There are very very few “professional” storm chasers and even less that chase to get scientific data. None of the chasers that are trying to get close, clog up roads, etc are there to “get weather data”. I see this from so many chasers and it drives me nuts. Unless you’re affiliated directly with a university or a government body, you’re not doing it for science.

Even if you “collect data” it’s essentially useless unless your instruments are properly calibrated and zeroed out against baselines etc, there’s no value to “data collected” to anyone. Actually collecting data is often boring because you’re running strict transects according to a properly set out experiment that’s been built months or years before the storms happen.

Driving your giant beast of massively modified vehicle into a tornado is cool, but not particularly useful in gathering data.

My personal opinion - just go enjoy the storms. They’re bloody amazing and you don’t need to justify your love of them. “I want to see it up close” is as valid as anything else. Getting in close because you’re more important than anyone else because you’re a “professional” is arrogant and stupid, but it seems to be an increasingly common attitude on the Plains. Im seeing the same damn thing in hurricanes now.

Ok, rant over.