Education…no such thing as too much.

As mentioned in my previous posting, I would touch more on forecasting education, specifically, mine.

I determined that the way to go with this was to learn how to forecast on my own. It has not been an easy task. Since my previous hobby was cars, cars, and more cars, I am pretty mechanically minded. Switching gears to a scientific mindset has not only been a little hard, but sometimes trying to the point that I have been reduced to looking up words in the dictionary. It’s whole new frame of mind, with a whole new lingo and jargon, and a whole new vocabulary. And that’s really before we get into any of the fancy stuff! I am glad to say that I am at least getting comfortable with what I am doing, and things are coming a little easier.

This is a list of what I have accomplished so far, and will be periodically updated as I collect more certifications.

In person, at Weather Graphics Forecast School, with Tim Vasquez:

Basic Severe Weather Forecasting
Mesoanalysis, Radar and Satellite Workshop
Radar and Severe Weather

From meted.ucar.edu (These are free online courses – try them out…but take notes!)

Skywarn Spotter Training:
Role of the Skywarn Spotter
Skywarn Spotter Convective Basics

Summer Severe Weather:
Principles of Convection I – Buoyancy and CAPE
Principles of Convection II – Using Hodographs
Principles of Convection III – Shear and Convective Storms
Severe Convection II – Mesoscale Convective Systems

Chaser Preparation

I touched on chase vehicle preparation, but preparing yourself is essential too.

With my background in dealing with hurricanes on Texas coast, I knew going in that I would need some prep to do this right. There’s two ways a chaser can conduct a chase.

1. Relying on other’s information. This is basically watching forecasts, SPC’s site, and other easily accessible methods via the internet. Not to say that this is the wrong way, however, it’s not really why I am in this. I DO utilize those resources, because they are all prepared by professionals who do know a whole lot more than me. But that’s not what I really want to know.

2. Forecasting on your own. THIS is what I am after. With hurricanes, as I have mentioned before, you just determine where it is heading, and be on the bad side, and you should see some action. With any sort of storm, there’s tons of variables involved, some I didn’t even know existed until just very recently. I decided that I would set out to learn how to forecast my own weather using the model data that is available, and I would learn the mechanics behind how it works, at least as best I could. (I’ll touch on this better in another post)

Going beyond just getting educated, I found it important to learn the etiquette involved in being a true storm chaser, and not be labeled a “yahoo”. It’s all simple, common sense stuff, too. If you’re chasing a tornado, and you happen to come across a damage scene, and you are amongst the first, break the chase, and offer help. If you’re not, and there is EM/LE on the scene, get out of the way. Do not park with any part of your car blocking the road, and do not block the road yourself while taking pictures. If the LE or EM needs to get through, LET THEM THROUGH. I cite all of these, because these are things that the chaser community is looked down upon for. Those, and the biggest one of course….don’t drive like an asshat. Speeding your ass off down a two-lane really isn’t going to accomplish anything.

More prep? Get the mindset for the task. Thanks to the likes of “Twister” and “Storm Chasers” the general idea is that tornadoes just drop right out of the sky. NOTHING is further from the truth. Rest assured of many miles on the road, and some long hours, and on top of that, be ready for the very real possibility that you will come away empty-handed, with regards to sightings. I always take something away from every chase. If I blue sky busted, I look over the atmospheric conditions and soundings to see what happened, and to see if I can identify it in the future when I am forecasting. If I had a puny tornado, I look at all the data again, and I see what element, or elements were lacking. If I was on a storm that produced, but I couldn’t see it, I look at where the tornado was, and where I was, and try to identify how I could position better next time. Every chase, be it success or failure, will still have something to show me afterwards.

Storm Chase #5 05.05.2012/05.06.2012

This chase, for me, was the Mount Everest of chases. Probably because I tried as hard as I could, and I only came away with a nice weekend trip.

