GoBoB Chasing

May 29th is the anniversary of my most successful chase day ever. Memorial Day weekend usually brings chasable weather to our neck of the woods. 2005 was a notable exception and 2006 was not looking too promising. Matt Patterson, his significant other Heather, Steve Miller and I chased today. Initially we had a Medicine Lodge, KS target but modified that as storm went up south of the border. We were desperate to see some storms as it looks by midweek that the season may be over as a monster ridge builds and Northwesterly flow returns. We ate dinner a Pizza Hut in Enid, OK where we could not get buffeted and waited for dark to approach so we could shoot some lightning photography. As we outran the storm East we were getting buffeted by 40 mph outflow winds. You may recall that my first tornado this season in Beatrice, NE suffered because the 20 year old Bogen could not support the fairly heavy High Definition Video camera (HDR-FX1).

I upgraded to a Sachtler carbon fiber professional electronic news gathering model with an incredible head that is guaranteed from -40 to 140 degrees. You may wonder why such a large range; because this is the one Nova film crews take to the top of Everest. It is one of those things that will have 80% retail value at my estate sale when I die.

Matt located the most perfect road about 20 east of Enid and we had a velvet black canvas to witness a lightning show that would humble most 4th of July celebrations. We were getting 30-40 mph winds at times and the new tripod was rock solid.

Steve Miller was shooting a digital SLR and got some postcard (Charles Allison) type lightning shots. I hope he will post some. I got several of the best lightning clips I have ever gotten. So it was a great day. It is nice with a larger number of chase partners in the car the costs were considerably less. Thanks for driving the 438 miles Matt.

As I looked out the office window, I could see a beautiful cumulus tower trying to build to my East. Guidance suggested the best storm potential would be Joplin, MO. I really was not in the mood to drive 120 miles for a storm that would not likely produce a tornado. I hit the door at about 4:50 PM CST and was trying to get home quickly which did not happen. At 5:04 I had only made it halfway home and I get a call From Matt Patterson saying we were now in a Severe Thunderstorm Watch box. A blue box means you probably aren’t going to see any tornadoes, but hey we’re desperate. I get fuel and finally get home and throw all the gear in the car. At 5:31 Matt calls from Sand Springs and says this cell is looking really good and just took off in the last three minutes. At 5:52, I’m in Broken Arrow and looking for road options as I know I don’t want the turnpike. As I am about to get on old 51 there is some construction that has everything messed up, who should pull up but Matt Patterson and Heather. We like the road choice and decide to head to Coweta. As we intercept the storm we are getting hit by the biggest wads of rain I have ever seen. The impact sounded worse than some hail I’ve taken. And then the storm fell completely apart before our eyes. We stopped to watch and Charles Allison pulls up. I haven’t seen Charles since March 12th so we all stand in the rain and shoot the shit. Except Heather who has the sense to stay out of the rain. Total chase was 58.3 miles.

The benign weather is driving us crazy and the wishcasting convinced us that a trip to Kansas might work. The SPC had a 2% chance so deep down we knew this was going to be more of a afternoon to spend some time with friends rather than intense weather. Chase partners were Kelly Baker, Matt Patterson, Steve Miller and one of Steve’s college friends.The chase target was Parsons, KS which netted a total chase of 232 miles. We watched a whole lot of nothing go on in Parsons, and spent about 30 minutes talking to the Labette County Sheriff. I try to treat law enforcement officers decently and share our forecast thinking. I like to stay on good terms, and hope these positive encounters help balance some of the negative things they see of chasers (myself included).

About 5:20 P.M. CDT an analysis of the models and overall situation we decided to call it a day. We ate at Pizza Hut in Nowata, OK. Through a unique chase partner situation I ended up riding with Kelly. After dinner we were treated to a gorgeous setting sun. This gave me an opportunity to shoot some B-Roll “fly-bys” of the Jeep.

Pass 1
Pass 2
Pass 3
Pass 4

These clips should play in InterVideo WinDVD which is on almost every computer. You will want to right click on them and save them to your local machine as my server will not stream video. The original HD is 8 times this resolution.

In the days of yore a sailor’s fate was inextricably linked to the weather. In the mid latitudes they would come across patterns of severe calm when there was no wind to fill the sails. They called these periods doldrums and they were known to drive men mad. Many chasers are currently in this agitated state as there is no chaseable weather anywhere on the North American continent. Many people have spent thousands of dollars and vacation time to be rewarded with only beautiful blue skies.

