Saturday, December 26, 2009
Erik Burns on The Debris Show!!!!
MesoSearch Chaser Erik Burns will be teaming up with Shane Adams host of the Internet based web show The Debris show! This Sunday @ 9pm central time. Watch as Shane and Erik discuss the world of selling chaser video, lowballers and everything else that sucks about chaser video sales. It will be OUT OF CONTROL!! Watch @ Http://Chasertv.com or Http://Passiontwist.com
Friday, November 20, 2009
The New MesoSearch.net!!!
Well here is the soft release of MesoSearch.net This is the soft release and still getting the all the little kinks out. So I am pleased to bring you the NEW MesoSearch.net . Thanks for looking!
Monday, November 9, 2009
MesoSearch Joins ChaserTV!!!
See MesoSearch Chaser Erik Burns on the front page at ChaserTV.com
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Remembering Lone Grove. February 10th 2009.
Well it has been 8 months since that fateful and active severe weather day. We had been keeping an eye on it for a couple of days. Being that it was February you just don't get excited about a set up like you do in May or June. Checking surface observations the night before actually showing promise of the warm moist air being advected northward into the would be warm sector. Still a lot uncertainty if things were going to pan out for a February chase day. The year before in January and February proved deadly in a few massive and historical tornado outbreaks. Would this day be a repeat of the year behind us. There was concerns that the day was going to just squall out and a discrete storm mode would not be accomplished.
The day finally came. Like normal I didn't get much sleep since I stay up all night and keep a close eye on how things are coming together. Making that decision whether to chase or not. I knew there was going to be severe weather and had a good idea of where. But was torn as to go into Central OK or to stay in Texas. Something was catching my eye for the area near Jacksboro TX. It seemed to have everything there for an impressive storm go up. Still again there were concerns but hey there is with every set up. I wake up early after only a few hours of sleep. Crunch and study the RUC, Skew Ts, Hodographs and surface observations. I came to the conclusion to chase TX. I called up a friend of mine Chris Harrell and we decided we would meet up off of I20 near Stephenville TX. I had some other people who had never chased before as well who were interested in seeing a supercell. We met up and hung around the gas station/rest stop for a couple of hours. We decided it would be best to head up towards Jacksboro. We got there and set up on the west side of town watching tower after tower struggling to go up. Storm had already fired by this time in OK and a couple of tornadoes had already been reported. I was loosing confidence in my decision to stay south in Texas. Storms than began to fire in NW Texas near Wichita Falls. We noticed these cells going into a supercell mode as the went into OK. So we made the choice to head NW towards Archer City to intercept one of the more southern cells and keep our fingers crossed it would do the same as the northern cells. Disappointed when we got to them at they were high based and outflow dominate. We took a few photos watched some of the cloud to ground lightning and then decided to head back towards Dallas to wait out for the squall line that was going to run through later that evening. We got onto US82 and proceeded back east. As we were getting out of Wichita Falls I saw firm towers back in the direction of Jacksboro. I looked at the radar and they did not impress. The towers though were telling a different story. I saw HW287 coming up down the road. We headed to the towers. We were getting near Belcherville TX and saw friend Craig Curlee on Spotter Network. I gave him a call and asked if how the storm looked on his side. Craig was on the SE side of the storm and we were on the NW side. Craig said it didn't look very good and the base was small and raggedy. He said he was gonna call it quits. We got down there and took a look and it was just like what he said.