Eric Matthews texted me at 8 pm Friday night, and asked if I felt like chasing northern Nebraska, maybe western Iowa, so forth and so on. After a check of the models, it all looked reasonable, and I decided, perhaps somewhat impulsively (hey, I have always had a problem not being spontaneous) to go ahead and go for it. After all, chase season is one season a year, and if you snooze, you very well could lose.

At 5:30 am, I saddled up the Dodge Ram, and headed to meet Eric in Lenexa, KS at 9 am. Since it was just the two of us, I floated the idea that we ride the Ram, since it gets a little better mileage than the Tahoe, and on this trip, that turned out to be a good call. We drove up into Missouri, into Iowa, turning off at Sioux City, and heading into Nebraska. At Randolph, we ran across a decent sized chaser convergence at a nicely sized gas station, where we stopped for a bit. It was hot out, too. Almost 90 degrees, and good humidity. It just shouldn’t have been long before the storms fired.

Getting back on the road, we noticed a lot of chasers turning south, which perplexed both of us. We did run across the TVN Dominator guys in Creighton, NE.

Reed Timmer told us that he was heading toward southern South Dakota, and he did pick out probably the most likely candidate that day to produce, however it never did. Eric and I looked at his storm, and figured we could play the frontal line to the southwest, and hopefully pick up on some good action, but as soon as storms fired, they would start losing steam, and wither away.

This is what’s called a blue sky bust, caused by an excessively strong cap. A strong capping inversion will blow a forecast every last time. It’s a real bitch when it happens, but you got to roll with the punches, because it will happen. It bit a lot of guys, honestly. Mike Bettes and the Tornado Hunt was out there, and of course, Reed Timmer and the Dominator were out there, along with plenty of other chasers.

As darkness fell, the cap started to ease, and storms started firing near Taylor, NE. Night chasing is something I consider beyond the scope of my capabilities, but Eric had done it before, so I figured, hey, we can do a little of this. And we did spot a few wall clouds, illuminated nicely by lightning behind them, silhouetting them perfectly.

By this time, it was getting to be late, so we drove to Broken Bow, NE, and got a room at the Arrow Hotel. Allow me to NOT recommend this place…apparently light switch technology was lost on these guys, and for some inexplicable reason, the lights would come on at various intervals. And we’re not talking the puny little bedside light. This place had lights that would bake potatoes.

We had a very potent MCS roll through that night, dumping lots of rain, and turning my truck into the Dodge Ram Rain Gauge Edition:

We rolled back to Kansas, pretty much empty-handed, but had no idea what waited for us. Things began firing just as were were north of Kansas City, and in retrospect, I should have hung out a little bit, considering that the night before at the hotel, I had said that the area between Kansas City and Emporia has the best chances. Twenty minutes after I dropped Eric off in Lenexa, a storm went tornado warned in Olathe, one town south of Eric. He jumped on that storm, and got some nice action!

Here’s a few pics from my ride home as storms fired all the way from Kansas City to just outside of Wichita:

Trip mileage was about 1430 miles, and this was approximately the route taken:
http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=JM1gjd

Storm Chase #4 04.27.2012

Here is how storm chasing works. You watch the models, you think, you you look for possibilities, and then the morning of, if you have determined that the chase isn’t for you, it turns out to be something worth chasing.

This is especially bad if you have to be in Oklahoma City the next morning for training.

So, Thursday night, I got to thinking. I could just whip out to Yates Center, KS, it’s not far, it should go up out there, no biggie. Didn’t work out that way. Friday morning, I’m sitting at the office, and Eric Matthews texts, and asks if I am chasing today. Of course, it gets floated that we meet up. David Hatfield decided to go along with me.

