Thursday, January 31, 2008
It has not been an easy year in terms of snow forecasting! This highly progressive and swift pattern we've seen most of the year has made for interesting snow events falling outside of the ballpark forecasts. Last night, while the mountains were adding to their record year, we were calling for a few flurries, perhaps up to an inch. For what its worth, we made mention of heavier snow bands as a result of convective development seeing as we were seeing cu clouds over the foothills and Palmer Divide. Chasing friends and I shared funny texts as we drooled over the convection.
Well, the few flurries, perhaps an inch was right on.. for my apartment in Lakewood. However, Boulder and other areas received as much as five inches in less than two hours! A snow squall moved from roughly Boulder down Highway 36 through downtown and into Highlands Ranch and southern/southeastern suburbs. On campus, I measured 2.5 inches in 90 minutes from 6:30p to 8:00p. Van de Grift up in Boulder called me at 6:30 to report 4 inches. One of his images can be seen on this 7News story to which I updated at 7pm to discuss the incredibly botched forecast. Morning met Lisa Hidalgo has since updated to account for the various snowfall totals across Denver.
So a crazy night indeed. Definitely not in the forecast, but at least we were thinking along those lines. The problem with media/news forecasting is that you really can't go out and show the viewers all these models and maps that point to little if any snow, then turn around and say we'll see 3 to 6 inches. Granted, we never once said we'd see that much (nor did any other station in Denver), but we certainly hinted that heavier amounts could occur. Either way, this caught everyone!
So with that, I end with the picture below. The other night, I was home watching TV when I heard my bedroom door slam close a couple times. Hearing the commotion, I got up and walked into the bedroom. I figured to find my cats playing with a toy mouse near the door and rolling the door closed and open. I walked in to find no cats. Suddenly, I heard a little mew come from... above me? I turned around and looked up to see my kitty Sigtor standing on top of the door! Obviously she used one of the dressers as a launching pad, but how she managed to stay up there is beyond me. Either way, this was the sight!
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Going on my 10th year in Denver this year... a scarey thought all on its own. And with the exception of a 6 month tour of duty in Moore back in 2000, I am finally leaving the west side of town. While this ultimately spells good things for my lady and I, the circumstances surrounding it could be much better.
Back in October, I had the fun task of living in a hotel for a week with 3 cats, two of which were in heat, as a result of a broken pipe under the bathroom that sent water beneath the carpets in the hallway, bathroom, kitchen, and dining areas. After a week out, we returned.
The current managment at the time still had work to do. The cabinets under the kitchen sink were severely damaged. They replaced the cabinet in the bathroom, but a leaky drain prevented us from using it right away as the water would drip into the cabinet. The floors in the kitchen and bathroom were replaced, but not adequetly sealed resulting in an ant infestation. Lastly, and most importantly, scalding hot water was leaking at more than a drip's rate from the bathtub faucet.
At first, the former management kept us in the loop as to when the rest of these issues would be taken care of. After about a week or so, we began to get the cold shoulder. A week or so after that, a new company overtook the property and the old management was gone. We figure that resulted in them blowing us off.
Within the first week, my lady and I both advised the new management of the continuing problems. They informed us that in the transfer, the former company took everything, including records. They said it would be a couple weeks or so as they were trying to collect the ever-growing list of apartment problems being brought up by other tenants.
After a month, our patience began to grown thin and I was sending letters to the office bi-weekly reminding them of our bathtub problem which was getting worse. Everytime we would use the shower, the water flow increased to a point where the water was noisy 24/7 and we had to improvise using a shirt wrapped around the faucet to keep the noise level to a point where we were not going crazy with the running water sound.
After New Year's, we began to get excuses. The new company had been here for nearly 2 months by this point and we felt more than enough time had passed. I began to hint at legal action, and between the water waste, bad living conditions, and my eager investigators over at the news station, there was enough to throw in.
Finally last week, our bathtub was silenced. However, management showed up at my apartment later that evening to inform my lady and I that the leak would likely return as the fix was temporary. In the midst of going over the problems with the property, we were advised to "get out as quickly as possible" as things were going to get worse.
