Saturday, May 31, 2008
Back in Denver after arriving back home shortly before midnight last night. Still coming down from the high of Thursday's insane chase. Officially, we documented 17 separate tornadoes/vorticies during the course of that chase. The actual total is likely higher as I didn't have a camera running the entire time, but with the documentation, that's the number I'll go with. Debate can be opened up in terms of the multi-vortex monster that moved south of the lake and whether to count it as one tornado or many. I'm gonna split the difference and call it a mix of tornadoes/vorticies and leave it in the grey area. My video shows a dozen separate condensation tubes of different shapes and sizes, most of them different. With that said, I'll give it the grey title.
Looks like a stretch of quiet days in terms of the group. I, on the other hand, may play some close-to-home action if it stirs. Nothing more thana couple hundred miles away, but if severe chances do present themselves, I may opt to play locally. Tomorrow, SPC holds a 15% hatched over northeast Colorado and being close to home and on a Sunday, I may head out and go play in some hail. Otherwise, it looks like we're waiting until the system mid-to-late week before heading out again for operations.
As for the chase log, I've uploaded a few screen shots, but I have to refrain from posting a ton. Here are a few of the tornado images from Thursday...
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Friday, May 30, 2008
Well, I blew away just about every single-day record I ever had. By the time we arrived in Salina, I was the proud owner of at least 11 tornadoes with more possibly after losing count in the tornado-fest that ensued in Kansas near dark. Our first three came in Nebraska before we ran south and enjoyed another beautiful cone before the chaos began. When the day was done, I was holding my new best chase day of my entire career! I wouldn't be surprised to add a few more to the count and likely break my single-day record set back on this exact date back in 2004. So much more coming... its 4am CDT; its late. We will NOT be chasing tomorrow as we did more than our share today!
Goodnight from Salina!
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
The latest RUC indicates an insane day with upwards of 5000J/kg of CAPE available in southern Nebraska. Forgot that today marks a 4-year anniversary of a very big day in Kansas and to this date, the highest single day tornado count of my life...
 May 29, 2004
Play it again, Sam...
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Sitting here in Ogallala, Nebraska awaiting the arrival of Tim, Paul, and Carl as they left Denver and were just passing through Ft. Morgan as of 45 minutes ago. Figure them to be in or near Sterling now. Once they hit Julesburg, we'll head across the street to top off and await their arrival. From here, we'll head east to positon ourselves for what will be my third high risk of the season. SPC upgraded the 0600z moderate to the high at their 1300z outlook with a 30% hatched tornado probability east of a Yankton, SD to Bartlett, NE to Grand Island, NE line.
I've shifted last night's target of Oneill southward to the I-80 corridor as I like the area along this line. However, surface analysis will need to be frequent to keep tabs of the warm front which will be the key to success today. Figuring on another chaser circus among the roads of eastern Nebraska, so hopefully everyone will remain safe.
Need 8 more tornadoes to hit the century mark for my career. There's a decent chance I hit that mark today!
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Today's front range action was less than stellar, but it gave Ed and myself an excuse to get a jump-start for tomorrow. With that said, we ventured up I-76 and have bunked down at one of my favorite Best Westerns, the Stagecoach Inn here in Ogallala, Nebraska. We'll meet with Tim, Carl, and Paul in the morning as they'll be leaving Denver at around 630am. Once they arrive here, we'll head east for our target for tomorrow.
Right now, it does look like a single day chase and thus I would expect to be back in Denver sometime Friday evening for what looks like several days. I may even sneak a work shift or two in to get the rest of my chase logs up from last week. We'll see if I get motivated to do that or not.
So with that, I'll update again in the morning. Goodnight from Ogallala!
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Back in Denver if only for a brief stint before heading back out to eastern Nebraska tomorrow. Stefan who accompanied me over the last few days returned to the east coast and tomorrow I will be joined by Ed Grubb for the next day or so. Looks like we will be back at some point over the weekend before things try and kick up again next week.
Today, while officially a down day, may prove to be a fun day for the front range. SPC has a slight risk for severe hail along the I-25 corridor from roughly Pueblo north into Wyoming. A couple brief tornadoes are possible with the given shear and the upper 40s to low 50s dews across the region. A few blips are showing up on the FTG radar site over the mountains, but nothing to shake me out on the road yet. Storm motions are northeast, so I'll be keeping my eye on anything that forms in Jefferson, Gilpin, Boulder, and Park County. It'll be a spotter-type day if I do venture out. Once storms get east of I-25, conditions to support those storms will lessen and thus the severe threat should remain west of a Ft. Morgan to Limon line. A good thing considering the 630am departure time tomorrow morning for a preliminary target of Oneill, Nebraska.
