Storm Chasing Hi Tech Style, Radar Junkies

As I’m sitting here, cleaning some of my chasing gear for the upcoming season, I came across the following old archive chase photograph seen here to the left. It’s a photo of David Cornwell and myself, chasing storms in central Florida back in the summer of 1998. I noticed in the photo the Direct TV satellite dish, and let out a good laugh, remembering the days when we would haul around that dish just to get some weather updates from The Weather Channel. Not only would we watch TWC, but also HBO and other networks while waiting for the cap to break while on our Great Plains expeditions. I truly can remember the hot afternoons on the side of the road, awaiting the storms and trying to find the Direct TV signal for 25 minutes. Funny stuff!

Today is a whole other world when it come to getting your weather data fix when on the road or in storm chase mode. There are many options these days in getting radar, text, satellite and model data when chasing mobile. Today Storm Chasers use everything from Cell Data cards, WiFi, Satellite downlink systems (WxWorx) and good old dial up. Data made available in real time when chasing, has greatly helped Chasers to find their target and increase storm interception over the last 5-6 years, and it’s only getting better.

I find myself when chasing in Florida, hurricanes or Tornado Alley, using my wireless data broadband card almost non-stop for continuous data flow of radar and other weather data information. I also used WxWorx for radar data during the 2005-2006 storm and hurricane chase seasons, but I’m not sure if I will continue to use it as the mobile wireless broadband data cards and networks are only getting better and faster and half the cost for the full WxWorx setup.

Chasing storms in the world today, is nothing like in 1998 in the above photo. There is a lot of Hi Tech gear involved including, laptops, PDA’s, Cell Phones, GPS, GPS overlay with radar (Wxworx), wireless broadband data cards, WiFi, Satellite up and down link systems, pro video and audio cameras, ham radio, and digital photography. Getting fresh data is very important and when you can get current surface obs, radar and Visible satellite imagery every few minutes, your chances of a successful chase greatly increase.

Every now and then, I go out bare with only NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) playing on my installed 2m/440 Icom Dual banned Ham Radio, and some maps. When chasing in Florida, that’s mostly how I chase, but when on my several weeks of chase expeditions, like when in the Plains, and hurricane chasing, so much has been invested into the trip, that I want to make sure I’m aware of everything storm-wise around me, and that I see the storms that I traveled from so far away to see and breath.

Hi Tech Storm Chasing is the norm today, but today’s hardware and software used in the field, will one day be laughable like in the photograph above.