Well, the real first chitter chatter of a true chase-a-tunity is happening. Odds are very likely that we will be chasing Wednesday, unless the models change (I am completely ignoring the 12z model run right now!!!! ICK!)
Right now, it appears that a significant multiday severe weather event will be occurring starting in the Great Plains and moving east over into Dixie Alley.
No Plains chasing this time, but we do currently have plans to chase the lower MS valley Wednesday.
The 12z run placed the system a lot further east than any of the other runs, and if this were to come true, chasing would be impossible due to the timing since it would be moving through overnight.
Well, here's what's up with me! Busy with work.. unfortunately I have not done too much work on ye olde thesis, but I have a plan for that!
Let's see here.. tomorrow, I will be doing my first 5K.. I might run some, but for the most part my goal is to walk fast and finish. The race is the Rump Run to benefit the Chattanooga Colon Cancer Foundation. I'm very excited to be participating in this event, because as many of you know my sister had stage 3 colon cancer and she is healed! My mom, my sister, and my great niece will all be participating in the race! I'm very excited and happy that THIS is my first 5K!!! By this time next year, my goal is to run the entire race! We will see...
Hmm I feel like there is something else.. OH yes.. That's right! This little nugget..
In all actuality, there isn't much in the way of directional shear, but I do believe a very intense squall line could develop and cause wind damage in the area. So stay tuned! The timing on this is looking like 3-6 pm, but it is a long ways out and things can always change!
So in order to spice up my blog in between weather nerdiness, I have decided to include my other hobbies as a part of this blog. So mostly, I will focus on cooking, travel, and photography in addition to weather with a few other nuggets thrown in here and there.
I will be sure to post again this weekend to discuss the severe potential on Monday!!! Spring is trying to spring!
Well, we've had two of the weakest "winter" weather events I've seen. It's been a very Chattanooga winter, with surrounding areas getting snow or ice while we remain just above freezing.. enough to make the poor weathermen around here look like dummies.
Anyway.. I kept seeing a few other weather weenies mention next week's setup, so I caved in and took a good look at the models.
Here's SPC Outlook for Tuesday and Wednesday..
Here's my take on the whole thing...
It looks pretty good. I'll definitely be bringing my camera along with me to work on Wednesday, just in case. However, experience tells me that this time of year brings swift moving linear systems with embedded tornadoes. So, I'm not buying any of this isolated supercell stuff, right now. Stranger things have happened though!
Well, it is that time of year again! Time to set goals and see what we can get accomplished this year! My primary goals are kind of boring.. haha.. to most people, anyway.
Last year, I did pretty good (more hiking, less time online, saw a tornado.. Did I mention I saw a tornado??), but not as good as years past. Well.. here goes nothing! Let's see what we can accomplish!
1: Become debt free. I don't believe we can completely become debt free by the end of the year, but I want to make HUGE steps in that direction! If we can't afford to pay cash, we don't BUY it! I am even going to strive to do that with vehicles, but we'll see! I'm planning on making a budget this weekend, and we are going to stick to it!
2: Sell the house and buy a new one. We have been dreaming about this one for sometime, but I truly believe that we are finally financially able to buy our dream/forever home! We want land and lots of it, and to live a bit further out! Even if it means having to drive a little further to work everyday. I cannot wait to find our forever home! This makes me the most excited of all!
3: Finish school. This has to happen in 2013. If it doesn't.. I don't think I'll ever finish. I have to really push myself to finish!
4: Get better at photography.... I mean really. I want to be a good photographer. I need to practice practice practice! I've decided to take my camera with me most everywhere I go.
5: MORE hiking! I want to do Cloudland Canyon again and not feel like death! I want to do longer and many more hikes!!! I can't wait! I love the woods!
6: More confidence in forecasting for my chasing. No driving in circles this year. Pick a target and stick to it. If storms happen, YAY.. if not, it is all good!
7: Double my tornado count this year (2 instead of 1 :P), and get just a smidge closer.. haha.. :D
8: Take a real live culinary course! :D I want to branch out and learn new techniques.. especially FISH!
9: Exercise no less than 3 days per week.
