A new documentary will be coming to PBS in the spring of 2008. It is about the Greensburg, KS tornado that happened earlier this year and will go down on record as one of the worst tornadoes in history as it almost completely wiped out the small town of Greensburg.
I think any storm chaser that watches this, should sit down an reevaluate why they are out there, and what their primary purpose should be. Getting the pictures and the video is fine, but once you see just what sort of horrible destruction these things can do, you really can only conclude that you MUST take steps as an educated storm chaser to make sure you report EACH time you see a tornado, or are pretty sure one is about to form. You never know if your report might be the only one, and if you might save that one lone farmer out there, or an entire community, but submitting your report. Don’t ASSUME it was already reported. I have been guilty of this a few times in the past, when there were many chasers out. It won’t happen again. I will call in EVERY tornado, EVERY time. I challenge other chasers to do the same. Most chasers are good about this, others not so much.
Tornado destruction to this magnatude is thankfully very, very rare. Often they are small and short lived, but it’s events like this that make big news and stick in the hearts and minds of the storm chasers that witness them. I have had a couple events that I was involved in that affected me in a very deep way. Jarrell, TX and Hallam, NE. The Jarrell community suffered intense damage and several deaths and while only one person died in Hallam, this was another case where almost the entire community was destroyed. You can’t even imagine the rush of emotions you feel to stand in the middle of a community like this, when everything around you in every direction is destroyed almost beyond recognition. I hope you never have to. I certainly hope your community is never devastated like this.
I just happened to catch this. An incredibly impressive haboob that nailed Phoenix, Arizona on Monday! Click the title to see the VIDEO!
For those that don’t know, a Haboob is a term for an intense dust storm that is often very striking in appearance, as you can see from the above video. While these happen most often in desert climates (such as Arizona in the U.S.) they can happen in other areas as well, especially if most of the terrain is agriculture.
Set your emergency brake and take foot off the brake
Buckle up
Guidelines for Traveling in Dust Storms:
NEVER stop in the travel lane
Travel at a speed suitable for limited visibility
If you can’t pull off the road, turn your LIGHTS ON
Sound your horn intermittently
Use the painted lane striping to guide you
If possible, look for a safe place to PULL OFF THE ROAD
If you do pull off the road, observe the following safety tips:
Set your emergency brake
Take your foot off the brake pedal
Turn off all vehicle lights
Wait out the storm
When returning to the pavement, be aware that the road may be slippery and in some cases, pavement markings may be obscured by sand and dust blown on the road. Rain frequently accompanies dust storms and will cause slippery conditions.
I have spend most of today getting all the storm chase vehicle pages back online again. Images had to be modified, content copied and rearranged, and general just a lot of work. The only thing lacking is adding my chase partners vehicle, which will most likely be done tomorrow (well later today, I see it’s already 3 am!) The current chase vehicle and my past ones back to about 2000 are there. I didn’t really take a lot of pictures of the ones before that and what I did have most were lost in a fire anyway.
There is some extra stuff in there if you go to the main page of the site and click on the link in the menu, that will show for you as well.
Something often talked about by storm chasers. It usually signifies the death of spring and the main storm chasing “season” for us. But what is it?
Well, quite simply it’s just an area, or “ridge” of high pressure that dominates a large portion of the continental U.S. during the summer. Most often it begins to set up mid-June or so, and lasts through until fall. You can see the death ridge on the 500mb charts, on the daily soundings and especially on the forecast models as it persists throughout the model period. Here is an example I grabbed today:
You can clearly see ridge or hill like feature on the map. What this effective does is shift the active weather patterns to the north in to Canada and the Great Lakes region and leaves the plains often under a hot and dry regime.
High pressure areas are not generally conducive to severe weather, thus the bulk of chasable storms on the plains ends once this ridge sets up.
This year, the ridge set up a little further west initially, which allowed the flow at 500mb to come from the NW out into parts of the plains, and coupled with abundant moisture created all the flooding conditions you have been hearing about. This has also been a contributor to the hot and dry conditions, and thus the wildfires, in the west.
Looking at the models today, it seems the ridge is firmly moving out on to the plains which should spell out relatively tranquil and dry weather for most of the central part of the country.
The Summer Death Ridge doesn’t spell the complete end of stormy weather. Depending on moisture conditions, parts of the plains, especially just east of the Rocky Mountains, can see daily low-end thunderstorms, what some chasers call “popcorn” storms. There are often short lived, pulse type storms that are slow moving and can be efficient rain producers. If the low level atmosphere is dry enough, they can produce damaging downbursts as well.
Of course all of this is out the window should a significant hurricane head toward the central gulf coast.
But, for some chasers, just seeing a cool storm is sufficient and several will no doubt find some interesting opportunities during the summer months for some good photography and chasing. In the summer, good chasing is where you make it.
However, until a sufficiently aggressive system comes in and starts to break down the ridge, this will be a pattern for some time. Enjoy the summer!
Well, had to go and do it. Had to move to a dedicated Word Press installation. The Wordpress integrated into my website’s CMS were just not working like I wanted, and didn’t allow some features of WordPress I wanted to use. Most notably, the ability for users to register so the don’t have to type in all that info every time they want to comment!
So here we are!
If you were linking to the old blog location, please update your links to http://wx5tvs.com/blog/ same goes for bookmarks. This location will not be changing again any time soon if ever. Let me now if you linked so I can give you a link back!
Now on to more work…
Last few days I have been doing my annual OS install on my desktop. I usually back everything up, format the drives and do a fresh install of Windows about once a year. Keeps everything running top notch. It’s a pain in the rear, but necessary to clean out the cobwebs of Windows. Now that I have accomplished that, I can continue with work on the website, so new stuff coming shortly!
