Sunday, July 31, 2005
Video capturing for the highlight DVD brought about better stills of our April 20 ventures where our group swore we saw a tornado. The grabs I pulled yesterday definately pull me back in the direction of agreeing we did. I posted the new stills on the April 20 log, but will await a group consensus on the images I pulled before making changes to my stats. Aside from the fact that our eyes did indeed see something back there and now that we've got some better video grabs to back up us, it serves as nothing more than a stat padder I'm afraid, but nice to know something was out there.
Also, Amos Magliocco and I think we solved the mystery of where we were when we saw and shot this tornado. Using a variety of sources to verify our location, we've narrowed it down to our second stop after our Quitaque (Texas) gas stop. This occured shortly before 7pm at the intersection of FM1065 and (dirt road) CR44 about 5 miles to our northwest. Using Amos's GPS log as a foundation and a gas receipt from the Allsups in Quitaque at 6:08pm, we were able to coordinate the times with his log and our video to specify and pin down our location. My video also confirmed the 4 mile move from CR-DD 2 miles south of Quitaque to where we shot the video on CR44 due to a break in time that matched the GPS log. We're still a bit unsure as to exactly WHAT tornado we were looking at as we believe the hailer tornado was ongoing before this point. We've speculated that this could possibly be the same tornado as the hailer, which meant it was on the ground for a long time. We're not entirely sure, but at least we now know where we were at this point. Fun little mystery to figure out! I'll make a full update on the log within the next few days.
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Friday, July 29, 2005
Chase Video Update... I have finished putting together the April 10 and May 10 segments for Lubacca 2005. April 10 is about 12 minutes long and May 10 is about 6 minutes long with a bunch of timelapse. I finished the After Effects rendering on both this afternoon and they're ready to go. I was also capturing the nighttime parts of May 12 (namely the hotel stuff). I also captured the first half of May 13 as well as the daylight storms of May 23. As I am doing this, I am seeing how much of a pain in the ass this IDE external drive is. I'll keep playing with it and hope it works smoothly, but in the meantime, I am transferring After Effects rendered video to my laptop hard drive for the time being.
I have made a list of days I am featuring for Lubacca 2005... this is pretty open to change, but here's what I've got..
For Sure: April 10, May 10, May 12, May 13, May 17, May 18, May 30
Still thinking: April 20 (the snow MCS), May 23 (cool lightning), May 25 (supercell timelapse), May 26 (Questa River flooding).
The still thinking ones will be determined based upon how the rest come about. I'm playing it by year as I have my graphics done and animated, so all that's left is capturing and rendering.
Hot weather returns.. we fell (as of this writing) a couple degrees short of the record high for the date of 99. A change is in the works later next week which will hopefully cool things down again. One can only hope, for I am done with summer! :op
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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Did some hot weather video for The Weather Channel this afternoon after a roller coaster ride in Denver which stuck us with new records in the 100s last week to a high temp of 60 on Tuesday. Today was in the 90s! :o( I miss fall already! *LOL*
 
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Wednesday, July 27, 2005
My external hard drive kit arrived today so I began to capture video from the 2005 season onto it. I finished May 10 and was working on May 12 when I did some investigating. Amos Magliocco and I have been working on a mystery to solve what tornado we saw on May 12 in Texas. Amos tagged a tornado by accident while turning his video camera to try and find the tornado I spotted. At first, I didn't think I had a camera on it, nor did we think anyone in the group did, but as I was capturing video, I saw I had filmed the entire storm and was able to easily see the tornado in the view finder. I added a picture to my May 12 log that I rendered in Photoshop to show the tornado buried in the rain.
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Monday, July 25, 2005
MAJOR HEAT WAVE IN DENVER, COLORADO
Since July 16, Denver International Airport has broken sixrecord high temps with five records broken five days in a row starting on the 19th.This included a reading of 105 on July 20 which tied the all-time record high in Denver.
But it's a dry heat...
Climatology of High Temperatures in Denver Since July 16 (new record)
July 16: 102 (old record of 101 in 2003)
July 17: 86
July 18: 89
July 19: 101 (old record of 100 in 1934)
July 20: 105* (old record of 102 in 1939)
July 21: 104 (old record of 100 in 1981)
July 22: 102 (old record of 100 in 1931)
July 23: 102 (old record of 101 in 1910)
* = Tied all-time record of 105 set back on August 8, 1890
Streak of 5 days of 100 or more in a row ties the 1989 streak of 5 days.
