Day 3 May 28, 2007

Today was setting up for a mesoscale convective system in the Dakotas in the evening hours. I had downloaded models the night before and they seemed to suggest an isolated supercell or two ahead of the main convective cluster. SPC had put out a slight risk, with a 2 to 5 percent chance of tornadoes, as well as a risk for large hail. We were to head north into central South Dakota today. Ron and I really liked what we were seeing. There was convergence in the central Dakotas, with winds coming from the northwest colliding with southeast backing winds. The backing winds were quite strong today, gusting to about 20 knots. If the trough came in later, we would just set ourselves up for some lightning photography. Of course I don't mind since I am using my new Tamron lens for the first time chasing. Hopefully I will say goodbye to blurry lightning shots!

Going through Cherry county in Nebraska, we saw signs of horizontal vorticity. Some cumulus clouds were starting to curl and form transverse rolls. On the way north, we stopped at a scenic lookout. It was quite a nice view from on top of there. We ate a small lunch in Valentine and continued north. It was going to be a long haul after today's chase to get down south to the Oklahoma panhandle for tomorrow.

In Murdo, South Dakota we booked hotel rooms at a Super 8 and waited for the cap to break. I downloaded a sounding and it looked like the cap was reading about 4 degrees C... which is pretty strong. On satellite, it looked like some towers were starting to go up in the southwest. Ron said the models had the trough coming through later in the evening... it was probably going to be too slow for supercells forming prior to sunset. We waited for a couple of more hours. There was a full halo around the sun for quite a while. Southeast backing winds were clocking a good speed. I figured if there were storms, the inflow winds would increase even more from being sucked in. We ate dinner at a nearby diner, looked in the gift shop and decided to haul west towards Rapid City shortly after 7 pm.

On our way west, we saw parts of the Badlands to our south. Quite an interesting place from what I could see... pointy mountain-like rocks off in the distance. The storms that went up in southwest South Dakota were finally coming into view. We could also see an anvil that was about 100 miles away to the northwest. We noted one inflow band coming from the north and another inflow band coming from the east. This little storm was about to be an interesting one.

We had the air conditioner on in the van, so Scott went to put his jacket on. He managed to get one sleeve in ok, but when he went to put his left arm in, he looked pretty tangled up. His jacket was wrapping around the seatbelt. Scott went on the radio and said to Ron "Houston we have a problem". He mentioned he was stuck to the van and had to pull off the interstate to fix his jacket issue. When Ron pulled up beside us, Sandra's face was priceless. She had that had that confused odd look. And then there was Ben, of course, filming away at this hilarious scene. When you travel for long hours on the road with Scott, you are guaranteed at least one good laugh every day.

Anyways... back to heading west. We eventually got a good view of the storm and pulled off the interstate to take some images. The inflow winds at this location were really kicking, combining the speeds of the backing winds plus the storm drawing them in, like I had thought it would. We noticed scud gathering just to our north. It developed into a rotating wall cloud, but it seemed a bit disorganized. It would fall apart and pull itself back together again for a few times. It never amounted to anything more. I decided to bring out the lightning rod, my tripod, to get some good video, while I snapped some pictures of the storm, which was now turning out to be more of a multi-teired shelf cloud. It made for a pretty interesting scene for a while, but that meant it was picking up forward motion speed. We had to haul ourselves further east to get ahead before the rain came. We all piled into the vehicles and shot east on the interstate. We saw people taking shelter under the overpass we were on. Once we got ahead of the storm, we pulled off the interstate once again near an overpass. It was getting darker out now, so I tried my take at lightning photography. Something I've been wanting to try since I got my new lens! Unfortunately with all the winds, it was quite difficult to keep the camera from shaking ever so slightly. I am glad I was standing behind it all the time because, at one time, the wind actually went to push my tripod over! Most of the lightning was in-cloud, but I did manage to get one good photo of a strike.

The rain was nearing us once again. The wind was so strong that just one drop of rain actually stung a bit when it hit my face. We decided to call it a night and head back to Murdo to get a good night's rest. Tomorrow was going to be quite a long haul to get to the Oklahoma panhandle.

Day 2 May 27, 2007

Today is Scott's birthday and all of us were in a good mood in the morning. Scott took some scotch mints and pretended they were hail... he put one under the windshield wiper and another one in the coil of one of the whip antennas... and then he dragged that mint up alongside of the antenna and popped it in his mouth! Nice breakfast, loaded with plenty of fiber! Of course Ben was around to film all of this.

I had downloaded some forecast models last night... it looks like we will be going on our first chase today in western Nebraska. SPC put out a slight risk for western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska. The indices seemed to be much better in Nebraska, so I chose that area as a target. In the morning, I asked Ron where he thought we were headed today and he said straight west, into western Nebraska. I thought that was pretty cool that both our targets matched perfectly. We could see some dryline storms today, but the risk of tornadoes seems pretty low... all the storm relative helicity seemed to be located in southcentral South Dakota.

