Cyclone Road: Amos Magliocco's storm chasing blog

NWS preliminary map of November 7 tornadoes

2011-11-11T19:40:00.001-06:00

This is a link to the preliminary report from Norman's National Weather Service office on the tornadoes last week. I have used their early tornado track map to impose my own path during the chase, recreated from my GPS log. Click the map to enlarge.

The red circles indicate major stopping points, of which there are too many. I couldn't quit shooting the Frederick-Tipton tornado (Tornado #1 on the map) because it was doing so many cool things: changing shapes, orientations, and posing behind some very cool foregrounds. Over and over I told myself I'd crop the shots, since I was pretty far away at the beginning.

It's always a struggle to choose whether to keep shooting, since the tornado could dissipate any moment, or put the camera down for five minutes and blast west (blast being a relative term on the muddy Oklahoma backroads) another three miles to get closer. As it is, if I'd gone farther west in the beginning, I wouldn't have found myself directly between both the dying Tipton cone and the rapidly forming soon-to-be Manitou tornado. (Tornado #2 on the map). I eventually caught up fully to the Manitou-nado, meeting it at its dissipation point over Highway 183.

a few photos from 7 November 2011, Oklahoma tornadoes

2011-11-08T23:35:00.006-06:00

Early in the day, about 2048z, southwest of Frederick

Both shots above taken 21z west of Frederick

2122z, new tornado forms east of ongoing Tipton tornado

Tipton, Oklahoma tornado 2113z

2124z near Manitou

2130z near Manitou

22z tornado nearing Wichita Mountains

7 November 2011: Frederick to Wichita Mountains, OK tornadoes

2011-11-07T22:46:00.001-06:00

7 November 2011: Frederick to Wichita Mountains, OK tornadoes

I'll add more narrative and photos later, but the quick & dirty version is that I observed four or five tornadoes between 2035z and 22z between west of Frederick to near Mountain Park. The first tornado began WNW of FDR, the same one which damaged Tipton I assume, and remained fully condensed (as far as from my vantage point) until around 2120z. This was mainly a symmetrical, barrel-shaped tornado which passed before so many great foregrounds that I stopped again and again to shoot and fell a little behind the storm as a result. But the pics are worth it. At one point a satellite tornado roped into an s-curve while the barrel churned away less than a mile west. Needless to say I stopped and shot this rare twin sighting.

Around 2110z, a new tornado formed to my ENE when I was 6 miles west of Manitou. The first tornado was by then a tall white cylinder, and the new one was a fully condensed cone, one to my NNW and the other due east. The second tornado was impressive for how the condensation near the base articulated the rapid rotation, as a sort of curtain formed around the primary funnel and turned somewhat more slowly than the tornado, highlighting the rotation by contrast. As this tornado crossed Highway 183 a few miles south of Snyder, it was a full barrel, mostly sunlit and with a dark gray cape of condensation, and then the thing simply vanished. I wasn't all that far away, and the storm was still relatively dry and clean as it had been the entire time, but I cannot recall a tornado of that size and duration dissipating so quickly. I guess there was still a circulation on the ground; it seems like there would have to be, but the visible portion was gone. And I had just found another great foreground.

A very brief tornado formed to the east of my position about ten minutes later, probably around 2130z. I'll check the camera times. I have a photo of this though I didn't file a report for it.

After that I poked along on dirt roads, picked up the next cone tornado at 22z when I was east of Snyder by about 6 miles. The tornado was north of me by 5m, likely near the intersection of Highways 49 & 54, just west of the western entrance of the Wichita Mts Wildlife Refuge on 49.

Why was I on the Frederick storm to begin with? I thought I was late for the real show farther west, or that the whole event was hosed anyway from the widespread precip, uncapped environment. I followed the storm from Texas toward Frederick because I imagined it was the best way to waste the least amount of gas on a rainy November bust, and then suddenly it was a fine supercell; and just as suddenly it was one of my better storms in years. You never know.

How to the victims in Joplin, most deadly US tornado in 60 years

2011-05-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

From MSNBC, a comprehensive list of how to help the victims in Joplin:

Several organizations and individuals are helping victims of the Joplin tornado. Here's how you can get involved and help those affected by the deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1953:
Donations
The American Red Cross has set up a page for Missouri tornado and flood relief.
The Joplin Red Cross could use some donations. You can contact it at (417) 624-4411 or info@redcross-ozarks.org in order to find out what supplies are most necessary.
The Missouri SEMA has set up a donation page.
A list of major non-profits that operate regularly in Missouri can be found on the National Donations Management Network website. You can also call (800) 427-4626 for further information.
The Missouri Interfaith Disaster Response Organization istaking donations for longterm recovery efforts.
The Community Blood Center of the Ozarks is in need of blood — particularly type O. A list of donation sites can be found here.
Volunteering
211 Missouri is helping organize volunteers in the affected areas. More information can be found by calling (800) 427-462.
Nurses or doctors looking to help can call (417) 832-9500 for the Greater Ozarks chapter of the Red Cross.
Health professionals can register to volunteer through the Show-Me Response website.
Animal rescue
For those in the Joplin area: Emergency Pet Center of the Four States at 7th & Illinois near the Sonic is OPEN and accepting found/injured animals. Its phones are down at this time.
The "Animals Lost & Found from the Joplin, Mo tornado" Facebook page is tracking lost and found pets.
Safety Information
The National Americorp Volunteers are setting up a national hotline for residents to call to check on loved ones. The number is (417) 659-5464 and should be active later today.
The American Red Cross has set up a site on which you can check in, report on the safety of others, or look for information on loved ones.
The "Joplin people accounted for after the storm" Facebook page is helping people track loved ones who fell out of touch during the storm.
The St. John's Health System has been updating its Facebook page regularly with information relevant to the aftermath of the storm.
Other efforts
The recently organized "Joplin Volunteer & Outreach Station" Facebook page appears to be focused on aiding relief efforts.
The "Joplin Tornado Citizen Checks (neighbors helping neighbors!)" Facebook page appears to be a gathering place for a lot of Joplin locals who are in need of aid or able to provide aid to others.
The "Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery" Facebook page is one of the bigger ones dedicated to aid efforts and contains a great deal of up-to-the-second information on where help is necessary.
Some words of caution
While giving is good and your intentions are great, be aware that there are individuals who might attempt to take advantage of your kindness. Read up on the charities or organizations to which you are donating funds or supplies. You can use sites such as Charity Navigator — a service run by a non-profit organization that has information on more than 5,000 charities and evaluates the groups' financial health — to confirm that everything's on the up and up.

four chase days in May, so I don't forget them

2011-05-23T12:52:00.000-05:00

Just a place-marker update so I don't forget these chases, which as you might guess means they were fairly forgettable.

May 11, 2011: A big, over-hyped Wednesday chase led me all the way into northeastern CO for two storms near Burlington. Cannot believe I drove that far when I hadn't intended to go much north of I-40. Met up with Scott Currens along the way and we checked out the weird, northwestward moving storms as one of them produced a modest wall cloud directly over the city of Burlington.

May 18, 2011: A bust near Norman, Oklahoma. Shouldn't have left the house at all, between the intense CIN and more intense pain in my sprained knee, which I didn't begin treating until a few days earlier.

May 19, 2011: I was convinced this was the last day I'd see a tornado in 2011, because I'd planned all spring to chase with a research project from the 19th to the 24th, and the project's goal was other than documenting tornadoes. So I planned to poke my head up around Interstate 40 and turn back. I wound up near Woodward, Oklahoma but never saw a storm worth shooting. Scott Currens zipped past me on the road out of Camp Houston, headed west for the storm. He was in the process of hooking up with the aforementioned project, too, but had some equipment issues and chased solo.

May 22, 2011: I'm fairly confined to local chases now and spending less than seven hours at a time in the car. I targeted Jacksboro and chased two supercells, one a small LP that morphed into an interesting structural presentation and produced a rapidly rotating wall cloud. The second supercell, again firing near Jacksboro, was a HP/Classic hybrid with two distinct and fairly interesting mesocylconic cycles, the second of which produced an organized and rotating funnel near the town of Bridgeport. Took several shots of both storms on Sunday and I hope to process those later in the week.

No tornadoes observed on any of the above chases. Between my teaching schedule and the knee issue, Chase Season 2011 is almost certainly going to be my worst. I'd say it's second behind 2000, but despite not seeing anything much of interest that year, 2000 was much more fun. This chase season has been, thus far, a real drag with the exception of a few great days. Anyway, enough whining. Two good/great days in a row coming up for chasers between today and tomorrow and wish them all happy hunting and the best of luck.

reports for 25 April 2011 & 30 April 2011, nothing severe observed

2011-05-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

The first thing I heard this May was thunder.

Seriously, last night I woke up about 3:00 am to the sounds of an elevated supercell rolling over Denton. We were north of the front so I imagined the tornado potential to be nearly zero and drifted back to sleep, but it was quite a satisfying debut for the chaser's favorite calendar page.

Two quick chase reports to log before they're lost forever:

25 APRIL 2011: A frontal zone was draped over North Texas and I drove east to McKinney, observed rain, turned back for Denton and on through to Decatur, where a supercell produced a marginal wallcloud. This feature rotated slowly as it rolled eastward and through Denton. I followed it until the wallcloud dissipated east of town. Then it was time to head home to prepare for the work week, wasn't able to drop south and catch the nice storms and tornadoes near Glen Rose and Itasca.

30 APRIL 2011: With friends Scott Currens and Bob Fritchie, I chased a supercell east southeast of Dallas, which produced an ominous lowering and broadly rotating wallcloud as it exited the metro area. Weak surface winds and poor low level shear really mitigated what might have been a fairly interesting storm, given the anvil level flow and ambient instability. We ate oysters at S&D Oyster Bar on McKinney Street downtown, and a good time was had by all.

REMEDY WHEEL is semifinalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest

2011-05-01T12:45:00.001-05:00

My novel REMEDY WHEEL is a semifinalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest! Pretty exciting. The big surprise for me was a review by Publishers Weekly, who called the book, "a highly literary tale... a grand old story." You can see the full review on the full editorial review page.

The Amazon page I've linked includes a free excerpt of the book for the Kindle and Kindle-based apps, such as for iPhone. Please download (and write a review!) if the spirit moves you. I believe the excerpt they've posted is the first 50 pages of the book.

In a month, three finalists will be chosen and then, in June, a winner selected by Amazon customers. I'm still learning how all that works, but the final result is a book deal with Penguin, an outstanding house.

Well, since I have plenty of room here on my own blog (how does one post without character limits??), I'll post the full review from Publishers Weekly:

"It’s the spring of 1934 in Southside Chicago, a mostly black area hit hard by the Depression, a little before the opening of the World’s Fair. Haley Mitchell, 19, and white, is running numbers for the Kings, a gang too ornery and peculiar for the Capone operation to trouble with. Haley, like every character in this sprawling, highly literary tale, needs a remedy—in Haley’s case, for her possibly brain-dead father. Black store owner Thomas Harris, a strong family man, wants to get out of his neighborhood and away from the Southern blacks, or “migrants,” and move to an all-white enclave near the university, but the most moving scene in the novel portrays the death of his sweet young son, after Thomas has made the move. Sorrow, and muted triumphs take over the novel therafter. Young Oscar Candelero, new to the city, naive and shrewd at once, saves the day. Impressed by the healing ministry of Elder Lucy and seeking the love of Haley, he invents a brand-new game, bringing together both ministry and numbers on the neutral ground—outside Chicago’s jurisdiction—of the Fair. From a souvenir of the 1893 Fair he fashions the remedy wheel, and remedies result, sort of, for everyone. A carefully researched, slow-moving, old-fashioned, and grand old story."

Tornado near Baird, Texas 2011 April 24

2011-04-25T01:05:00.002-05:00

Chase Report for 2011 April 24: Tornado near Baird, Texas

Bob Fritchie and I observed the first tornado north of Baird, Texas around 3:30 pm. We followed the storm 90 minutes before we turned back west for the next storm in the line, but missed the second and third tornadoes of the day, also very near Baird.

In the early afternoon it seemed a surface low and weak triple point had formed south-southwest of Abilene. This was indicated in the surface observations, and the cu field evident by 17z showed what appeared to be an outflow boundary from previous convection draped along the interstate. With stronger midlevel flow than any previous setup in this regime, I assumed that if even half the RUC-forecasted CAPE was realized, the storms should be more intense than the last two days. When I left Denton, I planned to stop at Graham, but this setup and the RUC / HRRR convergence on the solution compelled me to to go much farther west. I only hoped I wasn’t too late.

I met Bob in Graham and he agreed. This target jived with his forecast from two nights ago. Soon a small shower formed near Abilene and we turned south at Throckmorten to check it out, though we held little hope for this initial cell since winds at ABI were northerly, and in the prior few rounds of obs, the surface low had become ill-defined.

Five miles north of Baird, we noticed elevated rotation in an otherwise unimpressive, almost HP-ish base. But soon this tightened up—just south of another large and rotating wallcloud. The rotation near us gathered rainbands and a clear slot cut behind the circulation. Moments later, a lowering descended, a funnel pointed straight down. It rotated a long time before fully condensing and then stretched and curved, attached to the back of the meso—the back of the entire storm, actually, like a tail. Behind it were clear skies. In the field ahead, the circulation barreled through the grassland.

After the tornado we dropped south and east to race out ahead of the storm. It developed several more wallclouds until it was clear the boundary magic was in the past. We turned back west for another storm approaching Baird, which also produced tornadoes almost in the same spot as ours, but these appeared before we regained sight of the notch. We followed that one also, another hour or so, before a third turn back west ended unsuccessfully.

