El Reno Tornado, Tim Samaras, Data Collection On The Barometer Bob Show

Had an opportunity to discuss the El Reno Tornado, the data collected from this beast as well as the work Tim Samaras and I were doing together and his passing on The Barometer Bob show last evening. Below is the embedded player. It is a little long but it is certainly worth taking time to listen to it all. Hope you enjoy

Watch live streaming video from wrbn at livestream.com

hmmmm.... Storm Chasers????

Decided to sit down and actually watch Storm Chasers last night and I thought a few comments and thoughts were in order.
Very interesting to see some of the storms and structure from April not to mention some great video. Was great to see more of Tony L. interacting and in front of the camera. I met Tony for the first time in 2006 in Denver and then again last year at the "Steve Miller OK party". I have certainly seen him many times on the road chasing and in my opinion what you see is what you get. He is a top notch guy with a passion for chasing.
I really enjoyed seeing him doing his thing in the heat of the battle and playing the game. Tim also did a great job, as always, and is someone who I respect very much.
I also thought that Brandon Ivy and Matt H. did a wonderful forecasting job despite not being able to check a battery before a chase. lol

Of course, a show is done by editing and can go many different ways depending on how you edit the video. One way for a docu-drama/reality type show such as Storm Chasers to go is to create "issues" between certain characters. Theses "issues" are usually done to keep the audience on the edge of their seat in hopes that they will not change the channel.
Some of the "issues" that a network/production company can and will use can be anything from "he said, she said" to actual verbal abuse from one character towards another.

No doubt Discovery used these "issues" with the situation between Sean and Reed regarding the TIV and the "Big Red Shoe"
Admittedly, and as I have said before and took much heat for, there is no doubt that one resembles the other. I think it would be safe to say that one is a direct copy of the other, at least in the reason for building it, which in some circles would/could be considered stealing.
Am I suggesting that Reed Timmer stole the idea to build "The Big Red Shoe" directly from Sean Casey??? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...........

The answer is hell yes he did. Much the same as stealing the idea of a probe coming from Tim S not to mention the RC plane idea being stolen from Verne Carlson.

There is no question that the word stealing brings thoughts of a really bad person to mind, this however is not one of those times, and the reason why or difference you ask? Well, before you come to tar and feather me or bring Doswells Spanish inquisition to hunt me down let me explain.........It is a fact of life that the wheel was invented once...everybody else just "refined" it. A simple fact when looking at Goodyear....they made it better.
In my opinion Reed took an idea that Sean had, worked angle and simply made it better.
There is certainly nothing wrong with taking an idea and making it better and then capitalizing on that idea financially or otherwise. It is actually how most business work and how most "new" products are built.
It is not a bad thing per say and although at times it may seem somewhat unethical, it's just the way the world works.

On a different note, it was interesting to see some "issues" between Joel and Reed start to show.
Again, it is hard to tell how much was acting for the camera and how much is real and unfortunately the viewers may never really know, especially if they are not involved in or with the chase community.

All in all not a bad couple of shows IMO.

Pictures of Lone Grove & MOC #6

Spent the day on Sunday down in Lone Grove with Jeff Smith, I was able to participate in Mission Of Compassion and although I had some reservations about going down there, I had a wonderful time. It is not often that we as chasers are able to help in the recovery process after a tornado, we basically focus on the forecast, the nowcast and the chase so this was a little different for me. It was difficult to go in and view the damage in Lone Grove and at times it felt like I was back at Greensburg. This was a killer tornado and the damage was reflective of that

especially south of town in the mobile home park. What were once trailers were basically nothing more that splinters now. Of course there was stuff everywhere and while my sister and I walked around and took pictures and video we realized that the "stuff" was once some ones life. It is something that most people just simply do not understand.

To me, it was very clear why and how so many people died in this tornado. Most of the deaths came from the mobile home park and in driving through the local area it was very apparent that these people had basically no where to go. The park was located to the east side of a north/south road and had only one way in and one way out. There were not any tornado shelters nor were there any low areas that provided any real protection. With the tornado moving from southwest to northeast, driving away or escaping in a vehicle was not an option once the tornado was south of the trailer park. I spoke with a survivor who told me that they waited to see just where the tornado was going to go and when they thought about leaving, they did not have time.

Had any of those people tried to escape via driving out of the park they basically had only two options, drive north into town and go east or west on hwy 70 or drive south to the next county road and go east or west. Both options would no doubt have been costly as the tornado appeared to grow to its strongest and widest width through this area. It looked to me like the maximum tornado width in this area was 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile wide.

While we noted some massive damage some of which did appear to be in the EF-4 range,

WE DID NOT SEE ANY SIGN OF SCOURING OF THE ROAD, STREET OR CONCRETE ANYWHERE NEAR LONE GROVE! This includes 7-8 miles south of town where we picked up the damage path all the way through town and back north of town 4-5 miles.

The pictures and reports of what was referred to as "peeling off of the pavement" was simply bogus. The road had a small washout and had been unimproved for over 3 years per one of the locals who lived just down the road. It is a shame that some felt the need to sensationalize this tragedy and terrible destruction for self promotion.

I plan on posting video and some more pictures as I get time. A big shout out to Jeff Smith for putting MOC 6 together and for allowing me to go. Thanks Jeff!

On a different note, some of my video from Greensburg has been shown on the promo for The Weather Channels "Tornado Week" Tonight more of my video will be shown as the latest show tells the story through the eyes of the locals in Greensburg. And then on March 29Th my story including my interviews and video will air, some of the video has not been seen before and should prove to be interesting. If you have had any interest in Greensburg this may be something to see.

DISCOVERY STORM CHASERS

Well the first episode was shown tonight and my thoughts are the same as they were last year.....this show SUCKS! Let me make it very clear right now, there are a few that I really like on the show...Reed Timmer and company did a wonderful job as expected, infact, Reed WAS THE SHOW!
After being lucky enough to be in Tornado Hunters, I know what it is like trying to deal with ill informed and sometimes very stupid producers. Both Randy and I were put into situations when we did the show, but we held onto our guns as far as how the show should go and how the truth should be told, not only about the video but our story as well.
This was certainly not the case with this years Storm Chasers or even the last few years.
The first episode itself basically had the same "flavor" as in years past with all the same stupid ideas all over again, "non truthful" video (out of order), bad story line and what was/is Sean Casey thinking? I will refrain from telling the story from near Glenn Elder this year Sean!
As far as I am concerned, the best thing Discovery did for this "show" was bring in a real chaser and Reed and company were the highlight of the night for sure.