Ode To The 2007 Chase Season
Well, I'm back! LOL!! Everything is cool. I've just got alot of things going on. But, seeing how today is July 1st, the 2007 chase season is officially closed for me. What a schizophrenic season it was too with regards to the upper air pattern. Good chase days were scarce. My best days were May 4th and June 2nd which were quite memorable for me. I got to witness some of the most incredible and breathtaking structure I've ever seen before in my life. On the otherhand, I missed out on some incredible chase days too of March 28 and April 21 due to making some pretty bad decisions.
Overall though, 2007 sucked for the most part. So, an official mascot for the 2007 chase season is needed. I can't think of a better one that sums it up any better than "Pudge" here to the left who resides with Rick of SW Georgia. Pudge is pulling double-duty as a mascot as he also serves in the capacity of official Depressed EMS Student Mascot. He also represents the upcoming dog days of summer. ;-)
2007 was worst than 2006 in my opinion because so much more was anticipated with such a wild upper air pattern for the 6 months prior to May. We also seemed to have alot more moisture. However, many strong cold fronts and a very anemic "August-ish" upper air pattern for most all of May squashed everything for the most part. The bright spot for me personally is that I now live in the middle of the Texas Panhandle. I can't think of any place else I'd rather livefor such a weather weenie as myself. I have found paradise. I am so thankful to have been able to make the move here. :-)
At least this year, we finally broke the long, crippling drought replacing it with massive flooding and below average temperatures. Most of Texas and Oklahoma which were parched dry and turning into deserts in 2006 now look more like swamp land. It's hard to say which is worse, but I'd rather have lakes brimming with water instead of withering up along with raging range fires poping up everywhere. Water is life. There is too much of it this year of course, but all of my life living in Texas, I have learned that we never have an "average/normal" year. You take what you get.
Now my attention starts turning to the tropics as the Hurricane season approaches it's peak in August and September. We started the season off quite early with a couple of bizarre systems. It will be quite interesting to see what transpires and if the "Dewvoid" can shield the SE US coast. LOL!! I'm a true greenhorn when it comes to forecasting tropical systems and staying on top of the information as it comes out. One particular site I'll be spending more time on is Jeff Gammons' Weathervine website. When it comes to intercepting and documenting these monster storms, Jeff and crew wrote the book. Be sure to check out his blog for good information as we tread onward into the heart of the season.
I have had a few more decent June chases since my last post. Can you believe I finally got around to downloading the images from my memory cards just today? LOL!! So, we'll start off with June 19th with a chase around Amarillo. This was come great structure!
Next up is June 23 in E NM near the Texas state line. This was a pretty "adventurous" day for me as well. New Mexico doesn't have a whole lot of money for transporation infrastructure, so you end up with some really nice surprises such as "state roads" being no more than a graded dirt road. Such road is "State Road 93" that runs for about 20 miles from I-40 north of Endee and southward down to a paved road "State Road 47". I really liked the sign that said "road may be impassable due to inclement weather". I've always loved that word "inclement". It's nice and vague enough to really worry a guy trying to beat a big storm that threatens to turn the dirt into a muddy quagmire....and literally in the middle of nowhere. Nice. But, still got aome cool pics of a beautiful little cell that wanted to strand me as far from civilization as possible.
Mothership coming in for a landing,
Last but not least, a real brute of a storm pounded the Amarillo region on June 26. It tried to get some organized rotation going and for a couple of times, it really looked like something was wrapped up in rain as the N and NE flank of the clouds were really racing into the area of concern while the clouds in front of it moved in the opposite direction. Jay McCoy and I both were abit concerned about it. It cored Amarillo pretty good creating alot of serious flooding.
Jay then took me on a tour of parts of the city that always get it the worst. I was astonished! Some places looked like rivers or a lake. Alot of cars were stranded too making it difficult to traverse those areas. At one point, I was crawling through water deep enough in my Element that I felt abit uneasy (I have GOT to get me a 4x4 living here!). Wakes from the other vehicles would slosh up against my door and underpanel. I called it quits after that. LOL!! I ended up getting a good bit of excellent stock video footage.
This storm system then organized and plunged southward in a pretty significant derecho event. Many areas of West central Texas down into SW Texas got slammed by sustained 60-70 mph winds and gusts near 100mph. Midland airport and a mesonet site recorded gusts of around 95mph. Yikes!!
I like this first pick because of the yellow road sign. Veer right for storm intercept! LOL!
