BenWSU]

Long track tornadoes for central Oklahoma but the southern counties bordering Oklahoma have a chance for golfball hail.

[twister17e]

Couple of interesting things resulted on this day in Oklahoma.

1st a must see pic of a storm chasers and locals traffic jam here (Courtesy J.R. Hehnly on StormTrack).

2nd, the TIV and various other vehicles (including what is likely a storm chase tour van and Center for Severe Weather Research SUV) driving recklessly and passing in no passing zones on hills etc.

Video 1 (Youtube)
Video 2 (Youtube)
Video 3 (Youtube)
Video 4 (Youtube)

Sean Casey's (TIV driver) response.

I'm responding to video of the TIV convoy passing other chasers and the complaint that we were doing so unsafely. I realize that people do not know that our team has radios and that we give a "clear" to the follow vehicles so they know that there is no oncoming traffic. Also I am up in the turret so that I can get a better perspective of traffic ahead. Also the video that I saw was "zoomed" in, optically compressing space, so that the hill and vehicles seems closer together than in reality. Finally, the TIV or any of it's follow vehicles have never been in or caused an accident. Also, want to say that I appreciate your concern for chasers safety and I will do my best to make it a priority for my entire team for the rest of the season. I'm not perfect, I know that more than anyone, but I really respect the chaser community and I take your comments seriously.

Dr Wurman's response about all the traffic congestion that day. Appeared on Weather Channel's website. This is verbatim with grammar errors and all.

Josh Wurman, Ph. D, CtrSevere Weather Research

There were huge crowds of storm chasers yesterday (Wednesday, May 19) and thosechasers did direct harm to Vortex 2 science. There were hundreds of them andthey were traveling at the same speed as the storm and they were preventing myability to get ahead of the storm to outflank it and to get ahead of it and V2 has an important mission. We’re trying tostudy tornado genesis so that the warnings are made better. I think that’s more important than gettingclose up video of a tornado but apparently these hundreds of chasers didn’tthink that and they wouldn’t let us by. It’s always easy to say it’s a few bad eggs but no body let us by we hada hundred cars right in front of us there were chase tour companies armaturesout there trying to stay as close as they can to the mess cyclone and notletting the scientists by. I think it’sreally disgraceful they’re not letting us do our important mission

Oklahoma has the most. It has big universities and there are lots ofstudents graduating from those universities who are graduating from theirclasses now and they’re out there. But there are also chase tour companies who arevery interested in the weather. I thinkit’s great people appreciate the weather, I support storm chasing. It’s likehiking or rafting. People are out appreciating nature but please let the sciencevehicles by. We have an importantmission. We’re trying to make the towns you live in safer by learning how tomake better warnings

I’m hoping by saying this I will help these chasers understand andthese tour companies understand that we have an important mission. We’re notjust another chaser behind you. When aDOW (Doppler on Wheels) is behind you with big flashing amber lights and wants to get by. We’re notout there trying to get video. We’re not out there giving a chase tour to get abetter view of the storm. Pull over 30 seconds. It doesn’t take long for a bunchof our vehicles to get by and you can get back on the storm and see it and getvideo to your heart’s content. But we are out there trying to make tornadowarnings better. Let us do our job.

What Vortex2 has to do is get radars out and other assets outahead of the storm. We were ducking under the storm the other day trying to go60 on a 60 mile an hour road to get ahead of the storm. The chasers going 30 mph just wanted toparallel the storm so there was a rolling road block that consisted of maybea hundred vehicles which we couldn’t pass it was very frustrating.

For my operations and for Vortex2 it meant we did not get duelDoppler storm for nearly the periods we needed to do to do our science and myarray of 16 tornado pods did not get deployed. We did not get low leveltornado data of those tornadoes so science really took a hit yesterday (Wednesday, May 19) becausechasers did not let us get past.

[ShockTalk]

Wurman's got a Ph. D? Boy, that was one tough read.

[SHOCKvalue]

Wow, that stuff reads like the written correspondence I get from my engineer friends. Meteorology study must work out of the same corner of the brain. Crunch numbers jus fine but cain't shpell; yous commas; or figur out an para graff brake.

And if I lived on one of those chaser congested roads, and was trying to get my vehicle home in a garage and out of the hail, as well as myself to safety, I would not be a gentile person. Ever been passed by a velocity factor of two?

[ShockerFever]

I have a hunch that was drafted from an iphone.

[ShockTalk]

After watching all those videos and seeing the pic, I bet this gets some state attention.

Whether a chase team has a lead vehicle giving the "all clear" to pass or not, this just doesn't seem right. Do any of these chasers, Vortex2 or otherwise, have any legal right to pass in no passing zones, speed or go way to slow, and disrupt traffic, particularly in bad weather???? There were a lot of those "innocent" drivers doing some serious getting out of the way.

As for the chase tour vans, that's nuts. If I was the state and I got videos of them breaking the law, I'd put them out of business along with some stiff fines.

OK all you "weather geeks", have at me. Explain to me these actions were justified, legal, and not potentially hazardous.

[RoyalShock]

Those morons are one of the reasons I haven't chased in several years. And it appears to have only gotten worse.

That's what happens when you get a bunch of arrogant, self-important weather geeks behind the wheels of a fleet of vehicles.

And you have guys like Casey and Wurman as the tribal chiefs.

[wsushox1]

They were not justified at all. Even though I like the weather and V2 they have no right to do this. Sure they are out there for Scientific Research and I have no problem with them endangering their lives but endangering other people's lives crosses the line.

Chaser convergance is a BIG problem, it will only be a matter of time where an road is packed and escapeless (no escape routes due to traffic) and a tornado crosses the road and tosses cars like matchbox cars. This is why, you don't chase on High Risk Days, and don't chase in May. June is the best, imo, if you want to chase.