Almost Home

It's been another good year out on the plains. Even though there were only a few storms that we got a chance to chase, there were still some great storms to see. We spent the entire chase part of the trip in OK and TX. On the way back we visited Lake of the Ozarks and Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. We then came back through IL, IN, and OH, finally cutting through central PA. Surprisingly, there were no leaves at all on the trees in west central PA. And I thought upstate NY was cold!

Now it's back to grindstone and Shawn will be at Reservoir Inn as always. Come by and say hello if you get a chance.

Radio Interview!

Good News! Shawn and I were interviewed by Mark Bolger and Kimberly Kay of Star 93.3FM (Mid-Hudson market) and should be on the air Monday morning. So if you want to hear more about our chase and what this is all about, please tune in. We do not have any time information for when it will air.

Chasing vs rediculous

Saturday's stormy weather bore out what we expected a lot of rain and thunderstorms surrounded by low deck clouds with lots of watches and warnings and that might attract the desperate or foolhardy, but there really was nothing to chase. And after all the hype (although real and necessary for those living in the area and there were lots of storms with rain and hail and flash floods), only one tornado touched down in TX.

In contrast, what we look for are LP (low precipitation) supercells that allow for the safest, best viewing of the storms and are amazing structures in and of themselves. In this photo, notice the rain free base of the storm and the twisted appearance of the updraft (the part of the storm that sucks warm air from the surface to the upper atmosphere, which is how thunderstorms act to move heat from surface to the top of the troposhere). Although we ocassionally get supercells in the northeast, they are not LP and generally the supercells that do form do not last long and fall apart/merge with other storms rather quickly.

Instead, we worked our way to the northeast, avoiding all of the torrential rain and passing through the wooded country of northeast OK. As an added bonus, we were on the highway that allows 75mph driving at the furthest east spot in the nation (I-44 at the northeastern corner of OK). Much of OK is flooded with small rivers spilling over their banks and into the surrounding fields, forests and towns.

Today's weather puts the rain and messy tornadic secenaios in the deep south, which is not safe for chasing and the set up would be similar to yesterday. The cold from behind the rain has shut down the potential for server weather elsewhere and we are working our way home. Still, there is plenty to see and explore and in the nation, so we will be sure to add some other pieces of Americana to our trip.

Saturday ... Storms in all the wrong the places

The front that produced the nice storms on Friday has moved east and while it may set off storms later today, they will likely be in areas not condusive to chase and what might develop will likely me wrapped in rain and hail and part of lines of storms. As a result, we will probably not chase any of these storms, although we will keep an eye on them as the day progresses. Unfortunately, few storms are likely to develop in chasing territory over the next couple of days. For now, we are headed toward Oklahoma City and the beginning of the end of the 2009 chase trip.

Another Long Day, Good Chase

A trio of storms formed about an hour southwest of Wichita Falls, TX, and evolved into supercells with nice inflows and flanking lines. We had to race south along US 83 to try and catch the storms, and we made our way for the most southerly of the trio. Tornado warnings were issued on two of the cells just before 4pm, but we were not close enough to see the tornadoes themselves, merely the well-developed storm structures and their wide-spread anvils. As it turned out, these two tornadoes were the only confirmed daylight tornadoes to touchdwn in the area. A strong, nicely developed flanking line, including one twisted cumulus towers provided some great viewing and we looked forward to getting up close to the storm. Unfortunately by the time we approached the storms, they became outflow dominant and fizzled. In no time at all, the entire trio of storms dissapated and we watched the skies clear with only a few small updrafts to our west.


We watched the small updrafts build and even through conditions for new storms to form in did not seem all that favorable, we decided to watch. The storms quickly built into a series of impressive storms that received severe storm warnings and even a couple of radar-indicated tornado warnings. In the fading light, the storms loomed on the western horizon and expanded rapidly. The main attraction with these storms was the lightning, which we watched as we headed back toward Wichita Falls for the night.

The Chase is on!

Right now we are heading down US 83, just west of the TX-OK border. Our current goal is the area around Guthrie, TX. The NWS has already identified a storm as possibly producing a tornado south of us and we are heading to get into a safe viewing position behind it (west in this case). There is a moderate chance of severe weather identified for the area, especially that east of us and a tornado watch (meaning conditions that could lead to tornado formation are present) has been issued. Current conditions indicate that a blow up of a number of storms could create a difficult chase conditions for us, so safety is key.