This storm wasn't going to heed any steenkin' stop signs. (pardon the powerlines)
This was looking into the notch and a meso marker on GR3.
Nice assortment of storm colors here. Note the distant hills getting whited out.
Dig that groovy core, man! Jay and I are staring right down the throat of the storm as it exhibited a pretty large, wet hook echo on it.
Well, that wraps it up for now. My blog activity will slow down considerably for awhile with an update once...maybe twice per week....for awhile.
Overall though, 2007 sucked for the most part. So, an official mascot for the 2007 chase season is needed. I can't think of a better one that sums it up any better than "Pudge" here to the left who resides with Rick of SW Georgia. Pudge is pulling double-duty as a mascot as he also serves in the capacity of official Depressed EMS Student Mascot. He also represents the upcoming dog days of summer. ;-)2007 was worst than 2006 in my opinion because so much more was anticipated with such a wild upper air pattern for the 6 months prior to May. We also seemed to have alot more moisture. However, many strong cold fronts and a very anemic "August-ish" upper air pattern for most all of May squashed everything for the most part. The bright spot for me personally is that I now live in the middle of the Texas Panhandle. I can't think of any place else I'd rather livefor such a weather weenie as myself. I have found paradise. I am so thankful to have been able to make the move here. :-)
At least this year, we finally broke the long, crippling drought replacing it with massive flooding and below average temperatures. Most of Texas and Oklahoma which were parched dry and turning into deserts in 2006 now look more like swamp land. It's hard to say which is worse, but I'd rather have lakes brimming with water instead of withering up along with raging range fires poping up everywhere. Water is life. There is too much of it this year of course, but all of my life living in Texas, I have learned that we never have an "average/normal" year. You take what you get.
Now my attention starts turning to the tropics as the Hurricane season approaches it's peak in August and September. We started the season off quite early with a couple of bizarre systems. It will be quite interesting to see what transpires and if the "Dewvoid" can shield the SE US coast. LOL!! I'm a true greenhorn when it comes to forecasting tropical systems and staying on top of the information as it comes out. One particular site I'll be spending more time on is Jeff Gammons' Weathervine website. When it comes to intercepting and documenting these monster storms, Jeff and crew wrote the book. Be sure to check out his blog for good information as we tread onward into the heart of the season.
I have had a few more decent June chases since my last post. Can you believe I finally got around to downloading the images from my memory cards just today? LOL!! So, we'll start off with June 19th with a chase around Amarillo. This was come great structure!
Next up is June 23 in E NM near the Texas state line. This was a pretty "adventurous" day for me as well. New Mexico doesn't have a whole lot of money for transporation infrastructure, so you end up with some really nice surprises such as "state roads" being no more than a graded dirt road. Such road is "State Road 93" that runs for about 20 miles from I-40 north of Endee and southward down to a paved road "State Road 47". I really liked the sign that said "road may be impassable due to inclement weather". I've always loved that word "inclement". It's nice and vague enough to really worry a guy trying to beat a big storm that threatens to turn the dirt into a muddy quagmire....and literally in the middle of nowhere. Nice. But, still got aome cool pics of a beautiful little cell that wanted to strand me as far from civilization as possible.
Mothership coming in for a landing,
Last but not least, a real brute of a storm pounded the Amarillo region on June 26. It tried to get some organized rotation going and for a couple of times, it really looked like something was wrapped up in rain as the N and NE flank of the clouds were really racing into the area of concern while the clouds in front of it moved in the opposite direction. Jay McCoy and I both were abit concerned about it. It cored Amarillo pretty good creating alot of serious flooding.
Jay then took me on a tour of parts of the city that always get it the worst. I was astonished! Some places looked like rivers or a lake. Alot of cars were stranded too making it difficult to traverse those areas. At one point, I was crawling through water deep enough in my Element that I felt abit uneasy (I have GOT to get me a 4x4 living here!). Wakes from the other vehicles would slosh up against my door and underpanel. I called it quits after that. LOL!! I ended up getting a good bit of excellent stock video footage.
This storm system then organized and plunged southward in a pretty significant derecho event. Many areas of West central Texas down into SW Texas got slammed by sustained 60-70 mph winds and gusts near 100mph. Midland airport and a mesonet site recorded gusts of around 95mph. Yikes!!
I like this first pick because of the yellow road sign. Veer right for storm intercept! LOL!
This storm wasn't going to heed any steenkin' stop signs. (pardon the powerlines)
This was looking into the notch and a meso marker on GR3.