He liked my initial thought of Yates Center, but as the day wore on, it was looking less likely. I agreed, and floated the idea of staging in Newton, KS, a fair bit northwest of Yates Center, based on what I saw on models. We agreed to meet in Emporia instead, and almost there, he called, and said things were changing, and we needed to move south to Eureka, KS. Trouble was, David and I were on the Kansas Turnpike, heading for Emporia. So we exited at Cassoday, KS, and started looking for a way back to Eureka. David is an excellent navigator, and found us the road less traveled (meaning it was dirt) and got us to Eureka while Eric was still 25 miles north. When we got there, Eric called, and informed us that subsidence was killing everything in our area, and we needed to get back to Newton.

So, we hit the road, and went through El Dorado, and back up through Potwin to get to I-135, and then, north into Newton. When we got there, Eric called, and mentioned that he was in Cedar Point, just east of Florence, KS, and towers were going up nicely! Finally!

We met up, and started pushing northeast on 50, and decided to track up to Council Grove. Looking a little lousy, but getting there.

We kept pushing north, and it started looking good, with at one point, NINE individual areas of rotation! Hard to see from a still pic, but it was rotating like mad!

This is where I fail badly for not having the camera to hand. Shortly after that picture was taken, and I had set the camera down, we were driving along, and we looked to the northwest, and a tornado had touched down. I shouted “TORNADO!” and lunged for my camera, however, it didn’t even do us the courtesy of roping out. It just dissipated. Too small a window for a pic, but I was pleased nonetheless….I had seen a tornado in my first season of chasing, something neither David, or I had figured would happen.

We pressed on, moving east, tracking a nice storm, that showed great potential.

This one, unfortunately didn’t have the guts to produce. David, on the other hand, did have the guts to break my passenger side windshield wiper while trying to mount a camera outside on the windshield. And, Eric had the guts to throw a stone with his Tahoe, and chip my windshield.

Replacing the windshield wiper blade in Ottawa, KS:

Despite minor damage to the Ram, and a LOT of driving, I remain completely happy with the chase.

Here’s the approximate route. Mileage was roughly 450 miles.
http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=KC6YDx

Storm Chase #3 04.14.2012

Chased with David Hatfield, Eric Herbers, and Ashley Shumard. April 14th was quite a little tornado outbreak day, although we admittedly missed several of them, but did get some good funnel action. Here’s an 18 minute video on some of what happened. The first storm was rotating nicely, and wanting to produce, but it just couldn’t seem to get organized enough to do it. The second seemed a little more powerful, but it too was only able to manage to drop a very short lived tornado that we were too far away from to spot.

Very nice Supercell near Sawyer, KS

Wall Cloud near Varner, KS

Interesting cloud formation here!

Another interesting cloud formation that had me wondering.

Trip mileage was approximately 260, and here is the route:

http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=L22gfj

Hail Damage! Chase #3 04.14.2012

April 14th was THE tornado outbreak day.  Ellsworth saw an EF-4, and Wichita saw an EF-3.  David Hatfield, Eric Herbers, and Ashley Shumard chased with me, and while we did not see any tornadoes, we did see quite a few funnels, and managed to punch a core, and put a few dings in my truck.  Here’s the video from the core punch.

Punching a core near Sawyer KS 04-14

 

Chase # 2 04.13.2012

What better day to go chase than Friday the 13th?  I thought so too.  My local chase partner, David Hatfield came along, and we both decided to target Wakita, OK.  Little did we realize, we were dealing with a touch of pre-frontal convection, and we wound up killing some time in Medford, instead of going all the way to Wakita.

Watching our radar, we saw that convection was lighting off south of our position, so we headed for Ponca City, however, it was not far enough south.  The tornado dropped in Norman, another hour or two south.  Nevertheless, got some great pics..

That last one was taken outside of Clearwater, KS, after a nice road turned to a pudding road.  Between the pride of making it through ankle deep slush, and one killer cloud formation, couldn’t help the pic.

Trip mileage was about 290, and here is the approximate route:

http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=KoaiEg

My first good chase! 04.09.2012

So it seems, that storm chasing has brought the, uh, impulsive side out in me.  I was invited on my first real chase by a good group of guys out of the Kansas City area, and of course, I did not say no.