More information at the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado
Blog Entries: 07/20/05 @ 0225p - 07/20/05 @ 0514p
UPDATED July 24 @ 11:49am MDT |
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An afternoon quickie landed some lightning video on The Weather Channel this morning! I went on a local spotting trip to Southwest Denver where I planted myself in the height of a heavy rain producing thunderstorm which gave off some brilliant lightning which was shown on TWC this morning. Some heavy rain and street ponding accompanied the storm and added to the video package which I shot.
 
Click the above images to view chase log.
Today holds similar chances for storms, so I'll be on alert just in case. My hopes are that I get a chance to shoot some great lightning after dark as storms are expected to increase in coverage after sunset, so hopefully I can crank out a few more still to add to my 2005 collection!
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Saturday, July 23, 2005
More website updates... I created a ticker update feed which is currently posted on the navbar of the blog page and the index page. Its in testing phase at the moment until I decide if its really needed and ultimately how I'd like to display it. My two thoughts are either to display it soley on my index page (move it from the navbar onto the main page), leave it as is (on the blog and index page), or make it part of my template and display it on all my pages. Once I make the final decision, I'll incorporate it into my daily updates. What this ticker will basically do is make a small reference to whatever updates I've done in the passed week (if any). The ticker allows me to link the news piece to any page I want, so I can direct a visitor straight to the updated page. This will allow me to mention the addition of pics, logs, changes to a page, etc, without having to make a huge shpeel about it. At the moment, my two most viewed pages are the index and blog pages, which is why I am placing the ticker on them. I may also use this to refer to other chaser sites if something major is going on. I'll see how it plays out. I have it setup so I can basically go in and type a quick "entry" and upload it to my server into a separate directory from the rest of my pages. It makes for quick and easy access and appears to read well on both pages. Feedback appretiated.
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The heat continues in Colorado as Denver International Airport smashed out another daily record high temperature for the forth day in a row and the fifth time in seven days. Another day with temperatures soaring close to the century mark is in store today with an outside chance to beat the 1910 daily high temperature record of 101.
Tomorrow and Monday hold potential for that other type of weather I'm interested in, severe storms. Actually, the next few days hold potential for a variety of severe weather. The Denver AFD mentions strong and severe Sunday and Monday, while Tuesday looks like it'll be a monsoon heavy rain producing day along the Front Range.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
240 AM MDT SAT JUL 23 2005
.LONG TERM...THUNDERSTORM COVERAGE IN THE ONGOING FORECAST PACKAGE LOOKS REASONABLE. HAVE MADE ONLY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS TO TEMPERATURES AND SKY COVERAGE. APPEARS PRECIPITATION COULD BEGIN IN THE HIGH COUNTRY DURING THE MORNING HOURS ON SUNDAY...SO GONE AHEAD AND MADE THAT SMALL TIMING CHANGE. DAYTIME TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO CONTINUE TO DECREASE ON SUNDAY WITH THE EXPECTED INCREASE IN CLOUD COVER AND SLIGHT COOLING ALOFT. CAPES AND LAPSE RATES SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT A FEW STRONG LATE DAY STORMS ON THE NERN PLAINS. WIND SHEAR/THETA-E AXIS EXTENDING NEWRD FROM DOUGLAS CTY TO PHILLIPS COUNTY SUNDAY AFTERNOON WILL LIKELY BE THE AREA WHERE THESE STRONG STORMS WILL FORM. FURTHERMORE BECAUSE OF LIGHT SWLY TRANSPORT WINDS...STORMS MOVING OFF THE FRONT RANGE WILL BE SLOW MOVERS...AND WITH PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES JUST OVER AN INCH...COULD SEE A FEW GULLY WASHERS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.