We went back down the road a little ways and stopped at a gas station filled up with gas, grabbed some snack and drinks and was trying to make a decision on what to do. A couple of other chasers were also at the gas station we all mingled for a bit and then some of them went back home. It started to rain a little harder causing us to retreat back into the vehicles. I looked at radar again not expecting much. The radar just updated and the tops and VIL jumped on the storm. I looked at reflectivity and the storm was taking on an interesting shape. Still just sitting there and not doing much but just throwing hints. I looked at the velocity and it was showing a small piece of hope. some mild mid level rotation and some weak low level. I shouted at everybody for us to get back down the road a little ways to see what was going on. We drove for about 1 mile back the hill we were on earlier. Out of the rain on top of a hill with a good view. The base looked outstanding. Nice smooth base and inflow feeding into the storm. I looked even more closely and observed rotation under the base with rain curtain beginning to carousel. I yelled out "IT'S GONNA DO IT!". My target was going to verify! Within minutes the storm produced a beautiful cylindrical rotating wall cloud! With nice motion! It was such a great feeling sitting on top of that hill in February seeing such an incredible sight! By this time chasers from Texas Storm Chasers, Connor McCrorey and David Reimer pulled up just in time to see the show. After some heavy video and photographs of the soon to be historical and life taking storm we jumped back into our cars and headed NE to stay on it. After following it and getting back into position we observed our the storms first tornado and out first tornado of the year. A skinny white rope tornado coming down out of the wall cloud. This took place near Belleview TX. Some Chasers got some really great footage of this tornado as well as Veteran Storm Chaser Amos Magliocco, who took some nice photos. We were quickly running out of day light and road options and decided to go as far as we could until we got to the Red River. The storm had also picked up speed and started moving fairly quickly. We were watching the monster lowering up ahead from us getting harder and harder to see with each passing minute. We got near the town of Spanish Fort TX where we had come to a stopping point because of the Red River. We would just watch the storm leave us in the dark. Watching the storm a flash of lightning revealed something under the base of the Supercell. I wasn't the only one who saw it. Chris says is that what I think it is!? Another flash of lightning and it was still there! When it is dark you don't want to just start calling stuff tornadoes. It wasn't but a mile and a half from us at this point. More lightning and it was becoming obvious. One of the newbies with us had captured an image of the ominous object and it was not lying. Lightning by this time was constant and the cone like tornado had turned into a massive wedge tornado. Trying to control the adrenaline we reported this tornado via Spotter Network. NWS almost instantly tornado warned the storm. We could not believe our eyes on how large this tornado was. We couldn't even guess on it's size. We watched the tornado until we could no longer see it. Not knowing that what we had just seen was going to be the deadliest tornado to strike Oklahoma since May 3rd 1999 and be the largest tornado to occur in the month of February since record keeping.
Heading back home I received a phone call from Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel and did a short interview about what we had seen. We stopped at Dairy Queen had some food and looked over all the photos and video. I had then received news that the town of Lone Grove had been hit by a substantial tornado. At the time it was not known but the tornado we had actually seen going into Oklahoma was indeed the Lone Grove Tornado. It was hard to swallow. When something you do that is so incredible to see and experience can be taken all away from you so quickly once you find out the horrible news that a tornado you saw killed people and destroyed homes. Makes your passion not seem so fun anymore. We did our main job out there though and reported the tornado. Because of that we saved lives.
A couple of days later I spoke to Michael Ratliff who was also there to experience this historical event. We agreed this was a life changing event for us. We wished there was more we could do. We did what we could do.
I will never forget that day. It goes through my mind on a daily basis. It was an amazing storm. I hope that even now 8 months later the town of Lone Grove is still strong. I plan to visit there soon. I will never forget February 10th 2009 and I will never forget Lone Grove Oklahoma.
Connor McCrorey and David Reimer
http://www.main.texasstormchasers.com
Michael Ratliff and Ray Walker
http://www.seeatornado.com/
Amos Magliocco
http://www.cycloneroad.com
From Michael Ratliff and Ray Walker
From Connor McCrorey
MesoSearch photos of the storm and Tornado from Spanish Fort TX
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs145.snc1/5400_126214076224_122719141224_2432730_744116_n.jpg
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs145.snc1/5400_126213351224_122719141224_2432718_1995453_n.jpg
Other links
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/wxevents/20090210/eventnarrative.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2009_tornado_outbreak
Links will not work so just copy and paste them.. sorry.
The day finally came. Like normal I didn't get much sleep since I stay up all night and keep a close eye on how things are coming together. Making that decision whether to chase or not. I knew there was going to be severe weather and had a good idea of where. But was torn as to go into Central OK or to stay in Texas. Something was catching my eye for the area near Jacksboro TX. It seemed to have everything there for an impressive storm go up. Still again there were concerns but hey there is with every set up. I wake up early after only a few hours of sleep. Crunch and study the RUC, Skew Ts, Hodographs and surface observations. I came to the conclusion to chase TX. I called up a friend of mine Chris Harrell and we decided we would meet up off of I20 near Stephenville TX. I had some other people who had never chased before as well who were interested in seeing a supercell. We met up and hung around the gas station/rest stop for a couple of hours. We decided it would be best to head up towards Jacksboro. We got there and set up on the west side of town watching tower after tower struggling to go up. Storm had already fired by this time in OK and a couple of tornadoes had already been reported. I was loosing confidence in my decision to stay south in Texas. Storms than began to fire in NW Texas near Wichita Falls. We noticed these cells going into a supercell mode as the went into OK. So we made the choice to head NW towards Archer City to intercept one of the more southern cells and keep our fingers crossed it would do the same as the northern cells. Disappointed when we got to them at they were high based and outflow dominate. We took a few photos watched some of the cloud to ground lightning and then decided to head back towards Dallas to wait out for the squall line that was going to run through later that evening. We got onto US82 and proceeded back east. As we were getting out of Wichita Falls I saw firm towers back in the direction of Jacksboro. I looked at the radar and they did not impress. The towers though were telling a different story. I saw HW287 coming up down the road. We headed to the towers. We were getting near Belcherville TX and saw friend Craig Curlee on Spotter Network. I gave him a call and asked if how the storm looked on his side. Craig was on the SE side of the storm and we were on the NW side. Craig said it didn't look very good and the base was small and raggedy. He said he was gonna call it quits. We got down there and took a look and it was just like what he said.
We went back down the road a little ways and stopped at a gas station filled up with gas, grabbed some snack and drinks and was trying to make a decision on what to do. A couple of other chasers were also at the gas station we all mingled for a bit and then some of them went back home. It started to rain a little harder causing us to retreat back into the vehicles. I looked at radar again not expecting much. The radar just updated and the tops and VIL jumped on the storm. I looked at reflectivity and the storm was taking on an interesting shape. Still just sitting there and not doing much but just throwing hints. I looked at the velocity and it was showing a small piece of hope. some mild mid level rotation and some weak low level. I shouted at everybody for us to get back down the road a little ways to see what was going on. We drove for about 1 mile back the hill we were on earlier. Out of the rain on top of a hill with a good view. The base looked outstanding. Nice smooth base and inflow feeding into the storm. I looked even more closely and observed rotation under the base with rain curtain beginning to carousel. I yelled out "IT'S GONNA DO IT!". My target was going to verify! Within minutes the storm produced a beautiful cylindrical rotating wall cloud! With nice motion! It was such a great feeling sitting on top of that hill in February seeing such an incredible sight! By this time chasers from Texas Storm Chasers, Connor McCrorey and David Reimer pulled up just in time to see the show. After some heavy video and photographs of the soon to be historical and life taking storm we jumped back into our cars and headed NE to stay on it. After following it and getting back into position we observed our the storms first tornado and out first tornado of the year. A skinny white rope tornado coming down out of the wall cloud. This took place near Belleview TX. Some Chasers got some really great footage of this tornado as well as Veteran Storm Chaser Amos Magliocco, who took some nice photos. We were quickly running out of day light and road options and decided to go as far as we could until we got to the Red River. The storm had also picked up speed and started moving fairly quickly. We were watching the monster lowering up ahead from us getting harder and harder to see with each passing minute. We got near the town of Spanish Fort TX where we had come to a stopping point because of the Red River. We would just watch the storm leave us in the dark. Watching the storm a flash of lightning revealed something under the base of the Supercell. I wasn't the only one who saw it. Chris says is that what I think it is!? Another flash of lightning and it was still there! When it is dark you don't want to just start calling stuff tornadoes. It wasn't but a mile and a half from us at this point. More lightning and it was becoming obvious. One of the newbies with us had captured an image of the ominous object and it was not lying. Lightning by this time was constant and the cone like tornado had turned into a massive wedge tornado. Trying to control the adrenaline we reported this tornado via Spotter Network. NWS almost instantly tornado warned the storm. We could not believe our eyes on how large this tornado was. We couldn't even guess on it's size. We watched the tornado until we could no longer see it. Not knowing that what we had just seen was going to be the deadliest tornado to strike Oklahoma since May 3rd 1999 and be the largest tornado to occur in the month of February since record keeping.
