Staying at home in Denver watching sports definitely turned out to be the best choice as the squall line in Oklahoma didn't do anything I am sorry I missed. A brief, weak, and very small tornado was spotted by a few chasers, but that was the extent of things as the storms quickly evolved into a line and trekked east across the state. My hunch is I did just as well on Saturday with only 150 miles at cost plus the nearly $20 in tolls driving up and down E-470.
I'm keeping my eyes peeled for Wednesday, but at this point have no plans to make that trip. Its getting late enough into October where these systems are going to be hard pressed to do anything exciting. My chasing distance is shrinking by the day and it'll have to be a hands-down great setup, or something within a few hours for me to venture out. In all likelihood, I probably will not hit the plains again for any chasing until 2008.
With that, I intend to take some time this weekend to dismantle the van; pack away the chase gear, and perhaps do some cleaning and get her ready for the winter. I'll leave the gear inside and ready to go if something crazy does happen, but for the most part, I think its safe to call it a year.
I have to complete the updates and stats for my website here in the coming days. I am sitting close to 33,000 miles officially for the season with over 40,000 miles total if you include the various trips to Arizona during my 5-week lightning project. Its certainly been an amazing year that I hope has a similar amount of chasing in store for 2008.
Summaries, updated stats, pictures, videos, and other goodies are all on tap over the next few months. I am also planning a renovation of my storm chase logs for the 2008 season which will gear more toward photography with photo-specific information. Stay tuned for more on that as well!
In the meantime, I'll be keeping an eye on the weather in the event some crazy setup does evolve. Otherwise the site will shift into winter weather season as we await the first snowfall here in the metro area. The mountains took a wallop this weekend, so time will tell when we will see our first flakes down here!