MONDAY LOOKS SOMEWHAT WARMER AND DRIER WITH FLOW ALOFT BECOMING MORE WLY. ALTHOUGH BY THAT EVENING...MODELS SHOW A RELATIVELY STRONG SFC COLD FRONT SLIDING SOUTH OUT OF WYOMING AND ACROSS NERN COLORADO. VERTICAL SHEAR...MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY ALONG THIS BOUNDARY MAY BE ENOUGH A SPARK A FEW SEVERE STORMS...ASSUMING FRONTAL PASSAGE NOT TOO LONG AFTER SUNSET. LARGE HAIL LOOKS TO BE THE MAIN THREAT. TUESDAY LOOKS SEVERAL DEGREES COOLER WITH AN UPPER TROUGH PASSING OVER THE AREA. MODELS SHOW POST-FRONTAL TEMPERATURES ON THE PLAINS LOWERING TO BELOW NORMAL ON TUESDAY...A SHORT REPRIEVE FROM THE RECORD HEAT OF LATE. WEDNESDAY...ENOUGH MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY STILL AROUND TO WARRANT AT LEAST A SLIGHT CHANCE OF TSTORMS IN THE FORECAST.
Sunday and Monday are both days off for me, and provide the best chance to head out east for afternoon trips. Tuesday I am driving pizzas all day, so I'll be pretty well locked into the Southwest part of town, but will still be out as opposed to working in the labs. SPC is quiet about Sunday and Monday in their outlooks, but this type of situation is usually left up to the forecasters here in Boulder, as typically events like this hardly warrent a SEE TEXT from SPC, let alone a SLIGHT. However, I wouldn't hold off on not seeing anything mentioned in subsequent outlooks.
In the meantime, I am going to watch today's high attempt another record breaking mark from the comforts of a quiet AC'd computer lab. Not much to do in terms of website updates today, so I'll have to find other productive ways to pass time. Yesterday, I did order an external IDE hard drive kit so I can begin capture of my chasing video from the 2005 season. As soon as that arrives, I'll begin capturing my stuff and getting it ready for editing.
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Friday, July 22, 2005
IT RAINED! But not before we set our third record high in a row and our forth in six days! The crazy heat wave got a brief relief last night when a couple weak evening thundershowers rolled over Southwest Denver while I was driving pizzas. A happy relief as it soaked temperatures into the lower 80s and upper 70s and better yet, blocked the sun up until sunset where it lit the virga clouds on fire! I had to call the NWS Denver Report line cause it was too good to pass up! Rain, yes, the dry storms were wet, and they came down good for a couple minutes. NWS Denver actually issued a short-term forecast from my report..
SHORT TERM FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
627 PM MDT THU JUL 21 2005
ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE OVER THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE METRO AREA THROUGH 7 PM. A TWO TO THREE MINUTE PERIOD OF MODERATE RAIN WILL BE POSSIBLE IN ENGLEWOOD...LITTLETON AND AREAS TOWARD KEN CARYL BETWEEN 630 PM AND 7 PM. SOME WIND GUSTS TO 35 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE. UP TO 5 HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH OF PRECIPITATION CAN BE EXPECTED.
So yeah, we saw some rain! :o)
Doing more website updates this morning, including the addition (FINALLY) of my Life on the Road picture page! It still has many images yet to be posted for various reasons, but its finally up and ready for your viewing pleasure! I also plastered a dozen more shots of my car on the 'Storm Tracer' page. Yes, that's a lot of pictures of my ca, but she's my baby and I'm proud of how well she's done and doing! You damn well better believe I'm gonna show off my chasing pride-and-joy!
I did reconsider the updates section on my main page, but only to an extent. I boxed it off with the link banners and made a list of sections with main updates. Below those are keys to the  and the  images which will show up in those listed sections. It's small and doesn't require a lot of upkeep, so I can basically post it here in the blog once and be done with it (hence the 'check the blog' link).