We finally headed home around 8:00 PM, met with Denton chasers Robert Hall, Mike Mezeul II and his friends, for Italian food at Pasta Fina in Weatherford. Bob mentioned to me in a text a moment ago how much fun it was to see tornadogenesis at very close range in such detail. He’s right. Quite a spectacular phenomenon.

Stopped later on I-20 for the shelf shot

2011 April 23 "Gainesville storm" and wallcloud

2011-04-24T00:45:00.002-05:00

Chase Report for 2011 April 23

I observed initiation of the “Gainesville storm” this afternoon when it was east of Sunset, Texas. I followed it on the north side toward Forestburg and saw a significant lowering on the flanking line, which included some weak rotation. I let the storm core pass north over me thinking I could stay on the southeastern flank, but as it intensified the updraft was farther and farther away. Finally I dropped south and turned east on FM 922 and there I saw the first of many large, threatening wall clouds. FM 51 was the perfect northeastward option and along the way I stopped two see two distinct wall clouds, both rapidly rotating, and the southern one seemed all but destined to produce a tornado—but it didn’t.

In Gainesville the larger circulation took dominance and while the storm hovered above the city I came into the backside of the hook region for a white-light view of another large funnel, again rotating impressively. I followed the storm through the city and on State Road 82, about ten miles east of town, saw another large funnel shaped lowering, this one more shrouded in rain.

With convection from the south interfering with the storm’s inflow region, and it’s trajectory toward northeast Texas and the Red River Valley, I turned back for another storm, this one with a tornado-warning near Decatur. When I reached this cell about a mile northeast of Decatur, it was mostly outflow-dominant and produced some interesting fingers along the gust front. Here I met up with Daniel Shaw and Jimmy Deguera, both from Australia, and we returned to Denton for dinner at Sweetwater.

22 April 2011: Henrietta, Texas area supercell

2011-04-23T12:53:00.001-05:00

0105z about 5m north of Henrietta, Texas

Daniel Shaw from Australia broke in his new chase vehicle with hail dents and a cracked windshield.

Chase Report for 22 April 2011

Australian chaser Daniel Shaw and I left Denton at 20z with plans to wait in Gainesville, Texas until it was clear whether to continue north or go west. My plan was to catch the “tail-end Charlie” storm (if one appeared) west of Gainesville because I assumed it would have a longer residence in favorable terrain. I thought the embedded supercells within the squall line farther north would move into the “jungle” of southeastern Oklahoma, where I’ve never had fun chasing. As it turned out, one of those embedded mesos produced a tornado near Byers, Oklahoma.

About 6:00 PM, both targets lit up. Daniel and I headed west and our supercell came together just north of Wichita Falls after suffering two splits and three mergers, the result of the weak low level flow, which probably made the difference later between a tornado and no tornado. In addition our storm was relatively high-based until late that night. Our dewpoint depressions never fell below 15F.

We gained sight of the updraft base around Henrietta and turned north to maintain position. Right away it was clear the storm enjoyed strong instability, from the sharpness and beveled appeared of the anvil, but suffered from a lack of ventilation, as rain descended through the updraft. The resulting cold pool would probably kill our tornado chances, I expected, unless the storm moved into a more favorable shear environment. However, this combination made the cell into an efficient hail producer, with 1” to 1.5” stones routine in the core.
Near Petrolia, Texas, I noticed another merger on the southeastern flank. I thought we should hustle down there and see if a new updraft region might produce something of interest, and as we moved south and east, some elevated rotation began to our south.

When we emerged from the core about five miles north of Henrietta, on SR 148, dramatic wrapping rain curtains crossed the road to our immediate south and when we stopped we had a weakly rotating wall cloud with a blood-red sun for backdrop. It would have made for a spectacular tornado shot—the whole reason I wanted to stay in favorable terrain—but it wasn’t meant to happen.

As the mesocyclone crossed the road, the lowering was bathed in white. A warm, dry RFD swung around and felt refreshing compared to the sauna of the warm sector. We stayed quite a while shooting the anvil crawler lightning that snaked between the red-tinged mammatus.

a short drive after work

2011-04-22T10:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's short chase took me through country I hadn't seen before, in northwestern Parker County, the manicured horse ranches and estates just north of Cool, Texas. Then caught up with Aussie chaser Daniel Shaw back in Denton for beer and fajitas.

updating blog links

2011-04-21T08:28:00.000-05:00

I've neglected the links bar on the left for quite a while. I'll remedy this as time allows. Just now, I added the blog link of my good friend Colin Davis, an excellent young writer and chaser at Knox College in west central Illinois.

report and pictures from 2011 April 8 & 9

2011-04-18T23:45:00.001-05:00

2011 April 8 in North Central Oklahoma

In Norman, I met up with Bob and Rachael Fritchie and we elected to go north after considering southwest Oklahoma briefly. Decided it was much too hot down there, with extreme dewpoint depressions all but eliminating the chance for tornadoes. I hoped we could get on or near the boundary in northern Oklahoma. We wound up meeting Tony Laubach and Scott Currens somewhere between Kingfisher and Hennessey. The storm rapidly evolved into a decently structured classic supercell and produced a rotating wallcloud which descended so quickly that Bob and I began preparing to shoot the tornado. Scott and Tony played in the core and found some large hail. But our tornado didn't happen. It appeared as if the RFD destroyed the circulation as the entire appendage separated from the cloud base soon after the failed t-genesis effort. My guess is that relatively low RH air was the culprit. Storms farther north on the boundary did produce tornadoes later on. Sad indeed. Later our storm morphed into a fine mothership style cell with KH waves around the crown.

Later we all met in Stillwater to eat at Eskimo Joe's, a fun way to wrap up the night.

Earlier in the chase, 2011 April 8.

Next day, 2011 April 9 in Kansas.

The next day, while seemingly all of Chaser Nation was 'bagging the phat tubes' in Iowa, I moped around central Kansas looking for something to do. A busy workweek ahead, including a fiction reading out of town, prevented me from venturing north of I-70. The cap was fairly stout and I thought I'd busted for sure when at last a series of small, non-severe storms fired in southwest-central Kansas. This one erupted near Greensburg and was photogenic enough for me to retrieve the camera. Later that night I met up with Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, Jeff and Kim Snyder, Gabe Garfield, and other friends of theirs for dinner and great 2 meter QSO on the long drive home. Made it back to Denton around 4:30 am.

Placeholder for reports on 2011 April 8 & 9

2011-04-18T15:48:00.002-05:00

I'd like to say that I better hurry and post overdue chase reports so I don't fall behind, but I can't imagine I'll fall behind; the southern plains have been dead for the whole season. In the midst of a major drought, the dryline is mixing east and systems sliding north and east of our traditional April hunting grounds.

But I chased on April 8th and 9th. On the 8th we followed a storm from Enid to Red Rock that assumed a variety of shapes and modes and nearly produced a tornado, despite the highly unfavorable RH environment and weak low level shear. I have plenty of photos to post. The next day I was solo and restricted to chasing south of I-70 (work considerations), and assumed I'd busted until a crisp little storm erupted near Greensburg late in the day and gave me something to do.

Photos coming soon! The best part was all the old friends I met again and reconnected with, the long list soon forthcoming. A chance for chase ops this weekend has me excited that my preferred places west of I-35 might see action.

I suppose this blog will become more active now. I realized a few days ago that few chase blogs are older than this one, in continuous service for eight years running.

North Central OK supercell 8 April 2011

2011-04-09T00:33:00.000-05:00

North Central OK supercell 8 April 2011

Fun chase this afternoon from near Enid to Red Rock, Oklahoma, on a long-lived supercell that produced a massive, rotating lowering (but alas no touchdown), great striated structures, KH waves around the crown (likes of which I hadn't seen since 2 June 2005 with Eric Nguyen [who would've loved this day]), and a torrent of medium to giant sized hail, which Scott Currens and Tony Laubach happily intercepted and documented as we all get into the swing of the upcoming HAIL project (more on this later).

Bob and Rachel Fritchie, Scott Currens, and Tony Laubach caravaned all day. Met up with Jeff Snyder and Gabe Garfield, two great, young chaser-scientists, and a new Met at OUN named Mark. We finished the day in Stillwater with a big heart attack dinner at Eskimo Joe's, a delicious suggestion from Rachel.

I'll post photos when I'm back home and have some extra time.

2011-01-24T22:53:00.002-06:00

When I daydream about a supercell perched on the caprock, banners of lightning unfurled beneath, I leave out the three hundred vehicle caravan.

Bowdle, South Dakota area tornadoes 22 May 2010

2010-07-03T18:34:00.001-05:00

Bowdle, South Dakota area tornadoes 22 May 2010

I missed the first several iterations of the Bowdle wedge but considering I nearly missed the whole show I'm thrilled at the outcome.

With Scott Blair, Derek Deroche, and Lauren Hill, I trekked from Alma, Nebraska (just north of the Kansas border) to Valentine to Murdo, worried that because we hadn’t seen a single cu as late as 21z such an explosive environment might go to waste. At the gas station where we met Paul Sirvatka and the College of Dupage vans, and where Paul showed us the impressive maps he'd drawn earlier in the day, I decided to stay put until some hint of initiation appeared. Scott, Derek, and Lauren went ahead to Pierre, and a few minutes later Scott called and told me to look *behind* the gas station: a towering Cb. Needless to say, I made haste.

I paralleled the storm to its south as the first tornado formed, and Scott and Derek described it on the radio. The updraft circulation was rapid, spatially disorienting. Scott remarks on his website how the stout RFD seemed to peel away layers of updraft and I think this is true. The motion was so vigorous that it wasn't perfectly clear what was tornado and what wasn't. It was a carousel and obviously the marker of a violent storm.

My ears popped well before I could see the ground circulation and RFD rocked the car. When I stopped for a quick photograph, a farmer pulled up with his entire family crowded in the cab of his white Ford pickup. He rolled down the window and said, “Are you chasing that?”

“There’s a tornado in there,” I said. I thought it was important to convey the most important information first.

“I know,” he said. “It’s headed for our house and we got the hell out of there. Hey, you see those grain bins?” He pointed to a group of tall silver bins a mile to the northeast. “It’s headed directly for those bins. You ought to get up by those bins!” He was genuinely excited at the prospect, I believe, that the bins might fly into a million pieces and someone, a chaser like the ones on television, would be there to film it. Or more likely he wanted to go himself, but knew it was the wrong thing to do with his wife and two children onboard. He told me the back roads were in good shape, and I raced off for the bins, but the tornado veered north and missed them by a quarter mile.

My first view of the tornado with the grain bins immediately south of the circulation.

The wedge. 2343z.

I paced the tornado for a while, shooting intermittently and dodging traffic. I went north somewhere around Roscoe and filmed the next tornado, a much better behaved funnel and cone that touched down around 2352z.

Later I dropped back down to SR 12 and stayed ahead of the convoy before finishing the day in Aberdeen.

pictures forever pending

2010-06-19T12:07:00.001-05:00

Photos coming soon, he said, but then he went to Europe! I can definitely mark my changing relationship with chasing by how long it takes to post tornado photos these days, especially from a great event like May 22. The problem was that after chasing that week I came home to Texas and handled dozens of errands before packing for a two week overseas vacation/research trip. Starting June 1, I spent nine days in London and five in Paris, so now I have a couple hundred more images to sort, edit, and process. But with school out and summer in full swing it shouldn't take much longer.

In Europe, I felt like I was missing hundreds of tornadoes every day, from the various Facebook status updates and pics. The Baca tornado from 5-31 was breathtaking. Still I never felt the tug of panic about missing these events like I would have ten years ago---or even five, for that matter. A friend and I talked about this recently, about how the longer you chase the less you feel gutted by a missed chase here or there; it's the same thing chaser vets have reported for decades. For me it's a combination of having seen quite a few tornadoes over the years now and the fairly secure knowledge that, barring some unforeseen circumstance, I could see many more before I'm done. The long drives aren't as self-evidently entertaining as they were and the lack of a regular chase partner amplifies the boredom, on the way home from a bust especially. Most of all I realized that traveling to other places on our globe is every bit as thrilling, and late May or early June is often the best time to go. The weather in England and France was fantastic: mid 70's to low 60's, mostly clear skies, and luckiest of all very little rain. I had a blast!

Enough about the trip though. I'll post the vacation pics here, hopefully before the week's out. I have one more brief research trip upcoming, to the Huntington Library in southern California, toward the end of the month or early July. I intend to have all my outstanding tornado and vacation photography polished and posted before then.

To my chaser brothers and sisters still on the road (next few days don't look too bad at all!), best of luck and happy hunting!

updates imminent

2010-05-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

Today I was thinking that the backoffice side of chasing is overwhelming now. You have to update blogs, static websites (don't ask me why--we've always done it that way!), social media, anti-social media, online forums, email lists, and your family and friends. It occurred to me that I never posted tornado photos from May 18 and 19 (or was it 19 and 20?) to a proper FB photo album. Never mind that I haven't started processing images from the Bowdle wedge day, May 22. I don't feel so much urgency about that because photography of that storm is currently flooding the internet. And I'm lazy. And I need to go on campus and clear out my office. I'm not quitting, I'm being relocated to an office with a window, at least for the next academic year.

I'll start the updates tonight, one chase day at a time.

Speaking of photography from recent chases, check out the amazing images from my friend Dr. Bill Hark, especially this image:

http://www.harkphoto.com/052410tornadochurch.jpg

And Bill's full album from the same chase day is here:

http://www.harkphoto.com/05242010.html

My own meager exposures coming soon!

