Ethics of storm chasing, a discussion with ‘The Weather Junkies’

Last night I had the pleasure of chatting with Dakota Smith and Tyler Jankoski about the ethics of storm chasing, and the chasing community in general. They host a podcast called The Weather Junkies, which is broadcast live to YouTube every Thursday.

If you’re looking for the discussion about the main topic of chasing, skip ahead to the 18:29 mark.

In the discussion, we covered what are rare instances of chasers behaving badly, how chasers are viewed in the general media, the enormous amount of good that comes from the chaser community, and why chasers choose to get close to tornadoes.

While I may not be among the most well-known chasers, I do think that the arguments and viewpoints that I presented are well-rounded and take into account the concerns of both the chaser community and those who do not take too kind to having chasers roll up to their town. There are certainly a lot of variables that need to be taken into account in order to justify chasing to those who don’t understand why you would want to do such a thing, and we tried to touch on as many of those things as possible.

In case you were wondering, there are specific shout-outs to/mentions of the U.S. Tornadoes crew, Dick McGowan, Reed Timmer, Skip Talbot and Storm Assist, Tempest Tours, Silver Lining Tours, and Cloud 9 Tours.