|
|
|
Update: May 9, 2008: Check out this link about a storm chaser being arrested a couple days ago chasing in TX. It's the Sherrif's announcement standing up for his debuty. This has been getting some press as it was on DrudgeReport yesterday and fark.com . http://www.oaoa.com/news/barnes_16842___article.html/weather_crane.html
Brian runs a tour group and was stopped in a public rest stop watching a storm. A cop asks him to leave, Brian refuses since he has a right to be there watching the storm, and he gets arrested! He was arrested for "obstructing highway or other passageway,"....which witnesses report that he was not. It seems pretty odd to me if that's what he was arrested for, why is that Sherrif's comments about everything BUT details on how he was obstructing something. The article makes it sound like the cop thought he was in danger from the storm and that's why he asked him to leave. Then it mentions a bunch of crap about spotting and reporting to their whatever. As if that gives you more right to watch a storm....it doesn't. Why are all these things brought up in there, and nothing explaining how he was obstructing a highway or other passageway(in a rest stop!....wasn't even parked on a shoulder)? IMO a cop can suggest you leave an area over a storm, but not arrest you for not doing so. Last I checked, a chaser that chases storms frequently has a better handle on storm behavior than your average cop. If a storm is truly threatening your location, a cop will not have time to arrest you. I mean really. How would you feel if you are watching a storm you know isn't threatening you, and you are told to leave a public place...then arrested when you stand up for yourself? What a joke. Reminds me of the whole seatbelt law, something else really stupid(even though I always wear mine when on the highway). You should be free to hurt just yourself if you so desire! Here's a funny one on that. You can ride a motorcycle without a helmet in states like SD or IA, but you still have to wear a seatbelt in a car! How dumb is that? Pretty damn dumb.
Arrested for essentially not leaving an area where funnels were seen earlier....brother.
And yes I realize, maybe there's more to the story and him obstructing things. It just seems rather telling to me it's not mentioned in that article from the Sherrif, but a bunch of non-relevant stuff is.
3 different videos of this HERE.
Update: May 7, 2008:
Account for this one now up HERE.
Been awhile since I posted any updates. I was on the May 1st supercell in se SD, but wasn't really that cool, so I never made a post on it. Yesterday I was on the tornado warned supercell in northern NE, which was pretty long lived. Road options screwed me early, but I caught it again at Bartlett, where it just about produced. GR3 kept saying 3.25 and 3.75 inch hail with it, and it's a long ways from radars there. I'm setting out to lose all my windows this year, just so I can have some crazy hail video and experience it...but it wasn't to be. I tried. Then it was a race to get ahead of the growing intense line. It had some crazy differential motions along the shelf...which wasn't long yet. Then I had an intense dust devil go across right in front of my car. Here are a couple images of it as it's right of me, south of the highway, not far away. More later.
Update: April 27, 2008: Full account from the last chase up HERE now. Includes a video of some of the hail at Osborne KS. Not impressive other than a big big bounce on one of them.
|
Want a cool coffee table book, full of insane storm structures? Here you go. This is a book made by myself and Eric Nguyen, the best storm photographer/chaser I've ever known. Just released this April. It's published by Thames and Hudson of London, one of the most respected publishers of illustrated books. It's 194 pages of storm images, from 17 individual chases, 5 of which we were both on together, though at different locations. Eric also has some hail images included and a small bit on chasing equipment. I've got a few ice-storm images, as well as auroras. Winding out the book is a 12 page section titled, "The Science of Storms" written by the one and only Chuck Doswell, a well known, respected, veteran chaser and scientist. If anyone can give you a quick, while very informative, bit of intormation on storm science...it's him. At under $20 new online, it seems like a true no brainer to me. If I had to guess, I'd guess that is about 1/5th what I spend on average each chase for gas.....usually for no storms or not very interesting ones. This has several of our highlights, from all those many miles of persuing the sky. Click the image on the right to go to Amazon(or just click HERE). Hard Cover versions available at the UK Amazon here. German version at the German Amazon here.
|
|
|
Here is a dvd I've recently completed. It's a best of highlight dvd to replace the others I had, except for Storm Structure 101. HERE is the dvd page with the YouTube intro clip on there as well. |
|
|
All Images ©ExtremeInstability.com |