19 MAY 2010: LEEDEY, LOYAL, AND DOVER, OKLAHOMA TORNADOES

2010-05-20T12:55:00.002-05:00

19 MAY 2010
Scott and I departed Amarillo and elected to follow the boundary/frontal zone ahead of the confluence. North out of Clinton with Derek Deroche, we turned west on 47 (south of Putnam) which brought us to SR34 (the Leedey road). A few more miles north, a narrow funnel came into view on the southern tip of the updraft base, an unexpected sight. The longer it held together the clearer this was rotating and stretching toward the ground. It was difficult to find a location to shoot the tornado without surface obstruction, thus I’m jealous of the excellent image Dan Cook posted on Stormtrack from his Sirvakta/COD intercept. Scott and Derek found a fair vantage point and climbed up on their car roofs to shoot and I settled for the best spot I could find. I was too picky and missed the best moments of this rapid tube. Unlike the next tornadoes the circulation was quite clean and rain free as the storm was still young.

Behind us a big problem presented itself: the Canadian freaking River. Another lowering seemed to blink in and out of the rain to the north so we pursued, but when that feature wrapped up and tucked itself away, we started evaluating our bad options. Derek and Scott went east a few clicks and I turned back south to begin the inevitable, horribly time consuming flanking action that took me: (1) around Aledo, (2) past Putnam, (3) through Thomas, and (4) wide of Watonga (alright, that was a stretch) until I finally turned north again toward Loyal. Three miles or so up CR N2740, I noticed a rapidly rotating area tucked northwest of the core where condensation tendrils touched the ground intermittently. This circulation rushed toward my east road at Loyal and so my photo is taken under duress.

At Loyal, I dashed ahead of the tornado several miles and turned to watch. Here’s where all the precip in and around the hook region was unhelpful. I may have seen a tall stovepipe in the rain, but far more obvious moments later was a large tornado south of the road. This big, blocky wall cloud was lightly-shrouded in rain but quite visible and decently contrasted. I’d place this at approximately the intersection of E0740 Rd and N2800.

It widened considerably before I lost sight of it in the rain. In the river valley immediately west of Dover, trying to maintain my position north (probably northwest) of the tornado, I encountered an inflow jet which yanked large branches across the road in mid air. In no mood for impalement I bolted north into the core.

A long flank through the heavy rain and golfball hail (horde free!) and then back south on the interstate yielded a glimpse of a bowl-lowering east of Guthrie, right over the chaser-congested SR 152. I was still north of the circulation, north of Guthrie by four miles on I-35, yet with a clear vantage point. After that feature slipped away my chase was over. Our entire group, including Bob Fritchie, Rachel Sigler, Katie Burtis, Jason Levit, and Laruen Hill, stopped in Edmund at the Olive Garden.

18 MAY 2010, DUMAS & STINNETT, TEXAS TORNADOES

2010-05-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

18 MAY 2010

Scott Blair and I met at Nara Visa, NM hoping our target storm would fire on the DL to the west. However the confluence zone along the wind shift initiated practically over our heads and developed into the storm we chased all day. We made a long flanking maneuver through Dalhart south to Dumas. On SR 87 west of Dumas, we saw a brief tornado, so rapid that I couldn’t get my camera in time.. Then, east of Dumas another, larger tornado formed, though in much rain as was the theme for the whole day (and much of the next).

The last tornado, my favorite of the two day event, was two miles northwest of Stinnett on the forward flank of a deeply grooved and stunning HP / wet classic hybrid. Shooting wide open with my 10-22mm, I noticed a needle form in the bottom of the frame. At first I ignored it since a tornado was the last thing I expected to see. But it grew into a nice laminar cone, touched down, and spun about five minutes. Just beautiful. This was a real treat since we’d gone north at Stinnett strictly for the structure view, which was stunning in its own right.

Roads east of Stinnett don’t exist, as we unhappily rediscovered, so rather than another massive flanking maneuver from some 19th century infantry manual, we ate steak in Amarillo with Alnado and others.

10 May 2010: Wakita, Oklahoma tornadoes

2010-05-15T12:55:00.001-05:00

10 MAY 2010: WAKITA, OKLAHOMA TORNADOES

On Andrew Marsteller's first storm chase we observed three tornadoes near Wakita, Oklahoma between 3:30 PM CT and 4:15. We met up with Dave Fick and his friend Jeneane, as well as Scott Currens, and intercepted the storm on State Road 11 in northern Oklahoma, not far from Wakita, where the movie Twister was filmed. The meso was probably two miles west of our location when the inflow increased substantially, making it difficult to hold cameras and camcorders still and threatening to overturn tripods. The first indication of a tornado was a brief funnel that looped and twisted then disappeared before reforming again to the northeast near the roadway. The entire cell turned right and moved due east, coming directly down the road toward our location as the large mesocylone rotated impressively. Several more condensation structures developed out of this--proof of the violent circulation on the ground--and we were convinced a violent wedge tornado was about to appear.

Andrew films the developing tornado outside Wakita, Oklahoma

Scott and I mentioned how we never thought of having a picture taken with a tornado behind us.
I'm glad he mentioned it, because these were the only shots of mine that turned out.

I thought that with all the traffic on this small road, and a dramatic storm motion over fifty knots, it was wise to leave sooner rather than later, so Andrew and I repositioned eastward before the chaser congestion caused several vehicles to be struck by tornadoes, including a tour group bus which lost all the glass and left several customers bloodied and terrified. We caught glimpse of a third tornado to our west northwest, a long elephant trunk in the rain, but never had an opportunity to shoot it. We saw what others have described as a wedge, but with so much rain to our north northwest (at the time) I can't say definitively that I saw this.

With the rocket speed of the storm, flanking it again was hopeless. We hurried to Interstate 35 and dropped south, thinking we could barrel through the core of the "Red Rock" storm and perhaps get in front of cells then moving through the OKC metro area. This was always a foolish notion, and when the core of the Red Rock storm began dropping golfballs on the highway we stopped. Good thing, too, since baseballs were deeper in the core and several chasers lost glass as a result. The hail was still intact when we reached the swath.

For whatever reason, we turned east on 412 and drove all the way to Tulsa. I think we were attempting to flank something, but it was absurd and only yielded a decent steak at Texas Roadhouse, to celebrate the day's haul and Andrew's first tornado. This is all tempered by the loss of life and property in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area obviously. That aspect is one that no storm chaser anticipates or enjoys. Fortunately for most, the warning system in Oklahoma, from the SPC to NWS to local media, along with stormchasers and volunteer spotters, performed brilliantly and the loss of life was remarkably low considering the power and path of the storms.

22 April 2010: Jericho and Goodnight, Texas tornadoes

2010-04-24T14:34:00.011-05:00

22 APRIL 2010: JERICHO AND GOODNIGHT, TEXAS TORNADOES

Quiet little Northfield, Texas has a pretty important intersection for storm chasers: Ranch Road 656 to Turkey and FM 94 to Matador. These paved, two-lane roads diverge around a large wilderness of thousands of acres and a choice one way or the other commits you entirely to that direction. That’s why in Northfield I stopped around 4:00 PM to wait for more isolated storms than the ones in the far northern Texas Panhandle. From Northfield, I thought, better storms to either my north or south were in reach.

I was finishing a cold chicken burrito from the Sonic in Childress when an isolated cell west of Brice caught my attention. This intercept required I go through Turkey and use the roads north from there. I had plenty of time, but none to waste since I suspected an outflow boundary was present up there—had counted on it in fact— though I hadn’t found it yet on the West Texas mesonet or radar and visible satellite. Still, with the intensity and orientation of earlier storms a remnant boundary seemed likely, and if an isolated storm anchored to that boundary it could organize rapidly. This was the reason I wasn’t in southwest Kansas or southeastern Colorado. I was putting my seatbelt on when I noticed a sign thirty feet down the RR 656 toward Turkey: BRIDGE CLOSED AHEAD.

It's funny how fast a chase will go from lazy and relaxed to batshit crazy.

Because I was unwilling to risk another closure among the tangle of county roads leading to SR 86, my long return trek brought me back through Cee Vee, north again into Childress, and northwest on 287. Like many others I turned north on SR 70 out of Clarendon and spotted the tornado located immediately southwest of Jericho.

I pulled over to shoot the tornado and over my left shoulder saw a tornado-shaped object far in the distant southwestern sky. I ignored it, already preoccupied with a new DSLR and new 10-22mm lens, but when I checked again the tornado look-alike had changed shapes from a large cylinder to a classic cone. The radar presentation suggested a light rain shower, which is why I assume Amarillo NWS didn’t warn for several minutes despite Spotter Network reports. I continued shooting the ominous Jericho tornado, a large cone silhouetted in black. Looking southwest a third time I conceded that this was indeed a real tornado, the most distant one I've ever witnessed and tried to photograph. My guess is I was between five and seven miles from the “Goodnight” tornado, named for the nearby town. I mounted my old 17-40mm lens but it wasn't much help: this thing might as well have been in New Mexico. Luckily a horse strolled into my foreground and offered at the slim hope of a salvageable image.

I shot the Goodnight tornado for fifteen minutes while the storm approached. I probably should have followed the Jericho storm to Alanreed like others, because they saw some interesting tornadoes that I missed, but the Goodnight storm produced another small tornado around 6:05 PM. Also another storm, a third supercell, was approaching the outflow boundary. I hoped the magic could last, but too much cool outflow from the prior cells disrupted the process. This storm took on the flat, high-based appearance of a storm that has crossed into the cool side of a front.

Up on I-40 I joined a caravan with Jeff Snyder, Gabe Garfield, Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, and others, and we turned south for the Matador supercell. Bob Fritchie caught us around Swearingen, Texas, where we tried to spot the large tornado reportedly on the ground to our west. That marked the end of the chase.

While fueling up in Paducah I was happy to meet Connor McCrorey, Kris Hair, and Kris's chase partners. Bob and I found chicken fried steak in Wichita Falls and parted ways.

Tornado and Structure Galleries

2010-03-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

I've collected my favorite photos in two galleries, one for tornadoes and the other for storm structure and related weather images. It was a fun way to spend part of the weekend, and reminded me why I'm glad to finally be shooting pictures with some decent photography gear. For better or worse, here's the galleries:

Tornadoes

Storm Structure and other

March 8th or earlier?

2010-03-07T14:46:00.000-06:00

Roosevelt, OK HP on March 2, 2008.

Out of curiosity I scanned my chase reports to see what I'd seen on or before March 8th, going back to 1996. Only two chases worth mentioning: the tornado Kevin Peterson and I found on February 10 last year, a real anomaly, and the Roosevelt, Oklahoma storm on March 2, 2008. This is the only photogenic convection I can recall from the period I still consider the "pre-season." One big caveat is that I lived in Indiana from 2002-2005, and chasing early season plains setups was impossible because of school obligations and distance. I tried an early outing or two in Illinois with little success.

Which doesn't mean I won't go tomorrow. :-)

White Christmas Eve, 2009. Denton, Texas

2009-12-24T22:13:00.000-06:00

Scott Blair's new blog

2009-10-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

My longtime pal Scott Blair joined Blogger Nation today with his Target Area blog. Scott's one of the best photogs in chasing and his page should be a regular stop for those interested in great imagery of storms and tornadoes and landscape photography in general.

monday storm potential in north Texas

2009-10-03T17:08:00.002-05:00

As of this morning's 12z operational NAM, surface features warranted interest in an area south of Childress to near Abilene for Monday, 10-5. One problem is the location of this area relative to the jet core, as the anticyclonic curvature is a potential issue not only for convective inhibition, but overall CAPE profiles even if initiation is a given. Still, it's worth watching.

And it's close.

Eric Nguyen (1978-2007)

2009-09-09T11:30:00.006-05:00

My friend Eric died two years ago today. He was an artist of the highest caliber, a landscape photographer of storms and tornadoes whose work endures in galleries, books, magazines, and most of all in the imaginations of those whose conception of the natural world was changed by his imagery. For those of us lucky enough to know him well, he was a terrific friend.

One of the last times we hung out, at my old house on Jasmine Street in Denton, we'd been drinking wine and talking about a December trip to Rome and Florence when Eric grew restless and wanted to walk around the block. I didn't know at the time that a new medicine he was taking gave him bursts of energy, and I was tired from a big Italian meal earlier that night with our friend and fellow chaser Robert Hall. The wine made me drowsy and unenthusiastic about the August heat. But Eric insisted and so we set out to parallel the railroad tracks along Jasmine, turned up Highland Avenue and back down Wisteria, pausing at the corner under a street lamp to examine some bugs and give the yapping dog across the street a long look at us.

This was the first week of August 2007. I was about to quit my job in a few days, resign my teaching post to spend the upcoming academic year finishing a novel and writing some nonfiction. I worried about the decision. I also thought, in those days, that I was supposed to move to New York City in order to sell a book. Networking, I thought. All this was on my mind as Eric and I continued down the street, a slight breeze from an open field offering the only relief from the humidity, and he asked about my plans, what I envisioned for the distant future rather than the more immediate changes I'd discussed with him for weeks. When was I was going to make time for a family? I didn't have good answers for him.

