Dangers and Pitfalls to Tornado Observing
(particularly to non-meteorologists)
- Adrenaline and testosterone creating a sense of invulnerability leading to attempts to penetrate a tornado or get into its path
- Adrenaline and testosterone leading to unsafe driving on wet or otherwise dangerous roads
- Adrenaline and testosterone leading to mischaracterization of damage associated with tornado, size, and speed of tornado
- Poor knowledge of supercell storm structure and tornadoes and/or imposition of old conceptual models leads to dangerous behavior (particularly for large tornadoes which can have multiple smaller vortices embedded in them both inside and outside the main obvious tornado; even a danger for seasoned meteorologists)