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O'Reilly Interview Digs Into the Tech of Storm Chasing

Posted by timothy on from the started-with-just-a-bicycle-and-some-crayons dept.

blackbearnh writes "If you've watched the Discovery Channel series 'Storm Chasers,' you'll be familiar with Dr. Joshua Wurman and his Doppler on Wheels radar, which he uses to study tornadoes up close and personal every spring. O'Reilly Media spent some time last week speaking to Dr. Wurman about what it takes, technologically, to operate a weather radar in 100-mile-per-hour winds in the middle of a lightning storm. They also talked about the value of this kind of research to both tornado and hurricane research, and how having a film crew around during missions affects the science."

5 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. The Best Job by inKubus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is something I've always wanted to do. Someday when I'm rich I'd like to become a storm chaser; outfit an awesome armored car with minicomputers and a powerful radar and run flat tires. I think the weather is going to be getting more interesting, seeing the recent extreme patterns of the jetstream almost reaching the arctic circle before winter even starts! There's something about a good thunderstorm; the booming thunder, the hint of ozone in the air. Ahh.

    --
    Cool! Amazing Toys.
    1. Re:The Best Job by tompaulco · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hopefully you'll be rich enough to make a better looking Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) than the one they use. The TIV II was better looking, but kept breaking. The first TIV looks like something I would have made.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    2. Re:The Best Job by inKubus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're right, the TIV is pretty ugly. I was thinking about starting with an actual armored truck or possibly something military/industrial, like a Unimog or Pinzgauer. I'd definitely probably make it convertible to a regular truck for other weather conditions, so I could attack snow as well ;)

      --
      Cool! Amazing Toys.
    3. Re:The Best Job by DrVomact · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, there is no high like a powerful storm. While working for the U.S. Forest Service as a fire lookout (back in the 70s) I got to see quite a few lightning storms from the inside...on a mountain top. No tornadoes (I was in Eastern Oregon), but the sheer magnitude of the forces at work inside an electrical storm gave me such an adrenaline rush that it became quite the addiction. "Oh please Lord, send me some more storms, and may they be with much lightning, little rain, and cause lots of fires." Like they say, long weeks of boredom, punctuated by hours of sheer terror. My building never actually got hit, but the metal (nails, fasteners, antenna) on the outside glowed blue and shot off sparks into the sky a couple of times. Yeee haw!

      I think waiting for storms inside a comfy building beats chasing them any day, though.

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      Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
  2. Storm Chasing by CompMD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Being out in Kansas, its kind of expected that we have some totally awesome storm chasing vehicles.