JohnC
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« on: May 28, 2009, 02:30:54 pm » |
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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.
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