Heading back home I received a phone call from Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel and did a short interview about what we had seen. We stopped at Dairy Queen had some food and looked over all the photos and video. I had then received news that the town of Lone Grove had been hit by a substantial tornado. At the time it was not known but the tornado we had actually seen going into Oklahoma was indeed the Lone Grove Tornado. It was hard to swallow. When something you do that is so incredible to see and experience can be taken all away from you so quickly once you find out the horrible news that a tornado you saw killed people and destroyed homes. Makes your passion not seem so fun anymore. We did our main job out there though and reported the tornado. Because of that we saved lives.
A couple of days later I spoke to Michael Ratliff who was also there to experience this historical event. We agreed this was a life changing event for us. We wished there was more we could do. We did what we could do.
I will never forget that day. It goes through my mind on a daily basis. It was an amazing storm. I hope that even now 8 months later the town of Lone Grove is still strong. I plan to visit there soon. I will never forget February 10th 2009 and I will never forget Lone Grove Oklahoma.
Connor McCrorey and David Reimer
http://www.main.texasstormchasers.com
Michael Ratliff and Ray Walker
http://www.seeatornado.com/
Amos Magliocco
http://www.cycloneroad.com
From Michael Ratliff and Ray Walker
From Connor McCrorey
MesoSearch photos of the storm and Tornado from Spanish Fort TX
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs145.snc1/5400_126214076224_122719141224_2432730_744116_n.jpg
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs145.snc1/5400_126213351224_122719141224_2432718_1995453_n.jpg
Other links
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/wxevents/20090210/eventnarrative.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2009_tornado_outbreak
Links will not work so just copy and paste them.. sorry.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Storms of 2008 and 2009 photo documentary
MesoSearch Chaser Erik Burns captured these images in 08 and 09. Please enjoy!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Possible Severe Weather Monday!!!
Well it looks like since the Atlantic hurricane season was owned by El Nino and non existent for the most part it looks like the first ice breaker for the Fall severe weather season may begin on Monday. The models I use to forecast are in fair agreement with a severe episode on Monday. A nice mid level trough will dig it's way into the central and southern plains early Monday then evolve into a closed low. This is also going bring with it a fairly strong and quickly moving cold front. This front will be the focal point of storm development. A very moist and unstable airmass ( Models are presenting and have been confident with CAPE values in the 3,000 J/kg range, that is moderately to very unstable ) will be set in place ahead of this front and mid level trough. Storms should have no problem becoming surface based. Fortunately I don't see much of a tornado threat here. Maybe a brief spin up. Reason being is the strongest winds in the atmosphere will be behind the front. So there will be quite a bit of forcing behind the storms. So at this time more likely a severe wind event. Storms should begin discrete in a linear storm mode and quickly form into a MCS ( MesoScale Convective System). Flash flooding could also be a concern since soils in the area are already saturated from all the previous days of rainfall.
