Tuesday, February 27, 2007
I forgot what a high it is after a successful chase as it feels like its been so long. Regardless, I've had a couple days to regroup and rummage through my things and take stock of the dress rehersal which went well in about every imaginable way.
First of all, I was overjoyed with my Sprint connection and the software which ran from it. Rarely did I ever have connection issues. The only place from which I did not receive service was on the stretch of Hwy 87/64 between Clayton and Raton, NM. Beyond that, I had a good signal in most places with the exception of some small holes. I'm hopeful my recently arrived amplifier will fill those smaller holes and strengthen my signal in the other areas. Hardware-wise, the phone itself was nearly flawless. While I did check email and other info form the phone itself a couple of times, I mainly had it tethered to my laptop via the hotsync cable. The cable itself had an issue where the side connector would come loose and thus cutting of my data. A minor issue that won't take much to fix. Beyond that, it worked like a champ. The hotsync cable also allowed for a constant charge so battery power in my phone was never an issue. This also freed up a cig-lighter plug as it ran from the laptop's USB.
Internet access of this type is priceless. Not only did I have SPC available to me constantly, but I was able to make updates to my site on the fly. I had posted the first shots of the tornado on my blog and Stormtrack within an hour of the tornado. And I was able to do this on the move without stopping to mooch Wifi. Another thing which is becoming an issue (although we didn't encounter it on this run) is Wifi spots being locked down. War-driving, as I believe it's called, is becoming a big enough concern where places such as hotels are locking their Wifi only to guests. Cell phone internet, while much slower, gives you the ability to check data from anywhere AND on the fly. This also saves you time as you're no longer making data stops. Just gas and go now!
This chase was a good chance for me to test out WeatherLab and Interwarn. I probably didn't get the total experience as I literally had the program a few days prior to heading out. Thus I was using VERY basic features. I know of many others this program can do, but I haven't had a chance to test them out. The radar software with StormLab was great. It updated fast and was much more detailed than WXWorx. A feature I was thrilled to see later on was the automatic saving of all radar images. I was able to run a loop of the entire cycle of the storm for as long as I had the program running. I want to familiarize myself with the FTP capability so I can update a radar screen to my website. I did have some technical issues with the GPS part of the program, however I am currently working on that with both a Bluetooth and USB GPS puck. Interwarn was nice as it quickly popped up SPC products and allowed me to free up time which usually went into checking on my own. This was a cool feature. Interwarn will have to be customized pending my chasing target to get the most use out of this. Otherwise, I figure this will be much better as a home-base program. Well worth it by any means as it archives text products such as discussions and warnings.
WXWorx was not activated for this trip, thus nothing to report on my end with that. Verne had it with him and it worked flawlessly for him. Having both internet and WXWorx within a team is nice as you can compare images, however if my cell phone proves to be useful in a large majority of chasing areas, I'm likely to pass on the XM updates and offer my unit for sale.
Delorme was upgraded to the 2007 version and worked flawlessly as usual. Because I didn't have my keycode for the Bluetooth, I was unable to run Delorme on the Bluetooth as I would've liked. As of this writing, I have not tested the Bluetooth on Delorme, so no comment on that right now.
The van did extremely well for its first run out. My repairs and maintanance came in a hurry the day before I left, so I really forked out a lot more money than I would've liked. However, aside from needing to balance my tires, everything ran smooth. Gas mileage for the trip was right about 21mpg, but the average was seriously killed when I went from Amarillo into Raton in the 60-80mph winds I endured. That stretch of travel barely made it in the teens. Prior to that, my mileage thingie was pushing 23-25mpg, so under normal driving circumstances, I was pleased with the results.
The new Nikon D70s was also broken in. I didn't get a chance to shoot lightning like I wanted, so that big feature to me remains unknown. The rest of the shots turned out quite well. All-in-all, the DSRL was more fun to use and I look forward to getting a better looking storm to get it on. For general shooting, I used my Canon S2 IS as I assigned it primarily to shoot website stuff. The Sony TRV350 shot like a champ as usual. Aside from the crappy, untripoded tornado video, nothing new there. I've always loved my Sony camcorders, so I'll rarely complain about my TRV350.
All-in-all, I'm very happy with the performance of my gear and the ride. I still have untested items I'm dying to get out such as the cell phone amplifier. I'm hopeful for a weekend March chase or a trip over Spring Break to get the rest of my gear checked out. Of course, I can only hope for results as good as Friday's! We shall see!
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Monday, February 26, 2007
From Mike Nelson's blog on KMGH - Channel 7...
February 24, 2007 - Local Storm Chasers Bag First Tornado Of Season
Local storm chasers Verne Carlson, Michael Carlson and Tony Laubach saw their first tornado of the 2007 chase season on Friday.
