Friday, April 15, 2011  Chasing has passed me by ...  This
morning, in the wake of the news about deaths from tornadoes in
Oklahoma and Arkansas, I found my FaceBook status messages
filled with chasers crowing about their great chase days, shaky
video showing chasers getting close to large tornadoes, and --
as an afterthought -- comments like "our thoughts and prayers
are with CityXX."  Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of
my very first serious storm chase (on 18 April 1972). In the
time that's passed since then, chasing has grown far beyond
anything I could have imagined back then. Unfortunately, I may
have had something to do with that growth, in my youthful
ignorance of the consequences of extolling the virtues of
chasing during interviews for crockumentaries about tornadoes
and chasers. It's quite evident to me that chasing as a "sport"
has passed by me, on its way to whatever destiny the future
holds for it. I've become a gripy old curmudgeon, well removed
from the "cutting edge" of storm chasing.