Logbook – Page 2 – UnderTheThunder Storm Chasing & Weather Blog

01 May 2013 – CHASE 2013 – DAY 1

01 May 2013 – CHASE 2013 – DAY 1 – Oklahoma and Texas

06:15 – Wake; morning chores;; pack bags

07:30 – Drop bags at Holiday Inn; return rental car

08:00 – Return to Wyngate via shuttle; eat breakfast.

08:30 – Walk to Holiday Inn; meet other chasers; do introductions and safety briefing,

10:30 – Pack vans, grab cameras and head for Wichita Falls , TX then toward Abilene.

12:50 – Rest stop then lunch 20 minutes later (just north of Wichita Falls, TX).

13:20 – Continue southwest from Wichita Falls on US277.

15:12 – stop at Munday for bathrooms, fuel, food. Continue southeast

17:15 – turn back north from Albany on US283. Storms with 55,000 foot have developed along I44 in southern OK, with the line spreading into our area. We are in a severe storm watch box.

18:00 – sky stop. We see a storm with a hard back sheared, take photos as it evolves.

18:30 – depart south on US283 as the cold outflow breeze of the storm invades.

Air being pulled up into the storm, near Throckmorton, TX, 01 May 2013

19:35 – we duck south, bit by bit, trying to keep out of monster (2.5-inch or larger) hail. At one point we can to the hail roar of the storm. (Hail roar is the sound of large hail hitting the ground, cars, rooftops, etc. It can sound like thunder only it can last for minutes at a time.)

20:30 – We stop west of Albany,TX, where we witness a spectacular display of spider lightning. I have embarrassing camera issues here, because I miss a control setting. Our team leader helps me figure it out, but I miss the best part of the lightning. To add insult to injury, the Storm Prediction Center indicates an unfavorable weather pattern (for storm chasers) for at least three days. I feel terribly frustrated.

Still, I captured a little bit:

22:30 – We depart for our hotel after a fast food dinner at the Dairy Queen in Fort Griffin.

23:00 – We check into The Ridge Motel in Breckinridge,TX.
23:46 – turn in for the night. I’m exhausted physically and emotionally.

2013 CHASE SEASON

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30 April 2013 – CHASE 2013 – Arrival

TODAY”S activities:

05:00 wake up
05:10 morning chores
05:20 Take trash to the curb
05:30 Airport limo arrived. My favorite driver, David, is driving. We talk about friends, relationship maintenance, and life on the trip to O’Hare.
0615 Arrive O’Hare. Due to my tripod case looking like a gun chase I check that along with backup photo gear. ($60 to check two bags! Highway robbery!!) I also end up gate-checking my carry-on bag (with my primary camera gear). I try to hide my displeasure and eventually settle in for the flight. Regional jets are more intimate than their massive cousins, but I always suffer separation anxiety when I travel separately from my most expensive toys.
__ Wheels up and on our way. Our compact yet comfy Canadair CRJ700 angles southwest toward the heart of Tornado Alley. As I sip my diet tonic water — scored a full can! — I chat with the flight attendant and compare note on her Canadair vs. the ski-equipped KC-130 aircraft of my Antarctic era. It seems that both planes began their lives as cargo aircraft are were later retrofitted with seats for passengers. (Learn something new every day!)

_____ arrive at OKC. To my chagrin, I discover my rental car location is not at the airport, but a $20 cab ride away. What’s more: the airport rental agent had put through the charge already, so I had to have him back it out.

_____ drove downtown. Ate lunch at Thai Kitchen (a recommendation from my Thai can driver). Great meal and great price. I guess the detour to the rental car served a second purpose. Lesson: Learn to make the most of detours; sometimes the scenic route turns out better.

_____ Consulted Google Maps to find a photo store. All the signs (Yelps, reviews, etc.) point to Baker Camera in Yukon, a short hop west of OKC. Upon arriving I make two wonderful discoveries: 1) Yukon is Garth Brooks’ hometown (“teenage!”) and 2) Hank Baker, the owner of this oasis of prosumer Nikon and Canon gear, is also an accomplished storm photographer.

_____ Swing by the Sam’s Club off McArthur Blvd. to pick up protein bars. Imodium (just in case), dried mangoes, and a jar of marinated asparagus.

____ Back to the Wyngate for a brief unwind.

_____ Go to the Texas Roadhouse. Celebrate Willie Nelson’s 80th birthday with a Skinny Margarita. A 12-oz. ribeye, and a cup of chili.

_____ return to the hotel. Charge up phone, photo and video batteries and myCharge (iPhone charge bank). Check the forecasts and models. Looks like we’ll dive south into Texas for our first chase day.

22:00 Turn in for the night

TRAVEL HUMOR:

I usually read along with the flight attendant while she (or he) goes through the safety card. Besides the fact every plane is a little different, I’ve always considered it polite to pay attention to a person when they speak. Usually, the safety briefing is pretty repetitious, but today I found something new:

It never occurred to me that a person with a pacemaker would be required to turn it off during the flight! Everybody got a good laugh when I pointed this out. Now my joke collection has a pacemaker joke. “Who’d w thunk it?”

30 April 2012 – PRELIMINARY – DAY 10 – The 5% Solution

0700 – wake up; shower

0900 – breakfast

Some chaser humor: “portions of west Texas and the Texas panhandle were severely damaged by last night’s storms, as shown on the map below”

Sir Richard Pell, Earl of Waffles (no relation to the Earl of Sandwich) posed with one of his famed breakfast creations. “Brilliant!”

1030 – meet at van

Inverted T feature

Photos of my logbook entries for the day:

29 April 2012 – PRELIMINARY

Preliminary summary:

Travel: 509 miles
Summary: TOR-warned storm with 3-inch hail, 2-mile long hail drifts S. of Lubbock.

