Storm Chasing
May 2, 2005
Day 1: The beginning
Greetings Fellow Weather People!
Tour 1 from Silver Lining Tours is underway!
Yesterday I flew to Oklahoma City and we all met together for the first time to talk over rules and the basics of what we will be doing. We went to dinner and this morning were up and ready to meet in the lobby by 7am! (We all know I am NOT a morning person.)
We drove from OKC to Sonora, TX today. About 500 miles. Here is a map to show you. (We didn't drive the specified route. We went more through Wichita Falls and then South on Hwy. 82 to San Angelo.) There really isn't anything that fired up down here tonight. It's about 70, but the dew point is only in the 40's...not really condusive for storms. (You usually see dew's in the 60s and 70s for that.) Of course it takes many more ingredients to come together, but moisture is very important.
Roger says we will meet tomorrow morning about 10am, learn some Meteorology 101, and maybe some things will fire up around here and we won't have to drive very far. Long term models are showing us more near the pandhandle of TX and CO on Wed, and eventually going as far north as IA and MN by the end of the week, and working our way kinda back this way along the fronts that will come through. He says on most 10 day chases, if you chase half those days, that's usually average and pretty good.
I will take the chance to see whatever we can. If not, this has been quite fun so far. We have about 18 people with us, which is quite alot. 2 drivers, Roger as a guide/navigator and another gentleman as navigator, a Japanese film crew of about 5, plus us sightseers. I was quite surprised that we have 5 people from the UK with us. A father/son duo, (Nick and John), Ian & Jules, and Alister who is the other driver and has worked with Roger for the last 6 years.
Well we are off to eat and meet now. Getting some sleep tonight and resting for the next few days could be busy, and we will need it!
May 3, 2005
Day 2: Run for the border
So on Tuesday we started in Sonora, TX again. Same hotel. Storm expectations were low so we drove south to Del Rio, a border town to Mexico. Roger ended up having something fixed on one of the vans and the rest of us (minus the Japanese group) headed toward the border crossing location. We took a picture near the border, for this is the first time a Silver Lining Tour group came so close.
Click to see bigger image.
We walked about a mile across a bridge and boy did it start to smell and there was garbage. When we got to the other side, we so stuck out like tourists. It was quite comical.
What it looked like when we first entered.
This reminded me of a Mexican Wal-Mart, the blue in color.
Radio and TV station of the area.
Ever heard of Coca Cola Light a.k.a. Diet Coke?
The bathroom at this place we went to had the most interesting signs for 'Men' and 'Women.' You tell me which one is which....
Are you a nut???
Or a bolt???
Left to Right: Brian, Alister, and Tim.
Roger said "Don't ANYONE bring back huge sombreros!" So they bought these as a joke.
We headed back across the border. When we got to the American side, the American's in the group proceeded quickly through with our touristy stuff while the 5 from the UK (Alister, Ian, Jules, Nick and John) headed inside. They were told that when they cross the border, they would revoke their visa, but would just need to fill out some form and maybe need a stamp for their passports. Almost 90 mins LATER, we were finally able to leave. It was looking a bit stormy, and we joked that if the weather radio went off, we would leave them a note and tell them we would be back for them later.
We met up later with Roger (van fixed easily) and headed toward Sonora. Models looked crappy for tomorrow (Wed) so we decided to head towards Carlsbad, NM and to go to the Carlsbad Caverns. Those plans ended up changing as you will see in my next post.
May 4, 2005
Day 3: The unexpected storm
So we headed out of Sonora, TX for good to head towards Carlsbad, NM. Dewpoints, CAPE and wind shear models looked like there MAY be some storms that could fire up in the Davis Mountains out near El Paso. We drove on I-10 West towards El Paso and headed South on Hwy 17 to head into the mountains. As we got near Ft. Davis we could see some towers going up with the heating of the day. It exploded very quickly and we ended up punching the core. "Punching the core" is driving through the part of the storm, the core, where all the precip is--rain or hail. Upon punching the core, it started hailing, and hailing, and hailing, and hailing.
We followed the storm towards Alpine, but it started to lose strength as it lowered and came off the mountain. See the storm formed at a high altitude, 4,000 feet in the mountains. Because of this, it didn't take much with the temperature and moisture to cause the air to form an updraft (or lift up) as it hit the mountains. When it lifts, this causes clouds to start to form and look they are exploding. But before the cell started to dissapate, it formed a nice liberty bell shaped cloud with the wall cloud. As you can see in the picture, it looks like a liberty bell because of the shape.
