STORM TRACK: November 30, 1983 (Volume 7 Issue 1)

John Weaver: "I've just returned from the 13th Conference on Severe Local Storms ... I chaired the 'informal' slide show and would like to make a comment or two on same. First ...it appeared to me that that particular session was one of the two best attended of the Conference. And it wasn't because all of the presentations in the show were so much better ...some were dull and some were dynamic. Rather, I feel that the high attendance goes to the very root of what draws most of us to meteorology. It is the opportunity to see and, perhaps, dimly understand the often awe-inspiring behavior of the life-giving fluid in which we exist. It is surprising to me that the session retains the qualifying adjective 'informal'. The only thing accomplished thereby is to propagate the slightly illegitimate flavor that has somehow attached itself to observational meteorology. Also, it makes it a difficult session to chair, since no formal projector arrangements are made, no assistants are brought in, etc. I think that at the 14th, the observationalists should be allowed to step fully out of the closet and drop the 'informal' caveat.

Along that same vein, I'd like to put in a plug for bringing more observational data into the formal literature. I realize that there have been papers such as that by Bluestein (1980), which describes the University of Oklahoma's Intercept Project or photogrammetry papers like that by Campbell et. al. (1983), but I'm speaking in a more general sense. I think that if more of us would incorporate observational data in our work, as part of a larger data set, we might help legitimize the source. I'm speaking now of efforts along the lines of (but perhaps more extensive than) those made in a paper that I co-authored with Steve Nelson (Weaver and Nelson, 1982), in which we sprinkled important, verification tidbits into a predominantly Doppler radar study. These included verbal reports and photographic evidence, which substantiated multiple updrafts in our supercell storm and helped in the precise positioning of important outflow boundaries. He made it quite clear that, without these supportive data, our conclusions would have suffered immeasurably. Many of us in the 'science' of meteorology often spend less effort than we should studying available visual obs, simply because we feel that such data are not as reproducible as are fields of numbers. Who among us hasn't seen two scientists peruse a single numerical output and reach two entirely different conclusions. Let us remember that lesson and in the future utilize every data source, especially direct visual evidence, in our search for truth."

REFERENCES

Bluestein, H.B., 1980: The University of Oklahoma Severe Storms Intercept Project - 1979. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 61(6), 560-567.

Campbell, B.E. Rasmussen, and R. Peterson, 1983: Kinematic Analysis of the Lakeview Texas Tornado. Preprints l3th Conf. Severe Loc. Storms, 62-65.

Hoadley, D., 1983: Storm Track, Vol. 6, No. 6, P.2.

Weaver, J. and S. Nelson, 1982: Multiscale Aspects of Thunderstorm Gust Fronts and Their Effects on Subsequent Storm Development. Mon. Wea. Rev., 110(7), 707-718.

(Interestingly, the Editor prepared a similar article from a different viewpoint in Feature #2, quite independent from Mr. Weaver's comments. This was spurred by a dinner-discussion with Joe Golden three weeks ago but fits well with the preceding.)

-Tim Marshall- "I appreciate your commentary in the last Storm Track about, documenting storm chases. I truly believe that a tape recorder is a must. Not only can you relive those memorable moments when the wind chill is -20 deg outside, but it has scientific meaning as well. I mention times, filming sites, types of lenses, direction of view, etc, and its easy to do. I also have a hand-held anemometer and a hand-held psychometer, and take measurements, whenever I can. The anemometer is from Sims and costs about $100. The psychometer is from Taylor Instruments and costs about $60. So, for less than $200 you can have your own portable weather station. I mention such instrument readings and pertinent weather observations also on the tape recorder. I can't stress enough how valuable this information is to the scientific community and to further one's own knowledge on tornadogenesis.

-Bruce H. Jensen- In your LETTERS/PHONE CALLS TO THE EDITOR section in the September 30th issue, you show the official "Vortex Society of America" emblem. I guess I have to admit that I'm responsible for that little piece of comic irreverence. Thank you for your kind comments. It was originally intended as a humorous T-shirt emblem but eventually came to simply hang on the door of the 'fax' room up at Texas Tech. If anybody should see fit to use it, I would be both grateful and honored, and my permission is certainly granted. The 'emerald gates' would be flung wide to anybody bearing such a seal of approval."