Holy Snowflakes, Batman! (and a bit of humor)
Is this April or February? As I write this from within the warm, cozy confines of my apartment, I'm looking out watching snow beginning to accumulate on the ground here. Radar across the TX PH is really lighting up with bands of snow...some of it heavy in spots with a few 30dbz spots. With the temps below 30F for probably the rest of the day due to snowfall and wet bulbing, things should get pretty interesting here by tomorrow morning. I'll post some pics tomorrow evening sometime. I plan on hitting the road and take advantage of the photo op.
Although an easter snowfall isn't too rare in the TX PH, it is in other places like DFW, Temple, Sonora which is well south of San Angelo where a thunderstorm, heavy freezing rain and 30F is being reported. Fort Stockton is reporting freezing rain. The freezing line dips to south of Junction. Tyler and Longview are in the mid 30's and now reporting moderate and light snow.
Wow. The last time I personally remember such a late season arctic blast was many years ago when I was still fishing bass tournaments. It was the middle of April and the tourny was on Joe Pool Lake in the southern part of the festering armpit called DFW. It was a miserable event with temps in the mid 30's all day long and a light mist. I always remember when I freeze my kahunas off.
I remember another major severe arctic blast in the middle of April I believe in 1998 I think. We had been having a pretty warm spring up until then and everything was in full bloom. We had temps in the 20's at might and didn't get above 40 for like 2 days at least. It was a slow warm up after that.
I remember one other Easter when I was a kid that in the first part of April, there was brief snow event one day, but we were back into the 70s a couple of days later.
So, from my memory of about 35 years walking the earth in the North Texas area, three events? That's not a scientific conclusion...just what I remember :-) Indeed, this is all a very very rare event this late in the season. I can't recall off the top of my head it being this extreme though. I'd love to have the time to do some climatological research on it. I wonder what the global warming alarmists have to say about this? LOL!!
My friend Glenn Dixon noted privately to me that ever since I moved to Amarillo, the weather has gone bonkers. I think it has something to do with the atmosphere tryng to adjust to the massive and violent contortions that the North Texas Curse is undergoing in attempting to achieve harmoneous balance once again as a result of the huge vacuum created by my absence. Nature abhores a vaccuum. It sucks. ;-) Ssshhh! the global warming nazis and Al Gore may find out and I'll be foreced to move back to North Texas. LOL!!!
I know alot of folks, including myself, are pondering what May and June will bring? Well, we've certainly seen that warm, dry winters usually spell doom for stormchasers. With 2007 proving to be the polar opposite (pun intended) of the other wild weather years recently, it's easy to think that May and June will be one wild ride. it might even be like the old days when North Texas and Oklahoma has a significant severe weather season well into the last part of June before the dog days of summer ridging take over and shift everything into the northen plains. I dunno.
In looking into the crystal ball, thinks get real interesting next week, so stay tuned for that one. However, we are going to be struggling a great deal to get the atmosphere recovered. beyond that, I'm not liking what the GFS is trending towards....yet another east coast monster trough in another 10-14 days. I hope things end up being the opposite though as what usually happens with the GFS that far out. We'll see. But don't be too surprised in April turns out to be a sleeper month.
OK, that's enough rambling about that. I also wanted to thank some of the kind comments in supporting my bid for president. I think the other candidates out there like Guliani, Clinton, Obama et al have a bit more in their warchest than I do. I got like $2.34 in change and a couple of Whataburger coupons. ;-) However, the mudslinging and back-stabbing politics wouldn't be as bad as running for office in the world of stormchasing....as we have recently witnessed on WX-FLAME. LOL!
It's not just among stormchasers either as Rick wrote in the comments from my previous blog entry. It was a great example of how no good deed goes unpunished. Unfortunately, it is a story that is repeated too often. I have yet to see any other hobby or pastime or public service such as ours with such an extreme level of vile hatred, animosity, lunacy, hypocrisy, and psychos running loose. The only thing that comes to my mind is the World Wrestling Federation as I see alot of parallels and similarities....except that in the WWF, it's all staged. :-)
Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. I look forward to blogging about severe storm potential next week. :-)
Lastly, I wish everybody a Happy Easter, Ya'll!
Although an easter snowfall isn't too rare in the TX PH, it is in other places like DFW, Temple, Sonora which is well south of San Angelo where a thunderstorm, heavy freezing rain and 30F is being reported. Fort Stockton is reporting freezing rain. The freezing line dips to south of Junction. Tyler and Longview are in the mid 30's and now reporting moderate and light snow.
Wow. The last time I personally remember such a late season arctic blast was many years ago when I was still fishing bass tournaments. It was the middle of April and the tourny was on Joe Pool Lake in the southern part of the festering armpit called DFW. It was a miserable event with temps in the mid 30's all day long and a light mist. I always remember when I freeze my kahunas off.