We drove back towards Ft. Stockton, so Roger could get internet access and send some of the video off to The Weather Channel.
Tonight we are in Midland, TX. We are getting together around 9am to look over models and decide from there. Right now it sounds like we may head towards Eastern New Mexico. Whether its SE NM or NE NM, we are not sure.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday models look great for storms into KS, NE and OK. You really don't hold much stock in models that project farther than 72hrs, because the data can change alot.
A high pressure system is moving east, and a low pressure trough is coming in from the west and will cause southerly winds from the gulf of Mexico to bring the moisture back for us. As the winds blow South or SW from that, they hit the trough blowing E or NE, this causing sheer and roatation in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Dew points are looking good, into the 60's. We also need jouls of at least 500 with the CAPE in the area. CAPE is any instability in the air. At the 500mb heights of winds, you also need at least 30 knots of wind.
Tuesday and Wednesday are looking like Armageddon right now. High dew points, strong 500mb winds, 3,500 joules of CAPE. We may be as far north as SD as well. (If we are all the way into SD or NE come Wednesday night, we HAVE to be back to OKC for people fly out on Thursday, which means lots and lots of overnight driving to come back.) But again, it's so far into the future, it could change, but most likely will not. Our last chase day will be Wednesday, but things are looking so good on Thursday (the down day between tours) that myself and 2 others may tag along with Roger to see some more storms, and David (other owner at home) will see if anyone from Tour 2 can come a day earlier.
YIPPEE!!
May 5, 2005
Day 4: Bust!
We left from Midland, TX today at about 10:30am and drove north towards the pandhandle of TX and NE NM. It ended up being a bust as the clouds didnt burn off and clear to let there be any daytime heating.
Tonight we are in Liberal, KS. Did you guys know there is a WIZARD OF OZ MUSEUM HERE!! I am not kidding!! Also you can see Dorothy's House. How come I never knew about this??? (For you all who know I love OZ and Judy Garland, you are just rolling your eyes.)
Right now we are leaving at 8am for Western and SW NE, near McCook, Ogalala and North Platte. KS looks good for storms too, so we may be driving back south again. For any of you that know me, mom and family live in NE, so we are getting into land and towns that I know. We will be about 2hrs west of my mom. She told me if a tornado is coming, to let her know, since we would be chasing in the area. I may get to warn her after all tomorrow.
The models still look good for Saturday and Sunday, Monday still being a down day, Tuesday pretty good, and Wednesday and Thursday still look like armageddon. As David (Owner) put it-- "someone is gonna get their ass kicked." David will be coming up on Wed to chase on Thurs, so I might get to meet him. I still plan on going with them on Thursday even though the chase officially ends on Wednesday. I am in OKC till Monday and have nothing else to do and will be coming back to OKC on Friday.
Very exciting!!
May 6, 2005
Day 5: A run to the border of a different kind
We left Liberal, KS at about 9am and headed north towards Goodland and Colby, KS, as well as Burlington, CO. About 1:30pm the towers started to explode along the dryline on the KS/CO border.
We tried to chase a cell that was heading into NE, but it was too fast. As the old saying goes, once you are behind the storm, its hard to catch up to it.
We caught a cell near Burlington, CO and just went in so many directions to circle and stay in front of it the best we could, I totally lost count.
The cell we couldnt catch. Very sickening we couldn't catch it. What is so sickening about that is you can see a hook looking shape at the bottom of the cell. That is usually the hook that a cell forms as the winds kick up, cause sheer, and usually where a tornado will drop. This is also known as the hook echo. This storm actually never did and wasnt as impressive as ours, but on radar it looked so much better to us.
We spent the night in Colby, KS and right now we may be heading towards NE for Saturday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday look to be an explosive outbreak--one of the worst in recent years. I am still wanting to go on Thursday even though the tour ends on Wednesday. I will go if I am allowed.
May 7, 2005
Day 6: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
After long analysis of the models, we finally left Colby, KS at about 10:30am and drove towards the OK/TX Pandhandle. Unfortunately, it was a bust because the high sirrus clouds wouldn't burn off. NE got hit big, which we thought about going there. (Tornadoes near Kearney, NE. Hello MOM!)
We are back at the OKC Hotel from the beginning of the tour. YAY because I got to unload my duffle bag some into my other suitcase. I was keeping it here and was able to make it much, much lighter now. Tomorrow we leave for SE NE at about 8:30am.
My blog was also the 'blog of the day' at this site. http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/
Thank you Gill!