In anticipation of strong developing low pressure on the central plains, they left Denver Thursday afternoon for Garden City, Kansas.
After analyzing data on Friday, they decided to target western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle for severe thunderstorm development.
A dryline setup Friday afternoon between Amarillo and Shamrock in the Texas panhandle, so the storm chasers made their way west along Interstate 40 to the small town of McLean.
A dryline is the boundary between moist air and dry air, which serves as a focal point for thunderstorm development.
By the afternoon hours, three thunderstorm cells fired up and moved north along the dryline. The first storm was rather weak, but the second storm showed signs of rotation.
As the rotation grew stronger, a funnel cloud dropped from the base of the storm. The funnel soon took on the classic cone shape and dropped to the ground, forming a tornado.
The tornado stayed on the ground about 5 minutes near the town of McLean, Texas. You can see a picture of the twister by clicking here.
Now Tony, Verne and Michael are driving through 60 mph wind gusts from the departing storm as they make their way home to Colorado.
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Sunday, February 25, 2007
The last bit of wrappings have been added to the February 23, 2007 Storm Chase Log. I've added videos of the McLean Tornado and the Moore County, TX Windstorm which I had to drive home through in the Texas Panhandle.
McLean, TX Tornado VideoMoore County, TX Wind Video
Both have been added to my stock footage library and can be viewed on my pages.
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
I'm home safely after battling the insane winds from the backside of the massive low pressure system which has caused all sorts of crazy things all over the country. My experience today was fortunately limited to high winds unlike my buddies Verne and Michael who left Amarillo a couple hours before me and endured quite the ground blizzard on Hwy 64 west of Des Moines, NM. By the time I arrived, a few spats of blowing snow were left.
None-the-less, I made it home after a 1251 mile round trip. Not much clean up to do with this one as I had enough time last night and this morning to catch up on most of my web-based stuff. My last change was to update my mileage for the chase and will late rpost video from the wind I encountered in the northern Texas Panhandle. Beyond that, just a very good chase to kick off 2007.
As for severe reports today, SPC reports show most of the tornatic activity limited to areas outside of our original cold core target. A couple of damaging tornadoes touched down in Arkansas earlier today, but only one brief, weak tornado touched down in Kansas. In total as of this writing, 13 reports have been received with only two remotely in the cold core ballpark.
It certainly makes returning home today a bit easier to handle as opposed to missing an April 10, 2005 repeat. Unfortunately our good fortune has a downside for many chasers whose weekend was planned around this forecasted event. In all, the entire system, both Friday and Saturday, threw enough forecasting curve balls to screw everyone up. Verne, Michael, myself, and a small handful of others caught the best tornado of the system yesterday during a time where we were originally hoping just for a storm to fire. While our target verified, it certainly was not the way we said it would. Saturday unfolded like Friday in terms of completely against original thinking. Unfortunately many chasers did not come away with the prize we found in the Texas Panhandle on Friday.
In any case, the 2007 season has kicked off in dramatic fasion (mostly talking winter and winds). Now its time to start making the adjustments and get ready to go for real. I'll be posting some reviews this upcoming week as soon as I catch up with some real world stuff. Overall, I'm very happy with the performance of most of my gear!
Good night from back home in Denver. See you under the next meso!
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Mr. McLean chillin' as we pass through Pueblo on our way home. Odometer over 1100 miles for the chase.
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Verne and Michael are heading out for home. I'm going to stay behind for a few hours and wait for winds to subside. I have no desire to fight 50mph head winds the entire trip home. I'll probably leave AMA around noonish when the system gets east a bit before heading out. I'm looking at a 6 to 7 hour drive home, so I'm really in no hurry. Blizzard warnings continue across Eastern Colorado for winds and snow. Eastern Denver is also included in the warnings due to blowing snow, so it'll be a hardy trip back home. I'm content with waiting a few hours for some quiet before heading up and out. I'll enjoy the day off tomorrow before going back to work and school. So with that, I'm going to tuck in and sleep some more, enjoy some vacation time as some light snow is falling in Amarillo now. I'll hit the road later!
 Light snow in AMA falls on my van! Just a reminder is IT still February.
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First tornado of 2007, steak at Amarillo's "Big Texan" Steakhouse... what more could you want! How 'bout some sleep! Yeah, its 1:30am CST and the day is finally catching up with me. Yes, we're in Amarillo, and no, we're not going to chase tomorrow. Logistics in travel were hardly justifiable after today's success, so we're going to ty and ride the backside of the blizzard back home tomorrow. We'll see how conditions are upon waking up to determine how long we sit here in AMA. From here, its about 6 hours or so to get back to Denver.
