Now that I am home I cannot seem to stop the regular routine. I check the weather constantly, I am always looking at the models, I check SPC every time a new outlook comes out. I am obsessed. I can only hope that weather will come near me this summer. Later this week it looks like some storms might move into the area. I can only hope something good comes along.
On a side note, I have returned to hotel rooms for my brothers soccer tournament. I cannot wait to be in my own bed on a consistent basis.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Just a routine drive home
Today the plan was to simply drive east back home. In the middle of Iowa plans changed as some storms developed. We drove through a really intense rain shaft which had dropped hail earlier, but we did not experience any hail. After that intercept we stopped at Outback Steakhouse for our first sit down meal of the trip. This was a nice time to relax with the group and have a final night of bonding.
Tomorrow we should be back home by noon and all go our separate ways.
I wish I could stay out here for the rest of the summer, but work and making money takes a priority. I am looking forward to my time as a SCEP in Indy this summer. I am excited for everything I will learn.
On another note, Vortex 2 collected some really good data on a supercell which dropped 3 tornadoes today. That is really good for the science of meteorology and hopefully the data will help us learn the keys to tornadogenesis.
Hopefully there will be opportunities to chase this summer while I am working in indy.
Tomorrow we should be back home by noon and all go our separate ways.
I wish I could stay out here for the rest of the summer, but work and making money takes a priority. I am looking forward to my time as a SCEP in Indy this summer. I am excited for everything I will learn.
On another note, Vortex 2 collected some really good data on a supercell which dropped 3 tornadoes today. That is really good for the science of meteorology and hopefully the data will help us learn the keys to tornadogenesis.
Hopefully there will be opportunities to chase this summer while I am working in indy.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Life Under the Shelf cloud
Well, we made the right decision by not heading north. SPC showed the greatest tornado risk in South Dakota and southern North Dakota. But logistically that was a long drive, and keeping up with storms moving north at 50 knots would have been nearly impossible. Today was a day where chasing anywhere was unrealistic. We knew we were planning on getting rolled by a line of storms late in the day which we did do.
Instead we decided to chase near our hotel where a line/derecho of storms had a chance of passing late in the day. The system never quite came together as we would have hoped, but we still got some amazing pictures as the line came towards us with a nice shelf cloud. We also got a good wall cloud early in the day with a strong updraft core above. The winds were around 35 mph for most of the day even when there were not storms. This was enough to blow dust in our eyes and blow hats off our heads.
Today was the last day of pure chasing. Tomorrow we will be heading on our way home. If we see some storms in Iowa on our way we might chase, but if not we will just go to our hotel and have a nice sit down dinner with everyone.
This has been a great trip with a slight risk at least every day. Last year there was only 1 slight risk for the whole 11 days. I was so happy to have a better chase this year. It was well worth it.
By the way, the two tornadoes we did see on the chase were rated EF0 in oklahoma. And the wedge in South Dakota was a destructive EF4 tornado. Unfortunately, we were not able to get good pictures of this tornado near Bowdle, SD because it was rain wrapped.
Instead we decided to chase near our hotel where a line/derecho of storms had a chance of passing late in the day. The system never quite came together as we would have hoped, but we still got some amazing pictures as the line came towards us with a nice shelf cloud. We also got a good wall cloud early in the day with a strong updraft core above. The winds were around 35 mph for most of the day even when there were not storms. This was enough to blow dust in our eyes and blow hats off our heads.
Today was the last day of pure chasing. Tomorrow we will be heading on our way home. If we see some storms in Iowa on our way we might chase, but if not we will just go to our hotel and have a nice sit down dinner with everyone.
This has been a great trip with a slight risk at least every day. Last year there was only 1 slight risk for the whole 11 days. I was so happy to have a better chase this year. It was well worth it.
By the way, the two tornadoes we did see on the chase were rated EF0 in oklahoma. And the wedge in South Dakota was a destructive EF4 tornado. Unfortunately, we were not able to get good pictures of this tornado near Bowdle, SD because it was rain wrapped.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Oh, the life in Kansas
I love being out on the road chasing these storms. What a life!