A few days out, after Monday's potential setup, doesn't look so good for the rest of this week until the weekend... a ridge is going to be building into the plains. I guess we will have to do our sight seeing then, but that is okay... next week it looks like the ridge moves out and a couple shortwave troughs will be going through the southern plains.

In Council Bluffs, we ate a quick lunch at Dairy Queen. I had to have my brownie earthquake. We continued west on I80 to western Nebraska. Scott saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle on the right side of the road, parked off the road.

On the way, Ron mentioned the Baron picked up rotation couplets on some storms that developed near North Platte. Mike loaded the SPC outlook page on his laptop... SPC had shifted their slight risk a bit more north into Nebraska. A tornado warning was also issued. As we neared the target just west of North Platte, there were two storms side-by-side... one to the south and one to the north. We could see the hard knuckles on the north storm and some mammatus from the south storm. Scud from the second storm was starting to curl from the outflow of the north storm. We then saw a wall cloud trying to form... it had a small inflow tail. We decided to get closer and took a road that went north. We pulled off the road and took some pictures and video. By now a new inflow tail formed, pointing in a different direction... from the south instead of the north. A small wall cloud that kicked up a bit of dust was all that could be had, but it made for some good pictures. The storm had lost its rotation according to the Baron.

After that storm fell apart, we debated about intercepting the southern storm but figured we would not see anything because we would have to go through the precip core. It looked like a garden variety storm anyways, so we decided to head back to North Platte. We saw the TIV once again... this time it was getting towed! We heard it was some mechanical issue with the TIV. We celebrated Scott's birthday by having a nice delicious dinner at Perkin's. I mentioned that the sun was setting and would make for nice mammatus pictures, so we went outside after placing our orders. The sky was filled with mammatus. Not really the hard classic looking mammatus; these were more wispy looking, but still beautiful looking. A partial bright rainbow appeared, adding final touches to the scene. I took some nice images.

Tonight we are staying at a Super 8 in North Platte, preparing for Monday's severe potential.

Day 1 May 26, 2007

It was that time of year again... we were going to head to tornado alley. It was Ron Gravelle, Scott Keddie, Ben Fuller, Sandra Gravelle, Lee Keddie, Pam Gregory, Mike Walker, Dave Hopper, and myself. This was going to be Ron's biggest tour yet - two vehicles and nine people.

What a nice day to depart too... cold and wet. Ron decided to book hotel rooms in Davenport, Iowa because this was Memorial Day weekend. That meant the possibility of traffic and full hotels.

Of course we had to have our omens... the rain drops were actually rotating anti-clockwise on the passenger side window. Really weird but it was probably the only rotation we were going to see today.

I guess Ron wasn't kidding when he said he started calling Ben "Camelot". This guy always has a camera strapped around his shoulder, always taking stills or video. I had to make a face at him when he was filming Scott's van from Ron's car.

Near Chicago we encountered very heavy rain. A couple tornado warnings were issued for nearby counties due to a heavy line of storms. They were pretty low topped and didn't seem to look very impressive. We saw a lowering trying to get its act together but it didn't amount to much. On another storm west of Chicago, we saw an updraft area with rising scud.

Later on, a third developing storm was in view, showing a small inflow band that didn't last very long. Today's storms were not impressive but it was just a travel day anyways... and an introduction to the storms of tornado alley for Ron's new clients.

One of the lessons was how to pronounce towns correctly. Lee, Scott's wife, learned this lesson the hard way when we were in Iowa, nearing Peoria. She pronounced it as "Pee-or-ia" and Scott said, "That sounds like diarrhea." Since then, we kept making jokes.

Tonight we're staying at a Super 8 in Davenport and plan to depart at 8 am tomorrow to get into position for some chasing. So far, Ben has took about 8 hours worth of video. I think he should save some tape for the storms later.

Quick update...

I guess I should update this blog once eh? Well my trip to Hawaii went very well and I got lots of photos... sometime when I get more time, I will post a summary of my Hawaii trip.

In 9 days I will be departing for tornado alley once again, with Ron Gravelle and Scott Keddie. This time there will be nine of us going, making this Ron's biggest tour to date. We'll be departing early Saturday May 26th, for two weeks, and I will be helping out with navigating sometimes. I will do my best to keep this blog updated with daily summaries just like last year. If there is APRS tracking, I will post the link on my website.

I have a lot of good feelings about this trip... the 2007 season is already a much better season "tornado wise" than last year's. Here's hoping we will see more tornadoes!

August 2 chase summary

I figured this day would be another day I got to miss out on the action due to work. I haven't chased in Ontario this year yet since I got back from chasing in tornado alley. A tornado warning was issued for Waterloo-Wellington in the early afternoon hours. A tornado was reported in Guelph while I was left high and dry, sweltering in the heat at work. After I got home I learned Dave Szozda, my uncle, went out on a quick chase after the Guelph storm and saw a wall cloud trying to organize. All of this was ahead of a cold front, which was expected to come inland in the evening hours.

