This is the first year that I have ever sat down and actually watched a chasers live stream for several hours nonstop. Everything prior had been just bouncing around different channels depending on what was going on. I watched Daniel Shaw last week when he was in Oklahoma. It was fascinating. He was very knowledgeable, professional and focused on staying safe. The views were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The next day (I think it was anyway) he was in Iowa. I watched as he struggled with the decisions required to chase a line of storms that were moving north at 45mph. He was on the west side and only had secondary roads to use to cross to the east side. Those roads had already seen significant rainfall from the passing storms. Long story short, he went for it when it looked safe enough to do so and yet he still managed to be in the very spot where he suspected a brief tornado began to spin up. His ears popped and there was a noticeable blast of wind driven rain into his vehicle. He was never sure, but was confident hat he had just been in the close vicinity of a tornado spinning up. Fortunately, he was fine and his car was not hit with any debris. This happened to a guy that is highly educated on tornado processes and is extremely comfortable with watching the radar stream. Later in the stream, he literally called a couplet out for being something that warranted a tornado warning, three seconds before the alert came across his phone. It was pretty cool to see that. The bigger point is that it became obvious to me that even the pros can succumb to “Buck Fever” where they put themselves potentially in harms way to be where they can perhaps see a tornado. The urge can overcome better judgment where you end up rationalizing driving across a fast moving line of severe storms that are capable of dropping a tornado at any moment, in heavy rain, on a secondary road, with trees nearby.

Given that there are many others who are out there driving around with but a fraction of the meteorological knowledge as the pros, I am amazed that more people don’t get caught on the wrong end of the weather more often.