Hats off to Yukon PD for their tornado chasing

[scmadhatter]

I am a little late on this post, but I would like to thank Yukon PD for the great job they did chasing the two tornados which came through our area recently. They stayed on top of the locations of the two funnels from start to finish. There was constant communication between headquarters and all the units in the field. The person directing things (who was always referred to as "Chief") would move units into positions where they could place themselves as close to the storm as possible and report back on the track, the current conditions (how much hail wind and rain in their respective locations, etc.) and any other observations which might be helpful. I turned on my scanner to listen to any hams which may have been tracking the storm but stayed tuned to Yukon PD because they were so profesional in their observations. You could detect some nervousness in some of the voices, but it didn't stop them from taking care of business. Their handling of the situation kept my "normally hyper when it comes to storms" family very calm. Thanks Yukon PD!

 

[dbestfirefighter]

Im confused. When were their tornados in Yukon? I live in Yukon and recall the last time any thing touched down was about 3 years ago. Humm maybe they were chasing SHERIFNADOS, you always get good reporting from the PD when their are SHERIFNADOS lerking

 

[mfolta1]

sheriffnadoes,,, i love it!!!
i was in osage co. a few years ago, i had a tornado on the ground with debris etc.
i was live on the air with travis and shooting video at the same time and had ocso on the scanner, i hear a deputy get on and start saying i was full of it that there was no tornado.
so in my video you clearly SEE the tornado on the ground and hear the deputy calling me a liar,,this video has been used by many agencies to make it a point to let law enforcement keep the peace and let storm spotters take care of the wx.i cant stand it when these guys get on the radio and get retarded! i still to this day have tried to find that exact deputy and get him a copy of the video, i mailed one to ocso but it was returned to me........

virga(not a tornado) yes it is a common "sheriffnado"
scud(not a tornado) tis another common "sheriffnado"
large flock of geese or birds(not a tornado) common "sheriffnado"

now, any of my law buddies dont get all bent on this........the truth hurts..hehe.

 

[car2back]

sheriffnadoes,,, i love it!!!
i was in osage co. a few years ago, i had a tornado on the ground with debris etc.
i was live on the air with travis and shooting video at the same time and had ocso on the scanner, i hear a deputy get on and start saying i was full of it that there was no tornado.
so in my video you clearly SEE the tornado on the ground and hear the deputy calling me a liar,,this video has been used by many agencies to make it a point to let law enforcement keep the peace and let storm spotters take care of the wx.i cant stand it when these guys get on the radio and get retarded! i still to this day have tried to find that exact deputy and get him a copy of the video, i mailed one to ocso but it was returned to me........

virga(not a tornado) yes it is a common "sheriffnado"
scud(not a tornado) tis another common "sheriffnado"
large flock of geese or birds(not a tornado) common "sheriffnado"

now, any of my law buddies dont get all bent on this........the truth hurts..hehe.

thats too funny! :lol:

keep up the good work Mark!

 

[KD5WLX]

mfolta,

It cuts both ways, too, though. I'm a spotter and an NWS net control. And once at the NWS while we had funnels forming at 4 separate locations in Creek, s. Tulsa, and Wagoner county, I had a spotter (a ham, and supposedly one who'd been through the NWS spotter training) in Mayes County report heavy rain and winds to 30mph, with frequent lightining.

I thanked him for the report and then gave the boilerplate spiel about what we wanted reported (hail > 1/2", winds over 50, funnels 1/2 way to the ground or more, etc.) In the background you can hear the warning coordination Met yelling "get that joker off the freq, I need reports from the spotters on the twisters! Not some yahoo telling me its raining 50 miles away from them!"

 

[mfolta1]

jay, i could not agree more..now, im gonna get bashed from some hams for this but so be it,, i think when it comes to weather and serious events that threaten us that it should be done on a commercial frequency, like how they do in oklahoma county,. hams get too excited(not all of us). alot of them are so eager to key up and make a report. if we had a certain freq and only trained proffessional CALM spotters it would be best for all of us. i am a ham and i enjoy talking here and there with friends but when the wx net starts i have to turn it off or way down to avoid the adrenaline junkies, they dont know it but ill make it clear right here,,,they annoy the wx service and the other legit hams, and the people who listen on scanners at home get scared out of their minds too.....or laugh their a*s*s off.
hams are more usefull for non adrenaline related events, like the tulsa run, or a bike marathon.....i can hear it now......"KD5??? i have a large group of runners approaching 31st and riverside,,,,sound the sirens....hehe.