As far as the first “real” chase goes, it’s one where there was a real shot at seeing some good action, none of this practicing around town stuff that I had been doing.  It actually took me by surprise that someone with experience would want a total newb like me sharing their air, but hey.  it turned out well.  I made three new friends, and learned quite a lot.

See that pic?  That’s the first thing I learned!  That’s me, standing on a dirt road just outside of Rhea, OK at about 8:30 pm.  That’s about 50 miles from the eastern border of the Texas Panhandle.  I had to be back in the office at 8 am in Wichita.  Lesson learned?  Don’t complain about distance, or time, because you will be spending lots of both on the road.  Our chase was supposed to not be as far south as it got, but hey….these things happen.  A few more pics…

From left to right:  John Hale, Eric Matthews, and Brian Davidson.

The closest thing to a tornado we got…nice little funnel.  Never hit the ground, but in my first year, I don’t expect to see a tornado.  Interestingly, the storm we were on did drop a tornado, however, we were in bad position for it, and on the wrong side of the storm.  It was a HP monster, so all we really saw were mondo rain curtains.  After we got past it, we spotted some great rotation, and this guy here, but that was it.

Trip mileage was about 460, and here is the route:

http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=L4vznM

No regrets.

Chase Vehicle selection, and preparation

The chase is only as good as the vehicle you use.  Before that gets taken out of context, I would like to state that everyone’s perfect chase vehicle WILL be different, based on various factors, the most important of them being how well it fits in with your life, unless, of course, you are filthy rich, and can have a dedicated storm chase vehicle.

I’m NOT filthy rich, so hopefully this appeals to folks who have mechanical aptitude, and don’t mind getting a little dirty.

I’m using a Dodge Ram Quad Cab.  I like the room, the comfort, the ground clearance, and the sheer reliability of a pickup truck.  For me, that will offset the slight fuel mileage penalty.  Plus it’s good and heavy.  Cars that get tossed in regular crosswinds might be somewhat unsettling in higher winds.

Your vehicle must be mechanically sound.  I just purchased this truck in November, and I know two things about it.  It’s a 2002, and it’s seen a lot of miles already.  Things I went through that is good for any chase vehicle to have checked:

-Cooling system.  My truck needed a new one, and it got it.  I’m not saying you need one too, but check out your “consumables”.  Belts, and hoses.  If you see cracks in the belts, or if your hoses feel really mushy, or are bulging, replace them.

-Wheel Bearings.  Mine were shot.  Some cars use replaceable bearings, some use bearing packs.  If your car is fairly young, this is less of a concern.

-Tires.  Mine, once again, were toasted.  Spring for quality tires.  I bought good ones knowing that I may go down a rough, rocky, or muddy road, and I wanted a tire that would live.  If you are down to the wear bars, get new ones.  With a bad storm bearing down on you, a blown tire quickly turns into much more than an inconvenience.  Speaking of spare tires, if you don’t know how to work with your vehicle’s jack, or whatever, please practice. (It goes without saying to make sure there’s air in it, right?)  I don’t mind admitting, I have never had a Dodge truck before, and apparently since Daimler had a hand in designing this, it would explain why it took me 40 minutes to figure out how to remove the spare tire with the contrived system of square tubes and jack handles, in order to makes something fit the tire winch.

-Fluids.  Engine oil, and transmission oil, and the filters for both should be changed.  If you have a newer vehicle made in the last ten years, it’s very likely that your transmission fluid is special synthetic stuff, costing more, but does extend the life of your transmission.  It costs money, but you’re going toe-to-toe with the forces of nature.

-Wipers.  Must be good!  You don’t have to buy the high dollar PIAA Graphites, but you do need a set that works well. If you have constant streaking problems, your windshield may be to blame.  Pollutants and so forth can create a film on the windshield that is hard to cope with, and makes wipers streak.  Try washing your windshield with Bon-Ami or Comet.  There is also Rain-X, and Aquapel, the latter which I understand is very very good.