More small touch-ups coming, so stay tuned here as I have a wild website touchup hair up my butt. Better milk it for all I can! *LOL*
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Thursday, July 21, 2005
More website work to talk about... today, I have spent a great deal of time updating my main front page. Most of the contents on the page are the same, just moved around. You'll notice all SPC's graphics are lined up along the left side of the page. This allowed room with table codes to place content along the right side of that invisible table. Within that content cell is another big change; the addition of a recent chase logs section. I've been doing this with MySpace Profile where I update a picture to show my latest chase trip. I included that on the main page as well as three thumbnail images from three recent chases. Those recent chases will be the three most recent chases where I actually took images (either still of vid caps), so its possible the chase logs may have other logs between those listed. Below it, another MySpace copy; my chase odometer and tornado count. Below that are several counters; these will change according to whatever I am counting down to. As of this entry, there are three countdowns reflecting the end of the 2005 chase season (AKA: my first day of the Fall semester), the start of the 2006 chase season (on April 1), and the tentative start to my 2006 Mayathon which I have slated for Sunday, May 14 which is the end of finals week (more on Mayathon 2006 later). Once a countdown reaches zero, it'll be removed from the main page after a short amount of time. That means counters will rotate in and out, leaving as many as three or as little as one. Below those are a pair of Weather Underground banners for my hometown (Circleville, OH) and my current residence (Denver, CO). I removed the three buttons from the various other Plains States cities.
Another temporary section which is up right now will include semi-major weather happenings in the Denver area. This section will not be up all the time, just in those situations where the weather around here has gotten interesting. For instance, our current record breaking heat wave. While not major like a 12 tornado chase or city-stopping blizzard, it's worthy enough to put on the main page. This section will refer to blog entires regarding the event, as well as NWS and other media links related to the event. Once the event ends, the section will be taken down and only blog entries regarding the event will remain. More than likely, I will copy the section into a separate blog entry just for archiving purposes.
Below it, a few added things including the banner and buttons for linking to my site. Also included below that are text links to my new chaser section, links section, and media services section. The Elite Chaser webring remains the same, and below that is my first "professional" collage which takes you to my biography page.
Some items that were removed from the old index page where the recent updates. Two reasons for this; first of all, my blog typically updates with any sort of developments. The recent updates to the website were the main reason I put that up, but then started using that to refer visitors to recent chase logs. With the addition of the recent chase thumbnails and my blog covering website updates, I saw no need for that section anymore. This area was replaced by a green-bordered, yellow box which refers visitors to check out blog updates.
A couple of template changes as well, including the addition of a button linking to DJ Dani Garza's website as a way of promoting his music which will be included on my upcomimng chase video. I also removed the Mayathon 2005 button form the navbar.
A few more changes are upcoming on various other pages as well, including a rotating banner of indivigual chaser websites on my links page as a test code. I was originally gonna put it on my index page, but somehow, the coding got screwed up and Dreamweaver locked my from changing anything on my original index page. If it works well (code-wise), I may put it back over, but til then, I am going to play with it there.
The media section page will be a work-in-progress, so stay tuned for updates to that.
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Shane Adams has a blog that Amos Magliooco mentioned in his blog. Shane is a gifted writer and one of the most passionate storm chasers out there. I added his blog link to the side links as his blog entries will ultimately make for some great reading. Like Amos, I would strongly encourage you to take a look from time-to-time and read up. I haven't personally chased with Shane, and aside from a couple meetings at conferences and a brief run-in on a chase, I don't know much beyond his Stormtrack posts, but what I do know is that he's a good writer and a dedicated chaser. Check his blog out!
http://www.shaneadams.blogspot.com/
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Temperature in Denver tied for all-time high...
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER CO
358 PM MDT WED JUL 20 2005
...ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR DENVER TIED AT 105...
...HOTTEST JULY DAY IN DENVER HISTORY...
...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET FOR JULY 20TH...
AT 337 PM...THE TEMPERATURE CLIMBED TO 105 DEGREES AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. THIS TIES THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY. THE LAST TIME 105 DEGREES WAS REACHED WAS 127 YEARS AGO ON AUGUST 8 1878.
IN ADDITION...THIS IS ALSO THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED FOR THE MONTH OF JULY. THE OLD RECORD HIGH FOR THE MONTH OF JULY WAS 103 DEGREES SET ON BOTH JULY 8 1989 AND JULY 6 1973.
THIS ALSO SETS A NEW RECORD HIGH FOR JULY 20. THE OLD RECORD WAS 102 DEGREES SET IN 1939.
STAFF
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Three out of the last five days have established new daily record highs. Today, we fell one degree short of Denver's all-time record high of 105. Here are some stats from NWS Boulder in regards to this sick heat wave.