 

[peterjmag]

I agree with Mark 100%! I have felt that way for years! Don't get me wrong our Tulsa area skywarn does an outstanding job, however there are some hams that don't need to be keying their mic up during a dangerous severe wx event! All they do is clog the air and piss off the net controlers as well as the NWS. Just like Mark said when you go to Oklahoma County it is more controlled there. The County EMA is on a commercial freq (151.445) and the liason net is (145.41) Things seem more organized there. Why can't TAEMA use their 800 radios or their VHF 153.755 like Oklahoma County does? Why can't our skywarn nets be more controlled like Normans NWS nets?

P.J. Maguire

 

[CommShrek]

I agree with Mark 100%! I have felt that way for years! Don't get me wrong our Tulsa area skywarn does an outstanding job, however there are some hams that don't need to be keying their mic up during a dangerous severe wx event! All they do is clog the air and piss off the net controlers as well as the NWS. Just like Mark said when you go to Oklahoma County it is more controlled there. The County EMA is on a commercial freq (151.445) and the liason net is (145.41) Things seem more organized there. Why can't TAEMA use their 800 radios or their VHF 153.755 like Oklahoma County does? Why can't our skywarn nets be more controlled like Normans NWS nets?

P.J. Maguire

Sounds like you need to make a trip over to www.okarkskywarn.org and start asking some questions to the upper portion of the chain of command there.

Also, start sending off some emails or make some phone calls to TAEMA and inquire about the 800 and VHF questions you have. Please report their answers back here for us to read. Should be interesting what you find out.

I called WX5TUL on 443.850 last night however, we had 70 mph+ winds verified by weather monitoring equipment and penny sized hail. I figured that met reporting criteria. If HAM's would stick to the reporting criteria as outlined in NWS publications and the NWS classes that are presented every year, the nets would be a little smoother.

I agree with some of what you and mfolta have said. Usually, I don't listen to the weather nets for very long before listening to something else. A lot of times, it's for the reasons you and mfolta have given.

 

[KD5WLX]

I've never had much luck getting any kind of response out of TAEMA at all.

Also, keep in mind that while NWS-Tulsa covers about 1/3 of the state, plus 3 counties in KS and 5 (IIRC) in AR, TAEMA is only Tulsa County (or at best Tulsa, Pawnee, Osage, Rogers, Wagoner & Creek)

As far as over-excitable hams go - I've seen over-excitable police, firefighters, amateurs, and bystanders - depends on the situation. I've seen cops stare a guy down that had a drop on them, and I've been "inside" with the fire rolling across the ceiling, and I've seen examples of both that were terrified of something (in the cops case it was lightning, for the FF it was dogs).

And I've seen plenty of TV meteorologists get a little excited just by looking at the radar, too!

 

[mfolta1]

yes, excited wx personalities and chasers.
slang=convection erection,,weather woody.......
i used to be a ham nerd, ill admit it,,when i first got my license i was out on a storm,
i came across several lines down and a huge fireworks display of electricity and i jumped on 88 and screamed "merlin",,he told me to stand by and a few seconds later he came on and said "station screaming merlin" go ahead.....so im guilty of adrenalating on the ham repeaters,,but that was in 1996...

 

[CommShrek]

yes, excited wx personalities and chasers.
slang=convection erection,,weather woody.......
i used to be a ham nerd, ill admit it,,when i first got my license i was out on a storm,
i came across several lines down and a huge fireworks display of electricity and i jumped on 88 and screamed "merlin",,he told me to stand by and a few seconds later he came on and said "station screaming merlin" go ahead.....so im guilty of adrenalating on the ham repeaters,,but that was in 1996...

You're going to Hades for the rest of your days for that. LOL.

 

[CommShrek]

I've never had much luck getting any kind of response out of TAEMA at all.

Well now there's a friggin' shock! None of the agencies I work for have seen the 800mhz radio we were supposed to get either. All we get is the run-around from TAEMA. Of course, all of the agencies in Tulsa (maybe a little wider area than that) were supposed to get a radio, but, when I've inquired about it, depending on who I talk to I either get a "We're fresh out of spare radios" or a "I don't know anything about that" response.

I wish I had that letter we got from them. After all, how would we know to ask for our radio if they never said they were going to give us one in the first place.

 

[peterjmag]

Sounds like typical Tulsa politics.

 

[mfolta1]

is hades a new dept store????

 

[CommShrek]

is hades a new dept store????

No, it's been around forever. You mean you don't have a Hades Club card? Pfft...you're not in the loop.

 

[freqscout]

Careful...I think I see lightning on the horizon...they're coming to get ya.

 

[mfolta1]

no,,seriously,,what is hades??
oh btw matt,,i got kicked off the st francis property wed night,,,the guards were nice about it though....

 

[rdale]

Hades = Hell

 

[mfolta1]

pffft! ive been in hell all my life.....i work in television!

 

[OkRob]

i got kicked off the st francis property wed night,,,the guards were nice about it though....

Mark, you should know by now that they don't like you guys putting soap in their fountains out on the corner!

- Rob