Weather Weenie-ness Maximus
Yesterday was just one of those times when everything in the universe achieves harmonic balance. My ying and yang were in sync. I was at one with the atmosphere. ;-)
After finishing up up a little unplanned vacation paling around with David Drummond and then ending up at the Steve Miller OK's Luxury Inn, Suites and Resort where I was able to achieve my harmonic balance with the universe through bass fishing, beer, geek fests, and great food.....I headed down to the Red River Valley and Nocona, Texas yesterday where I targeted the days events. I was pretty elated to see that my target was a bullseye after the first SVR storm formed right over Nocona. :-)
I knew it would be a real good chase day with all of the parameters in place. I had seen the exact scenario in my old stomping grounds before and was excited about the prospects. Extensive cloud cover though was a major concern heading down I-35. But, the dryline/warm front intersection just east of Wichita Falls was well west of the cloud cover. This resulted in CAPE of 2000+ and very good helicities and shear along the warm front. Thankfully, and something I pointed out yesterday, the cap was strong enough to keep cells isolated and only along the warm front. Still, a good chunk of inflow into the storms was originating from the cloud covered areas which I believe impeded their full potential to be real monsters.
However, they were still some real brutes and produced some brief tornadoes and impressive radar signatures. It's been awhile since I've chased twin supercells munching along together creating havoc. These certainly did with mostly hail being the damaging factor from the reports I read along with some isolated wind damage. The largest and most serious hail damage appeared to have occurred in Sherman where baseball and even softball hail pounded the city including one of the TV stations there who were airing it live I understand.
I was able to get into prime position for the first tornado west of St. Jo by about 5 miles near Hwy 82 around 7:15 PM. I was close enough to discern some agitated motion in the broad storm base whcih was hugging the ground. These vertical motions were rather pronounced and created a little notch in the base. Soon, rotation became evident and I noted rotating rain curtains. No sooner had I entered that into Spotter Network than I noticed some debris swirl on the ground...looked like dust/dirt. A nice cone funnel quickly developed and the tornado briefly organized with several brief touchdowns.
I sacrificed video and pictures while it was at it's best to call it in to 911. I truly though that this tornado would grow and threaten St. Jo. I can't remember exactly what I said to the operator, but I do know I was pretty agitated and terse to get him to take me seriously. He mentioned having a spotter over there, but can't remember the details of the conversation. The important thing is that about 10 seconds after hanging up, I heard the town's sirens go off. However, the NWS DID NOT issue a tornado warning for at least 25 minutes after I made both my Spotter Network report and the 911 call. I saw that Jeff Petrowski also reported the tornado on SN too. Hmmmmm.
The cool thing is that I was streaming it live on ChaserTV! I understand that the stream was excellent and the sudden increase of hundreds of viewers was smoothly handled with no issues. This is perhaps the biggest reason among several that I am streaming with them. Kudos to Scott and Steve for making it happen. There are still a few minor bugs to tweak on my end, but I'm getting there.
Back to the tornado after that shameless plug (lol), it stretched out into a cigar-shaped funnel and quickly dissipated. I had my dashcam recording it, but thanks to a dirty tape head, the good parts of the tornado are all screwed up with big fat horizontal lines...which cleared up after the tornado lifted and began dissipating...naturally!!! I guess the storm gods have a sick sense of humor after what was pretty much a perfect day. ;-)
I stayed with the storm noting some distant and very low contrast lowerings that could have been "somthing", but just too far away and barely discernable. I watched the second big storm developing to the west and moved to intercept it. I think I got to near Muenster a little too late to see that brief tornado, but tracked it along Hwy 82 noting some very ominous bowl shaped lowerings which I seriously thought would produce at least a brief tornado. I've got video of that including what at one point certainly looked like a wedge-shaped wall cloud and possible tornado. It was dark and illuminted by lightning, so there is nothing definitive. I'll post vid clips later.
During the whole chase, the massive winter storm and blizzard taking aim back home in Amarillo was weighing on me heavily. I had about a 5 hour drive back home which would be cutting it close to the arrival of the storm. So, at about 9:30, I broke off with a new heading 285 degrees and 70mph out to Hwy 287 via 82. Everything was fine until I got to Claude, just SE of Amarillo. Then heavy rain smacked me with 40mph cross winds which quickly became mixed with snow. It was all snow by the time I reached Amarillo with temps of 32F, north winds of 40mph and gusty, and heavy snow. Blizzard!!!! :-)
This is my first bonafied blizzard to be in. What more could a weather weenie ask for in one day? I started off the morning with thick, heavy fog....bust into warm, clear humid air.....watched towering Cu developed into tornadic supercells....saw some hail....lightning....a tornado or two, and a few hours after that, a raging blizzard! The only thing missing is a hurricane. LOL!!
With that in mind, I will be out and about today around Amarillo documenting the impacts. I will in fact be streaming for this event into tomorrow. When I'm home, the cam will be pointing at my apartment complex's courtyard. I'll be doing some video footage too and hopefully sell some it. This is a blizzaard to be recorded in the history books before it's all over with. Stay tuned!!!!