First of all, I got a shout out on WREX in Rockford, Ill as one of my classmates broadcast about
our storm chase. Here is the link.
Today had a few storms pop, but nothing got too exciting til nightfall. A large tornado was seen near Goodland, KS, but it was after dark, so we were not able to see anything. Today shows that there can be storms popping but you might never get a good perspective, or they might not go tornadic even if you think they will. That is the point of vortex2.
On our way down tonight we passed the TIV and i caught a picture of it here.
Towards the end of the day we got stuck on a dirt road which had turned to mud. We had to push all 5 vehicles out of the mud and no one was wearing shoes by the end.
Oh the joys of chasing.
Tomorrow looks to be the last good day of chasing back up in south dakota. Hopefully we can have the same luck as last time.
Goodnight
Back to the south
So storm chasing involves a lot of driving. This can be seen since we are heading back to the kansas/nebraska border to chase storms today. Vortex 2 did not go out yesterday because the conditions were too conditional for the long drive. We are definitely glad we made the drive. It was well worth it to see the storms we did with barely anyone around. We saw a few chasers, but nothing too bad. Today we will be back into an area of possible chaser convergence. Hopefully we will not have too much issue there.
Also, to clarify, I know the weather channel has been doing a lot of coverage on chasers getting away of vortex2. We are not one of those "storm crashers." Indeed there are a lot of amateur chasers who do not know what they are doing and get in the way of other chasers who do know what they are doing, but that is not us. We are always careful to be off on side roads or parking lots where we do not risk injury to ourselves or anyone else.
We have seen cars passing in a double yellow, tripods set up on the side of the road, and people running across the road. We realize these mistakes and always chase responsibly. Vortex2 has never had an issue with us. They are collecting valuable data for the meteorological community, and we understand that.
Anyway, today's set up. Today will be late initiation along the retreating warm front/dry line. There is unstable air to the southeast of this boundary interaction and very stable air to the north. Our goal is to once again chase the triple point (where warm front meets the dry line). We are 2 for 2 on seeing tornadoes when we chase the triple point. Hopefully today we can make it 3 for 3.
South of the triple point we should see CAPE approaching 3000 J/kg and 0-3 helicity over 250 m^2/s^2. This should be more than sufficient for supercells if we can get the cap to break along the triple point. We are still in northern Nebraska, so we have a lot of driving to do.
Hopefully we see something good this afternoon.
Also, to clarify, I know the weather channel has been doing a lot of coverage on chasers getting away of vortex2. We are not one of those "storm crashers." Indeed there are a lot of amateur chasers who do not know what they are doing and get in the way of other chasers who do know what they are doing, but that is not us. We are always careful to be off on side roads or parking lots where we do not risk injury to ourselves or anyone else.
We have seen cars passing in a double yellow, tripods set up on the side of the road, and people running across the road. We realize these mistakes and always chase responsibly. Vortex2 has never had an issue with us. They are collecting valuable data for the meteorological community, and we understand that.
Anyway, today's set up. Today will be late initiation along the retreating warm front/dry line. There is unstable air to the southeast of this boundary interaction and very stable air to the north. Our goal is to once again chase the triple point (where warm front meets the dry line). We are 2 for 2 on seeing tornadoes when we chase the triple point. Hopefully today we can make it 3 for 3.
South of the triple point we should see CAPE approaching 3000 J/kg and 0-3 helicity over 250 m^2/s^2. This should be more than sufficient for supercells if we can get the cap to break along the triple point. We are still in northern Nebraska, so we have a lot of driving to do.
Hopefully we see something good this afternoon.
What an amazing Saturday!
Here is the text to go with the pictures from yesterday.
I just saw the most amazing storm structure I might ever see in my life.
