Live Tracker FAQ
Why does the tracker say you're in Tulsa so much?
We don't activate the live tracker until we have reached our targeted area for the day. This is because we "caught" another storm chasing tour company actually looking at our live tracker data and "chasing us", instead of making their own forecast and chasing storms the proper way. So, we'll leave the tracker positioned at the location of our offices in Tulsa, even though we are actively on the road traveling towards our day's intended target area. When we reach our target area for the day, we'll activate the live tracker so you can see where we are along with live radar data.
How did you "catch" this other storm chasing tour company?
When a company does things like this, it creates a disappointment in their tour customers. Several of their customers called us and told us about this while it was happening. We also noticed that this company (which is not known to be operated by quality forecasters) was "all of a sudden" everywhere that we were at once we activated our live tracker during the 2007 storm chasing season. The tracker was in "beta testing" mode during 2007 and we didn't publish the link, but it was accessible to the public and could be found if you searched our site hard enough - as we guess this other storm chasing company must have done.
Will you tell us which company it was?
No. However, we will say to be on the lookout for any companies that are trying to follow in our footsteps and creating their live tracker application in the near future. It seems that (as usual) we always set the lead on projects like this and others follow suite. So, the "offending company" will probably try to create their own tracking application since they obviously now know about ours. We will also say that it comes as no surprise to us that this happened, simply because the company actually discusses "following other storm chasers" in their literature.
I've noticed in the fall you're location is in Clearwater, FL?
Much like we set our tracker to "Tulsa" during the spring storm season, we'll set the home location to "Clearwater" during the fall hurricane season. Once we deploy on a QuickFlight Hurricane Interception, we'll active the tracker to record our actual live position.
Why do you have long refresh times on your coutdown clock?
The countdown times will change depending on what mode the live tracker is in. When our GPS Tracker is offline, the countdown time will generally be longer (up to 10 minutes). When GPS Tracker is in "Active" mode, the countdown refresh will be 60 seconds.
Is the Radar information current when your GPS Tracker is Offline?
Yes, even though our GPS Tracker system is not sending live position data to the Tracker, the radar information is still current. The radar information updates about every 30 minutes, it is not considered as "live" radar, and it is not intended to be used for weather related decisions. If you are looking for the most current live radar information for your area, please consult the website for your nearest National Weather Service office.
If you only activate the tracker when you're "at the storms" how will I know?
There are two options. 1) You can check our website frequently, OR, 2) You can make use of our XML file for our live tracker application and put this file on a page that you check often, such as "iGoogle" or any other page that will accept XML content. When we active the live tracker, the "status" on the XML file will update as well to let you know about it.
VST Live Position Tracker
2008 Schedule
Our 2008 Storm Chasing Tour Schedule is Now Available. 
Storm Chasing Logs
We launched our new storm chasing logs with photos and video during the 2007 tour season. To read about our adventures be sure to see our Storm Chase Logs.
2007 Interceptions