Was nice to be home in my own bed last night, not to mention being in my bed before 10pm. I was happy to get a full night's sleep last night to reset myself. This upcoming stint doesn't look near as long, so I figure to be home again over the weekend before next week. Models are showing a potentially active pattern into next week.
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thanks to the driving of Stefan Bechtel, I have found a bit of time to do some web work as we cruise westbound on I-70 back to Denver after a very active week. Over the last couple of hours, I have captured some video stills and done some minor image processing and have created two of the big chase logs from the trip. You can view the May 22, 2008 storm chase log here.
And you can view the May 23, 2008 storm chase log here.
Going through video, I realized I had miscounted my tornado count for this day. We say 7, not 6, tornadoes. The first two were south of Quinter; the next three, including the giant wedge, its cone satellite, and a small spin-up, were north of Quinter; the 6th was the second wedge that crossed I-70 west of Quinter as we returned to town, and the last was a power-flash illiminated tornado over Ellis after dark.
I have also updated my front page and web stats with all the chases up through yesterday, including the additional May 23 tornado. I am probably going to be a while on the chases from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as they obviously weren't as exciting as these two (Saturday being a clear sky bust in Nebraska). But there were worthy events and plenty of pictures, so they'll go up at some point.
Anywoo, 100 miles and change left to Denver, so I'm gonna enjoy the wireless internet technology and catch up on some emails and such! Tomorrow will be a down day before we hit the road again for Thursday. Just as I hoped, the season peaking when its suppose to!
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Monday, May 26, 2008
Back in Great Bend, Kansas after the last day of this multi-day marathon. We missed the Pratt tornadoes by several minutes unfortunately, but we certainly were not the only ones. Did see some good hail east of Greensburg that took out the windshields of three of the four vehicles in the caravan as a hail shaft made a quick appearance as we sat along side the highway observing the storm. I was actually switching tapes in my dash cam after capturing a brilliant dual lightning strike to which I hope turned out well as it hit dead center in view.
Anywoo, it looks as if we're going to skip out on the frontal play tomorrow and return to Denver for a couple of days. Its been a very exhausting last few days and a couple nights in my own bed to recharge will be welcome. A load of laundry wouldn't hurt, either.
We sit 400 miles from Denver here, so I expect to be home by mid-evening tomorrow assuming a slow paced departure. Not sure what kind of timeframe I'm looking at for chase logs for the last few days, but I have gone through more of the video to pull stills on a few other tornadoes I didn't get my Nikon on. I'll get those posted at some point in the future, but not making any solid plans to pull those out when I get back.
On a final note, I had some cell phone issues which prevented me from getting text messages. About 930 this evening, a flood of about 30 came in starting from some point yesterday. For those who sent me texts in the last 24-36 hours, I wasn't ignoring you; up until 3 hours ago, I never knew you dropped in. I'll get caught up at some point here soon!
With that, goodnight from Great Bend!
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Sunday, May 25, 2008
Back in Kansas after yesterday's clear sky bust in Nebraska. We came back and managed to tack on another tornado to the count for this trip. This was a weak little spoutish type thing south of Bison, Kansas that most of us blew off considering its location in the storm. However Verne and other chasers showed impressive video of it with a hollow tube extending a quarter way up from the ground, so it saved us from two days of busts. The chase overall was a pretty cloud picture chase and later ended up a blowing dust sampling when I took our mesonet into an area of blowing dust at the leading edge of an approaching gust front.
Tomorrow, the play looks to be south-central Kansas, possibly extreme northern Oklahoma. After that, it looks like a couple of quiet days before returning to action late week.
Goodnight from Great Bend, Kansas!
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Saturday, May 24, 2008
Sitting in Aurora, NE waiting for storms to go. Figuring a later show up here as a storm went nuts in OK already. A big change from the last 2 days where by this time, we already had tornadoes.
