Chasing days of Yore

You know, as a young lad and growing up through my teens I use to tape every little weather program that appeared on television. And every little event that happened in Indiana, especially across Northern Indiana, I'd tape the local news, as well as snippets from the Weather Channel.

The last two days, I've been going back through my old tapes and watching these things. Some of these events I can clearly remember, others I can't. From significant snowfalls to tornado outbreaks, I only wonder if I had been able to chase back then what things would have been like.

One of the programs I had taped was called "Cyclone" and was from "Discovery Sunday," a program that the Discovery Channel use to show way back in the early 90's. On it, they profiled Jim Leonard as a storm chaser, as well, as Project VORTEX from the '94 and '95 seasons.

Once again, I only wonder what it would have been like to have been chasing back then. In the early 90's people chased strictly for the love of the atmosphere, to see that next great Supercell. They knew how to forecast and they chased with their intuition, rather than with computers and WxWorks systems. The great thing about it, they still were great at it.

There were no storm chasing tour groups crowding intersections... There were no hooligans out there chasing that had no formal training... And there certainly were no chasers out there risking their lives just to make a buck!

Sometimes I wish I could have led an earlier life.