10: Keep a positive outlook and learn to accept criticism. I have a fatal flaw. I don't like criticism, and I don't respond well to it. I need to learn to keep an open mind when someone is critical of my actions or work. Learn from my mistakes.... I'm a big advocate of that, but I'm not as good at it as I should be.
I think that's a pretty good list! I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year and here is to 2013!!!
First of all, yesterday was a record breaking severe weather event for the southeast US. 34 reports of tornadoes, including one wedge that rolled through downtown Mobile! For anyone who is still somehow clinging to that myth that tornadoes don't hit big cities, I think the last few years have been evidence that it can and WILL happen!!! Luckily for us in the Chattanooga area, the air remained very stable and the warm front kept to our south. This morning it is quite windy and cold.. We might even get a couple of flurries!
SPC storm reports for yesterday (12/25/12):
So anyway! 2012 wasn't all that spectacular. YES I am still in school and probably will be for at least another year.. blah. The thesis fell to the wayside in the fall semester because I was on the road so much! It has been a really busy year.
We lost my uncle who was an amazing man. Uncle Johnny was kind and caring.. he had a HUGE heart. The connection between my mother and him was far greater than typical brother/sister love, because they lost their mother (my grandmother) when they were both very young. My mom became his mother. I will never forget the day he died. I drove my mom up to their house in Farragut, TN. Uncle Johnny had been sick for sometime and just a few days before they had brought in Hospice. He didn't want to go in a hospital room. He wanted to be home.. Home with my aunt and surrounded by family and friends. And that's just how it happened. We drove up, and knew the time was getting close. Everyone was in the room with him when it happened, and even though it was so incredibly sad to lose such an amazing man, I couldn't imagine a better way to go. We love and miss you, Uncle Johnny, but we are so glad you aren't suffering anymore.
On the brighter side, I did a LOT of unexpected traveling this year. We went to NYC for a mini-vacation after I spent a few days there working. And we also took a few extra days in Seattle! We even visited Vancouver, BC! Pretty amazing.
I guess the BIGGEST news of all was the accomplishment of a life long dream. April 12-15th, my dream came true! I finally got to chase storms in the Great Plains of the USA! I absolutely fell in love with Kansas. It is a gorgeous state! So much more than just a giant flat field, which is what I thought it would be. In those few days, we drove well over 3000 miles. This pushed my storm chasing miles this year to around 4000!!!!
I also FINALLY saw my very first tornado!!! :D Unfortunately it was quite far away.. We may have seen a few more but it is hard to count things you just get a quick glimpse of during lightning flashes here and there. Another reason why (in my opinion) chasing in the dark is useless..
So this year was relatively lackluster, but you know.... I'm always excited about things to come! Tomorrow I will make my yearly list of goals (NOT resolutions).. :D
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great year! What will 2013 bring?
In a few days, I will do my year end wrap up and make new goals for the upcoming new year, but for now.. there is real WEATHER to talk about!
Christmas day is shaping up to be a significant severe weather event.
I am also not ruling out tornadoes and severe weather for our area, and here is why.
We will be in the warm sector. Initially, the models had us just slightly north of the warm, moist air, meaning we would mostly be experiencing heavy rain changing over to snow showers on Wednesday. But from what I'm seeing on the NAM, we are going to be warm and moist enough that we could also experience some nasty weather. CAPE is very low, but as we have seen with many other southeastern US severe weather events, we don't need a lot of instability if everything else is in place. Right now, it appears most everything is in place.
The most significant weather, in my opinion, is going to start Christmas day in Southern LA and MS, then move over into central to southern AL. But as the day progresses, a huge squall line is going to form, bringing with it the threat of damaging winds and isolated tornadoes. This squall line looks like it will remain a threat through the overnight hours.
This is the EHI for the afternoon on the 25th...
Everyone has their favorite weather maps to look at, and for tornadoes, I tend to look at EHI. I don't know why it is my favorite, but it is.. haha... It is just a good way to see where rotating thunderstorms can occur.
Anyway.. I'm out of forecasting practice, so this storm will let me brush up a little bit hopefully. This storm makes me nervous, because people are going to be distracted with Christmas day activities and probably not paying attention to the weather.