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Back in Hays after another amazing day. Tagged 6 tornadoes by nightfall; 5 around the Quinter area and one of the Ellis tornadoes as it crossed I-70. The first tornado occured south of Quinter and was a monster cone (see below). It the spawned a pencil satellite tornado before it vanished. The third tornado was the cone tornado that formed in front of the massive wedge that we saw from a safe distance looking north out of Quinter. The fifth was a tiny vortex that spun up south of the RFD fiasco on Castle Rock Road north of Quinter. The 6th was the second Ellis tornado as it crossed I-70. We were several miles souteast of this tornado and saw it only through power flashes.
So a two day total of 11 tornadoes and brings my career count to 90 with this year's talley at 16. Tomorrow we look to move northeast, possibly breaking in Nebraska for the year. Its late, so bedtime is very close at hand.
Goodnight again from Hays, two doors down from last night.
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
One of four tornadoes today in Kansas after missing the historical event in Colorado 90 minutes after we left. I was about to give up chasing if we had busted today, but by night's end, four tornadoes to add to my total including this beauty.
Lots to do, including dinner, so I'll update in more detail later.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Made it back to Denver after tacking on another 397 miles to my total for the season. First time all year where I never left my resident state, nor did I ever really come close. The hail in the previous entry was from the core of an earlier storm we missed by about 15 minutes, but we were able to find some falling ice in Siebert later in the evening. Golfballs were reported, but we saw nothing bigger than mushy quarters (and that's a generous estimate). The deluge of harder ice came in the form of nickels in the third core to run us over in Siebert. We eventually returned west with a stop in Limon for dinner and made it home in time to see Mike Nelson airing our hail video on 7News at 10pm.
Once I got home, I finished my packing for the upcoming marathon stint of chasing. Packed a week's worth of clothes, all my camera gear (minus the 18-200mm lens being repaired), and my computers. Fortunately before I left, the new wireless amp from maximumsignal arrived and I was able to test her out today with great success! I'll probably haul both the wire and wireless with me on the trip and use them as needed. Western Kansas is covered in Sprint's high speed access, so I should do pretty well out there over the next couple of days.
As for tomorrow, the 0600z Day 1 holds a 15% hatched tornado risk over western Kansas. The 15% line covers all of Kansas from Colby to Russell. The 10% line hooks all the way back to nearly Fort Morgan, so potential exists for tornadoes in Colorado as well. Extreme northeastern Colorado lies in the significant threat area, so it'll be interesting to see what transpires with that. I think an I-70 target is definitely a good starting place. My hunch is most storms that go up along the dryline will be tornatic, so one just need to pick a cyclic cell and they should bank a celebration steak by nightfall.
We'll see how it all unfolds... gonna be meeting the Colorado portion of the TWISTEX crew in Lakewood about 9am, do a quick equipment/gear transfer from my van to the mesonet, then head out to Kansas to meet with the rest of the crew. Going to be busy over the next couple of days! I can assure you just about anyone with an interest in chasing will be out tomorrow. A side story of the day will likely be the crowds and hopefully without bad consequences. Be safe everyone! See you in the morning...
For the last time in what may be a week... goodnight from Denver!
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We missed the core, but 1 inch hail left in the storm's wake between Otis and Yuma on Hwy 34 at the county line. Going for storm number 2 south of us.
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I'm a go for this afternoon's marginal setup here in Colorado with plans to return to Denver to join back up with the TWISTEX crew for the rest of the week into the weekend. SPC has plotted severe potential everyday through Monday when the upper level winds finally start to simmer down a bit, but even then, potential still exists for severe. What a crazy next week it may shape up to be!
Plans for today, Ed and I will meet up this afternoon by around 2p and just shoot up I-76 for the Ft. Morgan area. We wanna keep the DCVZ option open in the event a May 10, 2004 repeats itself, but figure on hail and pretty storms today as tornado chances aren't terribly impressive ATTM. I've put in a call to Van de Grift to offer him the other seat for today and am waiting to hear back. Both of them have engadgements for tomorrow and I have to come back to jump in with TWISTEX, so it oughta work well!
I'm hopeful my wireless amp arrives today as tracking shows it arriving in Denver yesterday. Hopefully its on a truck and will be here. I'll run it in my van today and haul it out with me tomorrow with TWISTEX. Hopefully if it does arrive, it does before I take off.
More later this afternoon... need to finish laundry and other small errands before I sprint out for the day!