So we did just that... two days later, we had signed the lease on a spacious 1 bed/1 bath apartment in Westminster, the north side, and we're due to move in the weekend of Feb. 8-10. Its definitely more upscale that the ghetto we're in now, and certainly well within our price range.
Obviously we gave ourselves a quick two weeks to pack and move. Amazingly, we made some good headway over the weekend admist my lady dealing with the passing of her Grandpa Thursday. It certainly has been a very overwhelming last few days in terms of everything we've had thrust upon us.
With all the stress taken on, its hopeful that by the time we resettle, it'll be worth it. We're taking the chance up north in the event she gets accepted and can afford to do her Bachelor's at Naropa University in Boulder. The commute, mostly via bus, would be much easier from up there as opposed to the 45 plus minutes from here in Lakewood.
The move for me puts me closer to a lot of friends, both up north and in Boulder. After my folks left, many of my friends locally followed suit to pursue post-college careers. After I ended my 10 year stint driving pizzas, my reasons for being on the west side were few enough to consider making the change. Now that the opportunity as arisen, we have elected it to be the time to do so. And of course, being near E-470 makes for a very quick escape to chase the eastern Plains as opposed to fighting my way across town. I can be at or very near to DIA within 15 minutes.
We're hopeful she gets accepted to school up there as she's getting shafted with the commute back to Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood initially. Hopefully by summer, she'll be commuting to a park 'n' ride a few miles away and taking an express bus to Boulder.
A lot of uncertainty before us, and we're hopeful this results in good things. Most people who know me know how badly I want out of this city. I'm hoping the change of scenary will ease me a bit as I finish school this year.
So that's my soapbox story. Will be attending the chaser convention from Westminster this year! Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Ciao!
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Sunday, January 20, 2008
Still some time between now and any real plans to chase, but preparations have begun for me already. Spent several hours today cleaning and organizing the van. I took her to a local car wash and scrubbed the hell out of her. First time since last April she's been given a bath like this. My lady took care of the interior as I soaked and scrubbed outside. Using the generic equivilent of the Magic Erasures, I was able to remove all the red paint from my former apartment which I scraped pulling into my covered parking. That, over two years ago. It came right off with little effort. Those things are exactly what they say.. magic.
 Before...
 After...
Obviously there are no real plans to chase in the coming weeks, but the preparations have begun. I have also began to assemble a new radio mount which will hold my scanner, CB/WX radio, and my second HAM radio I purchased back in the fall. It'll be easy and quick to remove, but that's probably the biggest vehicle addition for the upcoming season. I am expecting to grant money to come which will cover the repairs to my spare tire mount under the van and possibly the front bumper which was damaged in one of the 2006 blizzards. Other annual maintanence will follow in the coming weeks as well.
This week starts one of my final semesters of college. Visual Basic and Motion Graphics will wrap up my Technical Communications degree leaving me only with a fall and (next) Spring Meteorology class to wrap up that degree. My math minor, completed last Spring, was the first of my three programs to finish. What happens next remains unknown, but lots to do before then!
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The series finale of " Twister Sisters" aired last night, the episode which Jon Van de Grift and myself did. A bunch of us got together and made a party out of it up at Jon's place in Boulder. What better than a bunch of guys huddled around a big screen TV to watch... Women's Entertainment Network.
The show was great, and watching it with friends certainly made the experience more enjoyable. We had some good laughs and were overall very impressed with the show as a whole. My only gripe was how they ended Jon and I's story with the bitchy cop in Imperial, NE as opposed to something more "happy". And even that was more of a laugher than anything else. I was also surprised that there was no interaction between us and the Twister Sisters in the episode. Granted, we did most of our running around separately from them, but we did morning briefings and such from the hotels. Either way, they included some great moments (the roundhouse kick, Jon's "Twister" line, me cramming a cookie down my throat) and covered a good deal of our Nebraska flood ventures and told the story very well!
The show, I believe, will encore again sometime on Saturday, but I've seen different times. You may just wanna check your listings for "Twister Sisters" and find which episode surrounds the Dad's 50th Birthday in Nebraska. A lot of my friends and family outside the state tuned in judging by the amount of emails and such I received yesterday evening, so that was pretty cool! I'm glad most of my friends and family were able to see it!
