A few pics from the season

NEW FACES AT EXTREME CHASE TOURS

As most people who read my blog already know, I own and run Extreme Chase Tours and have since its inception years ago.

Much like any other small business owner you start small but at some point you start grow and realize that expanding is the only option. With this growth also comes excitement as well as a new bit of responsibility, unless of course you are lucky enough to find a few people who know much about the field you are in or the product you are selling. Lucky for me I have found a few people that certainly need no introduction into the crazy world of weather.

The last 2 weeks have been pretty crazy and as most of the people who frequent my blog already know, I hired Shane Adams and Bridget to run a "last chance" tour due to us being overbooked. The tour was 6 days and probably could not have come at a better time as far as the weather. The month of May sucked but June was so much better and offered some decent up-slope flow in eastern Colorado and some surprises in Kansas.

Shane and Bridget did a wonderful job and in fact I could have asked for anything more! Shane did a great job forecasting basic target areas which allowed me to not "have to hold his hand" and was very very nice....not to mention I was able to finally focus on other things that I needed to get done. It was great!

Bridget did wonderful with guiding and dealing with the customer and basically helping with everything that goes along with guiding a tour. It was really a great feeling knowing that the tour was being run as I would run it.

Long story short, I have asked Shane & Bridget and Chad Berryhill to join Extreme Chase Tours full time. I was very excited when they said yes and have no doubts that 2010 will be a wonderful year!

Each person brings something special to the table and I am so Excited.

Chad Berryhill is basically a new chaser but has learned so much this season and I have spent much time with him and think he will be one heck of an addition to the team as well.

Look for more exciting news from Extreme Chase Tours coming soon!!!!

Shane Adams, Bridget & Extreme Chase Tours day 3

Just now getting a chance to sit down and finally update the blog. The last few days have been very very busy in the weather world as well as in my little world. We have tours ongoing right now and it has been very stressfull for all of us but it has been good.

Kuddos to Mr. Shane Adams and Bridget for taking on such an "on the fly task"!!!!
For those that do not know, Shane and Bridget are currently guiding a tour for me and are in Hays Kansas right now with a Colorado target later today.
Today will be day 3 of the tour and although they have not seen a tornado yet (they have seen some great structure) I have a good feeling that they may see some action in northeast Colorado, northwest Kansas and southwest Nebraska as the upslope flow digs in. For those that might be interested, you can follow Shane and Bridget on the spotter network....they are listed under my name. I believe Shane has a target area around Fort Morgan and then east from there....hope they get some tubes tomorrow!

A big shout out to Mr. Chad Berryhill for bagging his first tornado in Missouri the other day and for helping me last night! BTW, thanks to Mr. Steve Miller OK and Hans for all the help the other day while I was "blind"...hope I didnt bother you guys too much.
Also thanks to the "Guru" for all the help....I had originally targeted northeast Colorado for later today but also saw the potential along the red river, I was pulled somewhat as to the best tornado potential for the day but I think I made the right call ....4 eyes are better than two!
And finally thanks to Mr. Jeff Smith...without your friedship none of this would have been possible!

On the home front... I hade to go back to the doc today for an issue I have been having with my eyes. As it stands, I have an infection in both my eyes and the doc had to put drops in my eyes and put me on antibiotics. Hopefully I will be better in a few days and back to work!

Thats it for now....I will try to update later today!

A look at our fantastic Oklahoma Highway Patrol

I don't know what to say....seems like OHP will have quite a bit of explaining to do, but as we all know politics will no doubt come to bat. Stopping an ambulance for speeding????

!!May 29th 2004 tornadofest video!!

For those that may have a severe case of SDS or who may just simply be interested in seeing some crazy EXTREME tornado video-now is your chance!!!!
My video from the 5-29-04 event will be played tonight at 8pm central on CTV(ChaserTV)

The video includes 17 tornadoes, some of which are EXTREMELY CLOSE!!!! and even one which hits me directly!
Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the tornadic event and what better way to remember than by getting to watch video of it!

You can watch the video by going to www.ChaserTV.com

Start time is 8pm central...you can see a sample clip below:

End of May surprise? June 5 - June 9?, Shane Adams?....too many questions!

Looking at the GFS 200hr plus it appears we have got a decent chance of severe coming the first week of June. Posted below are last nights/yesterdays instability (LCL, CAPE and LIs) runs via the folks over at Twister Data. Just like everybody else, with each run I am getting more excited about the weather possibilty with the breakdown of this death ridge. Right now it looks like June 4 through June 9 with the greatest risk from the 5th through the 8th.... of course this is if the models verify and the trough and low stay on current track. Looks interesting!
This weekend also has some potential if things set up correctly, IMO Saturday could be one of those sleeper days from southern KS through MO. Certainly something to keep an eye on although I am not real excited about it just yet.

Just wanted to give a big shout out to Mr. Shane Adams and Bridge....on Monday Laura and I decided to take a little trip to Norman for the holiday to visit Bridget and Shane and what a great time we had!! This was Laura's first time to meet Bridget and I know she had a wonderful time! We took a few pictures which are posted below. Now if we could only get pics of chad and Erin!!

Double trouble!!!!!!!!

MAYmorial weekend chase???

Interesting picture the GFS model is painting for this upcoming weekend, of course we are still 6 days out and as we all know things can change but at this point it looks like we could see a shot at severe from sw Kansas through western Oklahoma and into Texas....long ways out but does look really interesting!

By the way, because so much has happened this last week my next blog post may be a little long and might in fact it very well may tick a few people off.....Randy Hicks - your one of em!

But thats next time.

