GoBoB Chasing

The hosting company that I have used for GoBoB for the past five years has recently been having performance issues. I have been looking at moving it and a few less popular domains I own to another provider as I was not happy with the performance.

I believe in always giving second chances; so before I moved, I contacted the current provider. They indicated a massive upgrade was underway: (they announced it as beginning in October) so I was skeptical to say the least. I scheduled the upgrade to start at 1:00 AM this morning. They are in the process of repointing DNS so some things may not work for the next 24 hours.

If you see something strange, please leave a comment.

P.S. If this doesn’t fix the problems and slowness I’ll be switching to this provider http://drylinehosting.com/

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
1049 PM CST MON JAN 7 2008

MESOSCALE UPDATE…
SURFACE TEMPERATURES HAVE REMAINED STEADY OR HAVE RISEN A COUPLE OF DEGREES IN THE LAST HOUR…SO THE ATMOSPHERE HAS DESTABILIZED FURTHER SOUTH OF THE BAND OF SUPERCELLS THAT EXTENDS ACROSS NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND THE NORTHWEST TIP OF ARKANSAS. THE LIFTED INDEX HAS LOWERED TO -3 WITH SURFACE BASED CAPE STILL BETWEEN 1000 AND 1500 J/KG.

DEEP-LAYER AND LOW-LEVEL SHEAR VALUES REMAIN HIGH ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE SUPERCELLS WITH STORM-RELATIVE HELICITY BETWEEN 200 AND 375 M2/S2. THEREFORE SUPERCELL STORM STRUCTURES WILL CONTINUE WITHIN THE BAND.

ELEVATED CONVECTION IS DEVELOPING IN EAST-CENTRAL OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN ARKANSAS AND IT IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TO INCREASE AS THE MAIN UPPER SYSTEM APPROACHES. ANY OF THESE CELLS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO ROOT IN THE BOUNDARY LAYER. IF A CELL DOES BECOME ESTABLISHED IT WOULD RAPIDLY BECOME A SUPERCELL. ALL INTERESTS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR RADAR TRENDS FOR SUDDEN STORM ORGANIZATION.

AT 10PM…ANALYSIS GRIDS SHOW THAT STORM MOTIONS ARE MORE ALIGNED WITH MID-LEVEL FLOW AND STORM-RELATIVE WINDS AREA DECREASING. THE RESULT IS EXPECTED TO A DROP IN THE TORNADO POTENTIAL WITH THE EXISTING CELLS…BUT THE THREAT IS NOT TOTALLY GONE. FURTHER THE SHEAR IN THE LOWEST KM OF THE ATMOSPHERE IS HIGH AND TRANSITORY BUT STRONG LOW-LEVEL
ROTATIONS COULD OCCUR WITH ANY STORM. THE ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY WILL NEED TO BE MONITORED CLOSELY FOR THESE TYPES OF CIRCULATIONS.

THE SURFACE LOW IS DEVELOPING INTO OSAGE COUNTY AT THIS TIME AND THE COLD FRONT WILL BEGIN TO ACCELERATE SOUTHEAST. THUNDERSTORMS…SOME SEVERE WILL OCCUR WITH THE COLD FRONT AS IT SWEEPS OVER THE REGION DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS.

While we are used to having the NCAA Basketball championship coverage interrupted for severe weather, I don’t recall it happening for the NCAA Football championship. Maybe it is a sign that bowl season is too long.

EFFECTIVE THIS MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 405 PM UNTIL 1000 PM CST.
  
TORNADOES…HAIL TO 2.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER…THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH…AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

DISCUSSION…WITH APPROACH OF VIGOROUS TROUGH NOW OVER NM…LOW LEVEL FLOW WILL BACK AND ENHANCE SHEAR AND SUPERCELL POTENTIAL THIS EVENING ACROSS THE WATCH AREA.  CURRENTLY THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING ERN OK IN AXIS OF FAVORABLE DEEP LAYER SHEAR AND INSTABILITY WITH POTENTIAL OF SUPERCELL AND TORNADOES IN THE NEAR TERM.

When the storm prediction center indicated a tornado watch was going to be issued soon they weren’t kidding. Tornado watch #1 of 2008 has just been issued. There is only one county (Washington, OK) between it and me. Maybe this is going to be a good year.

Well January seventh isn’t likely the day you would predict as the first tornado intercept. These early setups that have lots of shear, marginal CAPE and are moving at greater than 50 mph after dark are not ideal chase targets. Looking at the satellite imagery, there is a bubbling cumulus field across Oklahoma that would make my mouth water if this was May.

There is no reasonable way to chase or intercept this storm that will likely drop some tornadoes. Latest analysis puts Illinois potentially under the gun this evening.

Tulsa’s Forecast discussion is unfortunately right on the money:

SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL IS SOMEWHAT IFFY AT THIS POINT IN TIME. WHILE THE SHEAR WILL BE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT FOR SEVERE STORMS…INSTABILITY LOOKS TO BE LACKING GIVEN THE AMOUNT OF SHEAR PROGGED. A MARGINAL WIND DAMAGE THREAT MAY EXIST WITH STORMS LATE MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT ACROSS MAINLY SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS THE WAY IT LOOKS NOW.

I’m not super excited, as it looks like a squall line after dark mostly to east of us. We’ll see what will happen.

I spent New Year’s in Moore, OK with friends. I knew things might get interesting when I got a text message on Friday asking where to buy canon fuse. I arrived in Moore, a little later than planned as I had a blow out on the turnpike. Fortunately I was in the chase Jeep that among other things contains a real trolley jack and a full size lug wrench that made the job a lot easier. After loosening the over-torqued lugs and changing the completely destroyed rear passenger tire I was back on the road.

When I arrive at the undisclosed location I see the creation that two Poke’s and a reasonable quantity of Bud Light have created. It is a pallet laden with fireworks that I’m pretty sure are not Class “C.” Class “C” fireworks are generally recognized as somewhat safe for the public although often highly restricted by states and communities. These possibly nonrated  fireworks which might  not be completely safe have all been attached to the “pallet of death” and connected with about 20 feet of quick match. I’ll let the creators reveal themselves in the comments if they choose to. This display set the bar pretty high, but I’m fairly certain this will be surpassed in the future (it’s what we do.) Amazingly the quick match ignited every single effect (a credit to the creator’s construction technique.)

Enjoy!

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9-HmLIcYgA

GoBoB (save to your computer as my server doesn’t stream): http://wisesky.com/linked/01-01-08/01-01-08-Fireworks.avi