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Formal TWISTEX operations aren't slated to begin until Thursday, thus I may head out myself to play eastern Colorado tomorrow in the event we can get a severe storm to fire and move southeast off the Cheyenne Ridge. I would prefer to stay close to home so I can make it back at a decent hour. Will get final word on operations tomorrow before I slam out the door around lunchtime. More in the morning.
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Monday, May 19, 2008
Chatter continues in regards to the late week setup, and it looks as if Wednesday will be the first of many days for myself and the TWISTEX crew. I'm heading down to Lakewood tomorrow to customize the vehicle to which I'll likely be driving for the duration of the project. That stands as my only real plan for tomorrow as I went through my gear this evening and charged batteries and organized the big case. I'll have a few more bags with me for this trip, but definitely much better organized. In fact, my black kitten, Sigtor, is "guarding" my bag by pretending its a bed...
My glance at models has me thinking Thursday will be the best day of several and my target as of now stands to be northwest Kansas. Wednesday has northeastern Colorado potential where you *may* squeeze a spout or two, but looks to be primarily a hailer or high wind day. But, the boundry setup and decent moisture for this elevation could make for a local sleeper day. It would also work to position ourselves in the field for Thursday. Beyond Thursday, I haven't really given a ton of look except to see how far into the future we could be playing. Right now, it looks like it could go as far as Sunday in terms of chasable days. How good and where still rests uncertain, but Friday looks like about the same area with a eastward jog after that. Still, far enough out to where its definitely in changeable territory, but also in the time of year where I look as far ahead as the next setup. Obviously, there is plenty of potential in the next couple of days to where I can worry about the weekend later.
I imagine the next few days will prove to be the busiest in terms of chasers on the road as we've seen all year. I hunch that this will be the grand pooba for the year in terms of everyone heading out. The multiday stretch in favorable terrain with little change in targets will make this very inviting for a lot of chasers. I myself am one of nearly half a dozen vehicles in our project, not to mention the DOW-TIV circus and tour groups. It'll be interesting to say the least. Threads have already popped up in forums and other chasers have mentioned it on their blogs, but everyone just be careful and use common sense. I'm not going to be taking plates cause I'd rather be watching the storms, but lets try to avoid arrests and landing on GMA for running on foot into tornadoes. *grin*
A side note regarding this blog... I went to my account to check on a couple things and noted that I have a very large amount of hits on this blog daily... I mean a lot.. its kind of scarey! LOL Almost 80% of my overall web views are on the blog with the rest scattered across the remainder of the site. A lot of reloads are accounted for, but unique users (hits) is well over 3000 in a week, so that's pretty cool. Thanks to those who stop by! Nice to know I'm being read!
I really have nothing else of interest to add. Just one of those I'm still up and need something to pass some time entries. More updates upcoming as the "XX Days of May" get underway!
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How many times have we been able to say the pattern is holding on and its a good thing? Normally we're sitting at home under a ridge that goes nowhere for a week leaving chasers high and dry. The opposite looks like it will occur this week and through the weekend as a trough sets up in the west leaving the high plains under good southwest flow for days! Yes, I said high plains, not the extreme southern plains or the Ozarks... right here *points out his window*.
The next couple of days offer some very marginal and slim chances to get out around here. Wednesday, IMO, looks to be the first, albeit marginal, day in a series of days that could easily talley into early next week. Being far enough out, its hard to say exactly where in the high plainsthe best setup is and what day those will fall on, but without question, a long stretch upcoming for chasers.
Today, I have a ton of things to run around and do. I need to get my lens in for repairs, make a pickup at the post office, do some bank stuff, and a few other non-chase related items. I'm hopeful to have tomorrow pretty well free to get organized, packed, and ready to roll before hopefully hitting the field again Wednesday.
Lots more to come, but an exciting time approaching and one that's definitely been worth the wait!
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
Yesterday was my last day of campus for the summer. I went in and took care of some paperwork, officially wrapped up the semester, and updated my web chase logs to get my stats up to current. I haven't put up any logs, but the last has at least been accounted for.
A bunch of around-town stuff to do include get some warranty work on my 18-200mm VR lens. I'm going to drop that by the shop today. I hunch it won't be ready before this week's trip, but hopefully the repairs will happen. I haven't had to do warranty work on a lens yet, so I have no idea how it works. Either way, I'm hopeful to have it taken care of.
