Music Nostalgia

Because of the e6 reunion show this week, I've been feeling rather nostalgic.  So, my thoughts turn to the first time Stacey and I ever went to Athens together...  The Athens PopFest in July of 1998!

We saw so many bands!!!  It really is one of the memories I have that I really hold dear.  We went record shopping, I bought a cute dress, and I did cartwheels on the UGA campus!  :) 

It was a beautiful thing! 

It was the first time I ever saw the Olivia Tremor Control live....  It was truly one of the most amazing live performances I have ever seen in my life!

For your listening pleasure, the Olivia Tremor Control!

This WEEK!

No... My excitement this time is not about severe weather potential.  My excitement is regarding the show I'll be seeing Saturday in Athens, GA!!!!

The E6 Reunion Show! :D

If you don't know who the elephant 6 collective is, well, I don't blame you.  If you are an indie pop/rock fan and don't know, well.. then SHAME ON YOU! :)

Basically, my college years and a few years after college were spent listening to albums from the bands who were a part of this collective.

Neutral Milk Hotel is probably the most famous of the group.  They are not scheduled to perform, but most of the former members of the group will be there and performing songs!  And Elf Power..  :)  One of my other favorite bands!!!

So excited!!

Here's a snippet of NMH!

What I Know Now

What I know right now is that nothing is going to stop me from chasing storms. 

Yesterday.......  I don't want to discuss in great detail the reason I didn't chase, but it is well known that I will not miss tornado days from this point forward.

The point is... There are reasons you have hopes and dreams.  Sometimes life happens and it gets in the way and sometimes things get in the way that shouldn't.

I know it all sounds cryptic, but the problems the happened yesterday have been corrected!  So now.... Let's have a tornado day again real soon! :D

Chase Off

Chase off for right now.

I think the main action is going to be further than I want to drive. 

It's been an active morning here though!  Fingers crossed for something local!

IT IS REAL!

Tonight is the eve of my FIRST real live tornado chase...

I have been wishing, hoping, and preparing for this moment for a long long time!  Now, it is HERE!!!

All day long, I've been planning and trying to pick a target zone.  I'm leaning very close to the Birmingham area!!!!!!  But I may run a little further west.

We'll just have to see how far the WIND takes me! :D

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Getting Philosophical

Well, Saturday is a big chance for me!  Giant problem.... No chase partner.

I knew this day would come.  A really nice opportunity, but no partner to chase with.  I have to be honest here... I'm scared crapless to go that far out on my own.  So... What do I do?

Stacey... he doesn't want to go.  I understand it.  Who knows what might happen out there?  We only have just a small sliver of the weekend, and I can understand not wanted to chase after a cloud or two.

So....  How do you do it?  Do you just go regardless of fear?  Jump in head first??  Do I wait until I feel comfortable??  When will that be?

This is when I get discouraged.  This is when I get down on myself.  If I stay home Saturday, I will hate myself for it. 

Chase Log-March 23, 2011

Right before work was over, I pulled up the radar and saw two options.  Drive NE towards Knoxville and possible miss all action or head to the wimpy action to my west and hope it explodes.  So as soon as I could I left work yesterday and drove west.  In my head, I thought it would be smarter to head towards Knoxville, and it really would have been much better if I had! 

I stopped in a parking lot to touch base with my nowcaster, Jo Nelson, TVN member and awesome friend.  I went to hook the Blackberry to my PC and then, boom.....  I realized I left my cord at home!!!!!  :(  So no radar other than my stupid Weatherbug App on the Blackberry. 

So I lost a bit of confidence, but still drove to South Pittsburg and slightly overshot the storms by going between them in a gap.  I dropped a little south and managed to hang out just under a little cell as it passed by.  It was..... rainy! Hahahah!

But after it passed, the sun poked back through and I got treated to a beautiful rainbow as I headed back towards home.  These storms were crawling so I actually passed through them again, and managed to make it back home before they made it to Ringgold.

Again, I was treated to a rainbow!  :)

Distance: 40 miles
What did I see?  RAINBOW.... Heavy rain and gusty winds

SPC says WHAT?

SPC took away my slight risk this morning!  I really don't understand why!

When I look at the models, there is still decent instability, shear, moisture availability....  I'm confused!  So chase is still on.

Chase ON!

Tomorrow I will be chasing unless something wacky happens!

Stay tuned for pictures, videos, and stories!

I'm so excited!  I really just want to see some storm structure!  Right now, my target is Manchester, TN around 5pm.  Honestly, I'm a little nervous of being on the other side of Monteagle, especially if the storm motion is fast.  If the storm motion is faster than I like, I'll keep it to this side of the mountain!

Stay tuned for details!  I'll be checking the models in the morning to see the timing of this thing!!!!  :D

Remain Calm......

