I've finally had a chance to watch all 6 episodes of Tornado Road on TWC, and felt I should post a few comments.
Some people are saying that the show was somewhat repetitive, depicting chasers driving in lots of rain cores (there were many HP storms during filming) and waiting for things to happen. But, in many respects, that's what real chasing is about. The show was intended to be, in a way, like "Deadliest Catch" to show what typical storm chasers (like crab fishermen) go through during a typical season. In that sense, I think the show succeeds.
However, I was very disappointed that extensive interviews filmed with NWS Omaha personel such as Daniel Neitfeld and Brian Smith regarding the June 11 '08 Boy Scout camp tornado were discarded. I want to emphasize that the NWS did a great job with warnings that day, and also with the ground survey. My work was informal and only supplemental to their work, but that wasn't shown or clarified. I very much wanted to see the NWS material included in the program. But on "reality" shows like this, unfortunately, one has no control of the editing and what will and won't be shown.
We also allowed a camera crew to film Shawna and me in a short "storm chase" wedding with friends in the Flint Hills in late June '08. Just to be clear, we chose a garden-variety thunderstorm day with minimal threats. Please rest assured that Shawna and I would never make light of a severe weather situation with potential to hurt or injure people.
All that said, Shawna and I enjoyed taking part in the show, and the production crew from Original Productions was fantastic and fun to work with.
- Jon Davies 10/25/09
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