Documentary: Storm Chasing vacation and crazy British people

[randiann]

Ok so I was watching PBS before I came to work today (yes, I watch PBS. Let's all revel at the dorkiness of it and get on) Anywhoo, so they had a documentary on about this group of British people who came to the southern plains (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas) to chase tornados. As someone from here, I gotta wonder. Obviously, people do chase storms for a living, but I would never see it as a fun vacation option. Giant hail and houses being destoryed? Eh, I'll pass.

Another thing that bugged me was that they mentioned May of 1999 as when they are filming, and where I'm from May 3rd 1999 is a four letter word. I just thought that was kinda insensitive that these people would want to chase tornados for fun the week after 40 people died from a tornado outbreak.



So, just out of curiosity, would anyone ever consider going that far on vacation just to ride in a car for HOURS on end for the odd chance that you might see a tornado up close? Maybe it's cause I've grown up around them, but I could just think of so many better things to do with the thousands of dollars it would take to fly across the globe and hire a tour guide to do this.

EDIT: Ok, just noticed I spelt craZy wrong in the thread title. Oops.

 

[Silum]

Im fairly sure most American storm chasers are...funnily enough...American.

But do I find it strange that people chase after these crazy weather systems? No. Most the time they are weather scientists and so its more to do with understanding how they work. For those that arn't scientists, its still a pretty fasinating thing to behold so its hardly surprising people would look for it. You say your from Oklahoma and so supposedly you see a large tornado come by every 10 years or so, this is enough to quell your fascination, but what about the rest of us? Its still an interesting thing to behold. I lived in California (interesting side note hehe... Cali has infact the most tornadoes out of any US state or country), when I did see a tornado (ok, more like Dust devils) it was still a pretty awesome thing to behold, so i'd hardly begrugde someone seeking out a mega tornado.

 

[randiann]

Im fairly sure most American storm chasers are...funnily enough...American.

Oh no, they are. But the documentary itself was following around a group of British people who came to America to chase tornados for vacation and hired a tour guide to help them find them. Oddly enough, you can make a living as a storm chasing tour guide in this region of the country if you know what you are doing.

Sorry if that was unclear.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I've got friends that have travelled to the Serengeti ust to see a Thunderstorm, spending days/weeks and thousands of pounds and not seeing anything.

I've got friends that spend thousands on dolls/figurines/[insert any of the millions of things people collect].

I've got friends who travel to New Zealand, spending thousands of pounds and all they do is shop and rest at a hotel.

I've got friends that jump out of airplanes with a piece of fabric or jump off bridges with little more than an elastic band attached to them.

I, myself, spend alot of money on hats, shoes, teddy bears (**** off before you people say anything), cinema tickets and theatre tickets.

Its different horses for different courses.

People all over the world have things in their lives that they do because its what they want to do, someone else might find it odd, it certainly doesn't make them crazy.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

That post by randiann struck me as being a little odd.
That the British people travelled to the USA to watch storms, and a film crew was with them?
Makes it sound like the tour guide wanted some free publicity.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

That post by randiann struck me as being a little odd.
That the British people travelled to the USA to watch storms, and a film crew was with them?
Makes it sound like the tour guide wanted some free publicity.

OR it was filmed by the storm chasers
OR it was a documentary about the storm chasers because someone thought it would be interesting

 

[randiann]

That post by randiann struck me as being a little odd.
That the British people travelled to the USA to watch storms, and a film crew was with them?
Makes it sound like the tour guide wanted some free publicity.

It's not that unusual; from watching documentaries and such pretty much everyone takes cameras with them to catch the action. The odd thing to me is was the documentary itself, and that the BBC (that's who made it) had a documentary about these people and their vacation. And that they took the vacation in the first place.

Different strokes and everything, but if I'm gonna spend that much money it sure isn't going to be spent on getting rained on.