On the bright side, the flip side of this storm gives us a chance of snow showers Wednesday-Thursday!!
I have neglected the one hobby that I CAN do even if the weather is boring, and that hobby is photography.
I picked up the camera for Thanksgiving day photos and spent a good part of my time fumbling around with settings, when just a few months ago, I really felt like I had gotten the knack of taking photos.
So.... I am going to do be spending LOTS of time with my camera in the next few weeks. I don't want to leave home without it, honestly. Time to get familiar again with my old friend, because you never know when my next weather photography opportunity might be.
Jeez.... Since we last spoke I have been to two oceans and the Gulf of Mexico... no... really!
In early October, I was sent to New York City for a conference, and we decided to take the rest of the week as vacation. I hadn't been to NYC since I was in high school, so I was pretty excited! The highlights of my trip were getting to see Letterman, Matthew Broderick twice in the same day (he appeared on Letterman as a surprise guest and was also in Nice Work If You Can Get It), and just roaming the city.
Truly, it was one of the best vacations I have ever had in my life! I was so glad we took a few extra days to hang out!
Then I got back for a few days and found out that I would be heading to Tampa to help monitor a clinical study. That trip was solely work.... We landed, hit the ground running and went straight to work. We had some fantastic food though while we were there, and I was able to see the beach! :)
THEN....... I was home for three days, and then I headed off to another conference in Seattle, WA! Seattle was really nice, but I wish I had more down time. We just didn't have enough time to do any hiking and the weather was horrible while we were there. I was told that July-August is the dry season, and that was the best time for hiking. Sigh.....
I'm so happy to be home right now... I have only been here a few days, but it is awesome to be back here. No more traveling for a little while.. :)
Can't turn my mind off to sleep, so I might as well blog about quite possibly one of the greatest nights of my life!!! Of my ENTIRE life...
First of all, it probably was NOT my proudest moment, haha.... We had spent a little too much time pregaming before the main event, and didn't stop at the main event. But it was a GREAT night, so all the pain the next morning was TOTALLY worth it!
September 18th, 2012, I saw Guided By Voices at the 40 Watt in Athens GA. We arrived in Athens around 3pm and went to grab dinner at one of our favorite places, Ted's Most Best. They have the most amazing pizza!!!! And a baked goat cheese salad.. Holy smokes!! It is so good!
We went and chilled in the room a bit and then headed over to the Flicker Bar for a pre-GBV party where a GBV cover band played. We were trying hard not to rock out too hard. There is where we met up with Rachel and Matt, then soon walked over to the 40 Watt. Brad and Joel were already there, and not far behind was Jamie and Melissa. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience to be surrounded by so many awesome friends, while watching the greatest band on the face of the planet Earth.
Detective opened and Jim Greer who used to be in GBV for a minute was in the band. They were pretty good. When GBV hit the stage, we were well into the party, and it was so much fun. GBV was AMAZING as always. They played a lot of new stuff, but tons of old favorites, too. In general, my face was fixated in a perma-grin for the rest of the night.
After the show, we made it to Max where at some point Brad realized he was missing his glasses. I volunteered to walk back to the 40 Watt with him to help him look for them. Right as we were about to walk back into the club, I noticed ROBERT POLLARD and KEVIN FENNEL and completely forgot about Brad! I turned around and saw that somehow Stacey was back at the 40 Watt too!! So I confessed my love to Robert Pollard and Kevin Fennel.. shed a few tears, and got a fabulous kiss on the head!
Some of the details are still sketchy.. I woke up with a sad tummy, a REALLY sore left arm, and a bump on my head! But it was a fabulous night! I wouldn't trade it for the world!
I have ZERO weather to post about. It is so good that I enjoy many things other than storm chasing.
My summer has been chock full of hiking and good times. We didn't really take a real vacation this year, which, honestly, is okay!
Probably the most amazing hike I have done since Muir Woods near San Fran was Cloudland Canyon State Park. We did the strenuous hike to the upper falls.
Here is a photo of Stacey mocking the sign warning over our impending doom!