May 8, 2005
Day 7: Very wicked
We left OKC at about 8:30am and drove to Wichita, KS to eat lunch. As we were taking some time in a mall, the towers started to explode at the triple point. Triple point is where the warm/moist air, and dry/cool air plus the dryline converge. People went scrambling into the mall to find everyone, as we went into 500 different directions to kill some time.
We headed north out of Wichita and caught a storm near Geneseo. A storm spotter with a trigger finger, sounded the sirens. We could hear them clear out of town. There wasn't even a tornado. Between Geneseo, Lyons, Spencer and Newton, we chased one storm for about 4 hours. This storm was many different colors at different times. At one point it was swirling right above us.
Standing near this storm the winds were really really warm. Then, in a matter of seconds, it got extremely cold and changed directions. The warm air was the inflow and warm air going into the storm to give it fuel, and the cold air was the air blowing out, or the outflow. It's something you must experience for youself. It's quite undescribeable.
Swirl. If you look carefully you can see it spinning counter clockwise in the center of the picture. You look for this swirl to see a tornado. It was right above my head.
This storm was spinning like a top. Near the base the winds were blowing counter clockwise and horizontally. This storm tried---and I mean TRIED--to drop a tornado. (If you look to the right of the cloud you will see a bit of lowering that was trying to be the tornado.) If this cell had been maybe 10 miles more away from the other one, what we saw could have touched down and been a substancial tornado. The 10 more miles meant it would have been farther from the other cell. For supercells to survive, they need distance between them so they can take in air and let out air. This one being too close to the other one, was just munched by the previous storm in a matter of minutes. Quite unbelieveable.
We stayed in Wichita and the lightening was neat. I was able to get some video of it.
Tomorrow we head to NE for the impending storms. The models still look good for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Hallejulah.
May 9, 2005
Day 8: Drive time
Today we didn't leave till 11am. YAY and got sleep! We look our leisurely drive from Wichita to NE for those impending storms. We are staying in Grand Island, NE today.(Hello all!) It looks like we may be heading toward the pandhandle of NE tomorrow for storms.
It also looks like KS for Wednesday, and if I stay for Thursday, OK looks to be the target.
May 10, 2005
Day 9: A mother of a storm
We started out in Grand Island, NE and sat around for most of the day. Checking models and surface observations continually, we were able to see that Grand Island was the area to be. We sat there until almost 6pm when a tower finally started just not even 10 miles to the west of us.
The storm you could see was spinning very violently and very quickly. While we sat there to film, we could see the scud clouds rising to the base, meaning the winds were rising up to the storm. At one point we could see a funnel and a wall cloud. The RFD, rear flank downdraft, started to kick up behind. The RFD is a sign it’s spinning quite fast and you need RFD to cause a tornado. When the wind comes out of the clouds, it hits the ground and bounces back up into the storm. In our case, when it hit the ground, it caused so much dust to be swirled and sucked up; we had to head north and west to get away from it. The RFD winds can be very, very strong. It was a scene straight out of the sandstorm from The Mummy.
Driving away, the strong winds caused a gustnado to form. Somewhere along the line of trying to getting away from the RFD/sand, we lost the National Geographic people that were with us. Come to find out, they got a flat tire and were really, really, lucky that the big hail didn't hit their car. They called Roger and said they were in Grand Island, and were NOT moving. I think that scared them just a little bit. They had to radio to us, and probably didn't know what was going on with the dust as well.
We headed east toward York, and once we got away from the storm, we could see the storm had a very defined shape. This is called a mother ship. It spins to fast and so violently that it causes striations and levels in the storm-- much like an upside down wedding cake or a stake of plates. Roger said you will only see a storm like this once every 10 years. He sure hasn’t seen many in his 20 years of storm chasing. You can definately hear his enthusiasm on my camcorder.
There were a lot of false spotter reports of tornadoes with this storm because of the dust and the dust being mistaken for a tornado.
We stopped at one point so Roger could see the storm behind us. We got down the road and realized his phone was missing. The only place it could be was where he stepped out of the van on the side of the road. Our van had to drive back TOWARDS the sand and RFD and we were very fortunate to find it and it hadn’t fallen in the grass.
At two different points we stopped to take photos and video, but as we were losing daylight, I never got a really good shot of it. I sure wish I did. It was quite spectacular. It looked very much like this picture of the Childress, TX storm from a few years ago. Ours had many more layers, striations, in it. At least 10 different ones. It looked like a stack of plates.
Picture Roger took of that storm.