Okay... Not one but TWO distinct chase-a-tunities are in my near future.  Wednesday looks kinda weak right now, but there is a chance of some large hail and a SLIGHT possibility of tornadoes.  Very slight...

Regardless...  I am chasing, especially since the storm motion doesn't seem to be out of control for a change.  At this point, I'd chase a rain shower if it happened after work!  Right now, my target is somewhere between here and Knoxville, so I'll be driving NE on I-75 as soon as I get off work!  If I bust, I've decided to reward myself with a treat just for trying on such a "meh" setup.

Saturday... More stormage!  I will definitely be out and about on Saturday.  Thursday/Friday all school work must be complete!!!

:)

Wacky Weekend

Well, I'm off to Athens today for our yearly GMP conference!  The commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Margaret Hamburg is supposed to be there.  That's huge!  I hope I can get my picture made with her!

Anyway, I finally got my Nikon D3100 camera!!!!!  I'm so in love with it, and I'm still learning!  I want to spend 30 minutes to 1 hour with it every day so that I will learn quickly! 


And unfortunately, that is all I have time to say today!  I'm running behind for work this morning!!  Gotta run!

No Chasing in the Near Future

For the next couple of weeks, I'm out of commission on chasing.  :(  I have so much going on.  I have two big projects due for school and then I'll be in Atlanta one day this week, Athens next week, and another trip to Atlanta the week after that!

But I think I already blogged about how busy I'm going to be..  :)  I just have to hope I don't miss some huge opportunity.  And really, if it is something close to home, I'll find a way!

Wednesday MIGHT be a severe weather day for us in Chattanooga, but I'm thinking the more severe weather will be to our south.  Tuesday in the Plains will be interesting and I'll be armchair chasing and watching the live streams while trying to focus on my projects!

For now, no chasing for me.  Hopefully, we can get some BETTER MORE CHASEABLE severe weather events AFTER everything settles down a bit.  :) 

Busy Days Ahead

March is typically a pretty busy month for me.  Not only is it MY birthday, but it is also my brother and my dad's birthday!!!

The week of my birthday will once again be spent in Athens, Ga at the University of Georgia's International GMP Conference!  I will spend my birthday with the FDA!  It's not all work though, because we tend to make a good time out of it after the conference is over.

Also, this month begins my preparation for taking the RAC exam, which is equivalent to the bar exam for people in my field.  I have three sessions in Atlanta beginning next Thursday where they prepare me for the exam.  So all that and school work makes March a very stressful month for me!

We finally booked our vacation to San Francisco!!!!  We finally scored a lower airfare than what had previously been available and a flight that IS NOT A RED EYE!  hahaha!  That's part of the problem flying from here to the west coast!  A lot of the flights back east are red eyes!  I do not want to fly all night! We did that going to London and it is miserable!


Weather wise, this weekend is going to be super rainy.  In fact they are predicting we will get 2-3 inches of rain.  The chart below is 24 HOUR accumulated precipitation!!!  I think we'll be hanging out around the house this weekend!!

2/28/11-Chase, Then Be Chased

Yesterday was my longest chase to date.  I drove NW 20 miles from downtown Chattanooga to where the squall line was hanging out.  It is really insane, when I think about it.  I was about 5 miles from that squall line.. no warnings at that time.  I literally only saw one lightning bolt and got close enough to be sprinkled on.

Little did I know as I turned around and headed back to work, the line began to strengthen.  I quit paying attention, because I was pretty busy at work when I got back from lunch.  Luckily, one of my weather BFF's sent me a FB message.  A tornado emergency had been issued for right outside of Chattanooga!!

...A TORNADO EMERGENCY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1230 PM CST FOR
NORTHWESTERN FRANKLIN AND MOORE COUNTIES...

AT 1220 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO
INDICATE A POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS
LOCATED JUST EAST OF LYNCHBURG...MOVING EAST AT 55 MPH.

OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO OAK
GROVE...ESTILL SPRINGS AND WOODS RESERVOIR.

Franklin County is where Monteagle mountain is and is literally a couple of miles from where I was only an hour before!  Of course, I went to the window.  The tornado warning was issued for Chattanooga, and then I pretty much planted myself in front of the window.  Very very dark skies were seen to my northwest.  Finally, I went back to look at my radar, and saw the storm was approaching.  I never saw rotation on the radar, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there.  I didn't have my GRL3.

I went back to the window and then a crowd had gathered.  I saw plenty of scud bombs.  No rotation on anything I saw, but then the squall line hit.  The wind was nuts and the rain..... It got so bad you couldn't see. I heard two really loud sounds.  One was of our main doors blowing open, which now when I think about it, is INSANE because they are locked unless you have an access card.  Then the crash came.  I don't know how the window blew out, but it did!  THEN they sent us to the tornado shelter.. hahaha.

I'm going to need to learn that I shouldn't chase storms.  The storms chase me!!!  I'm better off saving my gas money and waiting for them to come to me!