It wasn't small talk; Eric wasn't very good at that kind of chatter. But nor was it his habit to engage in deeply personal conversations and stay with them. There was something else going on. I can't say what my friend imagined for himself that night, about two weeks before his hospitalization and almost a month to the day before we lost him, but looking back on it now his words rang of some solemn foreknowledge, an attempt to put things in order. And if he had some notion of his own troubles which lie ahead, then the way he steered our conversation, about my plans, and how he asked if we could make a second lap after we'd finished the first, or follow the railroad tracks into the night so we could keep talking, is why I tell people he was one of the most generous spirits I've ever known.

my favorite pics of '09

2009-07-10T16:13:00.003-05:00

Photography isn't as prominent in chasing as it was ten or fifteen years ago. This is ironic given the dramatic advances in DSLR technology and processing software, but the emphasis on TV-inspired thrill-seeking has left aesthetics in the dust. The result is a more limited selection of stunning images than you might expect in what turned out to be a good year for many. Yet there are chasers who still value a fine composition over a 2X4 through the sternum, luckily. Here's my favorite three pics from 2009, in chronological order. There are many other great images, as displayed on the current Stormtrack thread by a similar title, but these are the shots I'll remember most.

Dick McGowan's Roll, OK tornado on 4-26-09

Scott Blair's Cedar Hill, TX tornado on 4-29-09

Mike Hollingshed's York, NE structure on 6-17-09

June 13, 2009: Matador, Texas supercell

2009-06-14T13:36:00.003-05:00

From west of Roaring Springs on RR684, about 2045z, when the storm was ~6 wsw of Matador.

On our way home, Bob Fritchie, Rachael Sigler, and I observed moderate to severe damage to a few homes and other infrastructure about five miles east of Aspermont on 380, damage we all thought consistent with a tornado. One home was almost completely destroyed while others had serious roof damage. Street signs were down and a massive power pole lay across the highway. This was a real mess.

As for our earlier chase day, we caught the Matador storm early, with a view of the updraft probably 20 minutes before its first tornado warning. This is when I hoped it might tornado, though initiation was both earlier and most widespread than I'd hoped, forcing the storm to mature in even weaker than expected shear. Once again cap concerns were misplaced.

Though our storm held its own as a discrete and highly-photogenic supercell for nearly an hour, the continual mergers from the south took their toll and forced the storm to grow in areal coverage. I was impressed as hell how the storm repeatedly reconfigured itself despite sliding out from under the best shear as it moved southeast. The large RFD on the southern tier drove an impressive dust wall forward, making it hard to see anything back up in the rain. We felt like something was in there, however, given the clearly strong inflow into that area.

We stayed with it from Dougherty to approx 5 west of Guthrie when it looked so poor visually and on radar that we abandoned it for a Hail Mary drive for the Silverton storm back to our northwest. We were headed west for two scans when the storm reorganized, with the larger, embedded rotation that I assume was responsible for the damage along 380. We could never regain position and stopped to eat in Aspermont.

Around 2141z after storm had suffered several mergers from southern convection, more of an HP-hybrid with continuous rotation, which may have been responsible for the severe damage at Aspermont later.

just when I thought I was out

2009-06-13T09:48:00.000-05:00

2009-06-13T08:12:00.001-05:00

Good morning, moderate risk & the chase season that would not die.

Pictures from Jacksboro tornado, June 12, 2009

2009-06-12T23:12:00.003-05:00

~2220z, about 5 miles south-southeast of Jacksboro, TX. Shot from about 4-6 miles away.

I posted to some friends at lunchtime that I thought a brief spin-up was possible early in the evolution of any storms in N TX, but I didn't put my money where my mouth was and I waited to leave until the watch came out. This surely cost me a better vantage point. I expect Sam B will have nice images from his position in or around Jacksboro.

Not only did I leave later than I should, but I waited around in Bridgeport to see how the multi-cell cluster that formed early would shape up, and if the southern convection would dominate or be ingested into the northern cell. When the southern cell organized and turned hard right, I turned south at Vineyard, Texas (west of Runaway Bay) on SR 1156 to maintain position, which is where I spotted the lowering far to the west, and the subsequent tornado. My best guess is that it was on the ground between five and seven minutes, starting around 2218z.

I followed the cell all the way to I-20 and witnessed a few more threatening lowerings, but never saw the reported tornadoes in Weatherford, though I was in the city at the time. The Parker County Skywarn net enjoyed some unusual reports after the first confirmed tornado. Things got a little wacky. This storm produced 40 to 50 knot gusts and multiple reports of golfball to occasional baseball hail.

The terrain didn't help matters. There were times that the only way to maintain line of sight with the wallcloud was to look down a road directly at the lowering in order to remove as many trees from the view as possible. I was lucky to have seen this at all. I could have easily continued south on 1156 and, because of how the western side of the road was lined with trees almost continuously, missed the whole thing.

Good to meet up with Erik Burns during the chase today, too.

Tornado, Jack County Texas June 12, 2009

2009-06-12T20:09:00.001-05:00

Observed a seven-minute, cone tornado in Jack Cty tonight. Touchdown approx 22:15z. Pics and details in a few hours.

scribbling notes for later

2009-06-12T14:54:00.003-05:00

North Central Texas is about to see another spring/summer hybrid northwest flow, mongo CAPE event and so I need to put a few reminders to myself about all my busts in the last few days. Too many of these and I start to mix them up.

TUESDAY JUNE 9: ICT to Independence, Kansas: multicell storms along a boundary that moved too far south too quickly, pinched warm sector with veered surface flow. One tornado-warned storm produced a 50kt gust measured by Paul Stofer. Chased with Paul, Mike Mezeul, and hung out later with Scott Blair. Drove back to Denton that night.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 10, DTO: Minding my own business watching WALL-E at home when I learned about the tornado warning for Wise County. I was not anxious to climb back in my car, and after I raced north to find an outflow dominant lead cell, and then back south to see the same thing along I-35W, I found the most interesting observations in my own backyard where the pastoral little creek had become a raging mini-river carrying medium size tree trunks. This thing was moving faster than when I floated the Platte. I videotaped the flooding and will post that sometime before 2012.

THURSDAY JUNE 11: NO CHASING!!!!! Jesus Christ.

FRIDAY JUNE 12: MD just issued. Will have to remount the antenna in a moment, probably.

backyard chase: west central Texas June 8, 2009

2009-06-08T18:56:00.003-05:00

Finished chasing the glorified popcorn storms in west central Texas a few moments ago. The only legitimate supercell near Aspermont to Hamlin wrapped up nicely for a time, produced weak but defined rotation under the base, then blew itself all over the prairie within minutes of SJT's tornado warning. Couldn't handle the pressure I suppose. The problem here might not have been dewpoint depressions; inflow was around 82F at 2330z and I'm guessing the Tds were mid 60s. I noticed several of the other, smaller storms back to the east split soon after intensifying and this one, too, put some unfortunate daylight between its only real hook and the core, giving itself one last occlusion. I guess our hodos were pretty straight.

Now I go home to use my washing machine before turning back for Kansas in the morning.

quick summary for Sunday June 7, 2009

2009-06-08T02:50:00.003-05:00

Most importantly, I was stunned to learn tonight of the death of Fabian Guerra, an enthusiastic and talented chaser who was killed swerving to avoid a deer on his way to meet chase partners in Iowa. Fabian leaves behind his wife and two young children and it's a terrible tragedy. I met him at one of the conventions in Denver, perhaps '05, and chatted with him online and by phone several times through the years. Also met up with him in the field. He'll be sorely missed.

This makes me particularly mindful of something unusual that happened today: I ran into both Mike Hollingshead and Shane Adams during this day, long enough to chat with both of them briefly. The three of us started chasing around the same time and it's always good (and important) to see old friends. Also saw Tony Laubach, but he was engaged with the duties of his scientific team. I snapped off a salute as he and the Twistex armada rolled past.

Our own chase was eventful if less than fruitful. With Blair, Currens, Fritchie, and Sigler, we began the day in Carroll, Iowa and headed southwest, though as it turned out we could have stuck around I-80 apparently and played the boundary. But our concern was initiation and instability, among other factors. After reaching different targets, our group reconvened around the storm west of DuBois, Nebraska. This convection generated a lowering and an impressive RFD cut before eventually tilting over dramatically and weakening under the influence of a cold pool from a new storm to the east. We raced to cut in front of this new development and, on the Missouri side of the Missouri River, found ourselves below the couplet of an intense and rotating supercell. In the hills and trees it was stressful trying to identify features and dodge the monster hail which shattered Bob Fritchie's back hatch window and caved in Scott Blair's front windshield. I don't know how I avoided an impact given how these giant stones fell all around my vehicle as I crept through the core, holding my breath. The first time I've had good luck inside a damaging hail core.

Circus-style wrapping rain curtains, various funnels and rumors of funnels, and several narrow, winding roads made for a nail-biting twenty minutes until we regained position on the storm sufficient to identify features calmly.

Eventually we witnessed the storm's most dramatic lowering and occlusion west of Maysville, but I never saw a tornado. On our way home, Bob, Rachael, measured a 55mph wind gust from the northern edge of an MCS near Emporia, Kansas. Unfortunately the rain and winded tested Bob's plastic and duct tape repair job and some water leaked into his SUV. We were all happy to reach the motel room tonight safe and sound.

another photo from Friday

2009-06-06T23:43:00.002-05:00

We found a small rise overlooking a rolling valley. I'll never tell where, but there was an old homestead with the 19th century residence, only the stones around the base of the home remaining, and a later, 20th century version, which looked to have been built in the 40's or 50's and abandoned forty years later or so. Here's what we saw from there.

Meriden, Wyoming tornado, June 5th

2009-06-06T02:28:00.002-05:00

A few quickly prepared images before sleep. Full account tomorrow or soon after.

Panhandle shower

2009-06-05T00:20:00.001-05:00

Small non-severe shower in the northern Texas Panhandle around 2330z

I observed the Hartley County, Texas storm this afternoon while on my way north to position for Friday. Saw very little of interest and did not observe the reported gustnado which prompted the first tornado warning. Later I observed the little shower above, far more photogenic than the Hartley storm for the background of rich blues and vibrant greens, the stunning palette of the high plains.

a few pictures from June 1 & 2

2009-06-02T23:01:00.003-05:00

Outflow dominant storm approaches a home outside Lariat, Texas near the Texas/New Mexico border. June 2nd, 7:03pm CT.

Same storm about thirty minutes earlier.

Mammatus over Amarillo on June 1 outside WT Professor David Horsley's home.

I'm in the panhandle helping a friend find a place to live and chasing a few storms in the meanwhile. Serious chase activities should begin this weekend.

On Tuesday June 2, because I wasn't able to leave Amarillo until 20z, I chased north of the outflow boundary and tried to maximize photo ops. A few small cells developed west of Littlefield before a larger storm fired on the dryline in extreme eastern New Mexico. This one strengthened as it drifted toward an outflow and grew dramatically just west of the border, but turned outflow dominant before any large scale rotation could begin. I stayed ahead of an impressive gust front for about an hour before calling the day.

2009-05-30T17:58:00.001-05:00

"For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility."

-Henry David Thoreau

Scott Currens' great Kirksville intercept & more

2009-05-16T23:07:00.000-05:00

Here's video on the opposite end of the spectrum from the "Camaro Kid." Of course Scott Currens is in position to get great footage without having to drive like a lunatic, but, more importantly (at about the 5:00 minute mark), when it's clear there's more damage than first responders can attend all at once, he checks to see if anyone's trapped inside a badly damaged home. If only CNN found this as dramatically compelling as the other.

caged

2009-05-15T12:35:00.003-05:00

It's so strange to be sitting here in May with no chase planned on a legit chase day like today, because I had to administer a final and close on my house, and no chases planned in the foreseeable future. On May 15. Unreal. I can only hope the last week of May and the first week of June offer me something in range.

ST shines

2009-05-14T22:15:00.003-05:00

I'm impressed with the tone and balance of the "Camaro-kid" (he'll have his own show next season) discussion on Stormtrack. It's been a civil, open-minded, and flame-less dialogue that's really impressive. Some are fatigued with what they perceive are the same old arguments, but it's not the same old tune for a new audience, and this year there's probably more first-time chasers than ever. I bet 40% of the ST crowd is seeing this topic for the first time.

2009-05-13T13:29:00.002-05:00

There's a debate on Stormtrack about VORTEX2 which began as a discussion of whether or not independent chasers should get out of the way of a radar truck. My opinion is that, yes, I should get out of the way, because as Mr. Spock would say, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." :-) But I don't think it's a big deal because I doubt it will happen very often if at all, and the number of chasers who will refuse to move on principle alone is small. Unless somebody is filming a great tornado, he or she will almost certainly be willing to relocate a few dozen feet. Most chasers are reasonable and support science enthusiastically.

But not everybody does. What's much more interesting than the relocation question is the sub-debate about whether VORTEX2 is even a worthwhile project. Some suggest that the original, landmark Project VORTEX didn't have much impact. Wow. This is what I posted to Stormtrack:

Another way to see how VORTEX changed operational meteorology would be to study the SELS/SPC Outlook forecast discussions through the years, especially from '96 until today. In the fourteen years I've been reading those products, the incorporation of material regarding boundaries, SRH, low level shear, and a myriad of other concepts has been obvious in both the diagnostic and prognostic portions of those outlooks. The old products are available to peruse without much trouble. If you want to see where the rubber meets the road, that's one place to find it. If you've learned anything about forecasting severe storms and tornadoes from reading the Day 1 or Day 2 outlooks, then you've benefitted directly from the original VORTEX.

The backlash against science here on Stormtrack is a real marker of what chasing is about today. The magazine from which this website takes its name was founded to *enhance* cooperation between independent chasers and scientists. I'm also surprised that the editorial voice of Stormtrack is absent in this debate, another sea change from the Hoadley/Marshall days.

scrappy cappy

2009-05-11T11:31:00.001-05:00

My guess is that the cap won't break tomorrow. If the target area were closer I'd go test that idea in person, but from this distance and with papers to grade, I can't do it. Amazing environment if something pops, however.