It was rough, but well worth it!! It has been a very dry summer so the falls was nonexistent. Regardless, fabulous trail and fabulous place!!!
The "upper falls:"
The view!!!
I do want to say to make sure you bring WATER and take it easy coming back up from the falls. Our legs were like totally jelly and could barely support us when we got back up. We were truly exhausted, but like I said.. WAYY worth it!
I will most definitely post more next week! Tuesday, we'll be making the trek to Athens, GA to see Guided by Voices for the millionth time! I'm really excited!!!
Thursday night, a very strong gust front came through our area. We have been taking care of my brother's animals/pool since he has been on vacation, and we were out swimming. I noticed the really dark clouds moving in, so I went to check radar. My phone was BLOWING up! Friends were asking me what was going on with the wind!
So, I noticed a "little outflow boundary" that was pushing out from some storms that caused serious damage in the Smokies earlier that day.
So no.. on radar, people didn't see anything... However, it caused some serious damage in our community. Unfortunately, two people perished after theirpontoon boat capsized in the storm.
On a non-weather note, we went to go see the musical Hair at the Chattanooga Theater Center last night! It was absolutely amazing!! I wish I could see it again, but next weekend looks like more fun in the great city of Athens, GA!
Now, off to the pool and then to see Moonrise Kingdom with BFF's!!! Weeeeee! :D
I'm not going to be one of those people who discourage others from becoming a storm chaser, because Lord knows that I have seen enough of those posts in my life. I just get the impression that so many approach chasers with the idea they won't be respected unless they chase storms or make themselves to be much more experienced than they really are.
#1: It is okay that you are new to this. It's okay to ask questions. Just search through forums and the great awesome resource of the internet before you ask questions. When you do ask a question and someone is kind enough to give you a resource, please take the time to learn and actually look at the resource.
#2: It is okay you don't know everything! The thing is... to really learn this stuff isn't easy. A lot of people look up to chasers and think that it is easy. I'd say most of the well respected guys know a great deal about forecasting, storm structure, or whatever. This didn't come to them overnight. You have to start somewhere. Granted, with technology, it is a lot easier to chase storms than it was even 5 years ago. That doesn't mean you should do it without learning. There is a lot to learn about storm movement, structure, etc.... In fact, not knowing some stuff could even put you in bad spots that could quite possibly get you killed. So get on with your learning, will you?
#3: It's okay that you ARE NOT a storm chaser. It's just fine to be a radar aficionado or other kind of weather weenie without having to be a chaser. People are going to respect you more if you don't lie or exaggerate your pursuits.
I'm not saying that I'm this great chaser or anything.... I am a person who genuinely loves science and learning. I have chased storms, yes. However, I am still very new to this (even after 2 solid years of chasing now), and have a lot to learn. I make a LOT of mistakes. I second guess my forecasts all the time, which causes me to drive in circles. I am still terrified of nighttime severe weather (especially when I know there is a possibility of tornadoes). I still will not chase alone if the target is more than 100 miles away or if I am not familiar with the territory. It is too hard to navigate and read radar all by yourself. At least for me.. it is.
So embrace your inexperience for what it is!!! Take your time and enjoy it! No one should judge you if you really are open to learning.
I've been doing a lot of thinking and self evaluation.. haha.. Scary, I know! :) But regardless.. I feel much better than I did one week ago, that's for sure!
Nothing at all going on weather wise here or elsewhere! I'm really glad I went ahead on that multiday journey in April.. otherwise, we would have been chasing this week and we would have ended up with a whole lot of nothing!
I have been doing a ton of hiking and I love it!
We hiked up from Craven's House to Point Park on Saturday, and it was a lovely journey! This is going to become a regular thing. I have even thought about trying camping again, but we'll see. I still hate bugs. :)
Well.. so yesterday, I got the bright idea to chase a hailer with a 1.5" hail marker over in Marion County, Tennessee. The storm was nearly stationary, and then.... I approached it. It hightailed itself right out of Marion County south towards AL and I was out of position and caught in heavy rain. And getting really hungry... haha..