I had to quickly charge my battery for the camera, figuring I may need it later. Dave and I chatted about the storms and decided to give it a try after the squall line that was stretching from Owen Sound to past Goderich. I checked the SPC meso analysis page, which indicated CAPE was 5000 J/kg with a lifted index of -7 around the Listowel area which became my target... which wasn't too bad at all. The cold front had plenty of hot humid air to mix in with as well. I realized we were cutting it close to sunset, but I had some hope. The season had about a month left, so I had to take what I could get.

We left at 8:00 pm on hwy 85 towards Listowel. We saw the sun setting the squall line clouds which made for interesting pictures. Once we got to Dorking I noticed a shelf cloud off in the distance. It was a bit hazy yet, but figured we would be in for a good photo opportunity once we neared it. We pulled onto sideroad 15, which is just slightly west of Dorking. The shelf cloud came in and we grabbed video and photos. The wind started to pick up, and cloud-to-ground strikes became more frequent. I attempted to grab daylight lightning pics but found it rather difficult. A nice strike would flash and overexposure the photo, so that is an area that I need to practice on. But some of the photos came out pretty interesting because the clouds were fast moving. The wind was starting to blow dust in the air, which hurt my legs, then the rain came

We started to drive ahead of the storm, but we decided to punch the line and wait out the rain, hoping the rain would stop and we would get some lightning photos from the backside of the storm. The pouring rain came down horizontaly. What a nice relief from the stupid heat we've been having! Several bright CGs struck nearby. Once the rain lightened up, we decided to try taking lightning photos from inside the van. Dave had forgot his tripod, so he had to find a way to sturdy his camera. After a few attempts and once the rain cleared, I threw the camera on the tripod to take proper lightning photos. This is very addicting. There were some nice strikes, but we also had incloud lightning which kinda made it a little more difficult. After a while, the lightning started dying down as the storm was headed eastward, so we called it quits.

We got back at my house in Waterloo at 10:15 pm, with a total chase distance of approx 90 km.

The Signs of Aging Suck

Grey hair? Could it be? Is that really grey hair on the sides of my head when I look in the mirror? Wow... well not a surprise really. I knew the day would come sooner or later. Ok, so it's only a few. I discovered these grey hairs a few days ago on July 13th. Wow. The 13th. Who woulda known?! Well anyways, that just made me realize that I am approaching 30. I wish I could have stayed 25 forever. That was a perfect age. You could do all the crap that adults do, you had good memory, you acted young, you had the energy, and you had no grey hair (well... most people anyway unless you were my father who greyed in his teens). Those days are coming to the end in a few years for me. I've already got poor short term memory. I can remember stuff that happened long ago, but could I remember what I did 5 min ago? Sometimes not... today I was organizing the yogurt around in the fridge and I set one container on the floor to move it out of the way. Well it turns out I forgot to put the container BACK in the fridge. Luckily my ma spotted it before it had a chance to warm up and go bad. This short term memory crap can get frustrating at times, but as I get older, it won't get any better, so I just have to deal with it... I laugh at myself sometimes. I also can't seem to shake off those love handles or the extra weight off my thighs. Perhaps I should cut back on the sweets, dontcha think? :o)

Now excuse me while I go find my black hair colour....

Well I guess I should update once again... LOL

Yikes I haven't updated for a month. I guess it's time for another update. Well I finally updated my website with several of my tornado alley photos and summaries. I have also put all my videos onto DVD with my uncle's DVD recorder for the tv. I gotta say that really saves a bunch of time instead of making the DVD on the computer. It takes forever to upload and edit videos on the computer, not to mention it uses lots of space. What is it about computers and rendering stuff I will never know.

But anyway... I thinking of buying a new camera lens for my Canon Digtal Rebel. I am looking at the Sigma 18-200 mm for the Rebel. The kit lens that came with my camera can be a joke to manual focus with, especially in low light situations. I mean... what kind of a SLR lens doesn't have infinity distance markings on it? Good grief. Well, I plan to pop into Henry's once and have a look at the 18-200 mm lens. It's $500 but I kinda like the thought of having the abilities of a telephoto and wide angle all in one lens instead of buying a bunch of lenses.

Oh yeah. One more step towards Hawaii. I bought my luggage last Friday! And it's Hawaiian print too, with hibiscus. Now my luggage should really stand out in the airport LOL. I can't wait till that trip, it's going to be very fun. Still several months to go though... how about now? Nope. Now? Nope. Now?

Ok I gotta save the good news for last so here it is. I got more work hours, so instead of working from 8 to 4 I work from 8 to 5 now. Plus I got a dollar raise which puts my hourly rate to $10! FINALLY!!! I was supposed to have one back in March but my former boss couldn't afford it. So since my production co worker left, I was beginning to feel underpaid from all the stuff I've been doing and I've been thinking about asking for a raise sometime after the new boss got settled in. Last week he said to me "I'd love to give you a raise, I appreciate all the hard work you've been doing for me. How does $10 sound?" I was estatic. So, with the 5 extra hours a week and my raise starting in August, I will be brining home more money. And then I can pay Rita back for the Hawaii trip sooner LOL (yes it's coming Rita, please be patient LOL).