2009-05-09T01:27:00.004-05:00

Here's a picture from the May 1 chase with Scott, Brian, Kurt, and Nick.

May 1, 2009. 5:11pm CT.

chase summaries: 2009 May 5 & 2009 May 8

2009-05-08T23:26:00.008-05:00

These two chases were so similar that I was already confusing them on the way home tonight. Both featured storms firing on a boundary beneath weak, slightly northwest flow aloft with a stout cap and warm midlevels, but included extreme instability and modest-looking hodographs. Both offered just enough tornado potential to draw me out considering they were so close to home: southwest of Fort Worth on May 5, 2009 and South Central Oklahoma on May 9th.

On the 5th, I started in Olney where I was joined by Scott Eubanks. I wanted to stay up on the warm side of the front and out of the high temps to the south, believing that we needed some boundary magic for any hope of a tornado and aware that I was already on the southern periphery of supportive winds aloft. Of course the best storm fired south of me near Breckenridge.

The intial cell died and second formed practically over the city. We tried to make the turn south just ahead of the meso but elected to return east instead and take the next south option, where of course the bridge was out. We continued east to 16 as the storm grew in intensity and areal coverage and began its infamous hail bombings of unsuspecting chasers. At last we flanked it and beat the meso to Strawn, where we found ourselves between the wall cloud and the damaging hail core, which was at this point pounding vehicles on I-20 with baseballs and softballs. At the intersection of I-20 and SR 16, Glenn Dixon joined us as the the storm produced one of its many impressive wall clouds, complete with rotation, clear slot, tail cloud, and everything but tornado. From Strawn to Desdemona to Stephenville, the storm pushed toward the instability axis and into practically still and tropical upper level conditions.

At the intersection of Interstate 20 and State Road 16, south of Strawn, Texas. May 5, 2009. 8:08pm CT.

As night wore on the updraft twisted and tilted over, exposing the starry sky and moon in the background. Structurally it was a treat after a mostly mediocre daylight performance.

May 5, 2009. 8:34pm CT.

Now take that same setup and move it 200 miles north, to northwest of Ardmore, Oklahoma. On Friday May 8, I spent a few hours in the Ardmore Starbucks working on a writing project and monitoring radar and satellite. I've done this before and actually make a lot of progress there since I don't know a soul and there's nothing much happening outside.

My first storm fired west of Springer near Graham. On Poolville Road I drove right to the updraft base and observed how quickly the low level features were organizing. I hoped I could cheat an Umscheid/Knox City style tornado out of the storm despite its immaturity. I've seen this happen in the right low level CAPE and shear environments, almost always on a boundary. And it nearly looked like it would.

Scott Eubanks shooting an early wall cloud near Graham, Oklahoma. May 8, 2009. 7:22pm CT.

Rapidly the storm strengthened and turned right, rolling south toward me. Since I was on an utterly abandoned road and didn't want to turn my back on the wall cloud to reposition, I drove backwards a while. I only escaped legal consequences for this "hyena-is crime" because of my secret chaser associations and political favoritism, or else the cows would have turned me in for sure. Scott Eubanks made the same road choices (though he did not chase backwards as far as I know) and found me as I was retreating southward in advance of the cell. We spent another hour scavenging for unobstructed views of the various promising wall clouds before a second storm to the south contaminated our inflow. We never saw another organized lowering again. We raced south to catch the Red River storm, but wound up eating Paprika Schnitzel and German sausage in Muenster instead.

2009-05-06T10:22:00.001-05:00

If my '09 chase season thus far were a stock, I'd dump it. Sell sell sell.

2009-05-05T12:49:00.002-05:00

Rolling west on 380, not sure where I'll stop. At the eastern edge of the H7 thermal ridge maybe.

"Like anyone could even know that!" -Napoleon Dynamite

back to the scene of the crime?

2009-05-04T22:34:00.002-05:00

This time I'm going to hang out by the lake, and I'll probably bring some work to do while we whittle away the CIN.

numerical model mischief

2009-05-04T10:19:00.001-05:00

The 12z WRF is complicating my life. Now Thursday looks like a chase day, too.

try it this other way

2009-05-03T23:31:00.003-05:00

I'll say this much: whatever my target on Tuesday, I'll go fifty miles west of it. I've been too far east too many times this season.

chases on May 1 and 2, 2009, North Texas

2009-05-03T12:04:00.005-05:00

This is basically a note-taking exercise to pin down some details from the last two days. Over the next two weeks I'll be grading nearly 100 essays and 30 final exams all while preparing to move, so I need to record a basic outline of these chases.

On May 1, I targeted the eastern shore of Lake Kemp, north of Seymour, because I wanted water in the foreground. Storms fired well to the southwest, however, and I couldn't resist. With Dave Fick, Scott Eubanks, and Brian Fant (back in the game after several years; welcome back, Brian!), I rolled toward Munday, Texas. Unfortunately, we arrived moments after Mike Umscheid saw his tornado near Knox City. We dropped south at Munday, west at Weinert, and south again on the unexpectedly-paved Ranch Road 2163. The storm presented several wall clouds but each was undercut by cool, dry RFD, despite the high theta-e inflow. Storm motion was due south and with every degree of southern latitude we lost midlevel wind strength. These storms were poorly ventilated and probably within an area of weak midlevel lapse rates. I never observed the severe hail one would expect with ~4000 j/kg SBCAPE.

Eventually I reached SR 6 and followed it south to Stamford. The storm continuously produced new wall clouds with weak rotation, and near Stamford there was a ground circulation beneath one of these wall clouds. I saw the circulation in the field in front of me and I jumped back in the car. I was reminded of the stout little circulation that caught Mike Hollingshead and I by surprise several years ago and damaged Mike's open door (and filled his Mustang with dirt). I shot several stills of this feature which I haven't reviewed yet. At the time, I would have called it a gustnado, but chasers whose opinions I respect, like my old friend Shane Adams, say otherwise and have more compelling imagery than I do. If Shane says it's a tornado that's usually good enough for me. I need to examine my photos again.

Eventually this storm weakened and we raced back north for a new storm near Seymour. We reached it in time to witness a disappearing act, convection literally evolving from a small storm to a cloud to clear air in 20 minutes flat. We met up with Australian chaser Daniel Shaw, a cool guy who entertained us with stories of chasing down under, and, with Michigan chasers Kurt Hulst and Nick Grillo, we all returned to Seymour for dinner at the Mavericks Cafe. Good times.

Yesterday, May 2, Kurt, Nick, and I chased around North Texas, always a prodigious waste of time. In a tropical airmass with modest shear and slackened surface features, we darted from embedded storm to embedded storm. Other than the gridlocked traffic near the Texas Motor Speedway, we had a pretty good time, but the storms simply couldn't maintain their structures in so much rain and cold outflow. Too much convection. Looks like a few down days perhaps and at just the right time for me.

Pictures later this week.

2009-04-30T12:14:00.001-05:00

It's hard to post pictures of less impressive events when so many amazing images are coming in from the last two big chases. I couldn't chase yesterday because I was teaching, and missed what will surely be one of the year's best tornadoes. That's the way it goes. So here are photos from April 26th when Scott Eubanks and I met two storms, one after the other, as they crossed the Red River from Texas into Oklahoma.

the first storm we met around Eldorado, Oklahoma about 2300z

the second storm, with wall cloud, as it crossed the Red River Valley about 2328z

wallcloud tightens immediately before it collapsed 2328z

April 26, 2009

2009-04-27T19:03:00.005-05:00

REPORT FOR APRIL 26, 2009, SOUTHERN OKLAHOMA STORMS

We left Woodward in the morning and stopped in Clinton, on Interstate 40. I assumed all the early rain and messy storms would wipe out northwest Oklahoma, but of course that would prove incorrect. From the interstate, waiting with Scott Currens, Scott Eubanks, Mike Peregrine, and Dave Fick, we analyzed the environment in southwest Oklahoma as highly supportive of tornadic supercells, with extreme instabilities, high helicities, and low LCLs. With the presence of a boundary and the dryline circulation for lift, it seemed as if a single storm moving into that airmass would have a great shot to produce a tornado.

Meanwhile, the isolated storm down in North Texas, by Vernon, was cranking along around 14 knots, but refused to indicate any rotation or even generate a wall cloud report. The convection due west of us, in the eastern Texas panhandle and which later produced the beautiful tornado images everyone's seen by now, appeared multi-cellular and clustery, moving into more stable air (or so I thought). We spent a long time analyzing the relative vigor of the back-sheared anvil. In the end nobody argued in favor of chasing those cells.

Then we took off for the isolated storm to the south. On the way, another cell fired southeast of Childress. This was west of the Vernon storm by sixty miles and I thought it would move into the same environment we'd admired for for an hour or more, plus there were no chasers on Spotter Network anywhere near it. It was a gamble, picking new convection over a well-established and isolated supercell, but I was hoping it would produce before a smaller audience. At Altus, Scott Eubanks and I turned west for this new storm. We met it near Eldorado, Oklahoma, followed it north as it produced marginal structure and a small wall cloud, then dropped it for the next one to the south. Seeding was a big problem in this group of storms, but the new cell had achieved some separation and I thought its updraft might have more time to do something. We emerged from a rain core to discover a massive wallcloud hovering over the Red River Valley. With sharp definition and a clear slot, the storm looked poised to drop a tornado at any moment.

We moved closer until we reached the intersection of State Roads 6 and 34, as far south as we could go. Here, between Eldorado and Olustee, our wall cloud tightened, dipped, and...fell apart, never to be seen again. Splat. Soon the whole storm shriveled (while maintaining a nice hook shape on radar) and the base grew ragged and disorganized.

We went home.

A few pictures are in the post above this one.

2009-04-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

Dashed back and forth around west-central Oklahoma from one marginally severe storm to another, with a few wall clouds, a few midlevel funnels, and nickel to quarter size hail for our trouble. Some of the storm structure was worth the drive, however. And the camaraderie: as always, it was fun chasing with Scott Currens, Mike Peregrine, and Scott Eubanks.

a few miles north of Leedey, OK around 0030z

Tulia anniversary

2009-04-21T08:32:00.002-05:00

Two years ago today, Eric Nguyen and I were hit by the tornado in Tulia, Texas. Despite only being a few minutes old, the tornado dragged Eric's SUV off the road and collapsed a brick building and a semi on the hood. Such a violent and terrifying experience is difficult to catalog with the language of everyday life. I suppose for those who've experienced a violent car accident, this was like the moment of impact if it lasted eight to ten seconds.

Nothing about Tulia was exciting or fun. It was embarrassing, frightening, and destabilizing. We turned down three requests from Good Morning America over the next ten days because it was hard to talk about the incident even between the two of us. We couldn't imagine describing it to the world. It stripped away the necessary illusions of control that chasers take into the field. The flashbacks and second-guessng continued a long time, and I think time has made it more difficult to contend that Tulia did not play some small role in what happened to Eric a few months later.

A few chasers, mainly those with pre-existing axes to grind, accused us of having played chicken with the tornado and lost. That's how important it was for them to cling to their idea that such a thing could never happen to experienced chasers in broad daylight. But it can. It did.

Some good came from it. Eric's weather instruments, in which he took great pride, recorded unprecedented pressure data which Scott Blair and his co-authors forged into this paper in the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology.

I can't say what Tulia meant to Eric. Although by May and June we were talking about it a lot---almost every day---I know now there was much he did not share with me about his inner life. For me, one of the lighter moments of the experience was the distinct sensation I had during the tornado, along with many others, that I was about to die without having published a novel, and how stupid that was. I'm more committed than ever to remedying that, especially since it's late April and there's more tornadoes coming, and, despite everything, I'll still drive out to find them.

new blog by Scott Eubanks

2009-04-19T00:33:00.001-05:00

This is a new blog from stormchaser Scott Eubanks. Scott's been chasing storms for probably thirty years, but this is his first venture onto the internet. Over the last several years, I've learned a great deal from his instinct and experience in the near storm environment and his philosophy to stay mindful of how privileged we are to witness these phenomena.

Bridgeport, Texas 4-18-09

2009-04-18T22:57:00.001-05:00

I spent a few hours trying to find a favorable shooting angle for this little rain shower. This was near Bridgeport, Texas around 7:00 pm. I met up with Scott Eubanks and Glenn Dixon for Italian food in Azle afterwards.

2009-04-18T12:46:00.001-05:00

I wouldn't be surprised to see an isolated supercell on the DL in N TX later, around 0z, when the low level wind fields tighten.

2009-04-03T18:06:00.002-05:00

"I'm streaming you streaming the streamers"

In 2009 you can expect many more vehicles in and around storms than ever before. The VORTEX2 project will incorporate dozens of vehicles, mobile mesonets, DOWs, support vehicles and even, apparently, some kind of "media" bus--like an entourage, I guess. We'll have tour companies with their vans and production companies filming reality television shows, along with the dedicated entourages for those groups. Not to mention the added number of civilians who might swarm a warned storm for the chance to spot a familiar face. I've lost count of how many are dropping probes, launching predator drones, or remote control planes, trains, helicopters, and other vehicles. Streamers, stringers, strippers, and candy-stripers all will abound. The smallest population out on the roads this chase season will probably be the non-profit, non media-affiliated, independent chasers. And there's still quite a few of those left (I think).

All this is to say that, if you're new, you might think about how all the cars will influence your decision-making process. I think it's dramatically safer to have a chase partner under these conditions, though it's certainly no guarantee something bad won't happen.

Dr. Charles A. Doswell III has an essay about chasing safely and responsibly. Dr. Doswell is a 30 plus year chase veteran, one of the most important tornado scientists of the 20th century, whose research and contributions to forecasting and chasing are, in no small part, responsible for the forecasting and interception success of so many of us today--whether we're smart enough to know it or grateful enough to acknowledge it or not.