ON JULY 16TH...AT 149 PM MDT...THE TEMPERATURE AT THE DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REACHED 102 DEGREES. THIS BREAKS THE OLD JULY 16TH RECORD OF 101 DEGREES SET BACK IN 2003. THIS 102 DEGREE READING WAS THE FIRST 100 DEGREE DAY SINCE JULY 24 2003. DURING JULY 2003 THERE WERE 3 100 DEGREE DAYS...JULY 13...16 AND 24. ALL
THREE DAYS WERE RECORD SETTERS.
TODAY...JULY 19TH...AT 2:52 PM MDT...THE TEMPERATURE AT THE DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REACHED 101 DEGREES. THIS BREAKS THE OLD JULY 19TH RECORD OF 100 DEGREES SET BACK IN 1934. THIS MARKS THE SECOND 100 DEGREE OR HIGHER TEMPERATURE READING THIS MONTH...BOTH NEW RECORDS. TOMORROW...JULY 20TH...THE FORECAST CALLS FOR A HIGH TEMPERATURE NEAR 100 DEGREES. THE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR JULY 20TH IS 102 DEGREES SET IN 1939.
AT 1159 AM (JULY 20TH)...THE TEMPERATURE CLIMBED TO 104 DEGREES AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...MAKING THIS THE HOTTEST JULY DAY IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY. THE OLD RECORD OF 103 DEGREES WAS SET ON JULY 8 1989 AND JULY 6 1973. NATURALLY...THIS SET A NEW RECORD HIGH FOR JULY 20. THE OLD RECORD WAS 102 DEGREES SET IN 1939.
THE ALL-TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR DENVER IS 105 DEGREES SET ON AUGUST 8 1878.
And yes, today's record of 104 was established BEFORE NOON! That's just wrong!!! *LOL*
Forecasts calls for temps in the upper 90s straight through the weekend, which means its possible to see more records fall through Sunday. Denver's Climatology Page shows that the record highs for July 21st through July 24 are 100, 100, 101, and 100 respectively. Highly likely any of those could fall. Currently (as of 2:00pm MDT), DIA has a temp of 99 with some clouds over the area, so it's unlikely we'll top the all-time record high for Denver today, but Buckley is reporting 104 right now with 100 at Centennial, so a few places along the Front Range are still in triple digits. Nothing like Lamar which was reporting 107! Eeesh! I can't wait til fall!
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Monday, July 18, 2005
Scratch today's potential chasing... nothing even worth mentioning going on close by. Looks like that'll be the case through the weekend, as nothing looks to be coming up over the horizon. Emily looks to be heading south into Mexico, so my interest has greatly decreased in that. Other than that,nothing much to speak of except the few website updates. Want to wish my chasing pal, Amos Magliocco and his kitty, Sonny a safe move from Indiana to Texas. Best of luck and God's speed with that trip. Anything new and exciting happens, I will post it here, otherwise, expect a rather quiet week on my blog. Stay cool all! :o)
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Saturday, July 16, 2005
Eyeballing Monday for Chasing Potential...
SPC has an area of SLIGHT circled over the Front Range and adjacent Plains of Colorado on Monday. Being as it'll be a free day for me, I'll have the opportunity to sneak out. Looks like the best action will be closer to the Front Range as opposed to the Eastern Plains, so I won't have to go far.
Yesterday, tornado warnings went up for storms which passed over the Metro area. No tornadoes were reported, but some small hail and heavy rain did come down.
Also watching Hurricane Emily as it makes its way towards the Gulf of Mexico. My Grandparents live in Corpus Christi, and although most forecasts are taking this system south of there, I have my attention very focused on this storm just in case it wants to visit Corpus.
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Friday, July 15, 2005
A couple major graphic overhauls you've probably noticed in the passed 24 hours. The big changes came in the form of a new banner and home button at the top of all my pages. Below are the graphics I am referring to...
I custom created the banner using Adobe Photoshop CS and a variety of my pictures. The wolf backgrounds were taken from a public domain site and knocked down in opacity as to not distract the eye too much, but be visible enough to let you know they're there. These were added to the banner late in its creation to go along with the new HAM radio callsign (KW0LFF) I will be getting on August 2nd. Those who know me well enough also know I am obsessed with wolves as they're my favorite animal! Between the wolves, another transparent image, this one is my 'WX NERD' license plate. All three transparent images were changed over to a gray-scale format to allow for better transparencies. The main background is a series of lightning shots taken with my digital camera. In all, four different shots were used and combined using the Rubber Stamp tool and a Blur tool to rid of the hard lines where the light didn't comletely fade away to black. The two images of me were taken by Scott Eubanks and Jon Van de Grift. I used the Extract tool to pull me from the images and then used the History Brush tool and Eraser to smooth out the edges. I then used a black to transparent gradient on both to add effect. The lettering was a Bank Gothic font which I typed out in Photoshop. I used a variety of layer blending techniques to aquire the lettering effects. For the italicized lettering, I had to skew the layer for my desired look.