The areas most likely to see this event would be Southern OK , North TX Monday evening into night. And the rest DFW and North East TX and SE OK into AR in late night into early morning hours. So for right now appears to be a mostly a wind and possibly a isolated flash flooding event.
The areas most likely to see this event would be Southern OK , North TX Monday evening into night. And the rest DFW and North East TX and SE OK into AR in late night into early morning hours. So for right now appears to be a mostly a wind and possibly a isolated flash flooding event.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Coming Soon! The NEW MesoSearch.net
It has been awhile since I have posted on here. Just procrastination I guess. LOL.. Not Good! Well since the last I have posted on here I had a successful tornado intercept less then 5 minutes from my house on June 10th!! I was in Kansas the day before and busted. So strange to have had Supercells in North Texas in the middle of June.
Well we had a website up for a very short time last year it just never got underway. So this fall I am introducing a NEW Website for MesoSearch Storm Chasing. It will contain live streaming when we are in the field, gps tracking, video/photo gallery, and a blog.
So to entertain you and give you a sense of whats to come please enjoy this trailer promoting the new website.
Well we had a website up for a very short time last year it just never got underway. So this fall I am introducing a NEW Website for MesoSearch Storm Chasing. It will contain live streaming when we are in the field, gps tracking, video/photo gallery, and a blog.
So to entertain you and give you a sense of whats to come please enjoy this trailer promoting the new website.
Friday, May 1, 2009
MESOSEARCH,,, Chase Tomorrow!!!
The Crew will be out tomorrow. We will be streaming live at TornadoVideos.net !
A very unstable atmosphere will be in place tomorrow over North West TX. Shear looks beautiful turning with height very nicely. CAPE on the order towards 5,000 j/kg. A classic triple point set up. We are targeting NW TX.. Storm should fire by 5pm, Discrete supercells with massive hail and a decent threat for tornadoes is likely.. Storm Prediction center has issued a slight risk with a likely upgrade to Moderate risk mentioned in their outlook.. Please tune into Tornadovideos.net to watch us DOMINATE!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Severe Weather in the forecast!!
Finally looks like things are trying to get going. GFS is now showing potential Easter Weekend for the Southern Plains. It still far out and a lot of changes will take place between now and then.. GFS has been pushing everything further west little each run.. The GFS is normally not always telling the truth ! Thursday in the southern plains doesn't look very impressive to me and seems to me that a cold front will overtake everything very quickly.. So as of right now Saturday looks like the day of choice. I just hope the moisture will be able to recover in time for Saturday.
I will continue to monitor the models and make a detailed forecast later this week.
Friday, April 3, 2009
MesoSearch on ABC Dallas...
As some of you guys know I am one of the chasers for WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas. Craig Curlee another known DFW chaser is now also on board. The both of us will DOMINATE. Last week I went in the station to do an interview with Chief Meteorologist Pete Delkus. The news station and myself agree that we have the best chaser team in North Texas. WFAA is already number 1 in severe weather in North Texas. Hope we have a productive season. .
It was shown Yesterday at 6pm.. I was going to post but I have been so busy it is not even funny and didn't find out until about 3 hours before it went on.. Hope yall enjoy.
Here is the Link
Monday, March 23, 2009
LIVE STEAMING UP AND RUNNING!
MesoSearch has Teamed up with TornadoVideos.net to bring you dominating live streaming and reports, and live GPS tracking..
The Set up for tomorrow is insane!!! High Shear, low cape set up, Amazing Low level shear will cause large right turn hodographs indicating storms will be able to produce strong tornadoes. MesoSearch will be out in the plains.
Please go to TornadoVideos.net to see our live chase stream!!
DOMINATING!!!
Monday, February 9, 2009
LET IT BEGIN. TORNADOES POSSIBLE NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS, TO SOUTH CENTRAL OK
The MesoSearch Team will be out tomorrow in pursuit of dominating severe weather in the Southern Plains, Our initial target is Stephenville Texas and will adjust from there.
