Well to just get things started. I am really sick of winter. The GFS has been showing some run to run consistency with throwing another winter weather event into Texas and OK. It is still 5 days out but damn! I am ready to see some moisture return from the gulf and seeing 2,000 + J/kg on the models! I am sure everybody who reads this is just as anxious as I am. Hopefully these are signs of an amazing season to come. I just wish it would get here faster. It is for sure something to keep an eye on. I really hate snow.
Also I would like to mention Shane Adams web show The Debris Show. If you have not caught it yet it airs every Saturday night at 9pm CDT. So join Shane Adams, Bridget Geauhgan, David Reimer and yours truly Erik Burns as we discuss the happening and not so happening topics in the world of chasing and chaser community. It is sure to be a great time. If you have any questions or comments don't be shy please call in and join the discussion! Check it out @ Http://saturdayaftermath.com .
Showing posts with label mesosearch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mesosearch. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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!
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..
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!
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.
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.
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