Chase 99 By Nancy Bose M.E.S.O. Who we are: MESO, (Multi-community Environmental Storm Observatory), was formed by a group of storm chasers that met on the Internet and chased together for 10 days during the peak season in Tornado Alley. The truly amazing thing is that not only did we chase well together, but we also became fast friends. Most of us left Tornado Alley last year (1998) believing that we had just been a party to the coolest venture ever. Those of us who were already storm junkies had renewed dedication. Those of us who weren't already storm junkies were now. Our team leader, John Bender, who has been with skywarn since its inception, is a skywarn instructor in Illinois. He contacted me some years ago as the result of a posting I made on the storm chasers homepage. As a result of the dialogue that ensued, we began to entertain the notion of chasing in the great plains. As the plan grew, we decided to make a go of it…but to do it as a team, hand picking a select group of people with particular skills and abilities. What resulted was the team we chased with last year. There were varying degrees of experience and knowledge, but we made sure ALL the bases were covered. We returned from a great 10 days with a solid team not willing to let it be a one time experience. To many of us, though, chasing simply for the pure joy of chasing was not enough. Many of us saw a need in our local warnings systems for much of the technology we had used for our recreational chase. …to use all our combined talent, energy and experience for purely recreational chasing seemed somehow shallow and self serving. We wanted to stand for something, to be able to share what we had learned and what we would learn about the pursuit of severe weather. We had enjoyed such a high success ratio on our first trip - it was apparent that the systems and procedures we used WORKED. We formed MESO, and continued to recruit people based on interest, ability, knowledge, and experience, but this time with the desire to share our successes and our failures with any interested agencies. We shifted our motivation from that of chasing to that of becoming an research group. We have also launched an in-school program wherein we educate youngster about the wonders and dangers of weather. Our main focus this year had been to design and build a mobile research lab. A vehicle from which we could forecast, track, and chase. This vehicle became a reality. As it developed, more than a few of us found that such a vehicle could be useful in aiding local spotter groups….with its ability to not only track the storms but track the chasers and keep track of where each person is in relation to the storm, the value such a system could would be immeasurable.

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