This is an old document that is more relevant than ever for the sheer number of practical ideas and suggestions. It's worth reading.

Storm Chasing with Safety, Courtesy, and Responsibility
by Dr. Charles A. Doswell III

St. Jo, Texas tornado March 26, 2009

2009-03-27T02:03:00.003-05:00

The day took me by surprise since I thought the front would stay to my south, then with another look at the surface around 21z, I realized it was moving rapidly north. With the supportive flow aloft and and increasingly unstable air in the clearing west of I-35, I threw the gear in the truck. Lot of wires and disorganization, but it was a no-brainer. I'm a fan of slowly lifting fronts which aren't too cool on the cool side.

I actually thought the front would lift farther faster, so when the Oklahoma storm crapped out I doubled back into Texas across the secret bridge to where the next storm had latched onto the front. I found Jeff Snyder west of Capps Corner (north of St. Jo by 15m or so) where we observed new inflow bands but a generally weak looking, elevated cell. I headed east for Capps Corner and drove through 1.5 to 2" hail which Jeff later measured, and which cracked my windshield and added more dents to my car. It was surprising since most of the stones were soft and disintegrated on impact, but all it takes is one. I tend to find hail cores. Hail covered the road and the stones were dancing in the ditches, a better show than I'd expected for the whole day. At this point the radar presentation was unappealing; a merger had made a mess of the former rotational area, though Jeff and I had commented on how mergers are frequently positive developments. This cell had also recently issued a left split.

Finally out of the hail core I turned south toward St. Jo, where I spotted a disorganized lowering between the trees. Miraculously, I found a wide clearing about four miles north of St. Jo, on FM 677, and snapped the images below as a narrow wallcloud expanded, tapered, and reached for the ground. This happened very quickly: the RFD cut, consolidation of the wallcloud, and funnel. I couldn't see the ground from my vantage, but other reports and Connor McRorey's video from the south suggest this was probably a tornado. The cone held its shape less than a minute, and my efforts to photograph it were hampered by own inability to find the illumination button on a camera I've owned five years, and I changed the aperture instead, then cussed loudly, and shot these pictures at inappropriate shutter speeds and ISOs. Thus the noisy images. Every year I have to go through the early season spasmodics.

Later I met up with Bob Fritchie, Rachael Sigler, Ken McCallister, James from the UK, and others as we pursued the lead storm turned upside down wedding cake--a gorgeous structure--and its sister cell to the west. This latter storm developed a large, blocky lowering west-southwest of Gainesville, but nothing came of it that we could see. Along with Jeff we took a big dinner at Chilli's. Half a tank of gas, a big meal with friends, and sleeping in my own bed tonight is a pretty fair deal for a March chase.

0021z 4m north of St. Jo, Texas

0021z same location, a few seconds later

0022z

Morro Rock in Morro Bay

2009-03-16T16:26:00.000-05:00

Pacific coast highway, just north of Oxnard

2009-03-15T17:41:00.000-05:00

2009-03-13T20:31:00.001-05:00

Oceanfront Drive, Newport Beach

2009-03-13T18:55:00.000-05:00

2009-03-13T14:41:00.002-05:00

The opening night of Erics photo exhibit, Adventures in Tornado Alley, was a big sucess. This photo is from early in the evening, before Art Walk crowds packed the small Todd/Browning Gallery inside Polyester Books (211 W 5th in L.A.) I visited with my friend Dana Johnson, and hung around ansering questions from people who were amazed by the images.

For a little added excitement, 12 cops apprehended an apparently important perp right out in the street. All the police drew their sidearms and two brandished shotguns. Just like the movies!

Eric Nguyen photo exhibit opens

2009-03-13T14:03:00.001-05:00

2009-03-01T02:23:00.000-06:00

Adventures in Tornado Alley: Photography by Eric Nguyen

2009-02-21T11:41:00.002-06:00

The Todd/Browning Gallery, where the late Eric Nguyen's photos go on display next month, is part of the larger Downtown Art Walk, during which 40 galleries draw between 3000 and 4000 people every second Thursday of the month. Eric's show, "Adventures in Tornado Alley" coincides with the Art Walk opening on March 12. The gallery is planning a preview on the evening of March 11th also.

confirmation of Belcherville tornado

2009-02-11T21:30:00.001-06:00

Chaser Jeremy Wilson has video of the snaking funnel on the ground doing damage, the same damage we passed on our way north to SR-82. So that cements it. Wish my imagery was cleaner, but, hey, it's February right?

2009-02-11T18:24:00.003-06:00

Posting this in the five minutes before my class starts. Three grabs from yesterday, all around 0035z:

Narrow funnel we all thought had made the ground but it was very hard to see. This grab isn't much better, but we encountered damage too far south to have been caused by the big wall cloud, soon-to-be killer tornado.

Lightning illuminates the wall cloud that became a wedge later. Later we would see part of this second tornado from Highway 82 between Nocona and St. Jo as we tried to get north and take the small secret bridge across the river.

©2009 Amos Magliocco

Red River tornadoes

2009-02-10T23:06:00.001-06:00

Kevin Peterson and I caught a tornado near Belcherville, Texas (4m west of Nocona on 82) at ~6:30 pm and then saw part of what was reported as a wedge with the same storm as it crossed the river. This was the storm that killed three and did so much damage in Ardmore. Our tornado was a tall and narrow white funnel that snaked around to the ground. With the naked eye we could see 4/5 of the funnel, but the VX2100 got the whole thing quite nicely. I will post imagery early next week because of my upcoming teaching and travel schedule. I'll try to sneak up a video grab tomorrow if I can.

westward ho

2009-02-10T10:03:00.003-06:00

Storms might initiate one or two counties west of where progs indicated last night. This is good news, of course, but I don't know how much difference it makes if they instantly accelerate to 40 knots. Either way they're into rotten terrain before maturity, but the more time west of the highway the better obviously. I can't put more than three hours or so into this chase today because of school obligations and a trip to Chicago on Thursday morning. I'll be turning away from some storms that will probably produce tornadoes after I'm gone, but that's life.

the feel good model of the year

2009-02-09T23:49:00.005-06:00

I like the 4k WRF-NMM because the graphics look like supercells. If you just don't think too hard about how this sort of resolution probably isn't very reliable, it's nice. And this model has had stretches in the last few years of modest accuracy in terms of timing, location, and mode. I intend to chase that southern supercell, which should fire around 4:30, mature about 5:30 (in time for nice twilight), and scoot into the trees right around sundown.

Perfect. Just like all early February chases.

severe threat remains

2009-02-09T15:53:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow still looks fair for isolated supercells in daylight west of I-35. That's all I'm interested in for chasing purposes, since I have a ton of class prep for Wednesday and a plane to catch Thursday morning. More important than chasing, however, is the chance for fast-moving tornadoes during the overnight hours in northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma. If the instability holds out, the situation could be dangerous for residents of Sherman, Bonham, Paris, and surrounding communities.

As for chasing, I don't want to invest anymore than a few hours or 200 miles on it. I don't have a single image from any February chase on my website; it's been a worthless month for me thirteen years running. Current target is Albany to Throckmorton to Breckenridge.

Tuesday

2009-02-08T19:29:00.001-06:00

Tuesday could be our first chance of severe weather in North Texas this season. If the target is close and the time investment minimal, I might venture out and see if I remember how to operate a camera or a 2 meter radio. My expectations are low because it's early February, and I have to be home at a reasonable time for Wednesday class prep. We shall see.

Photo Exhibit: Adventures in Tornado Alley, photographs by Eric Nguyen

2009-01-19T18:50:00.006-06:00

The Todd Browning Galley in Los Angeles will host an exhibit of Eric's photography from March 12 through April 4. This is the first such exhibit of severe weather photography in a fine art gallery in the L.A. area, according to gallery director William Eiseman. More about this event in the next few days.

Don't steal pictures

2009-01-07T08:51:00.003-06:00

Last night I learned that someone had used one of Eric's Mulvane photos as the backdrop for a corporate logo, a storm chasing tour company out of Missouri. I won't name the company or make a big deal out of this since the operator agreed to remove the image right away, and I'm grateful for his cooperation. It wasn't clear if this is a functioning tour company or someone making plans for later, and I doubt that any sort of serious monetary damages are relevant. If it looked like the guy was turning a dime from unauthorized usage, then the agency which issues the commercial licenses for Eric's pictures, Corbis, would probably take an interest.

I always figured it would be a matter of time before some chaser checked to see anyone was "minding the store" when it came to Eric's pictures. The answer is yes, I'm minding the store and so is one of the biggest stock photo agencies on the planet. I think this is pretty clear in the message I've posted on Eric's front page, but perhaps I should post it also on his tornado gallery page, since that's where 80% of his visitors enter the site. Most never see the main page of mesoscale.ws.

I posted the following to Stormtrack in an effort to get the word out:

Thanks, Lanny, for pointing this out. It does indeed appear to be one of Eric's series of Mulvane images, overlaid with a strange graphic, but still the same photo. I have contacted the MySpace account holder through the page, though I was unable to locate a name for the tour operator.

For those who don't know, I've been handling Eric's photo catalog since his death. Most of Eric's images are licensed through Corbis International, the stock photo agency. The royalties for all these images go to Eric's wife and two young sons. The Mulvane tornado continues to be one of the most widely-licensed and reproduced tornado images, as anyone in a bookstore this Christmas could see. As you can imagine, it provides a small but steady stream of income to the family and it is the one image, when stolen by a business or publication, that brings immediate attention from Corbis and their highly experienced lawyers. Corbis aggressively pursues unauthorized usage, not only for the money taken from them, but because Mulvane is a valuable property which they license and release in a strategic way over time to maintain and maximize value.

I don't bother with people who steal small JPGs and post them to their blogs or Flicker accounts. I did at first, but there's no end to it. Corbis could not care less about individual theft. However, a business or for-profit publication is another matter, entirely.

So the point of this post is to make people aware that Eric's photo catalog isn't being neglected, and his intellectual property rights are as important to his friends and family now as they were to him when he was alive. As with anyone's intellectual property, you have to ask permission to use or license it, via Corbis if you're a publication or a business, or with me if it's a non-profit usage or educational materials, which Eric always donated free of charge.

I know the overwhelming majority of Stormtrack members respect the property rights of other chasers the same as they wish for their own to be respected, but there's always a few people in any crowd, knowingly or not, who might seek to take advantage of a situation they misunderstand. They should not misunderstand this one.

2008-11-17T15:11:00.003-06:00

In the last few weeks I've talked to several people about the show "Storm Chasers" on Discovery. I've only watched portions of one episode, not out of protest but because I was already consuming too much deep-fried TV, between political content and the Dallas Cowboys. So when people bring it up, I don't have any preconceived ideas. I mean, I know who's in it and the general narrative, but that's all. Anyway, their opinions of the show are positive, from lifelong, non-chaser friends to the Director of Freshman Composition who stopped me in the hall an hour ago. They love the plot and have a broader (and more positive) idea about chasers and chasing as a result. They sympathize with Sean (and Josh) and their troubles with the TIV, and think highly of the other chasers, too. For what it's worth, it seems like "Storm Chasers" is leaving a good impression. Maybe the Kansas sheriffs won't shoot us on sight next year.

On a more literary note, I mentioned last year Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air and how much of what he described about mountaineering could apply to chasing. Well, I finished another Krakauer book this weekend, Into the Wild, and recommend it as well. This is the story of Chris McCandless, who disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992 at the end of a two year, cross-country trek. McCandless wanted to separate himself from civilization to whatever degree he could and "live off the land," taking for inspiration writers like Thoreau, Muir, and Stegner. He was a smart guy, edited the school paper at Emory where he graduated with honors, but he made some big mistakes, too. His accidental death sparked a controversy between those who held opposing views of his trip.

Krakauer delves into the psyche of this intense and fascinating individual. As a mountain climber, he brings some insight to the spiritual side of adventures involving a degree of danger. I think some chasers will recognize much in McCandless similar to what sends us into the plains each spring.

The Case for Obama

2008-10-30T22:28:00.000-05:00

Lately I was reminded that I haven’t posted a rationale for why I’m voting for Barack Obama. Fair enough. In the mudslinging and fog of political rhetoric I forgot that some people are taking their time and giving due consideration to this choice. That’s the right way to handle the responsibility of citizenship. I’m a partisan, probably a partisan hack, but I’ve also supported the ideas that Senator Obama supports for a long time. That means the choice wasn’t as tough for me. All I needed was to be convinced about the man himself, and I have been, particularly in these last six weeks. So here’s my case.

Foremost I’m voting for Barack Obama because I think he’s a great American and the most compelling leader in a generation—and he’s from my generation. It’s our turn and this is our guy. But I haven’t always felt that way. I voted for Hillary Clinton in the Texas primary. I believe universal healthcare is a hallmark of an advanced and progressive civilization. I reject the argument that health care for all Americans would necessarily lower standards. I trust American ingenuity and would never rely on foreign examples as the final measure and I’m surprised any American would.

But that issue aside, in the intervening months since the primary, Senator Obama convinced me not only that he’s the most qualified candidate, but also that my early vote was miscast. While I still believe Hillary is a smart, capable leader, I should have voted for Obama. I hadn’t done my homework.

