In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
After all, there are too many instances of them. People have grown accustomed to the warnings and don't pay attention any more. The workload on forecasters is burdensome. People should hear the thunder and see the dark clouds and lightning, and know that they should take cover. They are responsible for their own safety - after all, they voluntarily chose to be outdoors where the hazard is known to be. SPS (special weather statements) are sufficient to cover this weather hazard.
Does that sound rediculous? Well, that is the way that the road icing hazard is being treated. At least 33 people have died from road ice in the US during the past 4 days. This morning, two children on their way to school in Kentucky were killed and their mother seriously hurt during an event that had no warnings, only an overnight SPS in effect.
I challenge any critic of a road ice warning product to come up with a real reason why a hazard that is directly responsible for more deaths than any convective threat does not deserve a warning product, while a severe thunderstorm - a hazard that kills a handful of people a year - gets the massive allocation of resources and manpower that it does.
(Now for the record, I'm not actually advocating dropping the severe thunderstorm warning product - I'm simply using it to illustrate the point.)
I agree with your points! I think originally the thunderstorm warning was created with good intent but now it is just used as a reason for tv stations to interupt programming to increase their wx ratings. Have you ever heard of anyone dying during a thunderstorm warning? Probably not. And if it were about saving lives they would have to issue Highway/Road Warnings 24/7! As with most things these days it is media/money/entertainment. If saving lives figures in there then ok but if not then it really does not matter. - Posted by Brad from Kansas
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
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