Normally this would drive me insane as well, but work obligations have made chasing in May really difficult. Steve Miller and I were able to schedule vacations this year and will be out June 2-11. Hopefully this all works out. Several of our friends will also be out at this time so expect some interesting antics.

I promise to do my best to keep the blog updated fairly regularly during the chasecation.

Kind of a weird chase day. The SPC reduced the threat in their 11:30AM (16:30Z) update from a Moderate to a Slight risk. This confused the heck out of a lot of chasers. I was very happy to see that the Norman Forecast Office was going to do a special balloon launch at Noon to try and better assess the mid and upper air. I had all but ruled out chasing until I saw the hodograph and realized the cap was weaker than originally thought. I made a quick call the chase parents (Bob and Karen Hall). We were westbound to OKC to play a Mustang, OK target intercept by about 2:00 PM. Turnpikes are great for going places quickly, but lack sufficient exits that can be a real pain. We missed some guidance that suggested a Tecumseh to Ada line. We continue on to OKC with plans to empty bladders and fill the fuel tank. We pull a quick pit stop and were Eastbound on 40. I called Matt Patterson and Justin Teague, it turns out that we must be within about five miles and have the same plans. Somewhere between Shawnee and Tecumseh (I think) we pulled off to watch the storms go up, about five minutes later Justin and Matt roll up. It is funny, I think we both initially had one of those who the hell is this moments and then realized we were amongst friends. I had left the manual to my radio at home, and wanted to change the second band to VHF from the normal UHF repeater operation. Fortunately, I was able to download the 2.5meg file in about 10 minutes and set the radio appropriately.I really don’t know how people live without high speed Internet in their vehicles; Savages (KIDDING!!)

We then commenced a long chase into the jungle East of McAlester, OK. We had several lowerings and the storms kept us on our toes as we made the best of very limited road options. Finally after lots of crazy dodge ball navigation, we were able to make it to Wilburton where I decided we would ride out the storm and then head home. We had two tornado warned cells bearing down on us, but had a gas station, solid car wash and a South road option so I liked our chances. This is the 3rd time I’d run into Von today. If you happen to cross his path 3 times in one day you are doing a pretty good job of chasing.

My normal chase partner Steve Miller took one for the team and ran the Skywarn weather network from the NWS Tulsa Office. As always Steve runs a great net that greatly enhances the public safety.

On the way home we shot some storm damage video in Hartshorne, OK that is currently the featured link on KTUL TV homepage. This is a low bandwidth clip that should work with dial-up.

I case you are wondering, Mom made pizza rolls and Dad fixed the Gin and tonic post chase as we watched the Tulsa “event.”

Sorry for the lack of a timely update, things have been crazy. Tuesday was a tough day as I had to get some things done in the office. I left Tulsa with Bob and Karen Hall at 1:00 PM our target was Hall and Childress counties in Texas. Total chase was 665.0 miles (one short of the mark of the beast). Chasing around the Red River Valley area is tough because road options are so scarce. The SPC was advertising monster hail, so this made the decision process even a bit more complicated because there are very few escapes available. The storms were deviant in that they moved East and South Easterly at times. At a the critical moment North of Quanah TX, I made a critical decision not to punch the core and instead back track North and then East. That decision cost us a tornado. I’ve seen too many chasers loose too many windows from monster hail on these very roads. On this day, the hail was not there and it would have been OK to core punch.
We have had lots of rain the past week which has felt more like April. The computer models are showing all of their flaws and cobbling together a “long range” 12 hour forecast is difficult. That being said, Tuesday looks interesting.

Altus, OK “Golden Arches”

Sunday reminded me that we are storm chasers and not just tornado hunters. Steve Miller, Matt Patterson and I intentionally decided to chase storms that we knew would not be tornadic. Total chase was 78 miles and we were rewarded with some gorgeously lit storms that were far more spectacular in person than any camera can possibly capture. It was a fun chase in that we did not use much in the way of technology. Matt provided navigation as he knows the area better than any GPS unit. Usually post chase I’m worn out by information overload, but this was just plain fun. It is May and currently the next few days look active. If you see a giddy smile on my face, you know why.

Small Hail video as seen on KTUL