The recreation of my Yin & Yang tornado icon was difficult to achieve and was also done with Adobe Photoshop CS. Since my first Yin & Yang/Tornado logo was done years ago, I had forgotten and couldn't recreate the previous look. With that issue at hand, I elected to create a new icon to match the main banner. Starting with a Wingdings font, I created a Yin & Yang and flipped it upwards. I then created a pair of sides using two of my lightning shots; one with an orange color, the other more purple/blue. I centered the bolts in the Yin & Yang sections and rubber stamped some areas to keep consistant color. The tornado was googled up and I found it on a site that no longer exists. Here is a direct link to the image I used; no photo information was stated, thus the image goes uncredited. If someone knows who shot this, please let me know so I can credit them. Obviously no tornado I have shot had the look I needed, and this was the closest I could find. I did some rubber stamping to get the shape and curve I needed to fill in the center of the Yin & Yang. This was done after I did a horizontal flip of the image. Another free use wolf image was used as the background transparency. The lettering was done the same as the banner in the same font. All graphic layers contained various layer blending techniques.
I've had a few questions in regards to the idea of the Yin & Yang tornado. Back in high school, I doodled several designs for what I wanted my "life logo" to be. At the time, I was a big storm nerd (no change, huh) and an avid learner of the Martial Arts, Tae Kwon Do in particular. Since they were my two main areas of interest then, I figured a way to combine the two into one using the Martial Arts symbol of the Yin & Yang and weaving a tornado through the middle of it. Thus lead to the creation of the logo, as well as the name, "Tornadoes Kick" ( a name for a Tae Kwon Do kick). I officially dubbed my chasing efforts "Tornadoes Kick Storm Chasing" in 1997 after the successful first chase of the Clarksburg, Ohio Tornado in May of 1997 and have stuck with it ever since.
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
Good news! Starting August 2, 2005, my HAM radio callsign will be switched! My application for a vanity callsign was approved and it looks as if I will be KW0LFF!
This is cool because I absolutely LOVE wolves and obviously this call sign shows that! I'm excited about the change as I had to wait for a while til the sign was released and when it was, I jumped on it. Again, this change will take effect starting August 2 barring any setbacks!
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Some quick website updates to make mention of.. first, out of respect and in memory of Storm Chaser Jeff Wear who was killed in a car accident while on his way home from chasing Hurricane Dennis, I've slapped a memorial icon with a link to his website on my navbar which will be seen through the site ('cept this blog page cause of coding). I'll leave it up for the remainder of the month in memory of a fellow chaser who enjoyed this as much as anyone could! He'll be missed in the chasing community.
Also worth mentioning that I updated a couple of logs, including the insane trip to Texas back on June 12. This log, while lacking in tornadoes, ends rather humerously, so be sure to read through it. I also included the log from my most recent venture with Verne which pitched me over the 15,000 mile mark for the second season in a row. I'm on pace to eclipse last year's 15,393 miles and possibly even the career 40,000 mile mark (384 needed for that). While nothing is imminent in the forseeable future, it is likely I'll hit that mark in August when the usual week of severe weather invades the area again. Til then, this ridge keeps us baking in 90 plus degree temps and pretty well lids off any chance of chasable weather.
On a video note, I am going to begin production of "Lubacca 2005: Well That Sucked" this week. I've already done the April 10 raw section which will end up being the 11 minute feature of the film. I've also toyed with the idea of making a blooper reel of my chasing events. Inspired by Blake's bloopers from the conference, but I'm going to use my own footage as opposed to gathering footage form others. Included with this will be various pieces from passed chases, including the Wichita Falls booger, the chasing down of a gas receipt, as well as various other unusual occurances while chasing. This will require some digging through videos to find some good stuff, but I'm sure I can fill a song or two. Beyond that, I'll probably do a couple music videos using music provided by Dani Garza on top of some snippets from some bigger, non-tornatic chases. The more I look back, the more I realize that I have plenty to make a decent video. And yes, I am still keeping that title! Stay tuned to my chase video page for more information on the video, including a release date!