His opposition accuses Senator Obama of possessing less than an authentic American identity, but they couldn’t be more off the mark. He’s the son and grandson of an immigrant—as are many millions of us—and also the grandson of a rural Kansas couple, the grandmother he flew to Hawaii to visit. Madelyn Dunham worked in a factory during World War 2 while her husband, Obama’s grandfather, served in the military. Obama’s father was a scholar from Kenya who came to America for our superior university system. He immigrated because he saw opportunity, the same reason my own grandfather left Rome with his wife and several children early in the 20th century. Despite tough economic circumstances for his single mom, Obama excelled and finished his academic career as President of the Harvard Law Review and was later a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. But I’m not voting for a C.V. I’m more interested in what it represents.

For me, Senator Obama’s academic career is evidence of real intellectual vigor—a capacity and passion for knowledge, and an ability to gather vast data and process them, a critical faculty we must require of all future presidents. The current anti-intellectual movement is an economically destructive impulse. Americans have always valued education. This is why Americans struggle to build college funds for their children. We’ve seen the consequences of an intellectually incurious leader; it’s disastrous for a multi-cultural and complex nation like the United States in the 21st century. We have to compete in a world market. We have to make an honest evaluation of who we are and that requires a leader who knows. We can’t turn back the clock to the mid 20th century. We’re a new generation and we have to make our own way.

Yet he is inexperienced. Senator Obama hasn’t been in Washington D.C. long enough to compile a record like John McCain’s. But all former presidents agree on this: nobody is ready to be president until they have the job. There’s no preparation from any public service, no evidence that success in the Oval Office depends on some length of tenure on Capitol Hill or in a governor’s chair. Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and Ronald Reagan: none brought extensive political portfolios to the job. What all three carried, however, was intellect and charisma. They were leaders. So how are we to judge?

Well, we’ve seen Obama’s management and leadership style during this long campaign. He picked Joe Biden, a VP nominee who didn’t come with immediate political gain. It was a choice Obama made to help him govern, as Biden’s expertise in foreign affairs is acknowledged in both parties, and he’s made more trips to Iraq and Afghanistan than any three congressmen put together.

Next, witness the Obama campaign organization. Democrat or Republican, any political pro will admit that his operation sets a new standard for organization and execution. From field offices, paid staff, canvassing strategies, message discipline, and coherence, we’ve never seen a juggernaut like this one. Of course they have plenty of money, but so did Hillary with her big Democratic donors, and she found the Obama team outworking, outgunning, and outsmarting her. Many insiders believe that Clinton’s top staff didn’t even understand the formula by which delegates were assigned from state caucus results. Obama’s team knew.

Last weekend, I got an email from the campaign asking me to call Italian-Americans in Pittsburgh. Amazing. They’ve perfected database parsing such that they can target individual ethnicities. I can’t imagine how this is possible. An algorithm to detect a higher incidence of vowels in last names? Barack Obama is the chief executive officer of this intensely-sophisticated effort. He has to get credit.

On the other side, John McCain is having trouble with just his and Sarah’s Palin’s close personal staff. In the last three days, anonymous McCain aides called Palin a “diva” and a “whack job.” What does this suggest about a potential McCain government? What does his selection of Sarah Palin suggest? A poll released today showed that 59% of all registered voters believe she’s not qualified to be president. Another McCain insider called her perhaps the most difficult candidate to prepare for the national stage in history.

We’ve seen Barack Obama under fire. Both candidates stood in the public eye when the stock market tanked and panic reigned on Wall Street. John McCain threw ideas around, shifted positions frantically, and reversed himself hour to hour (suspend the campaign/don’t suspend, no debate/yes debate, and, within a single day: the fundamentals of the economy are strong/never mind, we’re in a crisis). Senator Obama, on the other hand, gathered information from experts like Warren Buffet and Paul Rubin, maintained a cool demeanor (to keep investors calm), and laid out his positions on the “rescue package” and future moves. McCain never settled on a coherent response. He floated along with the tide of White House and Congressional solutions. Obama’s leadership substance and style was so superior to McCain’s it was almost shocking given McCain’s long career as a Washington insider.

Today the economy is our biggest challenge. Barack Obama intends to cut taxes for 95% of working Americans and eliminate capital gains tax on small business because this will grow the economy from the bottom up. Nobody making less than $250,000 will see a tax increase, period. We’re a consumer economy. When the middle class is broke, the whole country is broke. Rich people don’t do well when schoolteachers can’t buy cars, or firefighters move their families from a foreclosed home to an apartment.

Senator Obama also intends to invest in America. He wants to rebuild our infrastructure: roads, bridges, and electrical grids—projects to strengthen our economy by providing millions of jobs and improve our competitive position. Obama proposes serious investment in renewable energy sources, not only because it makes us energy independent but because it offers the chance to export clean technology that we can sell.

John McCain’s suggestion that investing in American infrastructure and ingenuity is “socialism” is proof that he doesn’t believe in what our country can do when we’re together and committed. It’s the same cynical approach that’s led to dilapidated bridges, roads, schools, and electrical grids. Span collapses and power blackouts. It’s a serious competitive disadvantage for America. We have to pitch in together and fix this. We spend $10 billion per month in Iraq; we can afford to invest in clean energy and fuel efficient cars and put Americans to work in the process.

On Iraq, Barack Obama was right back in 2002: it was the wrong war at the wrong time. We will have spent one trillion dollars before it’s over, depending on when we finally leave. With violence down and the Iraqi government sporting a shiny new $83 billion budget surplus, now is the time for an orderly redeployment of exhausted American troops. Through the brave work of our men and women in uniform, can withdraw from Iraq without causing a humanitarian crisis—something that looked impossible a few years ago— and we should do it before the situation destabilizes again. Our very presence maintains the conditions for that destabilization.

Meanwhile, Bin Laden lives, hiding in a cave, mocking us on Mini-DV tape, while his forces regroup. U.S. troops in Afghanistan are neglected by the administration’s fixation on Iraq. Barack Obama wants to refocus our mission to find the people responsible for killing three thousand Americans in 2001. We have to give our troops in Afghanistan the chance to achieve the way our forces have in Iraq.

In this cause we shouldn’t have to go it alone like we have under George W Bush. After September 11th, we had a treasure of political capital from allies and even nations more leery of our friendship. But by unilateral non-diplomacy, arrogance, and a blatant disregard of the human rights we championed for half a century, we squandered that goodwill. Every dime’s worth. Now we have no friends left who we don’t bribe. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed his hope that Obama would win—a significant breach of the US/UK “special relationship” protocol.

John McCain laughs at Senator Obama’s popularity. But the reason Obama is cheered around the world is because he’s perceived as an American leader who can restore American leadership through a recommitment to our moral authority. It’s not because they find him somehow personally alluring. They want America to lead. But they want us to do so from a moral basis and not at the business end of a missile.

The America I was raised in didn’t torture anybody (or at least it wasn’t institutionalized if we did), or hold people without charges, or operate secret prison ships, or behave as if the Geneva Convention didn’t apply to us. We helped write the Geneva Convention. We were better than our enemies. At the end of World War 2, surrendering German troops raced toward British and American forces and away from the Russians. The country I grew up in balked when other nations refused visits to prisoners from the International Red Cross. An abomination like Guantanamo Bay was inconceivable. It poisons our moral standing in the world and serves a powerful tool for every Al-Queda recruiting officer on the planet. How short sighted and self-destructive!

George W Bush sold out American values, for which thousands had fought and died, at the first sign of trouble. Eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. Suspension of habeas corpus. We not only leveraged our economy; we leveraged a moral authority earned over decades. Barack Obama will bring tremendous political capital to bear in our international relationships. World leaders will follow him if for no other reason than his immense popularity within their own electorate. This political capital will help America recruit the partners we need against extremists and in the effort to reform global monetary systems.

Barack Obama’s ascendance to our highest office will subvert the arguments of our enemies, confounding those who insist that the United States is an immutably racist and unjust society, that our ideals are only window dressing for a more malevolent agenda. Why should we care about the opinions of our enemies? Because they recruit young men and women to blow us up, that’s why. Because the basis of any real authority as a world leader is a moral one. The current administration has no moral basis today. They have made us a world bully, despite how a majority of Americans reject this approach. When Barack Obama says he’ll sit down with foreign leaders, friend or foe, Americans recognize the power of this: we’ll tell them to their faces what we intend. We’ll get our message across.

This country is bitterly divided. Fifteen years of partisan rancor ignited a “cultural war” between liberals and conservatives, labels that have changed dramatically in the same period. The last “liberal” president reduced welfare rolls. Our current “conservative” president doubled the national debt and nationalized banks and insurance companies. If it’s possible for a president to bring us together, even incrementally, that’s the guy we need. How do we know if Barack Obama is that guy? Well, there’s some evidence. For one thing, he’s brought tens of millions of new voters to the political process—people who previously felt distant and disconnected from our public life are now waiting hours in line for early voting. Young and old, black and white, of all political and other persuasions. No problem is more intractable than apathy. He’s already gone a long way to beating that one and he’s not president yet.

Another way to unify us would be to solve some of these problems. We’re hiring a new president to fix things, not to reaffirm our personal identity politics. We need a smart, charismatic problem-solver, someone with the brains to understand the issues, the ingenuity to forge solutions, and the chutzpah to sell those solutions to an increasingly reluctant electorate. Obama demonstrates real skill in all these areas.

As a Democrat, I can recite a laundry list of things Ronald Reagan did wrong, but there’s no denying that he projected a new sense of the possible. When I was growing up, it was my first taste of that spirit. The election of Barack Obama will remind us on a daily basis of the inherent nobility of our unique experiment, and how our often-detoured but still determined struggle for the Jeffersonian ideals of the Declaration continues. This is what makes the world look upon us in amazement, even now; that despite our flaws and misadventures and outright injustices, the deep, permanent scars of slavery and genocide against aboriginal peoples, and support of oppressive regimes for economic purposes, our direction is still, always, inexorably toward those “radical” notions of equality and the rights of humankind. That “all men are created equal.” This is as amazing an ideal as it was when Franklin and Adams sat stunned reading Jefferson’s first draft. If we want to lead the world by example, we have to amaze it.

2008-10-15T00:22:00.002-05:00

The makers of the annual Weather Calendar, Accord Publishing, released a beautifully illustrated coffee table book featuring some of their "greatest hits." The book is titled, Weather: The Ultimate Book of Meteorological Events. They have four different covers for the book, one of which is Eric's Mulvane photo. A friend of mine in Albuquerque spotted the Mulvane version in Costco the other day and sent me a few copies. Here in Texas we've only seen the alternate covers.

The staying power of this photo is really incredible. Right now I have on my coffee table a national magazine, Extreme Weather, which appeared a few months ago with Mulvane on the cover, and now this hefty photo book. Over just the last two weeks I've directed an Australian magazine to Corbis (the agency that handles Eric's pictures) and processed several rarer hail and structure pictures of Eric's for a Japanese meteorology text, which was planning to use Mulvane as well, of course. Corbis probably licenses this image dozens of times a year if not more.

Eric never bragged about anything. For someone so successful in so many areas, forecasting, chase tactics, photography, programming, and instrumentation, he was truly humble. But I don't mind bragging on his behalf.

I used to think the popularity of Mulvane would fade with time, but I don't believe that anymore. It's a masterpiece and shares the timelessness that characterizes great art.

2008-10-11T12:08:00.002-05:00

I came up with a new chasing metric yesterday. I texted a friend and said that if the yesterday's Dow Jones Industrial Average drops more than the event's forecasted CAPE, it's a no-go.

In Situ Observations of the 21 April 2007 Tulia, Texas Tornado

2008-09-07T17:34:00.014-05:00

In Situ Observations of the 21 April 2007 Tulia, Texas Tornado by Scott F. Blair, Derek R. Deroche, Albert E. Pietrycha is now posted to the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology. It's available in HTML or as a PDF file. Reviewer comments are also visible on the website.

This paper represents tremendous dedication and effort by Scott and his co-authors over a long period of time and through several profound challenges. We lost Eric while this paper was being composed. What happened last summer made it even more important to Scott that he deliver the data, not only because of the great scientific value, but also because they represent the pinnacle of Eric's commitment to quality instrumentation and data collection. Eric designed his own suite, quality-controlled the system, and assembled high-quality components because it was vitally important to him that his data were accurately gathered and recorded. Less than an hour after the Tulia tornado hit us, as we finished collecting our gear from his totalled Xterra, Eric asked me to turn off the data logger installed in his glove box. I was amazed he'd thought of it given the circumstances. But the scientific benefits of chasing were always on Eric's mind.

This dramatic dataset--a 194 millibar pressure drop during the tornado passage--is the ultimate product of everything Eric valued as a chaser. Scott understood this better than anyone.

As for me, this publication conjures real value from what has always seemed like an arbitrary piece of rotten luck: getting caught by that violent little vortex. Rather than simply re-telling details about the day, now I can point to serious data we captured which were analyzed and processed by meteorologists, the results of which were reviewed by some of the most important tornado scientists in the world. I would not go through the Tulia experience again, obviously, but now it has some worth. Hopefully these data will join a growing set of observations (though without human accompaniment!), to inspire hypotheses and theories we cannot yet imagine. This is what science is about. This would have meant the world to Eric and it does to me, too.

So let me say "thanks" to Scott Blair, Derek Deroche, and Al Peitrycha for their commitment and patience.

2008-09-01T15:07:00.002-05:00

Oops. Posted something from the writing blog on the chasing blog. Maybe a Freudian slip. Since I deleted that entry I thought I'd make up for it with something related to chasing. Except that...I got nothing. Didn't chase Gustav, probably will never chase a hurricane unless it's insanely convenient. Don't like being wet for three days. A couple friends are down there in southern Louisiana planting ground sensors and measuring pressure fields, though I don't know what kind of data Gustav will provide given his rapid weakening. I was surprise how fast it went downhill; the environment seemed more supportive a few days ago. So it goes.

