Storm Chasers TIV, etc. (Discovery Channel)

[Frank2]

The TIV looks like it's something out of the Mad Max movie - it is pretty silly IMHO...

Actually, probably the most dangerous thing they did with it was during the 2007 season, when they pulled into a bank parking lot to use the ATM - if I were a bank employee and saw that pull into the lot, I'd have pushed the panic button...

The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NOAA) uses (or used) a version of Dorothy seen in Twister (actually named TOTO), to "get inside" a tornado, instead of having someone drive into it - as far as I know, aside from hurricane hunter flights, NOAA does not intend to put their employees into such a dangerous situation - hurricane flights are safer in that sense, since they do not have to contend with the deadly risk of running into "flying" cars or the roofs of houses...

One time, I actually did go out with Dr. Woodley's group from the University of Colorado - it was a very good experience...

We even had to pull off the road due to hail later in the afternoon, so, that was the highlight of the day - their team was seeding developing thunderstorms that day (by aircraft), and, our job was to drive to a designated spot before the thunderstorms were forecast to develop to launch a weather balloon into clear air, in the hope of determining if it was to be a "go day" or not (depending on upper winds and dew point lapse rates), and, if it was, we'd stay put and wait for a good cell to develop overhead - that project was conducted a number of years ago (FACE '80)...

At the end of the day, we made the long drive back into town (stopping for hail along the way), and, met everyone who was just getting back from the airport, including the groud crew who were the doppler radar operators, so, it was a good team and they spent many a summer day tracking developing cells and making flights into developing cells...

So, the show is probably pretty silly to most, but, to those like in the movie Twister who live for a thunderstorm, it's a pretty neat thing to do, and, many advances in severe weather forecasting are the result of this small group of meteorologists, students and fanatics (lunatics to some, but, fanatics to the rest of us) who have helped to save many lives with improvements in weather forecasting...

But, that TIV, ugh...

LOL

[Ed Mahmoud]

The guy that is in charge of the TIV whines quite a bit.


But any TV show on Discovery, TLC or NatGeo that is about weather and not aliens or monster sized pigs, is a plus in my book.

[RL3AO]

Thats why they have the DOW so they don't drive into an EF4.

[Frank2]

Per this week, lot of people are ready to throw the Dow (the Dow not the DOW) into the path of a tornado...

Oops...

I agree with Ed - at least this is something of interest and not another reality "stuck on an island" program...

[RL3AO]

Why would it be Dow? Its an acronym.

[Cyclenall]

I still don't get how DOW saves the TIV from going in a rapidly strenthening tornado to EF3 or higher. Tornadoes are sneaky enough to catch the team off guard from something like this.