I'll post a few screen caps in the next day or so. I have to give kudos to Comcast for granting me a 24 hour preview of Women's Entertainment seeing as it wasn't part of my current channel lineup. I explained my story to the customer service rep and he was more than happy to grant me the channel for the evening so I could DVR the entire series as I haven't seen the five previous episodes. It'll give me something to do over the three day weekend which will involve NO travel.
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Sunday, January 13, 2008
I have uploaded the log for my chase last week. You can view the January 10, 2008 storm chase log here. With the lack of any real pictures, there are hardly any directly weather-related and document mostly the trip itself. It was a blast none-the-less! After my work day Friday after landing in Denver, I was in the air again to Las Vegas for the day, returning late last night. I was happy to have a quiet day at home before starting the next work week which holds some nice, mild weather.
The chase trip last week pulled much of the gear out of the closet, thus time is approaching to begin setup of "White Lightning" for the 2008 season. With the fly-and-chase approach a solid possibility, I need to ensure I have a bag with gear ready for quick install in whatever vehicle I am chasing in. The extra cell phone amp, inverters, and CDs will need to be a part of that carry-on bag.
Nothing else really to add cept to point out the link to the log. I'll update the remaining pages, including the front page, during the next few days. I have one final week before classes start, so a lot to wrap up before the semester begins.
Ciao!
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Friday, January 11, 2008
The Eastern Plains of Colorado. In a few months, we hopefully will be roaming these roads chasing after bad weather. We just landed and are heading to the gate. I will catch a bus and go straight to campus for half the day, then to the station til 6.
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Boarding the plane back to Denver. Ill land right about 730am MST and head straight to work. Will update again once I get back to Denver.
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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Just a quick entry before I crash for a few hours, but I have returned to Atlanta where I find myself in the slumiest possible Super 8 hotel I could possibly have found. I won't go into detail until I arrive safely back in Denver in the event someone finds me up here. I knew I was in bad shape when I checked in after requesting first floor, non-smoking and I was given a third floor smoking. Oiy! Guess the good news is that I am up and out by 4am here, so I don't have to suffer too long. I'll probably write up something a bit more substantial tomorrow morning from the airport, but for now, just wanted to wrap up my nearly 900 mile day. Goodnight from Atlanta!
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Tornado warned cell just to my south and will cross I-20 just as I get there. Accidental intercept... Haha
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Sitting in Butler, Alabama awaiting a series of storms which have weakened considerably over the last 30 minutes. Hearing reports that significant damage occured in Caledonia, MS including an elementary school that was destroyed. So far as I know, no chasers were on that storm. I hunch by that point people were flying into Tennessee or playing the cells I was on.
The overall situation is getting bad for chasing as heavy rains are pretty well sogging in most of the isolated cells. I'm tempted to top off again here in town and await the storm coming out of Jones and Clark Counties in Mississippi. It looks like a decent storm, but no longer tornado warned. But its something. After that, I'm probably going to start thinking about heading back to the interstate and making my way back to Atlanta.
Again, to recap, I'm in Butler, Alabama waiting for another round of storms to move through. I have been on several tornado-warned cells today and the best presentation by any of those storms stayed hidden behind trees, so all I got from it was a wall cloud. One significant tornado has been reported so far today, and overall, a total of 14 tornadoes have been reported via SPC. My choice of the day was reversed and lead me southeast when Hwy 82 out of Tuscaloosa was closed due to an accident and I elected to continue along I-59/I-20. Not saying I would've been on the big tornadoes, but I would've been closer had I taken that route.
More later...
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Blasting back into Alabama after a questionable sighting near Raleigh with trees blocking the bottom of a very suspicious area of a tornado warned storm. Saw a very broad area of rotation later on. Tons of radar indicated tornado warnings ongoing.
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Chase already a success!!! Mellow Yellow baby!!!
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Gassing up and freeing my McDs breakfast in Livingston, AL.
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Blue skies in eastern Alabama right now. Still concerns in the western part of Alabama and eastern Mississippi, but definitely clearing fast here.
