A unique standpoint comes from TheHoldSteady in reaction to our post on storm chasers:
I live in Kansas in an older house with no storm shelter nor basement. My town was nearly hit by the same tornado that just about wiped Greensburg from the face of the earth. Given that, I despise these ’storm chasers’ who aren’t out there to warn people of danger, but are merely engaging in sick, TV-financed voyeurism thinly wrapped in a tissue of lies about ’science’. This whole thing can be wrapped up with a quote from Don Henley’s song Dirty Laundry: “It’s interesting when people die”. I suspect the ratings for this series is much higher in those areas of the US rarely threatened by tornadoes. Enjoy it all you want, but acknowledge what it really is: an nature-driven snuff film.
Being from Ohio I was regularly freaked out as a kid when they’d blow the tornado siren so I agree with Mr. HoldSteady’s assessment wholeheartedly.
I have to disagree with what TheHoldSteady is saying. While I don’t live in tornado valley that doesn’t mean that my town is devoid of tornadoes. In fact once or twice every summer my town was under some amount of threat of there being a tornado at any point. When I was born in 1985 there was a huge tornado that pretty much destroyed one whole half of town leaving nothing standing but the Virgin Mary outside of one of the churches. Another tornado about 5 years ago ripped up the outside areas of my town.
So before he gets too preachy about this subject, he needs to remember that there are people who are just like him or at least has experienced what he has. In light of that fact, I love storm chasing shows. I think that they go extremely far to educate people about tornadoes in a safe way. Plus, these people do go really far for science. Sure a lot of them tape the storms and that is primarily what they do. BUT, a lot of them also contract out their work to companies like Boeing and NASA.
Plus, storm chasers likely account for almost every phoned in tornado to warn people of the incoming danger.
I think TheHoldSteady should stop complaining about storm chaser shows and use that effort to stop whining and build a safer house.
I’m currently going through the process of applying to grad school to study atmospheric science. While I’ll admit there are storm chasers out there that give the rest a bad name, this is BY NO MEANS the reason all of them are out there.
Meteorologists can’t help but be fascinated by the awesome power of storms strong enough to produce tornadoes. It is this very fascination that will one day save lives: Interest in science leads to research. Research leads to better understanding of science. Better understanding of science leads to better predictive tools, such as forecasting.
While I won’t say Mr. Holdsteady may not have encountered some overenthusiastic (or overcapitalistic) storm chasers, many are out there to make a difference, and it is their tenacity and drive you should be praising, not denigrating.
I’ve lived in Tornado Alley for years. And just because you live there doesn’t mean a whole lot. He whines about them, but doesn’t bother to build some kind of shelter, or reinforce a part of his house so that he’s safe if a tornado approaches?
And he may have a point about the TV storm chaser chasers, but the chasers themselves are legitimate people who risk their lives to develop information we have about the nature of tornados. He’s a typical whiner who sits and watches TV and does nothing about it himself.
If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen. Or, if you don’t like the weather, move to California.
And dude, learn how to use “nor” and ‘an” properly.