A potent system is moving in from the west, with massive moisture return that is not common for this time of year ahead of it. Shear and instability will be in place for strong / significantTornadoes.
See the risk area here Http://www.spc.noaa.gov
Sorry for not giving much more details so much to do still. Be Safe to for all who are chasing and live in the risk areas.
We will also be showing our chase live on the web at ChaserTv.com See us out in the field live in the action.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
News..Whats going on lately and Need a New Chase Partner
Well not really much to say. Weather has been extremely boring. With Storm Season hopefully about a month and a half away and my brother in law Ricky moving I am looking for some new chase partners. Even though gas is cheaper, I still would like to have help while chasing so I can get more and better footage.. I just have so much trouble doing it all by myself.. So if anybody is interested contact me at MesoSearch@gmail.com . My cousin who just moved down is getting into it, He has alot to learn though still. Tagging along with me more often will give him more experience.. Chris Harrell one of the MesoSearch chasers can only chase on weekends but will be going on a pretty extensive chasecation this year. We will see how that turns out. Should be awesome.
MesoSearch has added some new toys to the rig. We are now doing GPS tracking and severe WX reporting through http://www.spotternetwork.org/ . We will also be doing live streaming as well this season. More details on the streaming as the season gets closer. We will be also striving to get as much footage as possible this year and come out with our first ever chase DVD. It's not official but we are trying for it.. It will include footage from 08 and 09. Hopefully we will have the http://mesosearch.net/ site up and running. It has said content coming soon for almost a year. I have been working on the site off and on for several months
For my DFW people we chase for ABC Channel 8 WFAA in Dallas so when severe weather is near the metroplex keep an eye on channel 8 news to see our live interviews, footage and reports from the field.
MesoSearch has added some new toys to the rig. We are now doing GPS tracking and severe WX reporting through http://www.spotternetwork.org/ . We will also be doing live streaming as well this season. More details on the streaming as the season gets closer. We will be also striving to get as much footage as possible this year and come out with our first ever chase DVD. It's not official but we are trying for it.. It will include footage from 08 and 09. Hopefully we will have the http://mesosearch.net/ site up and running. It has said content coming soon for almost a year. I have been working on the site off and on for several months
For my DFW people we chase for ABC Channel 8 WFAA in Dallas so when severe weather is near the metroplex keep an eye on channel 8 news to see our live interviews, footage and reports from the field.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The MSIV ( MesoSearch Intercept Vehicle )
Well not what I really call it but hey it mocks The Discovery Channels " Storm Chasers" TIV.
It has been my work in progress getting this truck where I want. I have chased in it several times. I wanted to have it set up so it could be organized and easy to put together and take down. Nothing fancy really. There are a lot nicer set ups then this. I like it. I had to put the stickers on the tailgate to show off this blog!! Hopefully people will visit it. The word Dominating is a powerful word and one to make people wonder why the hell the word dominating would be on a truck.. Well it's because it is just that. DOMINATING! I am not done with the truck I am still going to add a Anemometer/Weather station. It will do all the cool geeky stuff. I am still thinking about HAM radio for the truck then it will be done.. I need to get my ham license.
Currently in the Truck I have:
Magellan Explorist 400 GPS
Logitech 5 megapixel Cam
In Dash USB Hub
Tethered Blackberry for Internet
Dell Precision M65 w/ Intel Centrino Duo core processor (dominating)
3 way dc adapter
power inverters
and an awesome wooden crate that has been modified to be a laptop mount. Works very well actually.
Programs and Software:
GRlevel3
SpotterNetwork
SevereStreaming
Spotter Chat
ooVoo
Logitech Quikcam
I do not consider this a lot compared to what some people have in their cars. It gets the job done. Everyone feel free to leave a comment!
Please excuse the ugly dude wearing the blue storm chaser T-shirt..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
