Yesterday, while chasing, I witnessed Reed Timmer's SRV pulling off into a gas station near Altamont, Missouri. No less than 30 cars waited to turn left into the gas station. This blocked other storm chasers from moving forward along Highway 6 with a rotating wall cloud behind us. Here's a hint, noobs...Learn to forecast and chase and not follow other chasers. You are a nuisance and a liability.

Unfortunately, the show has made the concept of storm chasing a recreational activity for people now, and there is nothing that is going to stop tag-alongs from following. It's something that high profile chase groups are going to have to learn to live with. Kind of like the papparazzi are for celebrities.

In a free country, people have the right to follow celebrities around. I for one would hesitate to support any legislation that takes away this or any other freedom. OTOH there seems to be a need for traffic control. Perhaps the taxpayer-funded research projects could be granted limited federal powers to control the flow of traffic when local authorities aren't available to do so.

I suspect that if the problem gets bad enough, that cash-strapped state and local governments will require the purchase of a license to operate as a commercial storm chaser, storm tour operator etc. This could be a Good Thing.

kschaser82 I have a post being held for review that really ripped you a knew one on your last post but it was not intended for you it was intended for KSChaser my apology in advance if it gets through my bad.

The actual crew following TVN is one Car. For part of the season there was an additional car for mechanical support with the new truck. it is certainly a case of less is more. Total of 2-3 Cars counting the Dominator most days

I beleive the comment about 30 cars causing a traffic jam. I went on a chase Memorial Day weekend 2003 while driving from Plainview, TX to Temple, TX. I am a native of the Pahhandle South Plains region and I know the roads in the area quite well. When I got off the Interstate and started prowling the back roads, 2 lane blacktop, I started seeing the local spotters and chasers. The closer I got to the storms in the area, the more groups I spotted. East of Lubbock, came acrosss a congregation of 100 cars parked on the side of the road watching the storm. People from all over, most notable from TTU and OU out chasing. There was also about 10 NOAA signed mesonet cars running around the storm area and a few of the NSSL vans running around too. The whole thing was a mess, the NSSL and NOAA guys out getting data, the OU and TTU students getting their data and all the amateur chasers out there as well, me included. Even a Storm Chase Tour group was out there too. In this area of the state, that much traffic generates news in small towns, its like a freak show sometimes.

It's been bad for a while- especially since local TV channels encourage "looky loos" to rush out and take free footage (so they can hype it over and over and over again).

Let's see- in 1990 (right after the Andover/McConnell AFB tornado), there were so many "looky loos" clogging the roads that emergency personnel could not gain access to the worst areas. People were parking all over and literally blocking the highway. Same thing happened in the Haysville/S. Wichita tornado, and again with the Mulvane tornado (that really photogenic white funnel that still gets aired occasionally).

I was out spotting (I am a NWS spotter) during the Mulvane storm, and was nearly run over by a gaggle of "chasers" going at an excessive rate of speed down a rural dirt road. This type of thing isn't uncommon, either; needless to say, "chaser conventions" aren't exactly welcome anywhere around here because of their behavior.