Large tornado intercepted around 5 pm CDT June 5 , 2009 near La Grange, WY. YAY!
Videos will be added tomorrow.
LARGE TORNADO!
Finally some real action!
Monday (May 25)
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We traveled from Norman to just southeast of Amarillo to meet up with the Armada. We waited around for some time, and we were then told to head for Estelline to set up for future targets. After approximately 15 minutes on the side of the highway in Estelline, we were instructed to deploy on a target storm just to our northeast that had the possibility of becoming supercellular. We attempted to deploy, but the storm’s updraft was obscured by low clouds.
We packed up and headed off in an attempt to get in better position. Sadly, before we could re-deploy, the storm died.
We sat around where we were for about 30 minutes or so while FC decided which storm to target next. We eventually got the word to target a storm about 2 to 2.5 hours off to our Northwest.
Sadly, the storm died before we could get to it, once again. FC tried to have us target another storm which was again way off in the distance. No one made it to said storm, however, and we all just gave up and went to Sonic for dinner. We all made our way to Childress where we completely collapsed for the night.
Tuesday (May 26)
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Tuesday looked much more impressive, with high CAPE values in the western part of central Texas, just west of the Dallas metro. We started in Childress and were instructed to be in Wichita Falls by 2pm. We got there, ate lunch, then were told to make our way to Gainesville, and after sitting there for a while, to move east and south of the area. We moved, but we just assumed that nothing would be in a rural enough area west of the metro and before daylight so that it could be targeted. The supercellular storm of to the west of Ft. Worth, however, had far different plans for us. It made a north-south split, after which the south split died, but the north split intensified and moved NNW out in to rural territory. We were instructed to get there as fast as possible, and we were one of the first teams in position (hooray!). We got some great images of an anti-cyclonic, left-moving supercell. Yay for success!
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We are now currently down in Norman for at least one more night, possibly a second tomorrow (Thursday). We will then be traveling to KS to get in place for possible targets this weekend and the beginning of next week in the upper midwest and central great plains. The pattern is finally looking more seasonable! YAY!
Videos, nearly pointless chases, and heading back south
I’ve uploaded a few new videos of waves from Lake McConaughy, as well as buffalo and prairie dogs from South Dakota.
Friday (May 22):
We got up for the morning weather briefing and they told us that we’d be playing something right in our hotel’s vicinity in Hot Springs and that we’d be staying in the same place again that night. We all went outside, got our cars loaded, and waited for the word to deploy. We ended up hanging out in the hotel parking lot until around 2pm. Some people played football, others frisby, some read, and some had far too much fun with bear hats. When we finally got the cue to deploy, they told us to head west, which meant driving 30 minutes over the black hills of SD. Once we arrived at our destination, we sat around on the side of the road for 30 more minutes, after which FC decided that the eastern side of the black hills actually looked better. So, we retraced our journey back over the hills, past our hotel’s location, and across the highway to Buffalo Gap, SD. We got there, sat around for about an hour while FC and the radars discussed whether any of the convection was worth chasing. They ended up saying that it wasn’t, and we got an early night in at the Holiday Inn Express (which had a nice hot breakfast and super nice pillows!).
Saturday (May 23):
Most everyone woke up expecting to head south to catch the stuff in Texas on Monday. But instead, we were told we’d only be making it to southern NE where they thought there might be a chance of land spouts. We arrived at our storm and were able to deploy successfully (FINALLY!) on it. It wasn’t a supercell and really never had much interesting wall cloud or updraft structure, but it was successfully collected data, nonetheless. The armada called it quits around 6:40pm that night and we all headed en masse for North Platte, NE. That night everyone hung out at Ruby Tuesday’s just across the parking lot, as well as the hotel bar, where we were treated to a free drink. Huzzah!
Sunday (May 24)
In light of the decent looking setups further south, the PIs decided that heading to Texas was a good idea. The photogrammetry team took the opportunity to drive to Norman, OK so they could switch out half of the members for new ones. This means I am at the moment staying at my uncle Tom’s house in Edmond, OK. We’ll be departing early tomorrow morning for Texas where we hope to find something decently chaseable. Here’s to praying!
Microbursts, Wall Clouds, and Mount Rushmore
I know it’s been a while since I posted, but I wanted to wait until I had more to talk about.
Monday night & Tuesday (May 18 and 19):
We arrived in Ogallala (try saying it… ’tis quite fun) Nebraska and stayed in a single hotel with the whole V2 armada. The rooms were actually super nice with very comfy pillows (much to my liking) and the hotel itself was really pretty quaint. We didn’t have to leave on Ops on Tuesday until around 2pm CDT, so we decided to go in search of some adventures. We drove north about 20 miles to Lake McConaughy. It was an absolutely gorgeous lake with tons of natural sandy beaches and ice cold water. There were actually waves crashing on shore!
That afternoon, we went out in search of convection, but only really expecting some very high based storms with possible microbursts. We went about an hour west to Sidney, NE and waited for convection to form. It did eventually form, but it was super high based (~650-700mb or 3km) and all we got out of it was lots of microbursts (really strong winds and rain). We eventually gave up without getting a good deployment and headed back to Ogallala again for the night.