In the meantime, I have posted the log to today's great 2007 start. I'll update the mileage upon my return to Denver, but I'm guessing close to 1400 miles to open the season. A very satisfying and happy day today!
COMPLETE FEBRUARY 23, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE
Good night from Amarillo!
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Friday, February 23, 2007
Tornado near McLean, TX less than 1 hour ago!!!!!
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Currently sitting at a very windy Best Western is Shamrock, Texas along with several other chasers from around the area. A couple blips are showing up near Plainview about an hour or so away which look to be the first signs of storm initiation along the dryline. We're anxiously awaiting the next hour to see how things continue to develop.
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Good morning from Garden City, Kansas. A mess of watches, warnings, and advisories ongoing for us right here. We're under flood and blizzard watches underneath SPC's moderate risk and hatched areas for concern. What a crazy system this is going to be.
A morning glance at data continues to point to a target between Woodward and Elk City, OK (I-40). We're within a couple hours of Woodward and about 3 from I-40. Storms aren't expected to fire til late afternoon if not at sunset, so we'll have plenty of time to adjust. Moisture and instability are certainly concerns, however the shear with this storm will be incredible. Storms which form will rotate and there will likely be tornadoes across the area from Dodge City south through Childress. Concerns over a stratus deck forming over the area are being discussed, but we're sitting under clear skies around here. We're going to move south and a bit east, so that's really the area we're concerned with.
My sprint data service is limited through northwest Oklahoma, so I'll be relying on XM for live updates unless we get close to I-40. One of the cell phone limitations obviously. My amplifier didn't arrive in time so I will be unable to test it on this trip.
We'll be setting up the vehicles later this morning after breakfast and probably wander our way into Oklahoma. Again, the big hope for today is lightning after dark, so anything else we see beyond that is an extra bonus. We shall see! More later!
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Thursday, February 22, 2007
So the first MODERATE RISK chase of the season is setting up on a fast moving and strong system which is expected to produce an outbreak of severe weather starting late Friday evening and overnight. Verne, Michael, and I made it to Garden City, Kansas where we will enjoy a nice night's sleep before tomorrow's crazy day. We are within 3 hours of any target we need tomorrow, so we feel pretty good.
Not much to speak of forecast-wise as we'll do our analysis tomorrow morning, however, the retarded part of everything is not only are we sitting in a 15% hatched tornado prob in a moderate risk bubble (with 60% hatched hail, BTW), but we're also sitting in a BLZZARD WATCH. Yeah, that's February.
See you in the morning...
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We have just crossed into Kansas to the smooth jazz of Chris Camozzi. Temps in the 30s after battling very dense fog around Limon.
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My Goomba and I are on the road east of Denver to meet Verne and Michael in Limon. It has begun!
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"I do not have a ton of faith in storms before then. It's possible, but I think a lot of wishcasting is going into tomorrow. We shall see! I'm about to gamble 1500 miles and a couple hundred bucks to find out! LOL"
That was a note to a friend of mine on another journal site... but as stated at the end of that quote, I'm heading out anyway. As I've said many times up til now, this time of year, you look for more of an excuse than a forecast. I've got plenty of excuse and enough of a forecast to call it. I leave this evening on what will be my first ever chase in February. In fact, this will likely be the first time I've even seen a thunderstorm in February. Yeah, one can't hold too much hope with those kind of stats.
But one thing's certain... I'm just thrilled to be getting out again. I could honestly care less about the setup at this point. The dynamics of this system mean I'll have a good chance at lightning at the very least. Anything beyond that is more than I expect, so it should be hard to disappoint.
I'm off to Garden City tonight caravaning out with Verne and Michael. Aside from my Goomba, I'll chase this one solo in the White Lightning unless I get a last minute partner. I don't mind that at all. Garden City is roughly 325 miles out, which puts us in before midnight tonight. Unless our target shifts way far south on Friday, we should allow ourselves ample time to catch some Zs before tomorrow. I'm still thinking someplace along a Woodward to Weatherford line.
Beyond Friday night, nothing is certain. Cold core, snow, and winds are all going to come into play before the trip is all said and done. We'll take it with stride and one step at a time. Welcome to early season chasing. It'll be nice just to get out again!
See you on the road!
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Tomorrow is looking more and more like a very nighttime event. With the GFS showing the upper dynamics moving in after sunset, I wouldn't be surprised to see storm initiation after 7 or 8pm along the dryline from Western Texas up through Southwest Kansas. The strong forcing coupled with high shear and instability will certainly yeild a nasty squall which will move eastward very quickly. The light show from this oughta be absolutely intense and probably well worth the trip itself. Tornado parameters are pretty good the further south you go, but are certainly possible over Northwestern Oklahoma and perhaps even Southwest Kansas.