One more last note, yesterday was also good to me in that I received final, official word that i will start the new job Monday. A helluva way to end the week and my little vacation! :-)
After finishing up up a little unplanned vacation paling around with David Drummond and then ending up at the Steve Miller OK's Luxury Inn, Suites and Resort where I was able to achieve my harmonic balance with the universe through bass fishing, beer, geek fests, and great food.....I headed down to the Red River Valley and Nocona, Texas yesterday where I targeted the days events. I was pretty elated to see that my target was a bullseye after the first SVR storm formed right over Nocona. :-)
I knew it would be a real good chase day with all of the parameters in place. I had seen the exact scenario in my old stomping grounds before and was excited about the prospects. Extensive cloud cover though was a major concern heading down I-35. But, the dryline/warm front intersection just east of Wichita Falls was well west of the cloud cover. This resulted in CAPE of 2000+ and very good helicities and shear along the warm front. Thankfully, and something I pointed out yesterday, the cap was strong enough to keep cells isolated and only along the warm front. Still, a good chunk of inflow into the storms was originating from the cloud covered areas which I believe impeded their full potential to be real monsters.
However, they were still some real brutes and produced some brief tornadoes and impressive radar signatures. It's been awhile since I've chased twin supercells munching along together creating havoc. These certainly did with mostly hail being the damaging factor from the reports I read along with some isolated wind damage. The largest and most serious hail damage appeared to have occurred in Sherman where baseball and even softball hail pounded the city including one of the TV stations there who were airing it live I understand.
I was able to get into prime position for the first tornado west of St. Jo by about 5 miles near Hwy 82 around 7:15 PM. I was close enough to discern some agitated motion in the broad storm base whcih was hugging the ground. These vertical motions were rather pronounced and created a little notch in the base. Soon, rotation became evident and I noted rotating rain curtains. No sooner had I entered that into Spotter Network than I noticed some debris swirl on the ground...looked like dust/dirt. A nice cone funnel quickly developed and the tornado briefly organized with several brief touchdowns.
I sacrificed video and pictures while it was at it's best to call it in to 911. I truly though that this tornado would grow and threaten St. Jo. I can't remember exactly what I said to the operator, but I do know I was pretty agitated and terse to get him to take me seriously. He mentioned having a spotter over there, but can't remember the details of the conversation. The important thing is that about 10 seconds after hanging up, I heard the town's sirens go off. However, the NWS DID NOT issue a tornado warning for at least 25 minutes after I made both my Spotter Network report and the 911 call. I saw that Jeff Petrowski also reported the tornado on SN too. Hmmmmm.
The cool thing is that I was streaming it live on ChaserTV! I understand that the stream was excellent and the sudden increase of hundreds of viewers was smoothly handled with no issues. This is perhaps the biggest reason among several that I am streaming with them. Kudos to Scott and Steve for making it happen. There are still a few minor bugs to tweak on my end, but I'm getting there.
Back to the tornado after that shameless plug (lol), it stretched out into a cigar-shaped funnel and quickly dissipated. I had my dashcam recording it, but thanks to a dirty tape head, the good parts of the tornado are all screwed up with big fat horizontal lines...which cleared up after the tornado lifted and began dissipating...naturally!!! I guess the storm gods have a sick sense of humor after what was pretty much a perfect day. ;-)
I stayed with the storm noting some distant and very low contrast lowerings that could have been "somthing", but just too far away and barely discernable. I watched the second big storm developing to the west and moved to intercept it. I think I got to near Muenster a little too late to see that brief tornado, but tracked it along Hwy 82 noting some very ominous bowl shaped lowerings which I seriously thought would produce at least a brief tornado. I've got video of that including what at one point certainly looked like a wedge-shaped wall cloud and possible tornado. It was dark and illuminted by lightning, so there is nothing definitive. I'll post vid clips later.
During the whole chase, the massive winter storm and blizzard taking aim back home in Amarillo was weighing on me heavily. I had about a 5 hour drive back home which would be cutting it close to the arrival of the storm. So, at about 9:30, I broke off with a new heading 285 degrees and 70mph out to Hwy 287 via 82. Everything was fine until I got to Claude, just SE of Amarillo. Then heavy rain smacked me with 40mph cross winds which quickly became mixed with snow. It was all snow by the time I reached Amarillo with temps of 32F, north winds of 40mph and gusty, and heavy snow. Blizzard!!!! :-)
This is my first bonafied blizzard to be in. What more could a weather weenie ask for in one day? I started off the morning with thick, heavy fog....bust into warm, clear humid air.....watched towering Cu developed into tornadic supercells....saw some hail....lightning....a tornado or two, and a few hours after that, a raging blizzard! The only thing missing is a hurricane. LOL!!
With that in mind, I will be out and about today around Amarillo documenting the impacts. I will in fact be streaming for this event into tomorrow. When I'm home, the cam will be pointing at my apartment complex's courtyard. I'll be doing some video footage too and hopefully sell some it. This is a blizzaard to be recorded in the history books before it's all over with. Stay tuned!!!!
One more last note, yesterday was also good to me in that I received final, official word that i will start the new job Monday. A helluva way to end the week and my little vacation! :-)
posted by Steve Miller TX at 3/27/2009 12:13:00 PM
4 Comments:
What a day TX! I was a little underimpressed with the blizzard here in Denver ... I think I got the least amount of snow for the entire metro area. But wow, what a day for you buddy! Good luck at the new job!
Sweet, congrats on your wx catches! All four seasons in one day. Although I am not jealous of the snow... you can keep that stuff lol! Spring is trying to keep hold here. My friend Ron is down there with another friend and they wrecked Ron's chase car with tennis ball hail from those storms. Just a few dents, some busted lights... hope it holds for the marathon drive home lol!
What a week! Look forward to the vid and pics. That should relieve some of the SDS for awhile! lol! Good to hear about the job finally starting. Congrats!
Certainly a day/week for your personal records. I love seeing a fellow chaser bro getting his just-deserves. You've had a helluva Fall/Winter with all the economic/employment stress, and to see you have this great day/week of weather, chasing, and job stuff is just awesome.
Live it up my friend, this is what it's all about!!!
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