TORNADOES, LIGHTNIN

ING, THUNDERSTORMS
N a t u r e ’s M o s t Vi o l e n t S t o r m s
STORY BY ROYCE ARMSTRONG
outdoors: chasing storm s
I
storm chasing is dangerous task
in south mississippi
Images of adventurers, racing
along in their vehicles and hur-
riedly taking photos as a
whirling black funnel cloud
dances across the landscape
gobbling up homes and sucking
anything in its path into its
spinning vortex come to mind
when most of us think of storm
chasers.
“We do not use storm
chasers,” said David McShane,
the meteorologist-in-charge for
the National Weather Service
Center in Mobile, Alabama. The
Mobile center monitors the
weather for 20 counties in
Alabama, the Florida Panhandle
and southeast Mississippi. “As
4 2 • south mississippi scene
a government agency, we do
not endorse any activity that
puts people at risk and storm
chasing is inherently danger-
ous.”
McShane then recanted his
original statement, noting that
the University of South
Alabama has an excellent earth
sciences program and that
meteorology students in the
program also do some storm
chasing.
“They provide valuable infor-
mation for us,” McShane said,
“but we do not encourage
storm chasers. My business is
protecting life and property,
not putting people at risk.”
McShane said that the situa-
tion in South Mississippi is dif-
ferent that in the Midwest or on
the Great Plains.
“Here, in the Pine Belt, it is
much different than those
regions. There is much more
vegetation, more trees. That
both blocks the view of the
storm and also has the potential
for putting more debris in the
air, making it even more dan-
gerous.”
McShane said that major
storms in this area generally
occur in to main seasons, win-
ter and summer. From October
through March, most of the
storms occur after dark,
 Being Prepared
Could Save Your Life
• In a home or building, move to a pre-desig-
nated shelter, such as a basemen t.
• If an underground shelter is not ava i l a b l e ,
m ove t o a small interior room or hallway on
th e lowest floor an d get under a sturdy piece
of furniture. Put as many wal ls as possible
between yo u and the out side.
• St ay away from window s .
• Get out of auto mobiles.
• Do not try to outru n a tornado in your car;
in stead, leave it immediately for safe sh el ter.
• If caught in a vehicle, lie flat in a nearby
d i t ch or depression and cover your head wit h
yo ur hands.
• Be aware o f flying debris. Flying d eb ris
from torn ado es causes most fatalities and
injuries.
•Mobile homes, even if tied down, offer little
protection fro m tornadoes. You should leave a
mob ile home and go t o the lowest flo or of a
s t u r dy n earby buildin g or a storm shelter.
• Avoid walking, swimmi ng or
d r iving in flood wa t e r s .
• St ay away from high wa t e r, st orm dra i n s ,
d i t ches, ravines, or culverts. If it i s mov i n g
sw i f t l y, even water si x inches deep can knock
yo u off yo ur feet.
4 4 • south mississippi scene
• If you come upon flood waters, stop, turn
aro und and go anot her way. Climb t o higher
ground.
• Post pone outdoor activities if thunderstorms
are imminent.
• If lightning is o ccurring and a shelter is not
available, get inside a hard top automobi le
and keep t he windows up. Avoid touch i n g
metal.
• Ut ility lines and metal pipes can conduct
e l e c t r i c i t y. Unplug app liances not necessary
fo r obtaining weather information. Use
ph ones ONLY in an em ergency.
• Do not take a bath o r sh ower du ring a thun-
derstorm.
• If caught outside, find a low spot away f rom
trees, fences, and poles.
• If you f eel your skin tingle or your hair stnad
on end, sq uat low to the groun d on the b all s
of your f eet. Place your hands over your ears
and your head b etween your knees. Make
yo urself the smallest target possi ble and mini-
mize your contact with the ground. DO N OT
li e dow n .
S o u rce: U. S. Department of Commerc e
Natio nal Oceanic and A t m o s p h e r i c
A d m i n i s t ra t i o n
Natio nal Weather Service
increasing the difficulty for storm spotters.
During the summer, the storms occur in the
afternoon and early evening.
Ground observation is important, though, even
with all of the technology meteorologists have
today, McShane said.
“We do use trained spotters,” he said. “We
rely on trained spotters to verify information
indicated by our equipment. We work with the
Emergency Managers in each of the counties. We
also train spotters in each of the counties. These
are generally a mix of folks, including people in
law enforcement, firefighters, first responders
and ham radio operators.”
McShane said that the spotters were not asked
to go and follow a storm, but we use them to ver-
ify storm conditions at their locations.
“For example,” he said, “radar recently indi-
cated hail in a thunderstorm. We called storm
spotters in that area of the county for verifica-
tion.”
“We do not use storm chasers,” said Carrie
Duncan, meteorologist for WLOX TV serving
Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. “There is just
not a lot of tornadic activity in South
Mississippi.”
Duncan, though, was on a storm chasing team
while she was a student at Mississippi State
University about 10 years ago.
“We had five teams with four people on each
team,” she said. “On a bad night we would be
sent out. We were in constant contact with the
climate lab where the team leaders would be
monitoring the storm on Doppler radar. We had
to call in our position periodically and they
would tell us where the storm was and where it
was moving.”
Duncan said that she was never involved in
chasing a tornado.
“South Mississippi is not like the Midwest, the
Great Plains or even North Mississippi,” she
said. “You cannot see the tornadoes easily here
like you can in those places. Here the tornado is
usually wrapped in a thunderstorm, they are not
very wide and they do not last very long. We
also have a lot of trees here that block seeing the
storm. On the Plains the tornado is usually not in
a thunderstorm. There are fewer trees and you
can see it more easily.”
Being a storm chaser has been beneficial to
Duncan in her TV career, she said, because it
gives her added credibility.
“It helps me by just my knowing what is going
on in that storm. I am able to tell people what is
going on in a storm and how it might affect
them. I can be more empathetic in my reporting.
That is important.”
Dr. Michael Brown, an associate professor of
meteorology at MSU has been a storm chaser and
works with student storm chasing teams.
Brown said that his teams work primarily in
northern Mississippi and do not generally go
south of Hwy. 20. The teams are established for
educational purposes and he feels that they are
important as the eyes of the National Weather
Service.
One former student, Ryan Wade is now a
meteorology instructor at the University of South
Alabama. He is creating a program similar to
that at MSU.
“We do not have teams of storm chasers,”
Wade said. “Each year I take a group of students
to the Great Plains states and we chase storms
there. We cover between 5,000 and 7,000 miles in
two weeks. I tell my students that it is a storm
chase. What we are trying to do is see as much
storm structure as possible. If we see a tornado,
that is just a bonus. Some years we never see a
tornado. Others, we see several.”
Wade said that he has also trained some of his
students to be storm spotters.
“There are just some things that you cannot
teach in a classroom,” he said. “We try to show
our students the structure of the storms so that
they can see it first hand and how it changes.”
Wade said that he was working to give his stu-
dents field experience with storms, he was very
cautious about doing anything that would put
them at risk.
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