Yesterday was a day without much expectation. There was a strong cap over most of South Dakota and by 4:30 pm it didn't seem like that cap was going to break anytime soon. That's when we noticed a tower going up to our northwest. One tower after another continued funneling into the storm and it quickly began to strengthen on radar. We decided to go for it and drive north to intercept the storm. We arrived about 3 miles south of Bowdle, SD and got out of our cars. Almost immediately someone noticed the large cone tornado in the rain wrapped wall cloud. The contrast was not very good, so it was hard to get pictures, but we could see with our eyes as it turned into a wedge north of Bowdle.
A storm began to develop to our south and we had to get out of there before we lost a windshield. Even with leaving early we still got hit by some pea/penny sized hail on a storm which had just developed. We started heading east to intercept the storm again when we noticed another storm developing to the south and increasing intensity rapidly. We decided to go south on 45 to intercept that storm instead of going north on 45 to intercept the rain wrapped tornado.
This decision was well worth it as we set up on a hill and watched the storm develop into the most picturesque storm I have ever seen. First there was incredible mammatus overhead and then striations began to develop in the storm as multiple mesocyclones began to develop. We watched 2 funnel clouds begin to drop before pulling back up. As the low-level jet kicked in, the storm developed into one large mesocyclone with striations, a hail core, and mammatus that I have only seen in textbooks.
If I had the choice of seeing this storm or the tornado on Tuesday and I could only see one, this would have been my choice. I could not stop taking pictures. I also took a lot of video which I will have to go through and post once I get home.
In the end, this was the best day of the chase thus far because expectations were low, but we ended up seeing the best structured storm of the whole trip.
Today showed what can happen when a 6000 CAPE + environment, a strong cap, and strong low level vorticity all come together. We could have had nothing, or we could have had the best storms of the year. We were fortunate enough to have the latter.
I just saw the most amazing storm structure I might ever see in my life.
Yesterday was a day without much expectation. There was a strong cap over most of South Dakota and by 4:30 pm it didn't seem like that cap was going to break anytime soon. That's when we noticed a tower going up to our northwest. One tower after another continued funneling into the storm and it quickly began to strengthen on radar. We decided to go for it and drive north to intercept the storm. We arrived about 3 miles south of Bowdle, SD and got out of our cars. Almost immediately someone noticed the large cone tornado in the rain wrapped wall cloud. The contrast was not very good, so it was hard to get pictures, but we could see with our eyes as it turned into a wedge north of Bowdle.
A storm began to develop to our south and we had to get out of there before we lost a windshield. Even with leaving early we still got hit by some pea/penny sized hail on a storm which had just developed. We started heading east to intercept the storm again when we noticed another storm developing to the south and increasing intensity rapidly. We decided to go south on 45 to intercept that storm instead of going north on 45 to intercept the rain wrapped tornado.
This decision was well worth it as we set up on a hill and watched the storm develop into the most picturesque storm I have ever seen. First there was incredible mammatus overhead and then striations began to develop in the storm as multiple mesocyclones began to develop. We watched 2 funnel clouds begin to drop before pulling back up. As the low-level jet kicked in, the storm developed into one large mesocyclone with striations, a hail core, and mammatus that I have only seen in textbooks.
If I had the choice of seeing this storm or the tornado on Tuesday and I could only see one, this would have been my choice. I could not stop taking pictures. I also took a lot of video which I will have to go through and post once I get home.
In the end, this was the best day of the chase thus far because expectations were low, but we ended up seeing the best structured storm of the whole trip.
Today showed what can happen when a 6000 CAPE + environment, a strong cap, and strong low level vorticity all come together. We could have had nothing, or we could have had the best storms of the year. We were fortunate enough to have the latter.
quick from yesterday
we are leaving here this morning, but I wanted to post some pictures from yesterday when I had the chance. here you go:
the most amazing storm structure I have ever seen
The last picture is the large wedge tornado in northern South Dakota is in this picture, but the contrast is hard to see. Maybe if you turn the screen to the side you can see.
the most amazing storm structure I have ever seen
The last picture is the large wedge tornado in northern South Dakota is in this picture, but the contrast is hard to see. Maybe if you turn the screen to the side you can see.
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