However, Saturday's Cold Core setup looks inviting enough that skipping out on the best nighttime tornado potential to keep you in better position for Saturday would almost be the smarter play IMO. With the models showing the low moving northeast across Kansas, I would say getting to Salina early in the day would be the best bet. I imagine low-topped sups will be possible north and east of Salina through the early part of the day.
If I had to slate my plans now, I'm tempted to wait for an early morning departure tomorrow. Storms are going to fire late enough in the day where a drive from Denver wouldn't put me horribly out of position. At this point, I'm targeting any Friday night chasing for lightning and maybe wind. Its half tempting to call Friday an all-nighter, take a short nap in the morning while I wait for the low, then chase after the Cold Core setup on Saturday before returning home. However, if later model runs look a bit better for earlier firing convection on Friday, I will resume my original plans to leave this evening for Kansas.
In the meantime, the van's back at the shop and should be diagnosed shortly. I'm hoping to have it fixed by noonish so I can go claim it and have it ready in case I do leave tonight. Otherwise, I'll head home this evening and get some shut eye and wake up early in the morning to check out the situation. If Saturday continues to look decent for the Cold Core setup, I'll head out early enough in the day Friday to get in position for some nighttime lightning shots.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Right on cue, the shop screwed up something up in my van! Got it back this evening, drove it home and noticed something waaay off in the back end. Not sure what, but getting up to 45mph or higher, then van starts to shake and it sounds like a chopper is taking off from my back bumper. None the less, I now have to get up butt-early to drop it back off and then get back to it so I can get out at 5pm like I was planning. I'll hopefully find out what happened VERY early in the morning and get it resolved ASAP. Assuming it to be a small problem (which I am hoping for), I'll go back around lunchtime to reclaim my van, give it a quick test run, and get back to campus to work the rest of my day.
I've quickly assembled all my gear and have it ready to go for tomorrow. I have all my plastic containers filled with my travel kits and my gear packs loaded. I'll take care of charging most of the gear from campus as I'll haul the two bags with me. Any charging I need to do I'll take care of from there.
Included with the gear is my winter weather survival kit which always comes with me on early season chases. This system, like many other early seasoners, will include snow on the backside. My thoughts are taking the southern route to get back to Colorado as I imagine Northeast Colorado/Northwest Kansas won't be an easy trip. It doesn't look terribly bad for Denver or the Front Range, so I'm guessing we'll be fairly safe heading up along I-25 pending where this venture ends up.
I'll update again in the morning with another look at data. Things still look in-line to warrent the trip. We shall see how things unfold overnight!
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It looks as if I will be embarking on my very first February chase starting tomorrow evening. Current forecasting trends continue to make Friday evening look very interesting. Concerns on whether the upper-air dynamics will make it in on time as well as cap issues are pointing towards a sunset show. Based on current glances, I see no reason to argue that. However, its hard to ignore, and with everything I've been talking about in terms of non-weather-related, its something I am likely going to bite on anyway.
No time to dive into forecasting details as I am going to be pulled from the lab to do another project, so it may be later today before I get a chance to check everything out. Our initial plan (talking with Verne) is to head out tomorrow evening for Garden City, KS and stay overnight. I think its safe to say that we will not have to worry about storms going up before noon tomorrow, thus Garden City seems like a reasonable stop. From there, we'll check out morning data and likely head south from there.
As for Saturday, we'll play that by year. If the low doesn't eject too fast, we'll continue to keep our eyes on cold core chances. Since everyone is safe to return Sunday, we'll probably make a play for Saturday as well.
So with all that, my van's in the shop getting tuned-up, new air filter, fuel injection service, brakes, and the headlight replaced. I'll pick it up this evening and she should be ready to roll for this very early season chase.
More later!
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
No big changes in chasing plans since yesterday, but I figured an update was worth while.
The idea as it stands now is to take a chance on two days; Friday and Saturday. Friday looks to be a late evening if not after dark event all together. However, the target for that day would put us in position for Saturday. The area around the low on Saturday looks to be the safer bet for a variety of reasons at this point. My tentative plan IF I elect to chase would be to leave Thursday night for Garden City and embark out from there on Friday. However, there are no indications of much happening before 5pm on Friday, so even leaving Denver that morning is an idea. When storms fire Friday, pending on the daylight remaining, I'd likely chase for lightning and position for Saturday. Saturday will be a close to the low play in which I would chase, stay out overnight, and return home on Sunday.