Weather-wise, hot and quiet through roughly Wednesday, but a good string of days shaping up somewhere other than central Texas. Its time to play in the central and northern High Plains! Looks as if we'll have that chance over the course of several days starting as early as Wednesday and going through the weekend! More on that as the forecast period draws closer, but definitely good hopes in making that happen!
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Friday, May 16, 2008
Good morning from Amarillo. Made the 620 mile venture from Georgetown, TX up through Norman to drop off Rich and Roger before cutting back across Oklahoma and back into Texas where I arrived yesterday evening. Today, the last 430 miles remain ahead of me to get home where I look to be through Tuesday. There is some hint that the middle to late week will hold some hope for chasing, so pending the exact distance of a possible target, I would foresee the day before as a travel day out. That could be as early as Tuesday. If there are no formal operations and but low-end severe possibilities are around close enough to home, I may gather the local folks for some casual gentlemen's-type chasing.
As for today, I anticipate arriving home mid-to-late evening as I will need to make a couple of stops, including one in Lakewood to drop off the mesonet and then get a ride up to Westminster. I'm not hurrying out the door due to having to arrive in rush hour if I were to leave now, so I'm probably going to take my time getting out of here this morning and aim for a 7p to 8p arrival back in Denver.
Tomorrow is my only set plans to work on campus as it will be the last official day of the semester. After that, I'll spend some time getting ready for the remainder of the summer and have tentative plans to be out the door again as early as Tuesday.
Ciao from Amarillo!
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
A long day comes to a flashy close here in Georgetown, Texas. I'm about 5 hours south of my initial destination tomorrow and about 8 hours from my planned overnight stay heading back to Denver. Today wrapped up week 1 for me and while storm-filled, it was lacking overall. A good reset is definitely needed to get back on track as the wacky 2008 season continues.
Today's chase marked the furthest south I had ever chased and my brief run through northern Austin was also a first. We started out in Abilene this morning and made our way south to San Angelo for lunch. We picked up a big storm and ended up making the main intercept in Brady where 70+ mph straight line winds tore the snot out of the trees in town. Numerous branches and other debris littered the roadways. We got separated from the group and ended up coring the storm for well over an hour through San Saba into Lampasas where we ditched it for the southern storm with the huge hook heading for northern Austin. We ended up in Cedar Park where the meso passed overhead rather uncerimoniously.
We ended up calling it a night in Georgetown after several smaller waves went through. We had dinner and returned to the hotel where a decent eastern view gave me the shot to shoot some lightning. Aside from the off-angled camera, I managed a few decent shots.
   
While my first lightning photo actually came last night, these were much better compared to that. Definitely not great as I threw my tripod and camera out there in my PJs and stood under the overhang with rain blowing down on me. But, it was worth the extra time!
And Randy, believe me, had I been on my own and much earlier in the day, I would've been out having a drink with ya! But having a dozen people in your group and a 7am wake-up time to drive back to Norman, then to Amarillo, I'll have to take a rain check! Obviously those are the plans. I will divide the 1038 miles over two days doing more than half of them tomorrow to get me into Amarillo. Along the way, I'll drop off Roger Edwards and Rich Thompson back in Norman, then shoot out I-40 to Amarillo. I'll sleep in Friday before wrapping up the trip home.
Beyond that, looks like a week or more of quiet time. I plan to work Saturday as mentioned this morning to catch up on some much needed web updates and get ready for the rest of the trip. At this point, I plan to remain with Samaras and company through the end of June.
Goodnight from Georgetown!
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Sitting in Abilene, TX on what will likely be the last chase day for the next week or so. Not terribly excited at today's prospects, but am encouraged that things look much better today than they did yesterday. We're looking to drift just south of here by about an hour or so and set up midafternoon down there. We're minus one vehicle as one of our mesonets took on a deer near Mineral Wells last night and we're having to swap out the ride. Not sure they'll make it back here in time.
Looks as if I'll end up home sometime Friday and through the weekend into some point next week. The northwest flow setting up looks starved of moisture and probably won't do us much in terms of storms close to home that we could see in this type of pattern. Hailers are usually pretty good with this type of flow, but models aren't doing much to encourage storm development. I'm thinking I'll go into campus and work a full day on Saturday just so I can catch up on my website, turn in my final timesheets, and do other computer-related items before then. Sunday through the next chase will be spent getting organized for the summer and having all my gear setup, installed, and finalized before I head out again.