I remember another major severe arctic blast in the middle of April I believe in 1998 I think. We had been having a pretty warm spring up until then and everything was in full bloom. We had temps in the 20's at might and didn't get above 40 for like 2 days at least. It was a slow warm up after that.
I remember one other Easter when I was a kid that in the first part of April, there was brief snow event one day, but we were back into the 70s a couple of days later.
So, from my memory of about 35 years walking the earth in the North Texas area, three events? That's not a scientific conclusion...just what I remember :-) Indeed, this is all a very very rare event this late in the season. I can't recall off the top of my head it being this extreme though. I'd love to have the time to do some climatological research on it. I wonder what the global warming alarmists have to say about this? LOL!!
My friend Glenn Dixon noted privately to me that ever since I moved to Amarillo, the weather has gone bonkers. I think it has something to do with the atmosphere tryng to adjust to the massive and violent contortions that the North Texas Curse is undergoing in attempting to achieve harmoneous balance once again as a result of the huge vacuum created by my absence. Nature abhores a vaccuum. It sucks. ;-) Ssshhh! the global warming nazis and Al Gore may find out and I'll be foreced to move back to North Texas. LOL!!!
I know alot of folks, including myself, are pondering what May and June will bring? Well, we've certainly seen that warm, dry winters usually spell doom for stormchasers. With 2007 proving to be the polar opposite (pun intended) of the other wild weather years recently, it's easy to think that May and June will be one wild ride. it might even be like the old days when North Texas and Oklahoma has a significant severe weather season well into the last part of June before the dog days of summer ridging take over and shift everything into the northen plains. I dunno.
In looking into the crystal ball, thinks get real interesting next week, so stay tuned for that one. However, we are going to be struggling a great deal to get the atmosphere recovered. beyond that, I'm not liking what the GFS is trending towards....yet another east coast monster trough in another 10-14 days. I hope things end up being the opposite though as what usually happens with the GFS that far out. We'll see. But don't be too surprised in April turns out to be a sleeper month.
OK, that's enough rambling about that. I also wanted to thank some of the kind comments in supporting my bid for president. I think the other candidates out there like Guliani, Clinton, Obama et al have a bit more in their warchest than I do. I got like $2.34 in change and a couple of Whataburger coupons. ;-) However, the mudslinging and back-stabbing politics wouldn't be as bad as running for office in the world of stormchasing....as we have recently witnessed on WX-FLAME. LOL!
It's not just among stormchasers either as Rick wrote in the comments from my previous blog entry. It was a great example of how no good deed goes unpunished. Unfortunately, it is a story that is repeated too often. I have yet to see any other hobby or pastime or public service such as ours with such an extreme level of vile hatred, animosity, lunacy, hypocrisy, and psychos running loose. The only thing that comes to my mind is the World Wrestling Federation as I see alot of parallels and similarities....except that in the WWF, it's all staged. :-)
 "I am THE World's Hella Greatest Chaser!!" |  "I'm gonna smash your amber lightbars, bend your antennas, and rip off all your decals!" |  "You're in my ego spotlight! Outta my way!!" |
 "You made a post with a spelling error, dangling participle, run-on sentence, and improper punctuation! You ruined my entire day! I hate OK!!" |  "Hi, my name's Charlie. Want to join my stormchasing cult...err...'team'?" |  "Infidels! You expressed joyous outbursts on your video! I curse you in the name of Doswellah!" |
Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. I look forward to blogging about severe storm potential next week. :-)
Lastly, I wish everybody a Happy Easter, Ya'll!
Labels: Easter, Freaky Weather, WTF, WWF
posted by Steve Miller TX at 4/07/2007 01:53:00 PM
10 Comments:
That is a great photo set you made there! To bad you can't post it on Stormtrack. Looks like those ass clowns on Stormtrack took that thread about the bad cop to a public police office forum on the web along with showing them how they posted that stuff to you tube! That should do wonders for chasers this spring!!!
Thanks! I get these bursts of inspiration every once in awhile. ;-)
I'll actually respectfully disagree on the cross-post to the LEO forums. My perspective on that is it is good to get some honest input from the LEO community on this incident.
Whoever it is that posted it over there is doing a good job I think in keeping it fair and balanced as well as presenting the chaser perspective. It seems to be pretty civilized and healthy discussion (unlike what we see in our own world too often).
I'm a firm believer that open communication and discussion with "that side of the aisle" will lead to a much better understanding and awareness going both directions. Once they see that most of us are on the same side as they are on and learn that we do call in ALOT of reports which lead to advanced warning for the communities they have sworn to protect, we won't have a problem.
