Back to reality, at least for a few days... work, classes, an exam, and a meeting sit before me this week which will fall around my research project which is coming along slowly.
In the meantime, I've finished all website updates, including the addition of photos to my
lightning and
tornado sections as well as updated mileage (1270 for April 13 chase), index pages, and
video listings. I should be caught up from this weekend now. Obviously, both the
April 12 lightning chase and
April 13 wedge chase are completed as well. A few additional shots will be included on the 13th chase at some point down the road (mainly trip home pics), but the guts of that chase are finalized.
There's another system setting up for the weekend. As the models were hinting at something last week, I insured myself the weekend off. My only obligation is a mandatory meeting from 1 to 5p on Friday here on campus which at this time doesn't look to interfere with any chase plans as all forecasts are pointing at a Saturday/Sunday time frame. I'll worry about plotting that out midweek as I have enough to catch-up on between now and then to keep me busy.
Our wedge tornado report from April 13 made SPC's storm reports a bit late due to the Baylor County Police department not relaying my report when I called it in. Amos and Eric attempted various other methods of getting the report relayed, but were unsuccessful and thus asked me to call it in. Obviously not having updated report numbers lead me straight to 9-1-1. A meteorologist at OUN contacted me the following day to confirm our catch. I informed him of my call and the return call I received back moments later and told him I wasn't sure what came of our report after that. He informed me that the report would be added and thus was put on the
April 13 storm reports.
While I won't breath the fire I was tempted to throw over the weekend, I will mention that a member of the media publically posted in ST stating that he had never heard of the touchdown near Seymour and that we (those that witnessed) should at least make an attempt to call in the tornado so that he could do his job (he kindly reminded us that we needed to report this tornado). He posted this AFTER I discussed the 9-1-1 call and the report I made (which means we did report the tornado), thus failing to do his number ONE job in media which is to gather ALL information before broadcasting. Both Amos and I corrected his error and he was quick to take back his uninformed post. To set the record straight, I make every attempt to report what I see, especially in that circumstance where I felt as if we were the only people witnessing this event. Once I make that call, what happens to the report is out of my hands. While I appretiate his concern for the public and his media ratings, I would also appretiate he take a few seconds to read previous posts before calling us out like that. None of us are just spectators!
Lastly, a few people commented on my blog (Shelly and Angela); if you read this, please drop me an email as I have questions for you both. And lastly, Tammy, the main video was shot in Archer County... the Seymour shots were thrown in at the end for the flooding/hail additions. I just don't have the room on my templates to add the additional information, so the main part of the video gets the title. Thanks for the comments and its great to see people checking things out! Stay tuned!