Massive derecho and classic bookend vorticity (radar shots)

A massive derecho that started in north central KS very early this morning is currently hammering the TN valley area and points east. The radar grab above was taken this morning when the Springfield Missouri area was getting hit. You can clearly see the "bow echo" and near the top or north end on the echo there is a very interesting area that we call bookend vorticity.
In its most basic form, it is when the top end, bottom end or both ends of the "bow echo" fold in on its self.
Under the right conditions this folding can and generally does cause that part of the storm to rotate and can help lead to tornadogenesis.

Bookend Vorticity with tornado warning shows classic hook echo via StormLab Supercharged


Also of real interest is the "hole" that is clearly seen in the composite mode as well as the SRV mode!
Radar shot below is from GRLevel3 and also shows the couplet and inflow notch created by the wrap around vorticity. At one point this particular couplet had almost 110 kts gate gate!


Damage has been pretty much been reported with this system since it first began and tornado reports are also still ongoing.
For those not familure with a derecho, A derecho (from Spanish: "derecho" meaning "straight") is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line usually taking the form of a bow echo. Derechos blow in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to a gust front, except that the wind is sustained and generally increases in strength behind the "gust" front. A warm weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially June and July in the Northern Hemisphere. They can occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as in the daylight hours.
The traditional criteria that distinguish a derecho from a severe thunderstorm are sustained winds of 58 mph (93 km/h) during the storm (as opposed to gusts), high or rapidly increasing forward speed, and geographic extent (typically 250 nmi (460 km) in length).^[1] In addition, they have a distinctive appearance on radar (bow echo); several unique features, such as the rear inflow notch and bookend vortex, and usually manifest two or more downbursts

TORNADO WARNING?...OUN where are you?

I am going to start this post with one question.....OUN where are you?

So here goes......I have noticed the last few years (while chasing in Norman's CWA) that they have become somewhat relaxed in issuing tornado warnings on storms that clearly needed it.

The 4-25-09 Clinton supercell was no exception and in my opinion could have been a very bad situation with an outcome similar to that of the deadly 4-21-96 Fort Smith tornado.

For those not familiar with that event, the link to that report is here:

http://www.weather.gov/os/assessments/pdfs/ftsmith.pdf

Just for the record, the above picture was taken by me 2 miles south of Clinton OK on 4-25. There was/is clearly a tornado on the ground as we noted "possible" ground circulation but I was not sure and most other chasers around were not sure either. Our exact location as I noted above was 2 miles south Clinton in a gas station parking lot and our view at the time was due east north east. Before going too far in detail I feel that a partial description of the chase leading up to the event may help explain the situation and might help the other chasers who were on the event.

After leaving the Hammon, OK supercell (as it appeared to weaken) we decided to dive south and catch the next supercell south of Clinton. Driving south on HWY 183 we punched the east side of the core and got right up under the updraft base. We decided to stop to film and shoot pics so we pulled into a gas station parking lot where it appeared we were the only chasers there at the time. The UDI area was pinched together and was still west of HWY 183, it was rotating very hard and quickly produced a full rotating wall cloud with rapid rising scud pulling into it.

I noticed that winds had shifted and were now pulling in from the southwest......from that point on we just let the it roll over us as it produced a small funnel on the outer rings of the collar cloud.

By this time there were quite a few chasers in the parking lot one of which asked me if it was a tornado. I replyed that I was not sure and informed him that NWS had not issued a tornado warning on it yet. At this point, I ran around to the east side of the gas station and snapped a few pics and noticed what I thought was debris under the funnel but I was not exactly sure due to a big wooden fence in my field of view. After looking at the pictures and video it is VERY CLEAR that this WAS A TORNADO.

The fact that we filmed a tornado is certainly not the big deal nor the issue at hand. The issue is the fact that this storm should have been tornado warned long before we intercepted it.

After looking at data that is why we targeted this storm to begin with. Although I did not post it (I closed out my SRV fields) there was a great couplet on the backside with nearly 90kts gate to gate before the storm was even severe warned with 3 inch hail being reported south west of Clinton. On that note, some may argue that since the storm was severe warned the general public should have already taken actions. Again, please see the link I have posted above.

The fact of the matter is that this was could have been a very bad situation.

WHERE WERE YOU OUN?

Big thanks to Chad Berryhill for going with us on such short notice. Also, thanks to Jeff Smith who made chasing on the 26th a blast....thanks for the radio Jeff! And to Mr. Shane Adams and Brid as well as Mick....I enjoyed breakfeast!

For the record (for what its worth) after looking at video and pics I filmed 3 tornadoes in two days....certainly not close up and picture perfect ones down in Roger Mills County but we got some good stuff and had a blast.

Interesting??

Very interesting model runs for late this week and weekend. After looking over the latest, it looks as though we should see our "first" real shot at a classic severe weather set up. By classic I mean a pattern that we all know and expect with full moisture return. This is what we have basically been lacking so far this year.
There obviously has been much talk about the lack of moisture to work with and quite a few people bitching about how this year is panning out compared to other years. I have never really been one to predict that a year is going to be a "non severe" weather year simply because we do not have good moisture return this early in the year.
2006 was a pretty dry year but severe weather still happened and we, like many others, were still able to get some pretty good stuff.

Been quite a bit of talk in the forums as well as web pages about the "new breed" of chasers.
I really do not have much to say about that either.....seems like every year it is the same stuff over and over.
While it is true that each year more and more chasers pop into the game, some with no real education or interest in gaining knowledge, it is also true that those of us who have been around a while still make it out doing the same old same old....personally, it makes no difference to me as long as the those people stay out of my way.
I have been lucky enough to run into and get to know some of those "new guys" and to be honest some of them are just as hungry as I was when I was new.
Here is a new idea....how about focusing on the weather and not so much on what the new guys are doing, who they are or how many tornadoes that have seen.
Might be a good idea to finally put old uncle Chucks ideas and thoughts out to rest once and for all?!?!?