So with that, today will be the final chase day for a bit. Hopefully it'll end on a good note.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Topping off in Jacksboro, TX and looking to bust on the day.
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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Back in OKC after a lengthy chase day in the southeast Oklahoma jungles. We intercepted a storm to which several chasers reported a tornado crossing the road in an area we were at. Tim observed strong rotation in the clouds above us about the same time as rapidly moving westward rain curtains were flying across the street. Apparently, there was damage in this area soon after. We're trying to determine exactly where we were when this supposed tornado crossed the highway and whether we were under the area of circulation when it did. There were leaves and other small pieces of debris coming down on us as we continued south, so a few notes of interest. As it stands, I am unofficially counting it as one tornado based upon our proximity and what we did see. I'm hopeful someone behind us got some video or stills to confirm this as we were likely directly under the circulation about this time.
Either way, Verne split off and returned to Amarillo (probably arriving to his house there as I type this). I'm with Tim and the rest of the crew here in OKC where I will remain until Tuesday's setup arrives. Gas prices make it more economical to just sit tight here and wait for the next one as opposed to driving out and back from Denver. With that, I'll be here for the next couple of days.
So with that, its time for bed. Its 3:24am right now and I am dog-tired. Mom, if you're reading this, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY. I'll call you when I wake up, which might be mid afternoon! And Kanani, I wish you the same! :o) LOL Til then, goodnight from Oklahoma City!
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
Bisecting the Ouachita National Forest in eastern Oklahoma. Wonderful chasing terrain out here, lemme tell you. Hahaha.
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Sitting in the backseat station of the Colbalt with Roger Edwards at the helm as we're following Tim Samaras through eastern Oklahoma on US Hwy 59. We're moving south towards northeastern Arkansas at this time.
Started the day in Amarillo with Verne Carlson after driving in from Denver yesterday afternoon. He picked me up from campus immediately after my final presentation and we hit the road. We picked up the mesonet at the AMA NWS office on the way in last night and I drove it out this morning with Verne following behind.
We met Tim, Carl, Roger, Rich, and the Iowa State gang in OKC and headed out.
More later... just positioning ourselves for what we hope will be a good show!
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Friday, May 09, 2008
Plans still a go for the weekend ventures out east. Verne will be coming down to meet me on campus at some point early afternoon and we'll head down to Amarillo for the night. I will then drive the mesonet-vehicle to meet with Carl, Rich, and Roger in OKC. It looks as if I'll be driving with Verne for the chase on Saturday in his Subi as Rich and Roger will be driving the mesonet.
More later... my presentation is in 30 minutes, and I can clear my plate of all obligations for the rest of the summer!!!!!!!!
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
By this time tomorrow, I'll be on the road to freedom... or Amarillo as the case may be. While I originally had no plans to chase Saturday due to it being far east and only a day, I ended up with an offer that will enable me to chase Saturday. I'm heading down to Amarillo tomorrow with Verne to pick up the mesonet vehicle left behind last week. As a result, I will end up chasing Saturday and returning to Denver with the vehicle on Sunday.
Was going to chase today, but had to hang back to wrap up the finishing touches on my projects. The project was wrapped up this morning and the final rendering will be done overnight. My presentation is at 10am where I will officially wrap up all semester obligations.
As a result, I missed the chance to chase an ongoing tornado-producing storm in extreme western Kansas. Michael Carlson and crew were hauling through Larkin last I checked. A new tornado warning was recently issued as the storm has cycled again and is presenting well on radar. Several chasers are now on this cell and thus reports should continue to stream in.
So off to Amarillo I'll be by tomorrow. One last obligation to attend to and it's clear through August!
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Made it home last night right around 9pm as expected. A very nice change of pace considering the extreme distances the early season has already taken me. Fortunately the self-induced short leash prevented me from venturing down to southwestern New Mexico where a lot of chasers got screwed. In fact, only three tornado reports came out of yesterday, two of them clear the hell up in southeastern Minnesota (even those were dubbed 'possible'). The third was about 100 miles north of me in Frontier County, Nebraska. A couple of the Kansas cells were tornado warned after I left them, but nothing was ever reported. My decision to bail when I did proved to be the better choice as I felt as if I had scored about as much as I was going to get. As a result, I was able to get home and sleep a full night before returning to work today. But, the alarm clock came in the form of thunder as rare early morning storms developed over Denver shortly after 5am. Thunder awakened me and sent my poor kittens under furniture. If anything, it was just nice to listen to a gentle rain and rolling thunder, something rare for this part of the world.