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First time in Alabama... Crossing the Georgia - Alabama state line.
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Landed safely in Atlanta. Long walk thru airport nabbed my excercise for the day. Smells nice and muggy outside. Slept the entire flight here. It'll have to do me. More later...
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About ready for take-off... and bed. The Weather Channel on all three TVs in a row by myself, I'm in heaven. Not to mention I'll be about 35000 feet closer to heaven once we hit our cruising altitude. Goodnight from Denver! See you in Atlanta!
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
So here we are, sitting at Gate A36 at Denver International Airport just after 11:00pm on Wednesday. Mr. McLean and I are awaiting boarding of our 12:25am flight to Atlanta which lands at 5:30am EST (3:30am MST). I am also waiting for the SPC Day 1 outlook which is due out anytime if my zulu-to-mountain time zone calculations are correct. I am figuring on a MODERATE RISK based upon the parameters I am seeing, particularly in northeastern Mississippi, northern Alabama, and southern Tennessee. As I said with the outbreak earlier in the week, it IS only January, so I am not holding my breath for a lot. I know severe weather will be almost a certainty, but storm speeds, terrain, and a host of other things will certainly make the first chase of the year and MY earliest chase to date a very difficult start. Still, I'm going out for this and the story I will come back with regardless what I will see is worth more than its weight. I'm chasing Alabama after hopping a red-eye... who else will ever get to say that!
As I finished that paragraph, the new outlook came out. I'm not sure the probability graphics are correct as they are all less than #%. I may've reloaded just as things were going through. The text went through, and they mention the potential for outlook upgrades in later forecasts as a more defined area becomes clear, but tornadoes are mentioned a couple of times, so things are certainly still a go.
With my airline connection, chases like this may be the norm during the early season. This is my first attempt at such a venture, so this is the test run of this technique. Because of the range I can cover via air, just about anything in the southeast is certainly attainable for not much more than a chase to the TX Panhandle would be driving. I'm actually doing this trip because it was a one-way added to the trip I already had planned for the weekend, thus the price was half of what it normally would be. Regardless, with the rental added in, I'm not spending a whole lot.
So my initial plan is to head out of Atlanta (God help me with rush hour) into Birmingham, Alabama where I hope to roll into town around 9:00am EST. From there, I will likely continue west, closing in on the MS/AL border and staying just ahead of the front. There will lie the best chance for discrete supercells. Pending how fast they move and my ability to keep up will determine exactly how long into the evening I chase. Eventually, I will get tagged with the front's squall line, but I'm hopeful I'm close to Atlanta by that point as I went ahead and gave myself the chance for a full night's sleep at the Super 8 by the airport. With sunset being around 5pm, its feasable I could be tucked in by 8 or 9pm and actually get a decent night's sleep before returning to Denver in time to get to work by 9am MST and working my shifts before going back to DIA to enjoy my mini vacation.
So definitely stay tuned throughout the next 24 hours! One of the wildest rides in my chasing career is underway, and already a great many firsts to talk about! More sure to come!
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Okay, everything was finalized a few moments ago. As strange as this sounds, I will be chasing tomorrow. A very unseasonable setup is taking shape across Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia for tomorrow and I will be chasing this system.
A series of fortunate events fell into place which is enabling me to catch a flight out of Denver just after midnight and it'll land me in Atlanta at 5:30am EST on Thursday morning. From there, I will drive west into Alabama to an initial target of Birmingham where I will adjust from there. Its a 150 mile drive to Birmingham, so I am figuring to be there about 9:00am EST. Its likely storms will develop as early as 10:00am, but the main show likely will not be until after 1:00pm.
I'm packing a very light load of one DSRL camera, a video camera, my laptop, GPS, and a couple of tapes. I'm hopeful to cram those, plus a couple overnight things, into a carry-on.
I'll chase my way back to Atlanta where I'll either do a hotel, or check-in to the airport and sleep on the concourse to catch a flight leaving at 6:30am back to Denver where I will land at 7:30am MST. From there, I will go back to work, then back to the airport that night to head out on my original weekend trip. My fortunate circumstances are due in part to the trip (not chase related) I was already taking Friday.