Miles Driven: 70
What Did I See: heavy rain, a little lightning and one SLC
Lack of funds may be the big issue here. We'll just have to wait and see. I wanted to take at least one more long distance chase trip this year. We'll just have to wing it! If there is an awesome setup, I think I could always find a way. :)
For Dixie Alley, we have been holding in this summertime pattern for a good while. We've had a few pop up storms here and there, but nothing of significance. Is it possible we have completed our severe weather season already? I don't see anything impressive on the horizon and usually by the end of May it is most certainly over.
Again.. lots of speculation here... stay tuned for details!!! Hopefully, I'll get one more decent chase in before we call it a done deal for Spring of 2012!
The SPC did a phenomenal job with predicting this system, and getting
the warnings out there. The graphical models had indicated this one
would be a biggie for quite sometime.
Just as testament to how spot on the SPC was with their forecast, look at this graphic released today:
Saturday morning we woke up in Topeka KS and our initial target was
Kearney, NE. We were going to make a play along the warm front that was
draped across southern NE.
We were on our way out to NE when we got the word we just woke up
slightly outside a PDS tornado watch. So we decided to hang out in KS..
PDS Watch # 165
We intercepted a supercell near Russell, KS. It was an HP mess and not
much to look at. If there was a tornado in that mess, we couldn't see
it.
We decided then to drop south to a nice string of pearls forming to the
south. The cell we chose was one developing just outside of Greensburg,
KS. We followed the cell for sometime.. Trying to keep up with it.
Unfortnately, we ended up finding the only trees in Kansas for just a
minute, but when we went through the clearing.. This is what we saw:
We were further away than we would have liked to be, obviously.. haha
Here is the NWS information about this particular supercell:
We dropped down to intercept another cell, we thought we MIGHT have had a tornado, but we lost daylight and couldn't tell anymore. After that, we decided to find a place to eat our steak dinner in Wichita and then we would head home.
We saw the supercell on radar and we were certain it was going to go much further south than where we were going to be eating. We were watching the coverage on the TV that was on at the bar, and noticed the TV met drew an arrow for the storm direction STRAIGHT for where we were eating. Note that this was a LARGE, EXTREMELY dangerous tornado that had been confirmed. We through some money down on the table and ran (yes, we all RAN) to the car so we could bolt west out of the way. We were in the core of the storm at that point. It was raining like crazy, and the wind was just insane... I have never been in winds that strong!!! You could hear the wind from inside the car and the car was shaking when we were stopped at a red light. Once we were finally to safety, we found a nice vantage point and watched the light show. There was one moment when we were sure that the lightning had illuminated the tornado, but again... we couldn't be sure, so it doesn't count. :)
I am so happy I got to chase in the Great Plains!!! I cannot WAIT to go back out there again.. it was an amazing experience
I would like to thank Wes and Brian for being awesome chase partners on this trip. We never got annoyed with each other. We had some good laughs! :)
I would also like to thank Jenn N from South Georgia... I remember stumbling on her blog one day and reading that SHE was a chaser from Georgia, too!! So I started following it.. reading.. and she was a real inspiration. Here was a real person not from the Plains who was a storm chaser. It gave me hope and belief that I could do it. She's an awesome gal, and I'm so glad to have her as my friend.
I'd also like to thank Jo, Spike, Ed, and Doug for being amazing friends. TVN is like a family to me. We are a tight knit group. I know I talked Jo, Ed, and Spike's ears off the whole trip. All of them have been such an awesome support system. I have never met any of them in person, but I truly do count them as friends.
Miles Traveled: 3300
What did we see: Rolling plains and prairie, ONE super awesome incredible WEDGE tornado, amazing storm structure, and lots of dirt roads <3
Well, yesterday was a BUST!!!! No winner winner steak dinner! But I saw FIVE different states in 24 hours! :)
We left the Manchester TN area about 1am CDT. Many hours (and I mean MANY hours) of driving later we crossed over into the giant data void we can call the state of Oklahoma! Can someone tell me what the deal is? As soon as we crossed over into KS it was like.. BAM! And we had data again!!! Very weird..