Still reaching into the crystal balls of forecasting and the bottom line is no one knows. I think there's a lot of wishcasting involved with this, so its hard to say whether things look better than they actually are. Truth is, its February, and regardless what anyone says, its still very early. However, the non-weather related reasons to go out are hard to ignore. To get in an early dress rehersal over an empty weekend on a system which should have storms of some sort is hard to say no to. As I've said, chasing this early in the season requires more of an exucse than a forecast.
So with that said, I'm still playing as if I could chase. I made some preparations including getting my power steering on my van services. I also installed and updated my laptop with the new software and activated my Sprint Phone-as-Modem plan so I can get a look at Sprint's updated service areas. If my amplifier arrives before I were to leave, I'll get a dry run of that as well.
Right now, I'm hovering at about 30%. I'll still need some meteorological sway to get me to go. Right now, non-weather circumstances are very good, so as long as I feel there's a chance of something, I'll likely make the trip. But we'll see. Right now, still waiting for some holes to fill and questions to be answered.
Stay tuned!
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Sunday, February 18, 2007
The Chaser Convention is winding down as we're in the educational section of the conference. Howie Bluestein, before his talk, spent a few minutes talking about this upcoming weekend's scenario being painted out by the GFS. As I mentioned on Thursday, there looks to be some interesting potential through the weekend for the Central Plains up through the Ohio Valley. Progs from this morning are making the Ohio Valley scenario on Saturday look quite interesting, possibly historic. Again, its a week out, so its really hard to say.
Verne, the gang, and I have been chatting about the weekend potential as most of us are off Friday through Sunday. The timing of this system would be very convenient for us, thus its certainly worth looking at. We're preliminarily targeting Kansas for cold core activity as the speed of this system will make it a bear to chase.
There are some other issues concerned with such a chase..
1. Date, its only February. Which not only makes it VERY early season, but I'm hardly ready to make marathon chases. I still have some vehicle issues to attend to before I think about launching off to a 1500 mile venture. A lot of it I can do this week, so that probably wouldn't detour me if I were to decide to go.
2. Snow, The good chase day looks to be Saturday in Kansas. However, Friday looks to be VERY interesting for snowfall here in Colorado. The GFS sets up the 500mb low right over Southeast Colorado for about 12 hours of good snowfall with strong easterly winds at the surface. Precip models are running riht around an inch or so which would lead to a foot or more across all of Northeastern Colorado. This screws up travel in both directions as one would likely have to leave Thursday night to beat the storm and plan to stay out through Sunday.
3. System dynamics, fast moving storms as the system itself will be racing eastward. Even with cold core activity, storms will be moving quickly north as the system itself slides east. That's a hard scenario to navigate.
Positives
1. A VERY early dress rehersal with the various gear I've purchased this year. Always nice to land a lengthy chase early in the season to make a run of everything to insure working equipment, setups, etc.
2. A very strong system will produce all sorts of severe weather, but it looks like the big severe weather day is going to be Sunday in the Ohio Valley.
I an equipment note, I purchased a conference special Cyfre CA-819 Amplifier kit which is suppose to enhance cell phone signals and cover areas where you would normally not get service. The order will be processed Monday and will be on its way, hopefully to arrive in time for any weekend chasing I do elect to embark on. I got the kit which included car power adapter, antenna, and the amp. Should be interesting to see how that works over the course of the season.
Obviously WX Worx has made improvements to the software package which hould go live in the coming weeks. That'll be a nice addition for that piece of software, but may honestly come too late for those who will rely heavily on cell phone service. I'm still planning on using WX Worx this season during my Mayathon, but if early season chasing proves to work well without it, I may elect to pass on the $100/month.
GPS testing on the cell phone was successful on the way into the conference and on a lunch trip Saturday. While it won't be my primary GPS tool, it'll serve well as a quick locational grab or in any use where the laptop isn't up.
So lots going on as we wind down the convention. I honestly have taken very little in the way of pictures, so I won't have much to post in regards to this year's convention. All-in-all, another excellent get-together. The speakers and their topics were some of the best I've heard lately, and certainly made the conference worth-while.
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Saturday, February 17, 2007
Baron/XM Conference Announcement!
Moments ago, the annoucement was made in regards to the software updates for Baron WX Worx. Below are a few of the highlights for these upgrades...
SPC-Day 1 Outlooks, all near-term convective threats.
Wind, hail, and tornado threat as well as Mesoscale discussions... text products will be available on these. Mesoscale discussions will show up over the radar map, click on it and see the text. Tornado, hail, and wind threats and percentages will be outlined on maps. Put your cursor over the outline to get percentages. Weather watches will also be included on radar maps.
All Day 1 SPC products will be included with this, catagory, tornado, hail, wind, MDs, and watch boxes.