Our tornado-warned storm (with our location at the blue circles)

I’m holding 3-inch hail ‘grenade’

Alberto poses with 3-inch hail

28 April 2012 – DAY 8 – Slight risk, High Tension

I am still trying to process the emotions of the day.

One person in the group has become so selfish, loud, vulgar, and arrogant that I have had waking fantasies of dragging him behind the van as we race into a hailstorm on a gravel road.

Another lost his wallet (and I feel terrible for him, especially because he is a talented and wonderful person).

I even feel a little down because my netbook is dead, one of my shoes is held together with duct tape.

And we did not see any severe storms, I feel disappointed that after tomorrow the tour is done. I fear having nothing to show for the money I spent.

Photographs of my chase log notes follow:

Xxx

Travel: ??? miles

27 April 2012 – DAY 7 – Mod risk

Log entry delayed.

Summary:
520 miles

Weak, brief tornado east of KS177N, midway between Altavista and Council Grove.

Photos, maps follow:

25 April 2012 – DAY 5 – Fizzle, Fizzle, f’shizzle

ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL (MDT)

0300 – night bathroom run! Gotta avoid caffeine with dinner.
0400 – neighbors making noise So I can’t sleep! Transcribed yesterday’s paper chase log to this blog. Pure hell to enter WordPress entries via Safari!! (I discovered the WordPress app afterwards. This will be easier/saner going forward.)
0900 – Laundry run
1030 – return to hotel ; pack van
1035 – weather briefing: we have a chance for storms that might produce small hail and some lightning in the plains of Eastern Colorado.
1130 – lunch at Kim Lin Chinese Buffet
1230 – Depart La Junta, CO northbound
1315 – stop 2 miles south of Arlington, CO to photograph an old storm shelter
1327 – Arlington, CO – stop at rest area and photograph an outhouse. Yes, it’s a SLOW DAY!
1341 – N on CO59(?); arrive at Eads, CO to watch the sky, data updates, and toss a Frisbee around.
1530 – leave Eads on US287N, heading to an area where storm development has started.
1607 – turn onto northbound CO59
1625 – stop at I-70 for fuel, washroom visits and snacks; continue north to US36W
1707 – pass Cope, CO
1715 – turn north toward Otis,CO
1740 – dinner at Mom’s Restaurant in Otis
1830 – stop west of Otis. Our target storm has fizzled, having run out of moisture.
1900 – return to Otis; after Bill gets us hotel rooms in Yuma, we head to US34E and on to Yuma. On the way, illustrates how super cells look on radar, using a radar image of a southeast moving storm entering Illinois from near Keokuk, IA
1920 – arrive at the Nelson Inn in Yuma. Bill announces we meet at the van at 9 a.m. (MDT) due to a heavy travel day. Tomorrow appears to be our ‘big day’ for our excursion. Updated this blog
2130 – lights out

24 April 2012 – DAY 4 – Convection without Conviction

[editor’s note: entering WordPress blog entries via iPhone is pure hell. It took almost 2 hours to write this entry!]

ALL TIMES BELOW ARE LOCAL (MDT)

I’ve reverted to using paper chase logs, transcribing them after the fact. My log for 24 April follows:

0700 – wake up
0930 – update blog on hotel PC (netbook dead
1030 – pack van; weather briefing
1100 – depart Sands Hotel, Raton, NM
____ – Kmart stop; bought hand pump and inflated Bill’s football. Had fun watching our Spanish and Portugese guests toss around “a demented American fútbol” [ed.- my words, not theirs]
1130 – depart Raton on I-25N
___ – enter Colorado via Raton Pass; gorgeous snow-capped Rockies rise to our west, but there is no safe place to pull over for a photo opp. Dang!
Leave I-25 at exit 13; eat lunch after an extended search for Lee’s Ribs (which appeared closed for some time). Subway, here we come!
1323 – arrive at Model, CO; photograph the decaying cantina and supermercado. It makes me sad to see the skeleton of what was likely hub of activity, but Bill loves to photograph old buildings.
1600 – we wander south and east, to Folsom, NM and tiny Walt’s Corner, in hopes we may see some daytime lightning.
The weather is being totally uncooperative . As we wait, we feed one of my apples to a horse behind the general store and toss a frisbee with our Spanish and Portugese guests. My impression: it’s a new experience for them.
1704 – depart south on CO 389; re-enter NM a minute later, about 14 miles N of Folsom.
____ – photo stop to look over weak storm to our SE</li>
____ – continue SE to Des Moines, N
____ – double back to Colorado
1841 – head east on US 160.
1914 – angle north on CO 109 toward La Junta
2030 – dinner at Boss Hogg’s BBQ. I had the BBQ combo plate. “Yummers!” Francisco had a plain hamburger (no lettuce, no tomato, no cheese. Alberto had the lasagna. Too bad neither embraced the “Midwest Barbeque Experience.”
2134 – turn in for the evening at the Mid-town Motel. My fridge smells very stale, as if a dead animal had been stored there. Phew!

Travel: 270 miles

24 April 2012 – Fred Astaire without Shoes?

Yesterday morning, my netbook computer charged up (by outward appearances), but when I tried to use it, it would not power up.

Last night, it did not even light up when I attached the AC adapter. As it stands, I will be without my computer for the remaining 8 days of my chase trip. As a career computer professional, I find it very trying to be without a computer; as a storm chaser (who needs constant data updates), I feel like Fred Astaire trying to dance with no shoes!

I can use hotel lobby computers and my iPhone to update my blog (as I am doing right now). I can probably improvise a solution for getting my photos into those blog entries, but will be hard pressed to incorporate my forecasts and nowcasts into the blog ‘in the moment.’