Anyway, our initial target was Dodge City, KS. We stopped outside of OKC at a McDonalds with some free wi fi and reviewed the models. The RUC showed a nice little dryline bulge around Childress, TX so we decided to head in that vicinity. Blindly driving without data until we got into OKC, I got the updated outlook from SPC. Clearing was happening in W KS and there was too much uncertainty in our southern target, so BACK to Dodge City we go!!!
Drive, drive, drive, drive.. I watched the rolling flat plains go by. It is absolutely beautiful here. I never imagined I would believe it to be as amazing as it is, but.. I was just in awe of it. Fields so green.. we passed several canola fields, too! No time for photos yesterday though.. we just pushed forward to our target. Once we got to Dodge City, we realized.. this is not looking good. We would need to make it to Goodland, KS at the very least to see anything. We were still quite a distance away and socked in cloud cover. We decided to eat some din din and get a room to get some shuteye finally.
We had some okay Mexican food in Dodge City and started the hunt for rooms. We passed through Greensburg. It's being rebuilt, and it looks great! But you can still see the scars...
For today, I'm picking a target of Enid, OK. I'm not super excited about today's setup, but there are some largely curved hodographs in that area, and some stuff could start happening before dark!
UNLIKE SATURDAY, which after further review, looks to me to be a scary situation after DARK, but slim to nothing happening before the sun goes down.
Just for the record, here is Saturday's probabilities:
More to come tonight! :)
Miles traveled: well over 1000 :D
What did we see: The beautiful rolling plains of the central US, Dodge City, KS (The WILD WILD WEST, and yes, I made the joke.. Let's get the hell outta Dodge), Greensburg, KS, and the giant data hole known as OKLAHOMA
In approximately 30 hours, I begin the trip of my dreams.
In 30 hours, I go west.
Those of you who aren't weather aficionados or storm chasers may not be aware that there are several days of severe weather possible in the Plains. Well, my chase partner, myself, and another chaser are heading out around midnight tomorrow night to a target not yet selected, but probably somewhere in W Oklahoma or SC Kansas.
Stay tuned to this blog for further details. :D Hopefully, I will post from my hotel room after we declare WINNER WINNER STEAK DINNER, but we'll see how that goes! Regardless, soon I will be places I have never seen before!!!
Look out, GREAT PLAINS of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! :D Here I come! :)
Well, on April 5th I did a small local chase of some thunderstorms that came through the area. The chase, honestly, was quite frustrating. I couldn't make up my mind whether to go after the storms that had already formed or hang south and wait for development. In the end, I went after those storms that had already formed. The storms I saw were less than exciting.. haha :D But it helped.... :D
The best shot of the day came from the top of Lookout Mountain:
It wasn't a bad day, and I have a feeling, the best is yet to come. ;) Stay tuned for details!
On Friday night, I went to see one of my all time favorite bands on the planet, of Montreal! Let me tell you... they put on an AMAZING show! I have been a fan of theirs for quite sometime! I've seen them play several times. This show was well performed and just over all entertaining!!! It made for an incredible weekend! :D
Stay tuned for a big announcement in the next couple of days... I don't want to jinx it, but let's just say.. IT COULD VERY WELL BE HAPPENING!!!!!! :D
Miles driven: 90
What did I see: Some amazing structure and a lot of construction!
Whoooo.. I didn't realize it had been so long since I have updated my blog!!! How disgraceful! Poor blog..
Well, to start off, there really has been only one grand chase-a-tunity since my last post, and I was working that day so I watched from the sidelines. March 2nd was a pretty significant severe weather outbreak, even in our area. An EF3 tornado hit the Harrison TN area around 12:30pm that day, and I got a view of a funnel cloud from the front porch!!!
Stupid powerlines and stuff in the way, but the scene was pretty amazing out there!
Other than that, the season has been relatively boring. Not too much weatherwise going on... However, we had my dad's 80th birthday party which was absolutely amazing! It turned out so well!!!
Now then.. it is possible that I am taking the day off for storm chasing on Tuesday, but we will see how that pans out. Right now, I'm thinking we'll save the day off for another time.
And now to go and do the one thing I have kept up with as far as new years resolutions go.... HIKING! Rerun and I are going to go and hit the trails!!!
