I lived in Edmond most of my life before I moved to Denver in 2005. Like many Oklahoma kids, I remember being hoarded into the elementary school gym at Ida Freeman at which time a film called, "Terrible Twisters" was shown in all its glory as "The Chosen One" (Gary England) gave us the play by play.

Now, I am not sure I was ready to see such a display at 6 years of age, and I am sure my mom would agree after a couple of nightmares I had narrated by Gary England.

My first tornado experience was the 86 tornado in Edmond. I'll never forget Rambo was on television when we were hurried into the car to drive to a storm shelter at I think John Ross elementary. My brother and dad were drunk with joy once they were able to spot the tornado, and both tormented me about hte chances of my survival. I guess this is probably a rite of passage for kids in Oklahoma as the Masi warriors killing lions with sticks is in Africa.

After living in Denver for three years, I really missed the severe weather. Once I got back I spent more and more time casually perusing the message boards and FAQ pages with the thought that maybe one of these days I might try and chase, which leads me to my questions after wasting your time above..........Do you find that many people talk a big game, but once they are in the danger zone of a real tornado tend to freak out under the pressure and never chase again?

That's interesting you had to drive to a shelter, if that's the case your better off chasing. I think there were more tornadoes in CO this year than OK anyway. Good luck in your endeavors.

Some do. I've met more than a few chasers who didn't have the self control needed in tense situations to be out chasing storms. Some people just aren't wired for that.

What I find out more and more is people coming out new, building up these nice websites and vehicles with hardly a chase under their belt proclaiming they are the latest and greatest, and a year or two you never hear from them again.

They think it's the cool thing to get in to and it will make them popular, then the reality of driving 100s and 100s of miles, often not seeing what you came for. The long hours, crappy food, and not enough sleep. Some people just aren't wired to handle that either, and they go on to the next thing that catches their fancy.

One element that is common among every storm chaser that has been at it for years and years, they all have PASSION! If you don't have the passion for it, you will never last very long at it.

I think that pretty much goes for anything really.

The long hours, the failures, the driving are all reasons I probably will never do it.

David Drummond wrote:
They think it's the cool thing to get in to and it will make them popular, then the reality of driving 100s and 100s of miles, often not seeing what you came for. The long hours, crappy food, and not enough sleep. Some people just aren't wired to handle that.


David, That description fits the life of a professional musician to a tee. Does that mean I'm already pre-wired? Hay-wired, cross-wired, shorted out may also apply.

JW

Hard-wired, Jim.

And the 'passion' must be there in you - chasing in the trees. Gritty.

Why is it that I'm discovering that so many people fascinated by severe weather are also musicians?

It must be something in the DNA.

My own experiences with chasing with a driver who has no idea what they were doing keeps me now carefully chasing from a distance. However, even though I was terrified when I once discovered a funnel directly above my head that just served to remind me to stop and look from a distance. And also forced me to force my now-husband into skywarn.

I think it depends completely on the person. For me, storm chasing started when I had nothing better to do on a saturday afternoon, and I have been hooked ever since.

Not exactly gasorg, I am fascinated by severe weather and have a passion for it... and I don't even know how to play a musical instrument.

But I am a computer geek .

As for the fear thing... With me its kind of both. There was once in 2004 May 30, an F0 tornado touches down in my city. I wasn't really even scared at that point.... just more fascinated than anything else. Kind of that "hypontized" effect.

But this year when I chased what I thought was a spin up tornado... turns out to be a gustnado (I am still learning). I was scared. But I was scared because I felt I was too close to it. My first instinct was to run and get away... but I held back and waited to see where it was going to go. The circulation that formed vanished as fast as it formed, but it moved just north east of me. I felt it was too dangerous to follow because I couldn't see and I was mainly worried about the power lines and turned around heading further south then east trying to catch back up with it. But it already moved on, but again I just chalked it up as a learning experience. Got some pretty wicked photos of cloud formations But we got mostly rain than anything else, even though there was a confirmed EF-1 tornado 12 miles west of me just 15 mins prior to that. Then again I live in a valley so my delays mainly due to safety (avoiding hills).

I would agree with several others... about having the passion part. There are times where I felt like giving up chasing forever and a while where I didn't think about it.. (3-4 months). Then had another round of severe weather come through and I was hooked again. I even tried finding other things to do... I just keep coming back to it. Its kind of like my passion and curse at the same time.

is this flight to miami ? quack...quack...quack