Near York we stopped to watch the storm again, and we heard a noise. A few seconds later, you heard hail hitting the ground and Roger yelled at us to get in the van. The storm, at one time reported, had baseball size hail and you will get killed if you are hit with that. The noise we actually heard was the hail roar. It sounds much like a jet engine, and then you will start to hear the hail fall in a distance before it comes to you.
We called it a night around 10pm and went to stay in Kearney, NE. (MOM!) Our target tomorrow is W and SW Kansas.
May 11, 2005
Day 10: A close call
We headed out of Kearney towards KS today at about 10am. Models were showing very, very good conditions for storms. Over 5,000 joules of CAPE (you only need 500) strong winds, lots of sheer in the levels of the atmosphere, (sheer being winds going in different directions) all kinds of watch boxes out---and then the coveted PDS box. Particularly dangerous situation. When the SPC, Storms Prediction Center in Norman, OK issues this box, there is a BIG possibility for tornadoes.
Around 1pm, things started firing off to the NORTH. We made a mad dash to the north as the storms were going NORTH. (The whole thing I told you about how it’s hard to get ahead of a storm once you are behind it.) The cold front hadn’t gone as far south as we expected to and to where the storms would fire, and that’s why they were north of us.
We tried to catch some, but as they were moving north, and even northwest (which is very uncommon) they were lining out (getting long and skinny and losing shape, thus rotation as well) and drying up.
Some major cells started to form near the triple point which was located near KS/NE/CO border. It was almost 2 hours away, but we went for it anyway.
We got near Benkelman, NE and could see a small tornado in the distance. One had also been spotted by a chaser. We headed north toward Imperial, as the storm followed us north.... kind of parallel to us.
We saw some rotation to the west but it disappeared. Not long after that, someone in the van noticed something suspicious to our back, left side. Roger got out to look and shoot some video. He was out there no more than 10 seconds when the RFD winds hit him and almost knocked him over. I saw him get hit (I couldn’t see what was going on the other side of the van in the field) and knew it was NOT GOOD. He scrambled back into the van and started yelling TORNADO, TORNADO, GO GO GO GO!!! He was screaming at the other van over the microphone. Brian and Alister floored it the best we could, but it felt like it was trying to suck us in. Once we got away from it and our nerves calmed down, people started playing back their cameras. One gentleman pointed it over his shoulder and got the tornado coming down. One other girl in the other van got the wall cloud and couldn’t see the tornado because it was RIGHT OVER OUR HEADS. Roger thinks it was only more than 50-100 yards away and says he has never been that close or more scared in his life. Looking at the video now, it looks like the tornado was anti-cyclonic (which doesn't happen on this HEMPISPHERE that often) and there is a dirt swirl going around the vans. I think we were much closer than we ever realized.
We drove back to OKC, had to for people to catch flights tomorrow, and arrived around 6am. YIKES! I am going on the other bonus day tomorrow and we should leave around noon for the TX/OK Panhandle again. We will see David and his van of “on call” chasers he is bringing. We might get a repeat of today.
Buckle up folks, its going to be a bumpy ride and the guardian angels are working over time.
May 12, 2005
Day 11: Tornado! tornado! tornado!
We got back to OKC at about 6am and I went to sleep for about 4 hours. I had signed up to go on the extra day of the tour today and we had to leave around noon.
We headed west towards the TX panhandle, between Childress and Lubbock. Some major storms were starting to fire up and some tornadoes had been sighted. We put the pedal to the floor to catch up.
At about 5pm, we got to the biggest storm NE of Lubbock. All the storm chasers in the country seemed to be around there. We saw Josh Wurman with the DOW (Dopper on wheels) truck, and Howie Bluestein with his doppler. Even the idiots at IMAX had their vehicle. It looks much like a tank and they want to drive it into a tornado. Only IMAX would be dumb enough to do that.
We headed farther down the road and Roger yelled FUNNEL! FUNNEL! He yelled to the Japanese on the radio-- TORNADO! TORNADO! TORNADO! IF YOU ARE GOING TO DEPLOY THE PROBE, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT! We stopped and got out and look at what mother nature did for us....... TORNADO!!!
The Japanese drove about 2 miles down the road, dropped the probe, AND RAN. Supposedly it was close, but did not take a direct hit. Roger told Sam to drive 2 more miles and drop it there. If Roger told me to drive towards that thing I would have said HELL NO. It was amazing though!
We tried to stay away the best we could, but since we were on the backside of the tornado, it started to hail on us. These things were meteors! It put dents in the van and shattered a window. We found a house with a carport and we were able to hide under there.
