June 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from In The Vortex written in the month of June 2008.
As expected, not a whole lot came from the storms yesterday. Even though I tried, I couldn’t even find a single piece of hail. The big show was the mammatus as the sun was setting, which made for some striking contrast. My friends Steve Miller of the Texas variety and Jason Boggs where out in the area too and got some great mammatus shots of their own from different perspectives.
You know, the funny thing about this year, some of the pictures I have been most happy with and want to make prints to put up on the walls haven’t been tornadoes at all. In some cases, weren’t even severe storms.
Things look interesting for a chase in the eastern TX panhandle this Father’s Day, but I really have a lot of work I need to get done, so I am going to pass on it today and watch it from Steve’s Live ChaseCam.
Written by David Drummond on June 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Extreme Weather and Storm Chasing.
Wasn’t really planning on getting out today, as I have a lot of work to get done, but it appears a severe threat in my area is underway so I need to get out and chase for the TV station.
Wind fields throughout the atmosphere are weak, but directional shear is good and moisture isn’t bad for this time of year on the Caprock, with dewpoints in the 50’s west and low 60s off the Caprock. With a dryline and boundary across the area.
Initiation is already underway near Amarillo and trying to get going along the dryline on the TX/NM border. I am headed out the door for areas northwest of Lubbock, in the Parmer/Castro/Bailey/Lamb county areas, see what gets going.
I’ll have the LIVE ChaseCam up when I get in the area. Not expecting much in the way of tornadoes, but rather some high based supercells with some gorilla hail possible and probably some damaging winds. However, with supercells in play, you never know, we may get a spinning surprise. I’ve had good days before out here on similar setups.
Written by David Drummond on June 14th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Extreme Weather and Storm Chasing.
I took this picture from the convenience store next door to me just a little while ago. It’s here! Unless I am storm chasing, I don’t do all that much driving, so other than that, I don’t think it will affect me all that much.
I am VERY SERIOUSLY considering severely cutting back my storm chasing to just the local area. At least the TV station has the gas covered here. Gas isn’t the only reason though. I might get into it in another blog post.
Written by David Drummond on June 9th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on General Talk.
I usually try to stay away from negative rants on here, but I just had such a horrible dinner experience I feel the need, so here goes…
We just went to dine in at our local Pizza Hut restaurant. We went a little after the normal dinner rush, about 9 pm, which is not late on a Friday, they are open til 11 or 12 I think.
When we got there there were two other tables and us, just 4 of us. I need to preface this saying that I am not prejudice, but I got to experience the negative side of prejudice tonight.
We were the only white people in the place. Every employee was hispanic, and the two tables that were there when we got there were hispanic. This in itself is not unusual in west Texas really, but it’s how things went while there that we really didn’t appreciate. I have no problem with hispanics in general, so don’t blast me in the comments.
It took over 10 minutes for a waitress to come to our table. 10 minutes. With only 3 tables of people there. After we finally got our food ordered, she brought our drinks, in paper cups, for a dine in. WTF? Is this a new Pizza Hut thing or what? You used to get these nice big red drink tumblers.
The cups we got might have been 22 oz, take out style cups. I ordered tea, she plops it down in front of me, with about 10 packets of sweet and low. I use only sugar, I never asked for sweet and low, but I guess she thought I needed it looking at my belly (I am no stranger to good food). I had to actually ASK for some sugar. I never did get a spoon to stir it with, I had to use my knife to stir it. During the course of the dinner, I had to ask for a refill each time, and the last one I finally had to get up and go get myself.
The were conveniently “out of” just about everything we wanted to order, including all styles of pizza crust except thin and crispy. The waitress only came to our table to bring the menus, to order, the one time I was able to get her attention for some more tea, and when the food was delivered. We even had to go up front to get our check when we were done.
I mentioned the hispanic part at the beginning of this and the fact we were the only white people in the place. While we were there, two smaller tables and one large table of all hispanics came in. The same waitress was ALL OVER those tables repeatedly, yet ignored us. It was becoming clear she didn’t care to have to wait on white people.
Enjoy the $45 sale tonight Pizza Hut, it’s the last time I will ever set foot in one. I worked in management at several Pizza Hut restaurants back in my early working days, and the standards we were held to back then were light years of what I experienced tonight. I am tempted to send this off to the area manager, but I really don’t care to visit another Pizza Hut again.
Written by David Drummond on June 6th, 2008 with 12 comments.
Read more articles on General Talk.
Today we are finally receiving a much needed break in the record 100F+ temps we have been having lately, if not the wind. The last couple of days were a real blow torch with not only high temps, but high winds and dust to go along with it. Temps today a good 10 degrees cooler than they have been, in the low 90sF, but winds are still up just enough to kick up a little dust.
The Lubbock, Texas area averages about 9 days each year over 100F degrees.
Greatest number of days in one month with Max Temp 100+ degrees
19 - June 1990
17 - July 1940
Most consecutive 100+ days
12 - June 23 - July 4 1980
11 - June 24 - July 4 1994
10 - June 10 - June 19 1924
Most consecutive 90+ days
81 - June 4 - August 23 1934
While we didn’t break any of the records there, it’s been plenty hot and the vegetation is really showing it!
This weekend may hold a storm or two on Saturday and even better chance Sunday, but with the upper air energy well to the north, I wouldn’t expect much more than a typical summertime storm. Could be good for some lightning however.
I am actually excited to get the chance to get out and do a little yard work without sweltering away. Those 100+ days, it’s still in the 90s after dark! At least now it’s cool enough in the mornings and evenings to get out and to something.
I realize for you northerners, low to mid 90s still seems awful hot, but it’s not all that bad out here on the edge of the desert.
Written by David Drummond on June 6th, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Extreme Weather.