Expected to be released in the next 30 days!! It will be free to upgrade from the WX Worx site. FREE UPGRADE ON THE SOFTWARE.
You WILL need the responder package to get those services.
LATER UPDATE: I talked to Jeff and he informed me that stuff is subject to change. This is all being worked out in terms of what packages, etc. Something to keep in mind. Stay tuned to WX's website for all the latest information!!!
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Tim Samaras gets the convention underway here in Denver.
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Shh! You hear that? That tiny noise you're hearing, chasers emerging from SDS hibernation, checking equipment, fixing vehicles... something's got them stirred. As I mentioned to Jon V in an email yesterday and discussion among those on chasing forums, there's a system on the GFS for late next week which has very early season attenion drawn to it. Again, as I'll disclaim time and time again with anything beyond a few days out, it can and likely will change in a million ways between now and then. None-the-less, it offers a sparkle in what's been an active winter to those like myself who would love to get on the road.
I've always considered my preseason chasing as a chance to get out, test setups, gear, and whatever prior to the main season. Chasing in March, and certainly February, requires more of an excuse than a solid forecast in my opinion. I prefer to see the faults of my gear and setups in the early going so I still have time to make adjustments, fixes, or whatever. However, I think trying to get out in the next couple of weeks is a stretch for me, and my focus on this system will likely be involved with the cold side of it. However, if baited into someplace close, I may change my tune.
The delay on my camera was only a few hours, and thus remains on track to arrive Friday! Amazon, which shipped my Delorme 2007 to my old address, got the map software returned and my money refunded. I took advantage of $1.99 overnight shipping and reordered it with the estimated delivery tomorrow. Still cheaper than in stores, so I'm happy with that. Pending when it arrives tomorrow, I'm hoping to have some time to install it with at least a Denver map on my PDA to give it a test run on my way to the convention.
All my camera accessories are on the way. With more than enough invested into this camera setup, I've probably clicked 'order' on my last item related to this camera. I'll now go into squirrel mode and start stashing away the rest of my money for the upcoming season. Thus far, I've tucked away over $2400 for my Mayathon trip. Estimates from here on out get tricky cause some money may go to support an early season chase or two starting in mid-March. I'll probably dub the official preseason start to be at the conclusion of my online class which ends the second week of March.
As for media outlets, I'll be chasing as part of Wichita's KWCH Channel 12's Storm Trackers for my third season. Obviously I'll be chasing locally for Denver's KMGH Channel 7 as well, so I've got Kansas and Colorado covered in terms of station contacts. I did the same thing last season even as I had little to give either station. Hopefully this season will prove to be a bit healthier for all of us.
Weather-wise, the snow has moved on and will be replaced by high winds. A HIGH WIND WATCH has been posted for the western suburbs of the Denver area and places west up into the foothills. Those winds are expected to develop later today and go through tomorrow. Temps will go up thanks in part to those Chinook winds and will likely rid us of the rest of the snow which we have hanging around. As of today, we're less than a week from the 63 consecutive days of snow on the ground record. With a string of warmer days upcoming, it'll be a close shave even with this tiny buffer we received over the last 48 hours. Only a couple inches fell from these two shots, so not much was added to our totals. As mentioned earlier in this blog, the models are hinting at an interesting system for late in the week, so we'll see if that brings winter back into play.
In the meantime, the chaser convention starts tomorrow! I'll be heading up to the hotel sometime early evening. I'm going to wait out my packages to insure I get them and decide if they'll be coming with me or not. From then, I'll head off! So unless something exciting happens before then, I'll see everyone at the convention!
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My camera is sitting in Hodgkins, Illinois delayed due to adverse weather conditions. That likely means I will not see the camera before the convention. That sucks. Hopefully the rest of the items will make their way in on time. Crazy weather all over the US is making things interesting. I'm starting to get over the excitement of this winter.
Speaking of, we're in between systems at the moment with the sun shining brightly over the newly fallen inch and change of snow which fell yesterday evening. Temps are very cold right now in the single digits and teens. Tonight, another round of light snow is expected with an inch or two of accumulation possible by tomorrow. Warmer weather will return for the conference this weekend, so most of this snow won't be seen long.
I've ordered what oughta be the last of my camera items. I picked up a nylon camera cover which has an extending tube to cover longer lenses. It will also fit on a camera sitting on a tripod. Running the cable release from this, I can set this on a tripod in rainy weather and shoot lightning in my van 9 feet away. This will also help protect my camera in smaller hail and wind blown debris.
I also picked up a Pop-up shade and hood screen for the camera. Again, added protection for my $1200 camera. It attaches to the camera without screws or adhesive, so it won't be a bother. I'll probably elect to leave this on the camera at all times.