As soon as I click publish, I am off to work on final projects. I have seen the slight risk in southwest Kansas for tomorrow, and because a few friends received a bonus day off, I may elect to tag along with them to go play IF I wrap things up today. Its definitely possible, but not terribly likely. We'll see. Don't count me in just yet. It looks marginal enough to where I am chasing just to be out with friends who haven't had a chance to get out much this year. Otherwise I stay back and wrap up my projects.
Things look quiet over the weekend with the next system moving through by Tuesday. After that, a scary pattern settles in that doesn't bode well for southern Plains chasing. Hopefully that will not be the case, but we shall see.
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Passing thru Limon and expect to be home before 9pm. So nice for a change..
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Only tornado-warned cell is up near Stockville, NE and probably won't hold out long enough to make it. But I scored some quarter to golfball hail north of Garden City in Finney County, KS. Calling it a day and heading back to Denver.
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Oh goodie! Construction south of Oakley on 83. Take I70 exit 76 to avoid this. Heading south to play with severe warned cells for nothing else other than to pass some time til later.
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Sitting in the Oasis truckstop parking lot in Colby, Kansas after a small lunch at Montana Mike's and a fuel top-off. A few turkey towers already going up to my west and southwest including a cell across the border in Prowers County that bears watching. Dews in the mid to upper 50s east of the dryline which still looks to be west of the CO/KS border. SPC has issued an MD for areas north and northwest of me in extreme northeastern COlorado and Nebraska. Sounds as if that'll be blue-boxed within the hour. Nothing for my area at this time, but obviously its early, even with a developing storm heading up this way. We'll see how things evolve over the next couple of hours. In the meantime, sunny skies and warm temps, instability should not be a big issue.
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The Oasis Truckstop of good ol' Colby, KS is calling my name, and for that, I shall target thee! Lunch, gas, and chiliing will be the call as I'll sit there. RUC hinting at a good combo of conditions just south of there by 0z, so I'm encouraged.
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Got back home yesterday afternoon and spent most of the evening doing project-related stuff as I ended up being forecasted into chasing the close-to-home target of western Kansas today. I'm still in Denver and will probably leave in about an hour for a Oakley to Garden City target. I want to allow myself the chance to get back home tonight, albeit very late. I was happier with yesterday's forecast, but overnight convection has lead to questions as to whether the airmass will recover enough to support tornatic storms. I'm pretty confident in severe weather developing in my target area after 22/23z, but tornado-threat isn't as high as I would like. But as Tim Marshall puts it.. "If it's May, you chase!"
Because of the ongoing projects I am working on currently, I will not make this an extended trip. In fact, I'm likely to stop chasing and start heading home about 9:00pm CDT in order to try and make Denver by 1am. I don't have any plans to chase after dark, and if things start to MCS earlier, I'll back off and head out.
So with that, I'm gonna get cleaned up and packed for a quick trip today. Assuming all goes according to plan, I would leave myself a couple days to wrap up my project and prepare for Friday's presentation. Still looks as if the weekend will shape up nicely for my first unleashed chase opportunity of my May-a-thon stretch.
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Monday, May 05, 2008
Sitting at Sioux City airport in northwestern Iowa where Carl Young has dropped me off enroute to Amarillo to meet with Verne and Tim for the next couple of days. I have elected to fly back home in order to wrap up my semester obligations and ensure my leash is ready to be cut for good per the completion of my Motion Graphics presentation on Friday morning. A few shots of chasing are expected through Wednesday, but the events seem cozy enough to where I feel pretty good about skipping out for a few days. I should arrive back in Denver this afternoon and will head straight to crank out the rest of my Motion Graphics project. The rest of the week will be fine-tuning that project and doing my Visual Basic final. I'm hopeful to have everything cleared from my plate by then. I'll be on the road as early as Friday afternoon with the rest of my summer clear.
The trip up north was amazing! The installation of the weather gear and training went very well! Best of all, the scenary was terrific! I took some pictures of the wildlife roaming around and had a great time. I'll post those shots at some point here soon as my USB cable and card reader is back in Denver.