As for preparing a vehicle, there are a few things I consider to be musts.  First and foremost is a laptop with GRLevel3 loaded.  GRLevel3 is a very nice level 3 radar viewer that gets a good chunk of it’s data from free public servers.  It will interface with third party data providers for even more usability.  Another must is a GPS transponder.  GRLevel3 will show your position on the radar viewer, and that is very nice when judging where you are relative to the storm.

It’s not real safe to drive with a laptop floating loose in the car, so the hot ticket is to have a laptop mount, much like what you see in police cars.  Of course, they make them just for my Dodge Ram, but wow are they expensive!  Last I checked it was between $250 and $400, depending on brand, retailer, etc.  I decided to make my own, and today, we began measuring out for what we have in mind.

I started with the main part, the upper half of a laptop mount I salvaged from a Ford police car:

Then came the harder part….where and how to affix this.  The Dodge has a three-piece front seat consisting of the two seats on the outside, and the center seat/console thing that they tout for the working man.  The purchased mounts typically attach to the front seat bolts, and after seeing one for my truck, it seemed like it would place the computer too far towards the passenger for my liking.  It also seemed like it may interfere with the passenger side air bag, so we decided to make one that sits closer to the center.

The seat was simply unbolted, and rocked back, giving access to the bolts that secure the center seat/console to the seat framework, and giving us the ability to measure out the foundation of our laptop mount.  We were also concerned about the stability of the entire setup, so we found two extra mounting points hidden under a loose fitting piece of skirting under the instrument panel, just below the cupholder:

Between this, and fluid changes, that’s as far as we got today.  We’ll start designing this soon, and possibly have something in the truck in a couple of weeks!

From the beginning.

Wow.  A new (rebooted) hobby for me.

I lived in south Texas for many years, and spotted several hurricanes, and tropical storms.  To name a few, Alicia in 1983, (my first) Jerry in ’89, TS Frances in ’98, and TS Allison in ’01, and witnessed the cluster-flooge that was the evacuation for Rita in ’05. Saw lots of winds, lots of flooding, and several tornadoes spawned by the storms. TS Frances I actually rode out in a grocery store parking lot in an Oldsmobile. (Wasn’t that bad!)

I moved to Kansas in 2006, and never could partake in the chase hobby, because I always had cars that were far too nice, and far too dent-free to risk getting hail damage.  However, last November, I purchased a 2002 Dodge Ram that was street-beat, and dirt-cheap.  I then realized that I could pursue my storm chasing ambitions.

To move on, since I made the decision, I became a member of a storm chasing forum, and started taking some online meteorology courses, as well as one in person so far in Norman, OK, and achieving a technical certification in Severe Weather Forecasting.  I decided that some good training was pretty important, not only from a safety aspect, but for me the idea was to learn to forecast the storm, determine when and where initiation will take place, and hopefully be close enough to right to see if I was right.  So, it’s a two-sided deal.  Learn to forecast, and gain proof of my ability.  With tropical cyclones in the Gulf, it’s easy.  They even name the damn thing.  How hard is it to see that Charlie is coming for you?  Atop that, most folks know that the northeast quadrant is the filthy side of the storm, so you know to get in that path, and the action is pretty much assured.

I have also been working on properly equipping my truck.  My original plan was to use a laptop with a wireless modem so I could run GRLevel3, and have a decent radar in the truck.  An Inspeed anemometer was also planned, but due to glitchy software from Verizon, the wireless modem never saw fit to speak to my laptop.  So, we’re still working on that, right now working off the modern marvel of a Garmin-Asus Garminfone running some cool apps including PYKL3 Radar, Scanner Radio, BeWeather Pro, and some other assorted apps that really do work well.

That’s all for the first in a long line, I hope.  Storm season is just starting, and, so am I.  Together, we’ll learn, find out where we screw up and where we succeed, and hopefully, have a good time doing it!