SEEING THINGS...

It's amazing how the science of storm-chasing has been affected by the modern cell phone. It's rather easy for folks to capture amazing storm pictures quickly with the click of a camera phone or PDA. But sometimes, pictures can be misleading.

There are literally hundreds of benign cloud patterns that resemble dangerous weather phenomena. The "scud" cloud is a well-known example. A scud cloud is a ragged cloud formation that forms near the outflow of thunderstorms. While harmless by itself, the scud's awkward appearance can sometimes be mistaken for a developing tornado, even by a trained meteorologist. They key is rotation- a developing funnel exhibits rotation. And rotation is something that is not readily discerned from a still picture.

Meteorologists often receive pictures of storm-related damage as well, and these photos can be difficult to analyze. Simply because a railroad car has been overturned, it does not necessarily follow that a tornado caused the damage. Strong air flow associated with a thunderstorm downburst often sinks toward the ground, eventually spreading outward across open ground as a band of strong winds. These "straight line" winds can sometimes reach speeds over 130 mph. Strong enough for damage, but actually created by a non-tornadic process.

In fact, the abundance of readily available storm footage, photos, and news reports can sometimes lead us to draw even bigger conclusions that may be false. For example- The spring of 2008 has been extremely active with regards to tornado development, but be careful; to say that our current level of storm activity is unprecedented might be incorrect. It could simply mean that we are better at documenting storms than we use to be, given the advances in technology.

In any case, the new digital age will have many advantages to offer to the field of meteorology. The more pictures and data we can accumulate, the better we will understand the weather around us. But we must always allow our enthusiasm to be governed by good judgment. After all, things are not always as they seem...