But, unless we communicate effectively, rumor, misinformation, misperception, stereotyping, etc will have a ripe breeding ground in which to flourish. :-)
Steve, I have never had any problems with LEO here in my area. But thats not saying I won't ever have a run in. Politics change as fast as the wind does. I came across some vido of the Silverton tornado and some officer in a pick up truck passing the person shooting video and pulls some chaser over. I am guessing this is the one everybody was talking about? You guys have it realy rough out there. It would seem you spend as much time trying to make peace with the locals as you do chasing. love the blog! Habe you decided on a political cabinet yet? ;-)
WWF... great comparison!
NWS in FWS has an interesting take on the upcoming pattern:
"NOW...ONTO THE REAL WEATHER MAKER FOR MOST APRILS...
THUNDERSTORMS.
WE SHALL SEE OUR SHARE OF THUNDERSTORMS CHANCES OVER THE NEXT SEVEN
DAYS...AS A SERIES OF UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES TRAVERSE NORTH TEXAS.
A CHANGE IN THE LONG WAVE PATTERN ALOFT WILL SET THE STAGE FOR
STRONG THUNDERSTORMS. FOR QUITE A PERIOD OF TIME...AN "OMEGA"
BLOCKING RIDGE HAS BEEN FIXED ACROSS THE NORTHWESTERN U.S. AND
WESTERN CANADA. DEEP NORTHERLY WIND FLOW ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE
RIDGE HAS SENT ONE COLD AIR MASS AFTER ANOTHER INTO THE EASTERN U.S.
THIS WINTER. AND...OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS...THE SAME HAS OCCURRED IN
NORTH TEXAS.
HOWEVER...THE OMEGA BLOCK IS FORECAST BY THE LONG WAVE MODELS
TO MOVE EASTWARD INTO CENTRAL CANADA...ALLOWING A "SPLIT FLOW" OF
THE JET STREAM CONFIGURATION OVER THE WESTERN U.S. TO BRING STRONG
WINDS ALOFT ACROSS TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA DURING THE COMING WEEK.
THESE STRONG WINDS ALOFT ARE NEEDED FOR WELL ORGANIZED SEVERE
STORMS. MOREOVER...THE STRONG...CONSOLIDATED NORTHERLY FLOW ALOFT WE
HAVE EXPERIENCED RECENTLY MAKES IT DIFFICULT FOR THE ATMOSPHERE TO
DELIVER THE HUMID GULF OF MEXICO AIR THAT IS NEEDED FOR SEVERE
WEATHER. ALTHOUGH THE GULF WATERS ARE STILL VERY COOL AT THE
MOMENT...THE QUALITY OF MOISTURE WILL INCREASE LATER IN THE
WEEK...AS CONDITIONS IMPROVE FOR A RETURN OF RICHER GULF MOISTURE.
WE MAY EXPERIENCE SOME RAIN FROM SHOWERS AND NON-SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EARLY
IN THE WEEK...AS A SERIES OF UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES MOVE ACROSS
NORTH TEXAS. BY THURSDAY AND FRIDAY...THE INCREASING LOW LEVEL GULF
MOISTURE WILL RESULT IN SEVERAL CHANCES FOR SEVERE STORMS. AT THE
CURRENT TIME...NEXT FRIDAY APPEARS TO POSE THE STRONGEST THREAT OF
SEVERE WEATHER.
TEMPERATURES WILL WARM QUICKLY BY MID-WEEK...AS THE SOUTHERLY LOW
LEVEL WINDS RESUME ACROSS THE AREA. #26"
Rick: We actually have it pretty good out here. This is the first serious incident I've heard of in TX. Most all LE understand that we provide a valuable service in early warning, documenting and spotter training. If they also understand that we have a few isolated bad apples, then I think things will be ok. I'm not too worried about it. :-)
Glenn, After about two sentences, I knew that was an Al Moller discussion. :-) His id is #26.
I'm thinking we can have some good storms in my area Tuesday with more elevated but strong stroms and again Thursday with something a little more surface based.
I think the I-35 corridor is going to have some pretty serious action Friday.
Of course, models have a tendency to struggle with a significant pattern shift. So, it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds this week. I have a hunch that the upper systems will be trending deeper, slower and stronger than the current sales pitch of the GFS :-) I just hope that the big east coast trough doesn't reappear after the 15th.
However, you gotta love such an active and convulsive upper air pattern as we get into the middle of April. This could be the year to rival the "good ol' days" coming up in May and June.
You guys have all the luck... We will gladly take your leftovers! ;-)
Would it look bad to request Friday as a sick day ahead of time?
You know what they say....a bad day stormchasing beats a good day at work..ANYDAY! :-)
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