Change of pace.....Mikey Gribble and another Vortex?

First of all for those that read my blog this may be somewhat of a long post but with quite a bit going on I thought I would touch on a few issues all at once just to get them out of the way

Decided on a little change of pace from the day to day drama with the weather world today and so I decided to go fishing. As you can see above I had some decent luck and had much fun.

Before I left the house to go fishing I decided to grab an old rod and reel that my mother gave me years ago just to see how it would do (you can see the reel above)....the reel was actually my Grandpa's that he had given to my Mom and then she handed down to me. It is an old Eagle Claw open face and when you reel it it makes that old clicking sound much like something straight from the past which it basically is. I have no idea how old it is but it worked well today and I enjoyed it very much. It brought many memories back as I clicked the bail and threw my arm back to cast.....was so much fun just basically forgetting everything for a while.

But now that I am sitting back in the real world...there are a few things on my mind that I am going to discuss and as usual if you do not like it please move on.

Mr. Mikey Gribble, I say that name and in some circles it is no doubt just as infamous as mine is and most of people who know me know that Mikey has never been a friend of mine. In fact most know that I actually could not stand the guy, The reasons were not many and being honest, I could probably only give just a few as to why I did not care for the guy.

Much of the dislike centered around issues that did or did not take place during and after the Nickerson event. Without going too far in detail, there is no doubt in my mind that a KWCH SAT/ENG truck followed me around for almost the entire event. I do have video of this and so does KAKE. In the truck were two people, one of which had longer hair and was a "lady" which I assumed was a certain on air met/weather reporter that I had seen earlier in the day in Kingman with Mikey Gribble.....this is where Mikey and I have issues and probably will always have issues however; call it my age or chalk it up to me getting somewhat soft..... either way,

the last few weeks I have certainly paid attention to the guy and to be honest, what I thought was just some mouthy kid who didn't know a damn thing about weather, has in my eyes not only proven himself a great forecaster but also a good chaser as well.

I know this probably comes as a shock to some and those of you who do not like him may even feel the need to be-little me. For those that do....feel free.

Without sounding like any kind of an ass kisser (which many of you know I am not) I just call things as I see them, right wrong or indifferent it's just the way I am so,

for those still reading this post, I would like to encourage you and everyone else to visit Mikey's blog and look over his weather and tornado forecasts. You can view his blog here:

http://loadedgunchasing.com/blog1/

Now on to other chase related news......My thoughts on Vortex 2.

Last Thursday I was asked by TWC via NBC Uni. to follow Vortex 2 around for the entire season. Of course this was a media role, one in which I would not only be chasing but also "live" reporting and shooting.

As entertaining as the thought was, I simply had to refuse due to the fact that Eric and I had just signed with KPI productions. But with an offer on the table like that it got me to thinking about Project Vortex and the recently funded and green lighted Vortex 2.

We all know that Project Vortex was supposed to be the be-all end-all tornado projects, one in which we were supposed to learn more than anything we had ever known about tornadoes and tornadogenisis.

I am sure that all of us can and do remember or have at least seen video of one storm in particular (Dimmit TX) that was totally surrounded by not only DOW units but also many mobile mesonets some of which recorded much useful data. But there were also many many other "productive" intercepts that did not make Tornado Video Classics or any other productions in the "name of science.

All of the data collected through Project Vortex was supposed to give us more knowledge than ever before albeit, years in study. It truly was to be the study that would give us true insight into how tornadoes happen and why.

Over the years there have also been other field studies such as STEPS and many others and of course we have all seen Dr. Wurman do his thing time after time on Discovery, again all in the name of science.

I for one have big issues with this latest "project"

My main questions are: what happened to the data that was to give us such good insights into tornadoes? We have spent God only knows how much money on these projects and what have we received in return? What have we really learned in the last 25 years of tornado research?

After millions of dollars what have we really learned and how much more can we learn about how strong or which way the winds are blowing in a supercell?

Anyway you cut it in reality the answer is still the same, NOTHING!

And what a great time to undergo a project such as this.....we have a failing economy, many are out of work, more are getting laid off everyday, people are loosing everything they have and the value of our dollar goes down everyday. But still, we find a way to fund a project, the likes of which we (chasers) even some veterans do not remember and call all good in the name of science. Were is the logic?

We have not come any further in understanding tornadoes than we were 25 years ago.

Many will argue this but think about just where we were 25 years ago and where we are today.....we still have 11 basic hypothesis about how tornadoes form with many of the big names in the weather world not being able to agree as to which one is correct.

It makes no sense to me and my honest opinion is that this is going to be nothing but a cluster that will not only put many many many more vehicles filled with weather weenies who have never really experienced weather on the road. We all know what it is like to get caught up in a chaser convergence and I for one hate this idea.

Let's just hope this time, they get what they are after and we really learn something.

Just my thoughts.....