So that's pretty much the story as of now. Look for things in my neck of the woods to remain quiet through Friday. I may sneak out if something of interest pops in eastern Colorado or extreme western Kansas, but don't look to hear much from me until Friday!
Its getting close... soon the WRF/NAM/ETA will be within range of my departure!!!
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Saturday, May 03, 2008
Enjoyed my first full night's sleep in a few days and boy did it feel good. Carl and I are in Cottage Grove, Minnesota (a southeast suburb of St. Paul) and will be venturing 200 miles up the road to Deer River, Minnesota for today's setup and training leaving us an 1100 mile journey back to Denver tomorrow.
One of the bigger tornado outbreaks of the season occured in the southeast yesterday with over 50 reports of tornadoes from Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Several chasers bagged multiple tornadoes in tough terrain with fast storm motions. Kudos to them for their efforts as many were well rewarded. Carl and I were thrown under a tornado watch in southern Wisconsin yesterday evening, but that offered nothing more than false hope and an extra few hundred miles of driving. In all, we covered 927 miles on a trip we could've made in 637. For what its worth, Wisconsin was amazing amounts of green, which is something I am rarely ever able to say about "Colorful Colorado" anymore. That in itself offered some relief. I did take some pretty cloud pictures after blasting a core of high winds and pea-to-penny sized ice in Dubuque, IA.
Upon Sunday's expected late return, a couple quiet days on tap to which I will use to wrap up school projects and prepare for my May-a-thon. However, only a couple quiet days in store as another system moves in midweek that assuming of good moisture return, will be the next chase opportunity. I would return long enough for Friday's presentation and probably hit the road straight from there for what could be a weekend chase. Still far enough out and plenty to do before then to where I'll concern myself with that later.
First thing is first, gotta get Carl awake and running and head 200 miles up the road to Deer River. Yeehaw!
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Friday, May 02, 2008
Managed a quick nap and was awakened to the Superman movie theme on the rental's XM Radio... Carl's choice, of course.. hehehe.
Anywoo, was happy to see before I crashed out that SPC gave some renewed hope for eastern Iowa with a 10% tornado bubble. As of this writing, we're about 40 miles south of Des Moines on I-35 and intend to shoot northeast out of there towards Marshalltown and points east from there. There is some blue skies around, but it appears according to GRLevel3 that we're driving into some grungy mess currently along and west of I-35 north of Des Moines. Clearing is evident to the east and we're shooting for that.
So with that, renewed hope that today may amount to something of interest! Stay tuned!!!
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Plowing through Kansas City right now with Carl behind the wheel and me in the backseat with the laptop setting up a minimal chase setup with a recently purchased inverter and my laptop and Sprint card. We're targetting northeastern Iowa, northern Illinois, and southern Wisconsin more as an on-the-way target to our final destination in Minnesota. I'm not overly confident in much going up there, but the possibility certainly exists and we'll chase our way up there in hopes we can salvage a small repeat of Iowa's crazy ventures yesterday.
Yesterday's chase centered over southeastern Kansas ran up 935 miles from the Denver departure with Ed and Carl. Ed is driving back to Denver in my van several hours ahead of Tim, who left Ottawa, Kansas with us in his truck. Carl and I are taking the Colbalt to Minnesota for the mesonet fittings.
So nothing of huge excitement yesterday as everywhere around us scored. First real defeat of the season in terms of busting. But, its only May 2 now and the season (hopefully) is just getting started. And who knows, perhaps we'll score something crazy today! We'll see!
More later! I'm gonna try and catch a nap while its quiet.
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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Made it back to Park City, Kansas where Ed and I are picking up the rental car we left here this morning. We elected to stay here overnight instead of fighting the squall line back to Ottawa and have left ourselves a two-hour catchup in the morning. Ed has the option to return to Denver with my van and me drive the rental our to meet Tim and Carl for tomorrow's setup in Missouri. Will update again probably from the road as I am going to salvage as much sleep as I can before tomorrow. As for today, some hail leftovers and a funnel cloud, nothing of real note to mention. Goodnight again from Park City, Kansas.
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View looking west from 9 miles south of Moline, KS as we are heading north.
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On the move, northbound on I35 out of Blackwell, OK and heading for US Hwy 166 where we'll head toward Arkansas City.
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Mr. McLean enjoying the warm, windy weather in Wichita.
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