Astronomy, Photography and Weather
March 28, 2024, 04:31:04 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: IAA lecture programme continues alternate Wednesdays from September - an excellent programme of lectures- Queens University Belfast - Bell Lecture Theatre. Also keep an eye out for the Summer Events
 
  Home Help Search Gallery Staff List Login Register  

Plains severe weather 2009

Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Plains severe weather 2009  (Read 484 times)
Tyler
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 493


Lincoln, Nebraska/Waconia, Minnesota, USA


View Profile WWW
« on: May 22, 2009, 11:14:39 pm »

I think there have been about 5 good solid chase days this year. Thats it thus far. A death ridge has set in keeping the biggest threat for severe weather in central CANADA! The jet stream just hopped up to canada in one big jump, leaving the central plains with absolutely no proper shear in place for setups, all we can do is way for the jet to sink south...which "hopefully" it will, doesn't look good right now though, maybe by early June we'll have proper moisture and shear in place again. Been the most boring spring to my memory since I moved here in 2002. I don't think we've had thunder for three weeks now, and only one severe thunderstorm to pass through town.

The ironic thing (maybe not ironic, idk what other word to use though) is that the government has a project going on called Vortex2 which is an armada of vehicles equipt with insturmentation to gather information on different sides of a tornado. This project runs from May 10 to June 12 or something like that for 2009 and 2010. BUT...there is absolutely NOTHING going on! so they are chasing these marginal local set ups. LoL people are blaming the weather channel for following them, mother nature was like "you want to study me?" TOO BAD and then doesn't do anything. lol hopefully things will change soon.
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

brianb
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1228



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2009, 12:13:05 am »

Quote
people are blaming the weather channel for following them
Yeah, it's the usual curse ... nothing ever does what's convenient.
Report Spam   Logged
Tyler
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 493


Lincoln, Nebraska/Waconia, Minnesota, USA


View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2009, 05:43:25 am »

yeah, I feel bad for all the people on all the chase tours and people that take chase"cations" cause they are chasing crap storms. I'm busy planning my two week trip to the rocky mountains while waiting for the jet to sink south.
Report Spam   Logged

martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2009, 01:05:18 pm »

I heard that to Tyler on other forums, John W from on here is not long back from the Plains and informs me that he only seen 3 storms, and that it was cool and cloudy for much of the time like Autumn in the UK. Hopefully the jet will come back south again and introduce some much needed action. In the mean time, good luck with your trip.  Smiley
Report Spam   Logged

JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2009, 02:30:54 pm »

Hi ..Back  just over a week now. I didn't have this site address in my book UGH.. but tbh. I gave up with my contacts who initially posted for me over on UKww. I managed a few myself..Most times there was no internet points and I didn't have a laptop so I had to use the lobby computer if there was one.

 Yes, it was grim. I saw only  3 storms and as I was leaving on the 17. the next Clou9 Tour were arriving from Holland and Australia- it takes the Australians 2 days to get there ! and a lot of airfare. We had 2 on our trip. The route back was OKC >Denver> Los Angeles then 14 hours !! across the Pacific to New Zealand then to Australia.. As we left the death ridge was establishing itself,they'll see barely anything. That Tour is from May 18 to June 2nd. They're hoping things look up towards June. I've got nothing like I had last year but if you can bear with me I'll start uploading what I have.

 Tyler mentioned Vortex 2. Well, that's a million dollar scientific programme which includes TIV2 ,30 vehicles and 100 staff..mainly scieintists in the meteorology field. I've got photos of TIV 2 as we passed it on an Interstate and we were fortunate enough to come across part of the Vortex team at Wakita OK.  I'll start posting what I have. I've booked for may 10 next year and hope things are much improved.

If it's OK I think it would be better if I included the TIV & Vortex photos   along with the storm photos in Weather rather than put TIV etc. in Photography.
There two well known people I saw with Vortex. Veteran chaser Herb Stein and Tornado assessor (damage assessor) Tim Marshall who came here to assess the strength of the Birmingham tornado a while back.

There were two tornadoes that hit Kirksville MO  and we almost got there but arrived too late to get into position. One was an EF 1 and the other an EF3. The latter killed 3 people and did a lot of damage. We drove ahead  and through  a core. They were concerned of a rain wrapped tornado and wanted to get to safety.I have photos of that. It was difficult for me to sort out which storm was which in the photos- I'll need to be more careful logging next year. but tbh. trying to write in a van travelling at 40-50mph.  with people talking isn't easy.  I was in the second van,the boss in the first with the large radar screen and there were times when we weren't quite sure where we were exactly-approximate locations were often the best I could get. At one point this Kirksville storm was moving at 20 mph.-fine we were getting ahead of it after Kirksville then it suddenly accelerated to 70 mph. I questioned this but was told that it was correct. Needless to say we failed to get ahead of it. The lightning was incessant and infact was like a strobe light-it didn't stop but we were experience monsoon proportions rain too so there was no way we could get out. Now and then we'd see a CG and a white out followed by the crack of the the thunder which was like a hammer hitting the roof... an unbelievable experience. Flashes were so intense they'd leave the eye temporarily blinded, but we had to keep going ,the driver said afterwards that the lightning was making it difficult for him to see in the seconds after the flash. A lot was either intra-cloud or the CG's were hidden in the rain sheet but it was certainly a wonderful experience.
Here's Youtube of the EF3.


YouTube of the tornado.

I'll start posting what I have in anhour or so. . It's 2.30pm and I have a dental appnt. at 3.00pm. Hope I feel up to it after that. ugh.


Report Spam   Logged
rjgjr
Guest
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2009, 05:07:40 pm »

Excellent report John. I've been following the Vortex 2 reports on the Weather Channel here in the States, very interesting to say the least. Better luck next year on your chase.
Report Spam   Logged
JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2009, 06:25:30 am »

Thanks, Richard. I crtainly hope that doesn't happen again but people go on these chase tours   knowing it could be like it actually was but they just go  thinking the odds of that are poor. The  people running it  were telling us the bad years, more than I realised and sometimes 2 seasons  on the run so it's high risk really,  some  of the tours  in those years  saw absolutely nothing,you just have to put it behind you and hope for better next time- at least  people do go again,the draw is too strong too give up.
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum

Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy