Thursday, 21 May 2009 – Half-Assed Astronaut?

My most and least favorite part of packing for a chase trip is getting all my gear ready for the journey.  When I use my own vehicle, the space is divided 3-5 ways, so I take multiple camera bodies, at least two camcorders, and tons of maps.

I pack much lighter for trips where I fly, as the chase van’s space id divided 8-10 ways. Every piece of gear must have a real reason for being there. Except for batteries and media, there is no duplication at all. If something breaks in the field, I either go without or buy a new piece of equipment in the field (mailing the broken one home for later repairs).

Even so, my gear make me look like some kind of “half-assed astronaut (a term I’ve borrowed from the movie Jaws, since it fits so well). Here’s what the well-prepared ‘half-assed astronaut’ lugs to the field: a camera, a camcorder, tripods. laptop, cell phone, extra batteries and memory, and a few books (in case the gadgets do not provide enough entertainment):

Chipping Away – Part 1

*sigh* I’m chipping away at the beta site. I’ve build up a dropdown menu in the weather model page.  It should allow quick access to all the data one might commonly use while planning and executing a storm chase expedition.

As for my poor laptop — the other one— it is still in the shop, but I expect news of its status tomorrow.  Cross your finger that it only needs a minor repair.

*yawn*

DAY 3- Technical Difficulties Solved – Part 1

Now that I’ve caught up a little on sleep (6 hours last night … Yee-haw!), I’ve also gotten brave about facing some technical difficulties

The Everio DVD burner for my JVC hard disk camcorder died the day before I left home. When I bought it, the unit was hard-to-find, was released for sale many months after I bought the camera, and was a bit expensive. I tried all sorts of things to revive it (change power on order of camera and burner, clean the lenses, etc.), but once I smelled that burnt plastic smell from the unit, I knew the game was done.

Now, I’ve always had some good luck mixed in with the bad. One day, when I lived in Northern Virginia, I discovered my car had a flat tire; however, I was in the parking lot of a place that sold tires, the had my size tire, and it was even on sale. The mechanic even installed it in the parking lot (and then drove it inside, to balance and align the tire).

As it turns out, my failed DVD burner (a very proprietary direct-from-camcorder solution) is like the flat tire. I found the replacement unit at a Circuit City store 3 minutes from my house, it was on sale for $46 (a fraction of the price of the original unit), and I was able to buy it on my way to picking up Alex at O’Hare. My first attempt to offload video from the camcorder was fast and successful. Hopefully, I can clear a few hours of footage, to make room for video from today.

Now, if I can get my Acer laptop to behave, all will be right with the world again in chaser techno-land … OK, in my litle bit of territory within that realm. It is such a same that today’s computer manufacturer’s do not supply the installation media to rebuild a machine. Having the ability for the customer to burn a disk with their Windows installation is tolerable until your machine fails before you burn such a disk. Bad Acer! Naughty Acer!

CHASE2008 blog area set up

Yesterday (25 April), Chicagoland had its first big spring storm event.  Penny and nickel sized hail peppered a few neightboring towns, but Bolingbrook only had a good lightning show and a few brief downpours. Nothing to write home about. (Oh, drat! I just did, didn’t I?)

I can’t wait to get out the the Great Plains this year. I plan on doing 3 weeks altogether.

In the meantime, I probably should spend some time updating my much-negleced web site, post some photos from past chases, some video snippets, and update my online chase ‘toolbox.

Ciao fer now!

lisa

CHASE VAN OVERVIEW – 2001

Chase van in profile
Chase Van

Revised 11 May 2006, 10:32 CDT

Stock (‘as delivered’)
Shake Down Cruise #1
Van Power Balance Sheet (PDF) Van Power Balance Sheet (XLS)

CHASE 2004 – Data/Tools

CHASE 2004
Data/ Tools

Revised 2004-Apr-29 09:05 a.m.

TOOLS USED FOR MORNING DATA PASS (7 a.m. CDT=12Z)

Storm Prediction Center (SPC)
DAY 1 OUTLOOK
SPC Day  1 Outlook Map
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html
DAY 2 OUTLOOK
SPC Day  2 Outlook Map
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html
DAY 3 OUTLOOK
SPC Day  3 Outlook Map
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day3otlk.html
NCAR RAP
upper air page

Upper Air_- 850mb Winds/Temp
Upper Air 850mb
http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/ua_850_inv.html
Upper Air – 700mb Winds/Temp
Upper Air  700mb Winds
http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/ua_700_inv.html
Upper Air – 500mb Winds/Temp
Upper Air  500mb
http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/ua_500_inv.html
UCAR
surface maps

+
NCEP surface progs
Surface Map
Surface  Map
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sfc_map_inv.html


NCEP 18 hr surface prog
NCEP 18 hr  surface prog
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/92fbwa.gif


SUPPLEMENTARY TOOLS USED FOR MORNING DATA PASS

College of DuPage (IL)
U.S. 500 mb Upper Air Plot
http://weather.cod.edu/wx/public/raob/p500mb.gif
College of DuPage (IL)
Southern Plains – Surface Obs Map
http://weather.cod.edu/wx/public/sfc/sp.wxpsfc.gif
College of DuPage (IL)
Surface Obs w/Contours
http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/analysis.sfccon.html
College of DuPage (IL)
Weather Analysis Tools
http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/
College of DuPage (IL)
Model Tools
http://weather.cod.edu/forecast/
Tempest Tours
Tornado Alley Forecast Center
http://www.tempesttours.com/tornado_alley_forecast_center.html



TOOLS USED FOR MIDDAY DATA PASS (1 p.m. CDT=18Z)








TOOLS USED FOR EVENING DATA PASS (7 p.m. CDT=00Z)








OLDER TOOLS/MODELS USED

LISA BEAL’S
WEATHER (WX) WEBSITE
NUMERICAL WEATHER MODELS
http://www.underthethunder.org/tools/wxmodels.shtml
WEATHER CHANNEL
MAPS BY TYPE
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype.html
South Central US Current Weather
http://www.weather.com/maps/geography/southcentralus/
Midwest US Maps Index
http://www.weather.com/maps/midwestus.html
US National Severe Maps Index
http://www.weather.com/maps/usnationalsevere.html
US National Forecast Maps Index
http://www.weather.com/maps/usnationalforecast.html
Storm Prediction Center (SPC)
Day 1 Convective Outlook
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html
Day 2 Convective Outlook
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html
Day 3 Convective Outlook
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day3otlk.html
(IWIN)
IWIN National Warnings Area
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/nationalwarnings.html


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