GoBoB Chasing

After an upper respiratory infection and a DNS problem GoBoB and GoBoB.com are both back among the living. These unseasonably warm temperatures may well portend the end of chase season. If I had to pick two seasons to miss these are probably the best two. VORTEX2 and their embedded armada of The Weather Channel, Discovery, and the TIV have pretty much destroyed what used to be a fun hobby.

I’m not really a fan of Dr. Charles Doswell. He is pompous, articulate to the point of wordy, and in this case correct. Please see: http://www.flame.org/~cdoswell/chaser_convergence.html

My good friend Steve Miller’s video (not work friendly unless you mute the audio first): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMdJy3qMak

I don’t know whose video this is but his/her in car camera setup is awesome and another nail in the coffin.

Much fewer chances of tornadoes, but severe weather still expected.

You’ve no doubt noticed the lack of storm chasing updates. That’s because I haven’t had any. I got exactly two chases this year and one of them was on birthday in February. I’ve had an enormous project to move two data centers in Dallas and Columbus. I won’t bore you with the gory details, but 65+ hour weeks and working in the middle of the night wear you out.

Four days on two lakes was exactly what the Dr. ordered. Four days on the lake poses some logistics problems when you are known as the “Lobster Bobster.” Normally, one day of SPF 35 and I am baked. Continued application of SPF fifty evaded eminent doom. Being able to sleep on house boat with two air conditioners blasting out frosty goodness didn’t hurt either. Being able to shower off the aforementioned sun block in the aforementioned house boat: PRICELESS!!!

Thanks to: Steve, Andrea, Matt, Heather, Steve, Norma, Aaron, Aaron, and Tiffany.

I won’t go in to the details, but there was a fairly large amount of Bud Light processed into Coors products. If you are a Coors drinker; I’m sorry, but you need to find a better barley beverage.

Fireworks this weekend proved problematic. We had differing accounts on where they would be in Skiatook. Turned out they were at the airport and we weren’t. Saturday we were on Keystone and Mannford shot about a $5,000-$10,000 show: not bad, but not big either. They had some nice 6” or 8” shells that went way too low. The mortars were either too large in diameter or too short. (I suffer from both of these two problems.)

Tulsa suffered the opposite problem of a shell stuck in the mortar and some sympathetic detonation. Back in the day, the mortar “tube” was made of cast iron and could safely contain most of a stuck shell. Cardboard somehow just isn’t as resilient. In college, I worked on this failure mode and the resulting consequences.

I was privileged to have dinner with Mr. Zambelli (Sr.) at the International Festivals and Events Association in Las Vegas as part of my OktoberFest duties. http://www.zambellifireworks.com/ His warning about “qualified shooters” is eeerrrie…..
You do get what you pay for.

——————-Place Holder—————————-

I’ve been on the provider side of virtual chasing since APRS. Today I decided to be a consumer and follow Steve Miller (OK) and Aaron Cunningham. The following images will automatically get watermarked as part of my posting software. All images and technologies are property of their respective owners. At about 7:45 PM CDT their chase got interesting. Special thanks to ChaserTV.com and Spotter Network for making these technologies available.

Bob is tired after a day of intense php development to integrate gobob.com and his facebook account.

Further refinement of our chaser reports bear out that Lone Grove, OK was the epicenter of hell. Lone Grove is four miles due west of Ardmore, OK (our 7:00 AM Target).

Currently in Freeport, TX where flooding of the bridges is already occurring at 2:00 PM CDT. We are at 6 feet of elevation and moving to higher ground.

Thursday looks like an incredible waste of thermodynamic potential.