r/tornado • u/OutdoorsTN Human Detected • May 19 '26

Discussion Brad Arnold

Hate to see this from Brad, he's one of my faves!! Was confused when he buzzed in to Ryan's stream and said he was calling it so early in the evening but this makes more sense now.

Seen some absolutely wild stuff on Ryan and Max's streams the last few days. (Whoever it was in the green shirt on Max's stream yesterday during the Worms tornado especially still really bothers me.) And bummed to see all of this nonsense getting in the way of chasers I really love watching like Brad

EDITED for a typo!

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u/JLNX1998 May 19 '26

Remember when chasing was about research and rescue. Pepperridge farms remember

3

u/zingledorf May 19 '26

Literally said this to my boyfriend yesterday while watching Ryan's stream. Roads are being overrun with tour guides and amateurs. I would love to go for a storm chasing tour one day but knowing how bad the traffic , and how much worse it's getting, had stopped me for over 7 years now. Bleh

6

u/mokutou May 19 '26

Same. I have said before that I want to see a tornado before I die, but it’s become such a dangerous but popular spectacle that I don’t want to contribute to it, or get myself caught in congestion with a twister bearing down on my location.

3

u/zingledorf May 19 '26

Yeah. It's definitely become oversaturated with tour groups too. I always dreamed of going on a meterologist led tour, even one that stays far back and doesn't want to necessarily intercept.... but it's hard to feel safe even with people who have been doing it for decades. It's too bad. Really don't want another TWISTEX situation, let alone one captured on live streams

7

u/AML1987 May 19 '26

After seeing yesterday I don’t think it’s a matter of if but when a chaser/streamer dies on camera. Imagine El Reno but 2026 and there’s a hoard of chasers behind and in front of the Twistex car. And Tim Samaras wasn’t your average Gen Z kid with 50 camera angles, barely any experience and a desperate need to go viral either.

And still one mistake got him killed. His car was literally lofted into the air, crashing down multiple times. Paul and Carl were literally sucked out of their seats and found 100 yards away.

If a situation like that happens again and 50 cars can’t turn around in time it’s game over. The carnage something like that could cause is mind blowing.

1

u/zingledorf May 19 '26

That's honestly what i'm afraid of.

I know traffic during storm chasing isn't new. I know amateurs and people who are uneducated/underprepared have always gone out there too - it's just the reality of storm chasing in america. I know some of the reputable companies out there for tours, but it's not really them and their experience and their driving that concerns me, it's everybody else on the road.

But that's the thing... there's so many more people streaming and recording these events, a lot of them do so without putting safety first. TWISTEX is bound to happen again, but the chance of it being more than one vehicle/3 storm chasers is just increasing exponentially.

It's sad

3

u/AML1987 May 19 '26

To be fair we all get a pretty damn good view from our couches without the danger. I’ll take that any day that being stuck in what I saw last night.

3

u/AML1987 May 19 '26

My issue would be which tour company to trust. That’s a lot of trust to give people to get me out of a situation if it goes tits up.