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Storm Chaser Jeff Wear was killed in a car accident while returning home after chasing Hurricane Dennis. I met Jeff at a couple conferences and enjoyed my conversations with him. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in the field. This is a sad day for the chase community and my sincerest condolences go out to his friends and family...
Storm Chaser Jeff Wear: 1978 - 2005
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Monday, July 11, 2005
Looks like a local chase day today after getting over the alfalfa sprouts my girlfriend had me try. Once I recover from gagging those down, I should be ready to roll for an afternoon retreat out east. Tornado chances are not particularly high today, but enough where sitting near the Denver Cyclone would be warrented. Storm movement today also works in our favor as storms will move south and maybe even southwest. I talked to Verne Carlson this morning about heading out today and it feels more like another casual gentlemen's chase more than anything else. I'll probably pack all the camera gear today along with my lappy, but this definately will not take us out of the state for more than a few miles if at all today. Hopefully we can get a few stat padders (landspout spin-ups) this afternoon out east. I'm planning on heading out in an hour or so where I'll probably just skip my way across town so that I can hit whatever major highway I need to. Yeah, a chase! :o)
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Saturday, July 09, 2005
I haven't seen a special weather statement from NWS Denver is a long time... here's what they have to say right now..
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
233 PM MDT SAT JUL 09 2005
...BRIEF TORNADOES POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOON...
THUNDERSTORMS WERE DEVELOPING ALONG A LINE FROM NEAR MONUMENT TO JUST EAST OF CASTLE ROCK AND THEN NORTHWARD THROUGH THE WATKINS... ROGGEN...AND BRIGGSDALE AREAS. THESE STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SHORT LIVED AND WEAK TORNADOES THIS AFTERNOON. IN ADDITION...STORMS OVER THE ENTIRE REGION WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 50 MPH.
IF A FUNNEL CLOUD OR STRONG WINDS ARE OBSERVED...TAKE COVER IN A REINFORCED STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
Damn! Working again! :o(
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Friday, July 08, 2005
Just a quick note to express the lack of anything going on... I am probably going to begin to assemble what little video I have together into a DVD. I do not plan to release officially a DVD, but mainly put one together so I can trade it out for others who fared much better than I did this year, particularly Amos Magliocco. I have titled it accordingly..
DVD Cover likely to change; this is a throw-together
The featured chase will be April 10, 2005 when I actually bagged my only photogenic tornadoes of the year. I'll probably do a few music videos as well to incorporate the other pieces of footage I gathered this year. Also included will be a photo slideshow of various photos I took this season. One slideshow will be the lightning from this season since I was able to take a lot of it. Another show may be the behind-the-scenes stuff I shot.
Obviously I am not going to complete this anytime in the near future as there still is time left in this season. While my chasing has diminished significantly in the passed couple weeks, it doesn't rule out a renegade chase between now and October. I'm basically going to work on what I have and get it ready to push out and when the season officially closes, I'll wrap everything up and have it ready for trade. Again, unless I see enough to market, I won't be selling any videos this season.
Also worth mentioning, one of the guys I work with on campus, Dani Garza, is a pretty kick-ass DJ and has music all over the world. He and I have briefly chatted about having him do the music for my future chase videos. Pending what I throw together this season, I may have him do the score and see how it sounds. I've heard some of his work and its pretty cool! He even mentioned that he'd create new scores for the videos, so I may give him some work. Check out his website and listen to some of his stuff!
So yeah, nothing new in chasing... July's storms have feasted well over Eastern Colorado, but no real tornado activity to speak of. Just some doozie storms and loads of precip! We're drying out now, so nothing imminent for the next few days except more heat! :o(
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Monday, July 04, 2005
My Dad got a call and he and his crew split from lunch in a hurry to take the chopper and head out to a call. Not sure when he'll be back, but they left us here on the base where I've been eyeballing the weather. Fortunately, SPC put out an MD for the area I'm in right now... here's the text..
MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 1643
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0303 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2005
AREAS AFFECTED...WEST TX AND FAR E-CENTRAL/NERN NM
CONCERNING...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL
VALID 042003Z - 042200Z
ISOLATED TSTM DEVELOPMENT IS EXPECTED LATE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS THE SOUTH PLAINS OF WEST TEXAS...AND IS POSSIBLE ACROSS FAR E-CENTRAL/NERN NM. LARGE HAIL AND LOCALIZED DAMAGING WINDS WILL BE THE PRIMARY THREAT WITH STRONGER STORMS. A WW IS POSSIBLE ACROSS PORTIONS OF THIS AREA...ALTHOUGH COVERAGE OF CONVECTION MAY BE MARGINAL.
AT 1930Z...MAF 88D SUGGESTS LOW-LEVEL CIRCULATION WITH THERMAL LOW OVER SWRN TX WITH ASSOCIATED BAND OF ENHANCED CONVERGENCE EXTENDING E-W FROM 40NE HOB TO 30N ABI PER VIS SATELLITE AND WEST TX MESONET OBS. RICH LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE HAS ADVECTED WWD INTO LBB AREA NEAR THIS SURFACE BOUNDARY...WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE MID TO UPPER 60S. STRONG HEATING HAS RESULTED IN VERY UNSTABLE AIR MASS WITH MLCAPE VALUES IN EXCESS OF 3000 J/KG FROM NEAR LBB SSEWD TO SJT. BOUNDARY LAYER CUMULUS FIELD CONTINUES TO INCREASE IN THIS REGION...AND IS SLIGHTLY ENHANCED NEAR SURFACE WIND SHIFT LINE S-SE OF LBB.
REMAINING CAPPING AND WEAK LARGE-SCALE FORCING FOR ASCENT ARE INHIBITING FACTORS FOR WIDESPREAD CONVECTION IN THIS REGION. HOWEVER...LOW-LEVEL TRENDS SUGGEST ISOLATED STORMS MAY FORM BY EARLY THIS EVENING. HIGH-BASED TOWERING CU SPREADING OFF THE ERN SLOPES OF THE SRN ROCKIES MAY SEPARATELY DEVELOP INTO ISOLATED STORMS ACROSS FAR E-CENTRAL/NERN NM AS LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE SPREADS WNWWD. STEEP MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES AND SFC-6KM SHEAR OF AROUND 20KT SHOULD SUPPORT LARGE HAIL WITH STRONGER CORES OF INDIVIDUAL CELLS OR SMALL MULTICELLULAR STORM CLUSTERS. STRONGER DOWNDRAFTS MAY ALSO SUPPORT LOCALIZED DAMAGING WIND POTENTIAL AS DCAPE VALUES INCREASE WITH CONTINUED DEEPENING OF BOUNDARY LAYER.
..BANACOS.. 07/04/2005
At least its something... but as I've said, I'm in a rental, so I won't be punching cores unless I can hide under a gas station cover. I would ultimately like to see the storms crash through here so I can leave the car at my Dad's apartment (which has covered parking). I'll keep tabs on it as I await to see where they issue a watch.
Currently, Snyder is at the west end of the CU field developing over West-Central Texas. Temps in the 90s with TDs in the 60s would give birth to storms that may have a chance to punch through the cap, but it looks like another hour or two before things get going. Hopefully they'll form a bit further to the west and move over the area at their peaks. We shall see!
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I'm not diving into any forecasts today cause I'm on minimum equipment, outside of my resident state, and in a rental car I did not fully cover. However, I am keeping an eye on things and when I looked at SPC's forecast for today, I know they were screwing with me!
First of all, today's highest chance for tornadoes (5%) sits in Eastern Colorado (figures). But hatched areas for wind and hail sit on top of me here in Snyder. Unfortunately, those don't hold well for isolated storms as the thinking is a cluster moving nearby. Ah well, can't have it all, I guess.
In any case, I'm gonna keep an eye to the sky today just to see what may stir up. I'll be outside most of the day, so I'll leave my lappy and cameras (all I have; no wx radio) in the trunk of my rental and be prepared just in case something rolls through. As for Colorado, I hope anyone who can get out today scores some fireworks of their own!
Happy Independence Day everyone!
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