Wednesday (May 20):
Wednesday appeared to be much more promising with 50kts of 0-6km shear and 1000-1500 J/Kg of CAPE ahead of a cold front draped over western Nebraska, as well as a marginal slight risk issued by SPC. The only remaining issue was moisture availability, which was the same issue as the day before. Being desperate, we still went out in search of a meteorological miracle. We headed about 2 hours northeast of Ogallala to Alliance, NE where we were to wait for further instruction from Field Command (FC). Before we arrived in Alliance, the SASSI chat (our main method of communication) of FC informed us to continue NEward to Hemingford, NE. Once we got to Hemingford, we attempted a preliminary practice deployment on a developing updraft off to our north, and that was the only deployment we got all day. The whole day was just a mess: we went all the way up to Hay Springs, NE in chase of the best looking convection, but ended up deciding that it was too abysmal too chase, we turned around south and decided to call it a day and go back to Alliance for the night. Meanwhile, once we drove through the storm we were originally chasing, it began to intensify and actually became the most intense storm of the day. However, it was too late to turn
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Thursday (May 21):There was a complete lack of any opportunity for a chase, so lead scientist Josh Wurman and the PI team decided that it would be a down day / travel day. They designated Hot Springs, SD as the target for the night. Before heading out, we decided to make a stop at the local attraction carhenge. They basically took a bunch of junky old cars and put them in to the shape of cars, as well as strew some other fun structures around in other places. Neat!
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We also decided to make a pit stop at the Rest Area down the road. It’s on the side of the road and I think it is pretty self-explanatory.
That being very close to Mount Rushmore (only an hour away) we decided that it would be a good idea to head over that way. I’m ashamed to say that this day was indeed the most fun I’ve had so far. I’ll try to get video of prairie dogs and bison up tomorrow sometime!
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We are now somewhere in western SD preparing for an Ops day somewhere tomorrow.
First day on the road
Map of the southern part of our root.
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So, today was our first day out on VORTEX 2. We started out in Norman, OK at 10 am packing our bags and equipment in to the car and left out of the parking lot at 11 am. We headed North on I 35 up to Wichita,KS where we stopped for food at Wendy’s. We got back on the road and continued north on I 135 to Salina, where we made a pit stop at a mall just off the highway for a group member’s favorite restaurant ever : Taco John’s.
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Needless to say, the mall was in need of a lot of help and looked pretty much dead from the outside. After getting his Taco John’s fix and with Mike on cloud 9, we headed out west on I 70. We took a North turn at Hays, KS on 183. By the way, I think KS needs more wind farms. There just aren’t enough windmills.
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The navigation system also took us through the downtown of an itty bitty little town and by a really odd refinery.
We then made our way north and into Nebraska. Just before getting to Nebraska, while on a 2-lane highway, we came upon an area that was being resurfaced one lane at a time. As we waited to be let through, we were engulfed by a MASSIVE swarm of bees.
The poor guy directing us had to stand out side in all the bees. We still have no clue where they came from or why they were so insistent on swarming us like that. After getting away from the killer bees (overdramatic, I know), we were led down the short stretch of 1-lane highway by a “guide car”.
The day ended with a gorgeous sunset and we’re now hanging out in a hotel in Nebraska, but you’ll have to check back tomorrow to see exactly where we are.
Night all!
My new HD Camcorder
I got my graduation present in the mail today: a Canon Vixia HF 20 HD camcorder. I skipped on studying for my Friday final to stay home so that I could sign for the package thinking the UPS man would be by around 2 or 3. But the hours went by: 3, 4, 5, 6… Around 6:30 I started to get a little worried that UPS had failed on their promise of delivering it today. However, at exactly 6:57, just 3 minutes before end of business for UPS, there was a ring at the doorbell. Apparently I was practically the LAST delivery of the day for my local UPS delivery man. Got annoyed at how long it took, but at least I got it, and am so excited to get to use it out in the field!
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Here’s some test footage that I took. The detail is amazing!
In other news, just 2 more finals to go, only one of which really means anything. The one tomorrow is ALL on excel, which means we’re allowed complete access to notes and previous tests/quizzes/homework. The only one left that I have to study for is my hydrologic science exam which is on FRIDAY. Ugh why did it have to be so late in exam week? I can’t believe that in 4 days I will be officially a graduate of the University of Oklahoma! WOOHOO! Grad school here I come!
A new blog with my own domain :)
So, I’ve gotten a blog so that everyone can follow me on my storm chasing adventures. I won’t be able to tell you where I’m going or where I am specifically once I get out there, but I plan on spewing everything that happened from the previous day on here. I’ll do my best to get any video or photos that I get up here so you call can see them :). I hope that this will help me remember every day from the trip so that I don’t forget anything 
. And don’t be afraid to comment! I’d love to hear what you all are thinking
For now I’m just tinkering with the layout and things, so it will all be changing over the next week or so before I get out there.