So without question, I am about to embark on the craziest storm chase trip yet. The cost of this trip will likely be about as much if not less than a typical chase trip to western Kansas. I'll be updating the blog constantly through the duration of the chase trip and will also be documenting extensively on video that will undoubtly end up on a highlight video somewhere.
More to come... I'll be at the airport by 10:00pm MST and will probably do a cell phone update from there...
Ciao for now!
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Working at 7News here in Denver right now as a quick blast of snow came through. A few flurries are lingering, but the upslope is flopping to downslope and that should all but end the snow along the front range.
I certainly wouldn't be writing a blog to discuss a meager snow, but it is part of something I will have bigger interest in tomorrow. Seeing as plans are not finalized, I am not going into detail about what's going on, but I'll be updating through the evening into the morning in regards to my devious plans.
Stay tuned...
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
All my sports teams suck! My Redskins make a dismal appearance to lose by 21 to Seattle on Saturday. Then my Buckeyes lay an egg losing the BCS Championship game to LSU on Monday! Not much hope for me in the sporting world it seems, but at least both made it as far as they did, whether or not they actually deserved to be there (that aimed more at the Buckeyes than my Skins).
In other news, a major severe weather outbreak occured in the midwest yesterday bringing a total of 37 tornado reports as far north as Kenosha, Wisconsin! Nearly two dozen tornadoes slammed Missouri overnight as well in this very rare event. I had played with the idea of chasing yesterday via my airline connections, but several factors detoured me from making the gamble. Among them, the fact its ONLY January, first week back to work after break, and other meteorological and terrain issues. I wrote a story covering the outbreak on thedenverchannel.com which you can check out here.
For some, the 2008 storm chase season began yesterday with a bang. Even with dark falling not long after 5pm local time, many local chasers made the venture for this event. Early accounts don't show a lot that made me regret hanging back, but that's to be expected this early in the year. Hell, I was considering the same in late February last year as we departed Denver for the Texas Panhandle. Obviously it was a bit later in the year, but it was also the Texas Panhandle... not Wisconsin. Distance certainly plays into that.
Over the next week, the usual shpeel of comments in regards to how crazy this season will be will begin to flare up in discussions over this event. Inevitably, someone will start conversation taking bets on what the season will hold based upon the fact we've seen 37 tornadoes in the first week of January. My prediction, I'll chase between now and May. What happened yesterday isn't a sign of anything, IMO. We do this to death every season and the justifications go either way. I think we'll see a repeat of what we've seen the last couple of years; big early season days followed by a dismal May and June. For whatever reason you wish to relate to it, the prime for chase season has shifted much earlier than the May and June we're use to. Will that change back this year, I'll tell you in July. Point in case, I don't know what's to come.
I still anticipate being fully ready come March. Even with yesterday's outbreak, I'm still not in a position to arm myself to the teeth to be ready to chase now. I still have my bare needs ready to roll in the event a high risk event takes shape and I can use my airlines connections to get myself in position. Otherwise I don't intend to start shaping up the van until sometime in February. My hunch is my first chase-related venue of 2008 will be the upcoming Storm Chaser Convention on February 15.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! With the closing of 2007, the calender has flipped to a new year, and with that, a new season. I didn't write a very lengthy description of the year, but did go through and summarize my busiest and craziest season to date. Below are the numbers...
2007 STORM CHASE STATSChases: 57 (27 of which are 'spotter', 'media', 'project chases' in which I wasn't going after tornadoes)
Chases for Tornadoes: 30
Tornado Days: 12 [2/23(1), 4/13(1), 4/21(4), 4/23(1), 4/24(3), 5/3(1), 5/5(6), 5/22(1), 5/23(2), 5/31(2), 6/6(1), 6/7(1)]
Tornadoes: 24
Tornado Average: 40% (counting only the 30 tornado-goal chases)
Miles: 32,375
States Chased: 14 (CO, NM, AZ, WY, MT, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, WI, IL, MN)
2007 STORM CHASE RECORDS1. The 32,375 miles eclipses my previous high of over 18,000 miles chased in a single season. The official number of 32,375 does NOT include much of my time in Arizona in which I went back-and-forth twice, nor does it include several chases during my lightning project which would've sent my total to nearly 40,000 miles.
