FOMO in Storm Chasing ~ 2025-03-02
Storm Prediction Center Tornado Outlook - March 2nd, 2025 at 1300Z.
Today, March 2nd, 2025, will likely be the kick-off storm event of the season for traditional chase country. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has placed a tight 5% tornado contour over Southwestern Oklahoma and the Eastern Texas Panhandle as a surface low progresses eastward with a narrow corridor of ideal conditions for a couple supercells off of an eastward-surging dryline. With it being the weekend and the first real opportunity of the season, every chaser possible from Texas through Kansas will likely be descending to Childress or Altus over the next couple of hours.
Early season setups like this gets chasers excited as many of us are sick of the lack of action over the winter. Of course, though, many chasers not in the immediate surrounding states cannot make the trek out to western Oklahoma on such short notice, hence the onset of FOMO. ‘Fear of missing out,’ or the millennial-coined term of FOMO, is most commonly associated in social settings where individuals perceive that they are missing out on social activities or events (the key word being ‘perceive’). This feeling is enhanced by social media as you’ll see posts trickle of friends or peers being a part of said activity.
The Grady, New Mexico Mothership Supercell the night of May 25th, 2023. Widely regarded as the best storm structure of the 2023 Chase Season. Plenty of chasers had FOMO missing out on this storm.
In the context of storm chasing, FOMO is very real and very prevalent in my estimation. The problem social media poses for storm chasers that cannot get to a certain event is that engagement will throttle up posts from those that are on a current chase, particularly posts that are the most dramatic scenes of success (cool storm structure, a photogenic tornado, wild lightning, etc.). Social media has a very funny way of isolating individuals when on paper it should be a means of connecting them. The perception from someone sitting out a storm event is that ‘everyone’ is getting to make the most of this storm chase except them. Of course, rational thinking says otherwise, and they’d realize that it isn’t everyone, just those that can be seen on social media. But nonetheless, the brain is acting emotionally, so those rational thoughts are clouded. Instead, they simply see a bunch of people that are not them, having a great storm chase while they are stuck at work, home, or some previous commitment.
Speaking from experience here, the FOMO can be extremely real at times even when it makes no rational sense. I often found myself at my desk at work in Western Massachusetts seeing fellow chasers and friends capture a beautiful tornado some 1,500 miles away. Rationally, I was not going to make that set up in time, plus I have commitments to my job, but yet, I still feel down and out not being able to partake in the chase. Now entering my 10th season of storm chasing, the first one where weather is my full-time gig, I still know that I will not see every single photogenic storm or tornado. I’ve managed this FOMO feeling by processing and internalizing the fact that social media isn’t reality. People are way more likely to post their successes over their failures, thus most of what you see are the highlights of their life (and in a storm chasing context, highlights of their chases). You are not going to see the low points, failures, or times that they are sitting a chase out over the times that they are. Even if they do post about not chasing or busting on an event, engagement and algorithms will naturally dictate that those posts will fall by the wayside while those that have successes will have their posts boosted to the top of the timeline.
All of this is to say that FOMO is very real in a storm chasing context, but it is also important to keep it in check. Social media is not an accurate depiction of reality and the most extreme and dedicated chasers are going to have their events they miss and failures. You’re just not going to see them as often as the successes because that is not how social media works. So the next time you are unable to chase a storm (it may even be today), just remember you’ll have your moments in the future to experience and absorb while others are in the position you are in now.
Cheers, Ethan