Storm chasers don't chase after rainbows
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:54:00 07/13/2008
Filed Under: Weather, Meteorological disaster
MANILA, Philippines--You've seen it in films, news or TV documentaries: A gaggle of men in raincoats and rubber boots hop into pickups and drive at full speed on rain-swept roads to track storms.
It is a little known fact, but local weathermen chase storms--just like in the movies.
Measuring the amount of rainfall and wind speed in the middle of a violent storm and reporting extreme weather conditions are part of the duties of the men of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), who often take the brunt of criticism for the erratic movement of typhoons.
"The closer you are to the eye of the storm, the better," says senior weather specialist Robert Quinto, who has led such missions for over 10 years.
These weathermen belong to the Special Tropical Weather Disturbance Reconnaissance, Investigation and Evaluation (Stride), a quick response team of Pagasa better known as "storm chasers."
Since forming Stride in 1990, the bureau has been deploying a team of storm chasers from Manila to cities and municipalities in the general area of a typhoon's landfall to forewarn residents, make weather updates and assess damage.
"Because of the frequency of typhoons in the country, they have to do it," says Pagasa director and Stride chair Prisco Nilo in an interview on Friday in his office.
In middle of storm
At least four weather specialists and observers trained in meteorology form a team and ride marked pickups or AUVs to their destination at least two or three days ahead of a storm's landfall.
The teams are advised to work in any of the 58 weather stations across the country. But once the storm swirls in, they have to go out with their instruments like a rain gauge to measure the amount of rainfall, an aerovane to gauge wind speed and direction, and yes, a barometer to determine the atmospheric pressure.
At some point, they have to jot down the wind speed per minute for 10 minutes, and relay the average number to the weather forecasters.
"We report data that we gather in real time [using mobile phones]," says Quinto, a staff member at Pagasa's Natural Disaster Reduction Branch. "We could be in the middle of heavy rain, with strong gusts of wind coming from the north. That's the kind of information we feed."
On the other end of the line are weather forecasters, stationed at Pagasa's weather forecasting terminal in an old, gray building in Quezon City, monitoring satellite images of a typhoon on a network of computers.
Eye of the storm
"The mission is a success if we're in the eye of the storm, or just close to it," says Quinto, who shows a digital photo of himself talking on his cell phone while wading in mud.
The data they feed by the hour comes in handy when weather forecasters face reporters to give updates on the track and strength of a typhoon, or when they prepare weather bulletins.
But there are some instances when Quinto or any of his colleagues reports the weather conditions on the spot over local radio.
"They're better than the weather stations because they're mobile, they have hand-held equipment and they can get close to the eye of the typhoon," Nilo says.
Generally, storm chasers are deployed to an area, usually in Luzon, if a typhoon makes landfall. Nine or nearly half of the average 19 to 20 cyclones that swirl into the country every year hit land.
Dangers
Quinto will never forget the day his team raced to Naga City in Camarines Sur in November 2007 to intercept Typhoon "Mina (international codename: Mitag)," but ended up driving farther north after it looped upward over the Pacific Ocean and headed for Cagayan.
"We caught up with it in Isabela. That's the tough part of the job. You're positioned in one area, but you have to chase it because it's making landfall elsewhere," he says.
Nothing compares to the dangers of driving through blinding rain and rising floodwaters, dodging falling trees and electric posts, or tripping over a tangle of power lines.
"I saw billboards topple over just meters away from us in Dagupan. There was another time we got stuck in the mud, and a crane had to pull us out. But the worst thing was getting stranded for days in Daet because it was flooded everywhere," Quinto recounts.
Good thing, the chasers always manage to ride out the storm. So far, in the nearly 20 years of Stride, no member has been killed or injured.
Knowledge and courage
"There were a number of times I had to order them, 'Turn back, turn back,' because they were riding into the eye of powerful typhoons like 'Reming' (international code name: Durian) in November 2006. We have to ensure their safety first," Nilo says. "It takes courage and knowledge to do this kind of job."
For good measure, the storm chasers are insured.
They also have their jobs cut out for them. They're dispatched to an area two or three days ahead of landfall precisely to brief local disaster coordinating councils in a province, city or municipality about the impact of a storm and the precautionary measures needed.
They have to stay behind after the storm or move around to take footage of the aftermath and to assess the extent of the damages to homes and crops--data which will be used to improve Pagasa's typhoon damage scale in its bulletins.
Where the action is
That's exactly what happened to fresh recruit Edino Nonato Nolasco, 37, officer-in-charge of Pagasa's Atmospheric Science Research Unit.
Fresh from a two-day seminar on storm chasing, he and two other recruits were tapped to be part of a four-man team to pursue Typhoon "Frank" in Daet in the third week of June.
Nolasco was giddy with anticipation of chasing a storm. But the powerful typhoon deviated from its track, so he and the rest of the crew ended up traveling from Sorsogon to Samar taking footages of the damage.
"We want to be on the team again the next time a new typhoon comes along," he says in an interview at the Pagasa library on Friday. "We want to be where the action is."
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