2. The 24 tornadoes ranks second behind 2004's 28, but due to poor visibility, nighttime tornadoes, or being badly out of position, was one of my worst years for photography and video for tornadoes. I managed to capture "proof" of about 2/3 of what I saw.
3. It was my best pre-May season date where I saw a total of 10 tornadoes on 5 of 9 chase days.
4. February 23 was my earliest tornado ever and has now given me tornadoes in 8 of 12 months (Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan). I have now chased all but three months, Nov, Dec. and Jan.
5. My 57 total chases destroys the 30 I did in 2006.
6. My best year for lightning photography as I nailed nearly 400 photos which had at least one strike. Many of those photos I cannot release until after the lightning project concludes.
7. I nailed tornadoes on 5 chases in-a-row [4/13(1), 4/21(4), 4/23(1), 4/24(3), 5/3(1)] for the first time in my career. Prior to that, I did a 3-in-a-row back in 2005.
8. The hail I witnessed on 6/7 in Wisconsin was the BIGGEST hail I had ever seen, easily beating out the 5/5 Seminole hailstorm in 2006. Hail measured just shy of 5 inches in diameter.
9. During my Arizona lightning trip, I shot lightning on a storm for three hours and pulled 72 shots with at least one bolt. By far, the most I had ever shot on one single storm.
10. I chased in North Dakota and Montana for the first time this season, both states I ended up in three times each by season's end. I also chased in Arizona for the first time this season and was there twice.
Overall, this was my busiest season to date. It ranks just shy of 2004, but certainly was close in terms of overall ranking.
GOALS/OBJECTIVES FOR 2008First and foremost, be prepared to chase early season. I missed one of the biggest tornado days of the year in March and am vowing to not do that again this year. I have scheduled myself accordingly and with a very light classload, should be able to make every early-season event.
Secondly, film more. I have a plethra of cameras, both still and video, and thus I should use them more. I missed out on shooting a few tornadoes as I didn't have a camera armed all the time. This year, I want to make sure I have either one or the other ready to go at all times. For anything else, just to document I was there.
Third, take more photos. I went out and spent a lot on good lenses for my pair of Nikon D40x cameras. I want to put them to use and shoot more.
Forth, shoot better video with the HD camera. Taking photos will mean tripoding more video. I'll shoot more with the Sony HD camera this season as I made the purchase so late in the season last year. I'll keep my Song D8 camcorders with me for generic stuff or when I'm being hammered to the point where I don't want to risk my camera.
Fifth, finish my website and DVD projects before too long. I've flirted with the idea of holding back on the 2006/2007 DVD and to release it after the coming season and perhaps as a pair with whatever I may score in 2008. However, I would still like to have it, as well as my website, finished (or very close to) before March 1 so I can focus my attention on the current updates and ongoings.
Overall, I'm hopeful to enjoy the success and time out I did last year. Minus the missing of one day, I was fortunate to be able to take off and chase at will just about any time the weather called. With little change in my overall scheduling from last year, I'm thinking I'll have the same type of flexibility and thus will be able to get out just as much. In fact, my overall schedule is lighter than this time last year, so that should play into things quite nicely. I don't have any Mayathon-type timeframes as I'm also hoping that by that point, chasing will be a big enough part of my job description to where I'm just going to be running around all summer anyway. My semester ends on May 18th and at this point, intend to have a clear schedule straight through mid-August when the fall semester is to start. There are several proposals on the table locally to which I'm hopeful will go through, so we'll see how all that ties up in the coming weeks. If anything does go through, I'll be happily posting all about it here!
So that's my overdue update. As the case with most blogs this time of year, this is my biggest lull in posting. As the 2008 season approaches, updates will start to ramp up as the yearly preparations begin. The chaser convention is next month, and there's already talk of a possible chase for early next week in eastern Texas and Oklahoma. However, due to a meeting regarding one of the proposals, I will be here. Not to mention it IS January in the southern Plains. But you never know, so stay tuned regardless!
Ciao!
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