The remaining items coming are the filters, Lowepro bag, and of course, the camera itself. Pending the length of the shipping delay, I'm hoping to have everything in my posession by sometime next week. The other drawback about the shipment being delayed is that I was going to be home Friday during the day. Now I may not be able to sign for this until late next week when I am home again. Ah well!
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Old Man Winter has returned to Colorado after a mild weekend. An impressive fog bank rolling into the city at 15-20mph signaled the sign that the latest front was coming in. Temps dropped quickly as sleet and freezing rain began to fall. Light amounts of the frozen precip fell through the night and had changed to light snow early this morning. Snow will become heavier tonight leading to another 2 to 4 inches by Wednesday evening which will aid in our trek for the record of most consecutive days with snow on the ground. We're sitting on 55 thus far. However, another shot of Spring is due for the weekend which will certainly aid in ridding of the newly fallen snow.
This Spring-like weather will return just in time for this weekend's Storm Chaser Convention. The conference kicks off Friday evening with the ice-breaker. Saturday is slated to be full of talks and such before the video night. Sunday is a training day with our local NWS office giving their expert spotter training in the afternoon. The big news being talked about right now is Baron's release of information pertaining to a software upgrade due. Not much is known beyond that, so those of us using the software in chasing are holding our breaths to hear what this latest upgrade will entail and when it will be released. Not many out-of-state chaser buddies of mine are coming out for this event, so my thoughts are on a smaller turn-out from those further out and mainly locals attending.
My Nikon D70s should arrive sometime Friday, which means I should have it to play with at the conference. Cameta Camera shipped it out yesterday and UPS is showing an arrival date of Friday. I'm very excited. I'll likely wait to head off to the hotel until that package arrives and load it up with me for the weekend. I also ordered a Lowepro Computer/Camera backpack which I'll use to transport not only the camera, but my laptop as well as camcorders. It doesn't have a tracking number, but it left this morning, so I'm hopeful for some luck for it to arrive on the same UPS truck Friday.
Beyond that, pretty quiet all-in-all. Just looking forward to an SDS relieving weekend with some pals. Oughta be a good conference! If die-hards weren't counting down to the season yet, they sure will be after this weekend.
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Thursday, February 08, 2007
Hard to see much of anything this morning as a very dense layer of fog overtook most of the Metro area. A fog bank only a few hundred feet deep lowered visibility to less than a quarter of a mile in many places along my route to campus. Even lower visibilites were reported elsewhere. Light snow fell on me in a few places, but C-DOT cameras from KMGH Channel 7 showed areas of heavy snow falling near Sante Fe and C-470. This snow was falling from the fog as the skies above the fog layer were clear. Most radar views showed no precip over the area as the beam was scanning over the fog and thus could not see the snow falling in that cloud layer. Pretty interesting stuff. None the less, here are a few shots from my venture in this morning...
  Headlights from oncoming cars visible through the fog.
 Traffic on Kipling at Mississippi in the fog.
 Traffic on northbound Kipling just south of Alameda slowed by the thick fog.
 Bank of the West buried in fog at Alameda and Wadsworth.
 Thick fog over Alameda near Belmar.
 Looking into a valley on Alameda near Sheridan.
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007
So it has FINALLY been done. After a couple of years of bouncing back-and-forth between buy and not buying, I've finally dipped into the DSLR age. This morning, I made the purchase of a Nikon D70s camera and a pair of lenses. Also included was a battery charger and two spare batteries, along with some other odds and ends of silly stuff. I got my camera and lenses from Cameta Camera on Ebay for $1059.90 plus shipping, so I would guess it would end up about $1080 after shipment. I'm going to pick up a few CF cards from digi4me.com to round out the pack along with a couple of filters for the lenses.
The Nikon 18-70mm Lens
The Nikon 70-300mm Lens
All told, I'll probably crank out close to $1200 for the entire setup. I'm also eyeing a Lowepro CompuTrekker Laptop/Camera backpack. That's a hefty $120 plus shipping on eBay, but looks to be a great carrying bag to replace and combine my gear and laptop which is scattered in various storage containers. If I do that, I'll end up sitting on about $1300.
I'm stoked! It's been since my laptop where I've shoveled out this kind of cash. Fortunately my profits from stuff on Ebay offset 75% of the cost of all this, so I'm happy to say very little of my tax return will be used for this. I still have my Canon S2 IS and plan to hang on to it for the time being. I am selling the Kodak z730 on auction which ends Friday. Depending on how attached I get to the Nikon, I may later elect to pawn off the S2, but I would like to keep that around as a general use (website) camera.
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Monday, February 05, 2007
Yeah, its 12:33am... I can't sleep. Some decent shut-eye has been hard to come by the last few days. Not really sure why.
