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!
26/05/2009 at 1:34 pm Permalink
Just remember Rissa…
Storm chasing is like fishing at Lake Eufaula. Some days the crappie are biting and you spend a lot of your time trying to keep from falling off the dock because of all the excitement.
But most days the fish don’t take one bite and you spend most of your time just sitting there looking at your Aunt Cindy smoking her cigarettes and telling you about your Grandfather. Those days can be the most priceless.