MADISON, WIS. (AP) – The deaths of four haunting storms in the past two weeks have highlighted the dangers of chasing severe weather as more people clog back roads and highways in search of lightning or tornado flashes, meteorologists and pursuers say.
Martha Lanos Rodriguez of Mexico City died Wednesday when a semi-trailer crashed into her car in the back of Interstate 90 in southwestern Minnesota. The driver of the car, Diego Campos, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he, Rodriguez and two other meteorologists were chasing the stormy weather and were hit after he stopped for broken power lines on the road.
More people are jumping in their cars and racing after storms, clogging roads, putting up stop signs and paying more attention to the sky than to traffic, said Marshall Shepard, director of the atmospheric science program at the University of Georgia.
“Sometimes some storms have so many pursuers that it creates potential traffic and other dangers,” Shepard said. “Seeing storms in their natural context has scientific and broader value, so I’m not against persecution, but there are elements that have become a little wild, wild West.”
Promoted in the 1996 film Twister, the pursuit of storms involves the pursuit of severe weather events such as electric storms and tornadoes, often in cars or on foot.
Some are researchers who want to collect data, such as checking computer models that predict storm behavior. Some seek to touch nature. Others are photographers. And others are just in a hurry, said Greg Tripoli, a professor of atmospheric and ocean science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who teaches a storm chase class.
“Seeing a tornado is a life-changing experience,” Tripoli said. “You want to see one instead of just talking about them. This is really just one of the thrills of life. You have to take risks and go there and follow your passions. It’s no different than rock climbing or deep diving. ”
The storms themselves pose a danger to inexperienced pursuers who get too close. They can be struck by debris, struck by lightning or worse. Tripoli said he had decided to stop teaching his storm chase class and lead field students in the early 1990s after university officials stopped insuring travel.
Nature is not the only threat. Storm chasers spend long hours on the road, traveling from state to state like trucks over long distances, causing fatigue. When storms catch up, they can often keep their eyes on the sky instead of the road, sometimes with deadly consequences. Tripoli said he would warn students in his storm chase class that the most likely way to get hurt was in a car accident.
Three students from the University of Oklahoma were killed on April 30 after traveling to Kansas to chase a tornado. According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the students’ car took a seaplane ride on the Tonkawa Interstate, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. They slipped and returned to the Interstate before being hit by a semi-trailer.
The University of Oklahoma has a policy that anyone who chases storms does so at their own risk, and that chasing storms is not part of the school’s meteorology curriculum.
The mother of one of the students, 19-year-old Gavin Short of Gracelake, Illinois, told WMAQ-TV that her son loved to chase storms.
“He loved him and we were so happy for him,” said Beth Short. “And it’s just the worst nightmare for us and two other groups of parents.”
Chaser congestion is becoming more common, said Kelton Halbert, a doctoral student in atmospheric and ocean science at the University of Wisconsin. He said he has been chasing storms since he was 16 because he wants to feel closer to the beauty of nature and test his predictive modeling, especially by filming the behavior of storms.
“Unless you are in one of these research institutions, storm chasers do not have the ability to collect very hard data,” he said. “For most … it’s beauty, it’s photography, and then obviously thrill seekers and adrenaline. You may have people chasing you, people in the middle of the road. If you’re in Texas, Oklahoma or Kansas on a high-risk day, yes, you can see hundreds of them. Given the last few weeks, I definitely felt more timid. It brings to the fore that every time you do that, you take a risk. ”
Wednesday’s storm in the Upper Midwest left tens of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity by Thursday. More potentially severe weather was forecast on Thursday night, which could bring hail, strong winds and tornadoes from Dakota and Minnesota to other parts of the Midwest, the Storm Forecast Center said.
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