A quick congrats to the Colts for winning the Super Bowl! Was an exciting, sloppy game, that's for sure.
Its February; 2 months away from my start of chasing season. You can see the itchiness among chasers growing. To many, March is the beginning of it all, a time which is now within a month. My preseason starts March 1, but I have every intention to make March as uneventful as possible.
I plan to spend the last Sunday of this month getting the van tuned up. All the replacement parts are sitting waiting to be installed. Plugs, wires, belts, lights; its all waiting to go. I'm going to get the brakes and power-steering system taken care of in the coming weeks, then go for the big tune-up.
So I'm on a quest for another big item (yeah, yeah... the phone was suppose to be the big one). Well, after doing some closet cleaning a couple weekend's ago, I decided to take inspiration from one of my lady's shows, "Cash in the Attic" and offer a lot of it on eBay. After 1 week, I sit at over $500 in stuff I've pawned away with another 15 auctions ongoing through the end of this week.
The quest, a new digital camera. Yes, another one. This time, it'll be the DSRL camera I've spent a good year and change flirting with its idea. Seeing as I am probably going to cover about 75% of the cost in eBay sales, I think the time to pull the trigger has arrived. I was originally going to go for the Nikon D50, but with the recommendations of several people, I'm now leaning toward the upgrade of the D70, which has the connection for a cable release as where the D50 did not. The initial drawback was the camera's use of Compact Flash instead of SD in terms of storage cards. I managed to rid myself of that issue when I realized I was going to have to get a few 1gb cards anyway seeing as all my SD cards were 512 (for the Canon S2 IS I have). I've also been referred by many people to a trusted camera dealer on eBay, Cameta Camera, whom I am looking at customizing a kit with the D70 and a Nikkor lens.
Most of my auctions should finish by next weekend and I'm hoping to see between $700 and $800 total when all's said and done. If I manage that, I'll only be forking over a few hundred dollars for my investment. As part of my sacrifices, I've put up my Kodak EasyShare which I purchased over the fall for extended exposures. Obviously this camera will have little use with a DSLR at my disposal. You can check it out or bid on it here. I'm also likely going to be relisting my Canon AE-1 35mm film camera as the original buyer had some issues with PayPal which prevented them from completing the purchase. Upon refund of my seller's fees on eBay, I'll relist it with the 300mm lens for $109 plus shipping.
Of course, eBay will see between $80 and $100 from me after all the fees are tallied up from this month. Certainly the most eBay active time I've ever had. None-the-less, its proving quite effective for cleaning. In case you're wondering, most of the auctions are for old computer equipment I've had lying around for ages. While they won't collect a fortune, they certainly are padding my attempt and in the end, ridding me of boxes of useless junk.
So with that, I think I am going to try and muster some shut-eye before tomorrow's first 60 degree plus day in quite some time. Most of our snow should be ridded of before the next blast of cold air arrives late week bringing with it another chance of snow. The warm weather will be a welcome return as we could all use a break from winter. I'll keep tabs on the late-week system through the week to see how it looks to be playing out.
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Saturday, February 03, 2007
Sunny skies and temps in the 40s are creating rivers of melted ice and snow. This sidewalk in Littleton is under 6 inches of ice and water.
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
Another couple inches of snow fell yesterday to end a snowy January month. That added to the two inches which fell over the weekend which means our quest for the record of consecutive days with snow on the ground continues. We should get some help with that tonight into tomorrow where another 2 to 5 inches of snow is expected. This winter never ends.
On the upside, warmer temps with a chinook (snow-eater) wind expected to warm things up. Snow cover will keep temps below what they could be, but it looks as if we'll see at least a few days of temps above 40 and maybe even close to 50. That should finally start to eat away at the snow and hopefully make it halfway normal again. As much as I have enjoyed the craziness of the winter, I'm looking forward to the time where I am able to walk or drive without the fear of slipping on something.
I'm on a quest of my own to purchase the DSLR which I have been batting back and forth for a while now. This quest stemming from my recent sales on eBay. Surprisingly, I have sold the last 3 DVDs I have offered as well as a grip of other stuff! I cleaned out my closet over the weekend and have been posting auctions daily since. You can check out what I have going here and certainly bid or buy anything you like. Once all the auction smoke settles, I'm going to take my earnings and put them towards the purchase of a DSLR. I'm eyeing the Nikon D50s right now, but am flirting with other ideas. I'll certainly keep you posted. Most of my bigger auctions should end by Sunday, so I'm hoping to have an idea what I'll have by then. As of this, I've sold over $400 in crap! LOL
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkw0lffwxnerdQQhtZ-1
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