Was I scared, heck no! Would I do it again, you bet! SLT now has me hooked for life! I didn't fall asleep till almost 4:30am that night. Roger says you never forget the first one you see. I surely won't!
June 1, 2005
I sat at home looking at weather models and soaking in everything I could since my SLT trip. I was totally bored and they had a moderate outlook projected for 6/2 into central and western KS. I thought for a while if I could actually pull it off. After a while I said, "what the heck, let's try." So I packed the car hastily and left Nashville at 3pm to head as far as Salina, KS. I got to Salina at about 4am.
June 2, 2005
Let me start off by saying I wasn't expecting to see any storms because I am still learning, but you learn by trial and error and a road trip sounded fun. I left Salina and headed towards Colby, KS. Spent a few hours there looking at data, and saw other chase vehicles, so I hoped I was doing something right. Either NE CO or SW KS was going to be in play today. When tornado watch boxes went for both areas, I chose SW KS, but the cap never broke. There were nice tornadic storms in NE CO. Bummer! Spent the night in Dodge City and actually found the Dodge City Civic Center where I first met Michael at a concert. Haven't been there since the show, and that was 5 years ago. Quite an interesting trip down memory lane.
June 3, 2005
I headed north and then east towards KC, and really thought I should just go home but was having too much fun. 6/4 looked like a slight risk but I was still not sure about myself. I drove to Boonville, MO to spend the night and was going to drive home from there.
June 4, 2005
My weather radio going off for some storm warnings in the area woke me up. I checked the data and about passed out. The outlook for the day went from slight to high OVERNIGHT! Slight is good, moderate is even better, HIGH is somebody's going to get their butt kicked. The tornado outlook was 25% which is just nuts.
There was NO WAY I was going to leave now! I headed back towards Emporia, KS to sit out and check data and see what happens.
YES!!!! Howie Bluestein and the DOW! (Doppler on Wheels) Made me feel like I was doing SOMETHING right.
OH MY GOD! Josh Wurman and his DOW and that IMAX tank! haha
I proceeded to see what they would do next. The tornado watch box was issued for my area and the areas to the north and east of me as well. The whole convoy went north and so did I.
We ended up north of Topeka and I stopped for gas. Proceeded to follow a cell that was not far from me to the north, near Hiawatha. I get just south of Hiawatha and I am like "what the heck a cop is blocking the road." It wasn't till I got to my room later this night that I missed this by 20 miles and about 10 mins.
AHHHH! ugh.....
Crossed the MO river at St. Joe, MO and followed this storm. Storms were building one right after another and moving over the same areas. I was right behind the 1st storm and the 2nd one was right behind me. Didn't want to fall behind storm 1 and get caught in storm 2 as it came my way. It had tornadoes as well. Ran back into the DOW trucks, snapped some pics....
NE of St. Joe I was on Hwy 169 going N & NE and then Hwy 46 towards the east. I could keep seeing wall clouds and lots of low clouds ahead of me. The rolling hills and winding roads of NW MO are hard to see anything on while driving. At one point the weather radio said "Tornado spotted east of Hatfield on Hwy 46..." and I was going THROUGH Hatfield on Hwy 46! A few miles down the road there were some small tree limbs in the road I had to dodge, so I knew something had been there. At one point I stopped to film the storms and got away from the first one, and the one behind me had closed in quick. I had to drop SE to get away from the core of heavy rain and small hail that started to hit my car.
I dropped down on I-35S near the IA/MO border as the storms were moving in from the west. I needed to head east to start driving towards home and stay somewhere, but I wasn't going to beat the storm before it came into KC and I could jump on I-70E. Near Cameron, I dropped onto Hwy 36 and headed east towards Chillicothe. Getting off I-35 a radio station said rotation had been detected north of Cameron and I-35....right where I was!
Once I got to Chillicothe I headed South on Hwy 65 to get back to I-70 and had already made plans to stay in Boonville again. I made one big circle. While I was on 65, I ended up helping a stranded motorist who had a flat but no jack. We both were able to make it out of there safely before the storms came.
Back in Boonville I was a little mad I missed the tornado by so little, but was so glad I got to see what I saw! The exerience was unbelieveable! There were points between those 2 storms it was so dark it was like night. The storm behind me was spitting CG lightening like crazy and very close. Wish I could have gotten some more on film than what I did, but hey, I did the best I could.
We shall see in the next few days if I choose to go again or not. 3,000 miles in 5 days BY YOURSELF is alot of driving. Now with 2 people, it wouldn't be so bad....