2008-08-25T23:30:00.009-05:00

A few items of news: I'm back teaching at the University of North Texas and as a result will probably update the blog more often. The reason is that now I'm really busy, and when you're really busy everything you do starts a timer in your head, and you tend to accomplish more in less time. I wrote and published a fair amount in the year I was off, but did little else. Now I'll try to do everything at the same time.

As for real news, Eric's photography continues to land in national and international publications. The Mulvane tornado appears on the cover of a special issue of Astronomy Today called Extreme Weather, available in bookstores worldwide. While the article is about "riding with Warren Faidley" to find the "world's most dangerous photo opportunity," the cover shot is Eric's. Also, the Weather Calendar publisher, Accord, is about to release a coffee table book with some of their 'greatest hits,' and they intend to use three covers for three versions of the release. Mulvane will appear on one of those covers.

Lastly, and the publication that would have made Eric proudest, is a new textbook from Professors Paul Markowski and Yvette Richardson of The Pennyslvania State University: Mesoscale Meteorology in Midlatitudes. This book will feature one of the Eric's less well-known structure shots on the cover, from August 10, 2004, and will also include several of his images of storms in various stages of their life cycles. Eric's email to Professor Markowski happily agreeing to donate these images was one of the last he wrote.

For someone with essentially a five-year body of work as a serious photographer, his publication record is pretty amazing. It's particularly gratifying right now as we're coming up on a year since he's been gone, and his family and friends are thinking of him a lot these days.

The long-promised Tulia data article is *this* close to being published. Truly it should appear in less than a week. It's an important presentation and editors at every stage of the process, as well as the highly-distinguished reviewers who juried the article, wanted to insure it was as thorough and accurate as possible. The authors of the article are Scott Blair from the National Weather Service forecast office in Topeka, Kansas, Derek Deroche from the National Weather Service forecast office in Kansas City, Kansas, and Al Pietrycha, Science Officer in the Goodland, Kansas National Weather Service forecast office. I won't reveal the reviewers names until the article appears, but my understanding is that in the format of the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology, it will be possible to see some or all of the reviewers' comments as well as authors' responses. It's a very open format. Check the website in the next several days and I'll be sure to post right away when the article goes live.

While processing the Tulia article and planning for afterward, the EJSSM editors contacted me about working as a copy editor on future articles (not the Tulia piece). I was happy to accept. I've taken far more from operational and research meteorology than I've ever given back and the opportunities to do so are rare as a non-meteorologist, so I was pleased to say yes and honored by the offer.

My own chase reports and photos for 2008 remain unfinished. My goal is to complete them before next February, honestly. I'll try to post one per week or so; it's just not a priority anymore.

2008-07-31T13:25:00.002-05:00

Have I waited long enough to kill this blog? I can't feel too badly since I never officially reopened it. The truth is that it's the simplest way to record chase details and photos from the road during tornado season. But I can't promise to keep it updated with any regularity. That said, I appreciate those who've kept reading and/or checking occasionally.

The reason for this post is to mention that my good friend Mike Hollingshead launched a new blog the other day, linked here. Mike's a good writer with strong opinions who also happens to be the most singular and talented photographer in chasing. Widening the category, I'd say he's one of the best landscape artists on the planet right now. His blog and imagery will appeal to chasers and non-chasers alike.

As for me, I'm working on a book and trying to finish before the semester begins. I have 25 days of unfettered writing time remaining, so online housekeeping related to chasing is at the bottom of the list, temporarily. When I send that manuscript off, I'll turn to the missing chase reports from 2008. I don't want to speculate on when this will happen. I can't even give a Bush-esque "aspirational time horizon." Setting a timeframe would only embolden my enemies and let the terrorists to win. I wouldn't want the terrorists to win. They might drink all the Hoegaarden.

The Tulia data article is nearly through the copy-editing and formatting process, according to the journal in which it will be released. I'll post a link the moment it hits the internet(s).

2008-07-10T11:37:00.002-05:00

A few days after the Tulia, Texas tornado, Eric discovered his data-logger and the observations recorded from inside the tornado remained intact, and he turned the full dataset over to meteorologists willing to dissect and analyze what we'd captured. Yesterday those authors received a formal notice of acceptance from the journal after a rigorous peer review process. When the paper is officially published and available, I'll post the information and a link right here. I'm looking forward to the discussion among scientists and chasers which the data might generate.

2008-06-11T18:43:00.002-05:00

GRLevel3 with Spotter Network is distracting as hell. Trying to put down a few words today but I keep checking to see if any of my friends are having success with the storms in northern Kansas and eastern Nebraska. I've shifted far enough out of chase mode that I don't feel badly that I'm not up there, but the radar tugs at my attention. Good luck to the chasers up north!

2008-06-09T15:24:00.004-05:00

My chase season ended last week. I'm sure 2008 will be the high water mark of my chase "career" with twenty-five reportable chases (more that were forgettable and won't be documented), ~17,000 miles traveled over four months, and more supercell thunderstorms than in any two seasons put together. Plenty of cool phenomena as well, including tornadoes of every shape and size, cyclic supercells, Dodge City haboobs, lightning and everything else.

I don't count tornadoes anymore because no two chasers count tornadoes the same way and it only creates controversy. Even my closest friends and I disagree on the "count" moments after a chase. And what does it get us anyway? Some will say this means I didn't see many tornadoes this year. Not quite. What it means is I don't care to argue anymore about how many tornadoes can dance on the head of a pin. I'll spend the rest of the summer posting images and updating reports and, if people find those enjoyable, that's good enough for me. I shot over 1000 exposures this spring. It was a great year for photography.

Far more importantly, I chased with a great group of people almost every day, and this year it was more important than ever, I think, because of our friend Eric, who was absent from the road but not a single day from our thoughts or the funny stories we told on the radio. So to Bob Fritchie, Rachael Sigler, Scott Eubanks, Scott Currens, Scott Blair, Derek Deroche, Katie Burtis, Steve Vanderburg, Dave Fick, Paul Stofer, Rob Hall, Al Pietrycha, and others who weren't able to chase but who were with us in spirit, thanks for being great friends and chase companions.

2008-06-05T23:24:00.002-05:00

This entry is to help me remember details later when I compose full(er) chase logs.

On June 4, we chased into southwestern Nebraska when the Kansas triple point failed to produce. We initiall chased a storm bound for Kearney, bailed on that for another cell to the west, and found a tor-warned storm near Maywood which emerged from the rain with jaw-dropping, Hollingshead-esque structure. Lucky for me I shot about half this twisting updraft at ISO 1600, so my images should be nice and grainy. Neat Image here I come. I realized the error and corrected in time to shoot some at 100. We'll see. After that we bailed west for the McCook storm, long tor-warned and isolated, which produced golf ball hail for me and baseballs for Deroche, Blair, and Burtis, who sampled the cores of both storms. Most remarkable about the second storm was the insane lightning barrage as it moved through the Nebraska night: a fusillade of cloud-to-cloud, interior and exterior strobing, anvil zits, and multi-forked positive cloud to ground strokes that continued more than an hour. The frequency and duration was astounding; this was the most electrified storm I've ever seen. I shot almost 100 exposures and was pleased with how many of them looked in the preview window.

The next day, June 5, was a high risk bustola in central Kansas. Started in Salina and headed toward Great Bend in time to see the first storm gust out, and repeated that pattern for several storms down the line. Among the day's highlights was a tornado siren wailing to life about thirty feet outside the dining room of Souper Salad in Wichita, Kansas, scaring us back into our cars to check radar. Though we knew the storms all day had shown almost no threat of tornadoes, a siren that nearly splits your eardrums open delivers an instant surge of fear, though as chasers we hear these things all the time. This one was brand new, electronic, and nearly on top of us. Ouch. No, the storm never came close to tornadogenesis. Best shot of the day was supercell #3 southwest of Hutchinson (sp?), a temporary meso and wallcloud I shot (on ISO 100!!) with a field of golden wheat in the foreground. It was such a beautiful scene that I knew a tornado was impossible. I never get tornadoes in those sorts of perfect settings. Then I drove through rain and wind back home.

2008-06-04T10:56:00.001-05:00

Looks like a boundary is drifting north, currently located from north of MHK to just north of SLN and sloping southwestward toward GDB and DDC where it disappears under higher clouds. Most easily visible on satellite but I caught a glimpse of it on DDC 88D several scans ago. I don't know if it's surface based or if it intends to participate in today's festivities, but it's another reason I'm looking wsw (currently in SLN) at the HYS to Ness City area for later. I like the co-location of shear and instability with a midlevel punch moving in late, perhaps the final ingredient for initiation along the DL. So many possible areas for convection today you can almost play your favorite environment and not simply where you think storms will occur.

I'll keep my options open as long as possible and stay along I-70 until more compelling evidence arrives.

2008-06-03T22:05:00.004-05:00

On my way north to Salina tonight I encountered a gust front near Billings, Oklahoma that offered an unexpected photography chance. Prior to this deeply grooved and textured shelf structure, I observed a well-defined updraft base and lowering for thirty minutes as I made my way up Interstate 35. No rotation that I could see.

2008-06-02T13:14:00.002-05:00

On Friday the 30th we chased a small group of miniature LP-type, nonsevere storms when I crested a hill overlooking a farmstead. The sun and rain and haze combined for a diffuse scene that was breathtaking in person. I slammed on the brakes and backed up in the road, warning my friends behind me over the radio, and shot a few stills. They didn't turn out as dynamic as the image I recall, but I've worked hard on this exposure because it was so amazing at the time.

2008-06-01T22:02:00.001-05:00

I'm home. Not by choice, but by an ironclad commitment. Missed a fair chase today up north as a result and will miss a better one tomorrow. Yet there's more coming, including a grand finale---if the models verify---toward the middle/end of next week.

2008 is completely out of scale. Holy cow.

2008-05-31T15:17:00.004-05:00

I'm racing for the point convergence along the outflow boundary in northwest Oklahoma. Last night, with Bob, Rachael, and Steve, I chased highly photogenic LP storms in southeast Kansas and extreme western Missouri. Richly grooved and twisting little storms with miniature mesos, wall clouds, and terrific positive CG strikes from the base. I shot as many pics of those as the monster tornado producer the day before.

Chase season 2008 is now officially wheels-off, batshit crazy: the muddiest, fastest moving, grungiest, structure-laden, torando-stewn season of my career. I drove home to Denton late last night, arriving at 4:30 AM, to feed the cats, grab fresh clothes, shower, and sleep for three or four hours before heading out again. In retrospect I should have stayed in KS, called someone to care for the animals, and bought new clothes where I was, but as usual the next day's setup didn't look great until the next day, which is today, which is why I'm back in the car. I haven't thought about image processing in days. I have dozens of emails waiting for replies, almost as many voice mails. Apologies to all; there just isn't time. I'm carrying around Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing like some kind of token detail to remind me of my other life. No I haven't read or written any fiction in about ten days. What's my novel about again? Something to do with Chicago?

Tomorrow I might play Oklahoma again because of an an ironclad commitment in Denton Monday morning. Unless I win the lottery there's no sneaking out of this one. Then I'll head out Tuesday for the second half of next week and another mind-bending round of storms and tornadoes. After that, I'm done.

He said.

2008-05-30T03:25:00.002-05:00

REPORT FOR MAY 29, 2008 GLEN ELDER, KANSAS TORNADOES

A fun and productive chase day alongside mssrs Blair, Burtis, Currens, Deroche, Pietycha, Kampas, Davis, and Wellman at various points. Observed the Kearney, Nebraska tornado from inside Kearney, Nebraska. Condensation about two-thirds to the ground witnessed from the railroad bridge, but as would become the theme of the day we couldn't stop and shoot it. Too much traffic. Grew alarmingly clear a tornado was about to roll through town so I bolted for the eastern fringe on SR 30 and turned to watch. A narrow funnel to the southwest and a large, blocky tornado were ongoing simultaneously; some will claim the smaller funnel was a tornado, maybe so. But any question about the larger one was put to bed when it struck an electrical substation and a round of transformers exploded like pinwheel firework plunging Kearney, grid section by grid section, into darkness.

Debris floated overhead and I smelled acrid electrical smoke, almost within seconds of the transformers blowing. I don't know where the debris came from or what caused the scent, but the juxtaposition of phenomena made me decide to get the hell out of there.

Later we bailed on Nebraska to head south. What would become the "Glen Elder storm" was isolated with a consistent radar presentation for over an hour before we arrived about five minutes into its first tornado, very close or just west of Osborne, Kansas. This was a large cone that narrowed into a tapered elephant trunk with a great rope-out. I shot this on video for some reason instead of with the DSLR despite the calm circumstances and great, green foreground. I guess it was the camera I had in my hand at the time. Ten minutes later, rejoined by the rest of the crew, our storm opened a thirty minute round of barrels, cones, ropes, blocks, and bowls, a free-wheeling display of condensed tornadoes as if to make up for all the complaints about 2008 and the lack of clean tubes.

I shot over 80 stills and it's 3:00 AM. I reviewed a little over half and processed two, but it's time for bed. I will amplify and amend this report in the weeks ahead and post full reports to my website later.

For now, I'll post this image with the DOW (and chaser streaking the other way) as an apology to the DOW driver, whoever she or he is. I'm the fool who pulled out in front of you and then two minutes later slowed suddenly to find a place to safely exit the roadway (the giant bowl dropping behind us was interesting to me). I felt like the DOW was two feet from my bumper all the way across Tipton Road, and it was hard enough to stop for imagery as it was. I'm sure the DOW wanted to run over me, too. Anyway, a few poor driving decisions on my part.