Nice assortment of storm colors here. Note the distant hills getting whited out.
Dig that groovy core, man! Jay and I are staring right down the throat of the storm as it exhibited a pretty large, wet hook echo on it.
Well, that wraps it up for now. My blog activity will slow down considerably for awhile with an update once...maybe twice per week....for awhile.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 7/01/2007 06:13:00 PM
11 Comments:
I was watching you on the spotter net that day and wondered what that looked like....about what I imagined too.
I can't complain too much about this year... I am somewhere around 15 tornadoes for the year and one of those will be in my top for all around videography, next to Mulvane.
Now if I could just make myself get the site finished and get all those chase accounts done. I am afraid so much time has passed on some of them I have forgotten the details.
David, You serious about finally getting to work on your site?! Cool.
Steve, Thanks for the shout out, even if via Dewvoid... held true for me today. (eye roll) We might need to work on a Dewvoid relief fund to ship me off to Hawaii (yeah, I think I can sacrifice it...) and allow the tropical moisture to fall in over this way. We need something, especially in Dewville... seems a significant lack of precip whereever I happen to be.
Anyways... glad to see you're alive and weren't sucked up in a meso.
Yeah, as unbelievable as it sounds. LOL I HAVE to. Not only do I need to get the old chase accounts back up, but get them WRITTEN all the way back since 2004! I am hoping reviewing the videos will jog my memory with some fishing with Steve!
From 2004?! Are you kidding me?! You keept some sort of written record, right? lol You are a hoot and a half! I look forward to seeing the site when you get it all fully revamped... looks like people want video too, as the poll shows... you've got some work ahead of you!
Well guys, I finally did it! Not only did I get started again, but FINALLY started a BLOG (yeah finally Steve). Both Steve Millers and my chase partner have been pushing me for some time to have my own blog, so now it's there, linked in the top menu. http://wx5tvs.com
Well, it's ABOUT time, mister. ;-) I think one of the advantages about a blog, for lazy people like me, is that you can quickly post an account and come back later and use it for a more detailed report later. My summer project is to get my 2007 stuff put together. I've tried to do too much in the past though, so I might just cut and paste my blog account. LOL!! I am THE epitomy of lazy. ;-)
Hey Dew, Hawaii would be just far enough away I think. But of course, there is no telling how your presence might affect the El Nino patterns. It might be safer for all of us for you to remain in SE GA. The United Nations might get involved along with Al Gore if you don't. LOL!! You know we luv ya though. ;-)
Even though may and much of June was crappy I am not going to complain much about 2007 thanks to 5-4-7 with Steve and shooting some of the best video i have ever had back on 3-28 (sorry Steve). Ended up with 14 for the year and avoided any major damage to the vehicle from hail. I am upset we blew the chase on 5-5 by not following our gut and staying south and missing the Sweetwater F3 and also again by not following our gut and not going south and missing the Tulia F3. A few bad choices that Steve and I both learned from that would have made a huge difference in how we viewed 2007 as a whole.
But at least now that your here we were finally able to do some chasing together which was a blast. Now looking forward to that poker trip to Santa fe we planned on
I know you love me... you lazy-blog-cut-and-pasting,turkey killer. Got our 2X4's ready for next year. ;-) (right Jay?) Weather Brigade headed that way in '08. Be ready for the Dewvoid. You'll know I'm there when the radar goes completely clean.
Gosh, I don't want to mess with the el nino patterns... I'll just stay put. I am really considering hiring out my weather repelling capabilities, great for weddings.
David, I'll be checking your blog... about time. lol
Just a quick note that during those depression filled post chase season days of nothing to do, "Pudge Timeshare" can be purchased. For a small fee I can bring him to your home, he will sit there on your couch, chair or any furniture of your choice and look like he has had the worst chase season of all time. No matter how bad you tell him things are, he will look at you and you will know things arent as bad as what he has had to live through! What a stress reliever!! Order today! Operators are standing by!
Glad to see you back Steve. Was a little worried. Was starting to watch old X-File reruns to gain knowledge of where you might be....
I'll take two orders of Pudge Timeshare please! LOL!!
Next year will be great fun. I hope everybody's schedules work out.
Yep, Jay, 5/4 was incredible and awesome to say the least. Had it not been overshadowed by the Greensurg disaster, it would have been the storm of the year IMO. I too have had a blast chasing with ya this year and look forward to more! :-)
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