Home of Storm Chasers Erik and Amanda Burns

Home of Storm Chasers Erik and Amanda Burns
Tornadic Expeditions Storm Chasing Tours

Monday, December 29, 2008

Just bored and SDS attack.

Well christmas was fun and games, Having to close on Christmas Eve and Open on Post Christmas day was shitty. So my Holiday flew right by me but still spent time with family and got some nice gifts. Including a dandy new USB Cam!! Now I can Stream Live Video!

Now Severe Studios. I registered with them oh, almost a week ago now. Still waiting on freaking approval. Is there 10,000 people signing up for Severe Studios? My GOD! I didn't expect it to take this long.

December 26th. BIG WEATHER DAY! Yeah right.... I should have gone with my original forecast like I said the first time.. Linear Bullshit and thats what happened. But hey it is December and I just got a new cam so I stayed up all night for fucking nothing... I still think the SPC is on crack. The shear was not there for tornadoes. Way unidirectional. I got all mixed up into all the hype this set up got. I don't understand why December 8th didn't get this much attention. Hell at least there were supercells and they were before midnight.

I would like to bring up something that really pisses me off. We all experience it. Some of us everyday some of us every now and then.. I like to call them Fucking Idiots AKA Bad Drivers.
I don't know why the hell they think they could possibly be in more of a hurry then me. Cutting me off from the shoulder, Cutting acrross 3 lanes to make a fucking exit, riding my ass, coming to a complete stop just to turn the damn steering wheel( Hey thanks for stopping traffic so you could pull into that damn McDonalds) . Whats even worse. The person who is oblivious that there is a tornado coming right at you and they are going 30 mph on a 70 mph highway. To me speed signs mean shit when there is a tornado 1/2 mile away and coming at you. This happend to me 04-23-2009. Like I said earlier. Fucking Idiots. Really though there are too many bad drivers out there. It just really really gets under my skin.

UPDATE!!
Well I have still have been smoke free for a WEEK.. This is the first time in over 2 years I have been able to go this long with out ANY tobacco! I feel so much better. I actually wake up with energy. I still get cravings but nothing like I did after the first couple of days. All I have to say is that it is all a mind game and you just need to quit. It sucks. I have managed to be at the Gas Station to buy a drink and not ask for some smokes. I have a pride when I walk out of the building that I am winning the war!

Hope everybody has a safe and happy new year!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I am Done....

Well last night I gave up... I hate quitting but this was it.
Last night before I went to be. I was standing by the dinner table looking down at my pack of cigarettes. I was disgusted by them.. My life was being controlled by a damn paper stick filled with cancerous material. I counted them. There were 7 of them left. 7 is the number of God. I felt like it was a sign that it was time to stop.. So I stood over the toilet and broke each one in half and flushed them.. Shit belongs in the toilet so that's why these went there.. I will be honest sometimes I enjoy a fine tobacco product. I have been smoking since I was 15 and I am 23 now.. I have a whole life ahead of me.. Just think what I could spend all the extra money on, extra gear, more chases, ect.. Plus my health..
I am always scared I am just going to fall over and die from smoking.. No more will I live with all that. I am really done for good. Cold Turkey. If anybody else want to try and quit with me we can act as a support for each other. I have tried quitting before but this time it feels like it will be easier.

I will be posting another blog late tonight about driving around DFW.. It should be a good read

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Another Cold Front Headed To North Texas

Well another round of cold air is currently making its way into North Texas today. Temps yesterday were pushing 80F!!! Todays High will be in the Upper 60's for most of North Texas and by 7pm will be in the 40's and dropping rapidly! Winds will start coming out of the North early this afternoon and will be gusty. The real cold air won't arrive until this evening though. Lows tonight will be from the low 20s along the Red River region and upper 20's and low 30's around the DFW area. Highs tomorrow will be chilly. We will be lucky to see it get out of the 30's!!


Here is RUC model for 7pm tonight really starting to show the cold air move in!



Friday, December 19, 2008

This isn't really weather related but it ticks me off..

So I am at work yesterday and this guys comes in. He asked to look at the GPS units. We get to talking a little bit. He asked me how often I use GPS. I told him I use it quite a bit for storm chasing. His face lights up and he says " I love watching that show on Discovery Channel ". I asked him what side he liked, Josh Wurmans or Reed Timmers. He said the guys in the Grey Tahoe ( Reeds Team). I said "Reed is a good guy and fun to chase with. We have chased a couple of times together this year before the start of the filming of the show." Well to make a long story short the guy basically looks at me like I am a liar and said in a round about way "why would a Storm Chaser who has chased with somebody like Reed Timmer be working at a retail store"... Then he just started treating me like complete shit..

So before he left with the GPS I wrote down my addresses to my websites including this one.. So I hope he reads this.. ROFLMAO!! I am sure he probably threw them into the garbage.

Just because I don't have a fucking TV show to "prove" that I am a storm chaser doesn't give you the right to treat me like shit.. I don't care if you believe me or not! I don't expect for you to jump up and down in joy because you met a storm chaser.. If you believe me or not DO NOT treat me like shit..

People just don't get it.. With all the glam that the media puts out. They make us storm chasers look like we make an ass load of money chasing storms and that's all we do... As we all know allot of us have regular jobs. Yes.. Some of us do well at making a living out of chasing but we all know that's a long hard road to get to, that most of us will never see.

The general public will never understand storm chasing. How it works, The people that do it, Why we do it, and whats put into it.. You know what. I am glad it's that way. I am proud to be part of something that not just anybody can do.. I don't need to watch the 5 o'clock news to see what the weather is going to do.

Damn I hate Winter it makes me a dick.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

12/08/2008 Collin and Grayson County,, Bagged my first December Tornado!!

Well a very interesting day it turned out to be. After staring at data all day trying to determine if I should head south to Hillsboro Tx, or hanging out near Denton-Ft Worth area. Well I decided to head just north of Fort Worth in Keller and wait for the skinny little squall to come rain down on me. I kept an eye on the VILs and played around with one of the stronger cells. I didn't follow the cells for very long as they started to break apart and looked cruddy. I then noticed the storm on the North end of the line start to organize ( what would soon be the grayson county storm )and then soon after went Severe. I then noticed the storm I had just let get pass me start taking root, hauled butt over to 35E and then east on 121 and punched it where I experienced strong winds and blinding rainfall. While I was driving over to 35e the grayson storm went TOR warned.. I finally got into McKinney and the cell I was on went TOR and I went east on 380 to Princeton, once I got just a little east of Princeton inflow winds were feeding into the storm at estimated over 50 mph, Very rich, warm moist air. As I was crossing Lake Lavon heading to Farmersville I saw a powerflash to my N and and another one, The powerflash exposed a beautiful high contrast cone, I was on the phone with WFAA in Dallas and reported this to them, I tried to grab some photos of the tornado but all my pictures came out black. Shortly after seeing the tornado the cell started falling apart as it got close to Bonham. I then got into Celeste and called my BIL, We met up and headed to Dension to see if it was wind Damage that had occured or Tornado. The damage in Denison indeed looked like tornado damage. Insulation was in all the trees and powerlines, trees up rooted, limbs all twisted, metal wrapped around trees and powerpoles, roofs ripped of home.. Here are few photos of the Grayson County Storm Damage.





Sorry to anybody that reads this I haven't posted on here in a long time... Just haven't messed with this blog too much.. I will be using it alot more here from now on.