This is a sort of funny story with a cool product ending.
Wendy and I were visiting friends in Topeka in early spring. At dinner, the clouds outside began to look terrible. Our friend with the Topeka sense of humor terrified us that a major tornado was looming. Returning to the coach, we fired up the weather radio and turned on the Weather Channel....No Sat because of the clouds.
The next morning, we watched the weather channel and realized that,indeed, tornadoes had touched down around us. As we watched, videos of the storm chasers intrigued us and we wondered what they used for tracking tornadoes. Figuring that we could use the technology to run from weather, I logged into their site. I found a software that they all referred to as SP and finally found someone that spelled it out on their forum. Storm Predator!
Here is an article I wrote on our blog about the software that tracks NEXRAD radar in real-time for the location you input. $39.95, it doubles as a weather alert system that has shelved our weather alert radio.
Storm Predator Software
Now the funny story. I ordered the software and followed a link that I thought was a part of the purchase. It asked me to register for the website and I did. Then a button showed up that said, "Take Test." So I did thinking that it was some sort of certification. I completed the test an apparently passed. The next thing I know is that I received an email with a login that I was now an official Storm Chaser. I should have stopped at the software purchase, but now we can login an report clear conditions because we use the software to run away from storm....
Instead of Storm Chasers, we are Storm Chased!
Really a very cool software that we overlay on our navigational computer to see weather in real-time where we are at the moment. It has a GPS link that pinpoints on the storm map and an alert that will sound off when severe conditions are in our path. It also sends an email to my smartphone with an image of the storm front and path. Very cool and comforting as well.
Bob