Big day ahead - April 2nd!

While the finer scale details remain to be seen, there has been good run to run consistency with a big day shaping up for Friday April 2nd. I would like to see the 500h trough not dig as far south and the dewpoints come up a bit but everything else is looking good for a big tornado day from Amarillo down through Lubbock, TX. The day before may even be good but with lesser moisture time will tell. Right now the plan is to head down to Amarillo weds night and stay trough Saturday. The week after keeps looking like a second trough coming in to even better moisture. The GFS has been bouncing back and forth between Tue - Weds and now looks like fri the 9th or sat the 10th. Stay tuned for more details on what looks like a good solid chase day shaping up!

Friday March 19th the next chase day?

The 18z run of the GooFuS today is showing a possible chase setup for next friday March 19th. Like many of the previous setups this week (March 8th in particular!) this one looks like a low cape close to the upper low (dare I say Cold Core?) type setup. And again this one looks like it will be in western OK and possibly this time up into central KS. I have already requested Friday off with the powers that be at work so the plan would be to head down to Amarillo after work thursday. Do a much needed check of the house. Chase into western OK and then either come back to Amarillo or head up to Russell for a return on Saturday. Stay tuned!

March 5th Western Kansas chase!

March 5th showed some promise for some time on the models so when the SPC showed a 2 percent risk of tornadoes just into Kansas I jumped on it!

On my way out towards my target of Bird City, KS I saw that cells south of Oakley were intensifying so I dropped south to Goodland and headed east on I-70 to intercept the line between Colby and Oakley. Near the town of Mingo, KS I encountered hail drifts alongside the road, a couple of lightning strikes and some heavy rain. I continued on east past Oakley and hopped off a couple of exits to get a view of the tail-end of the line. The lightning was now picking up along with brick winds and dark lowerings along the forward flank of the line. I then shot south to near Utica, KS where I encountered wind driven pea to nickle sized hail, strong winds and frequent CG lightning. Chased east following the line well past dark and overnighted in Russell, KS where I'm glad to say the chase base faired the 4 mos of winter unoccupied with no problems whatsoever. It was soooo nice to be out and chasing again on this first day of the 2010 chase season!

Chase Season 2010 begins!

Tomorrow is March 1st and is the unofficial start of the chase season! I've been eagerly watching the GooFuS weather model and have been focused on March 7 - 8 since the early runs of Feb 23rd. This day is now within 180 hours out and continues to show a Cold Core tornado setup. A nice strong slightly negative tilt 500mb trough over a tight surface low in Kansas sets the stage for high helicities and 60/50 temp/dewpoint spreads. I will be watching this setup in the next week with the plans to get out on Saturday, travel to Russell, KS and be in place for the possible CC setup early in the day. CC setups can yield tornadoes by as early as noon so I'll be in place and be ready. I fully expect a raging blizzard on the backside so I may be staying out an extra day!

Dangerous Drives Review

Dangerous Drives - Storm Chasers. Speed Channel

Dangerous Drives featured three chasers: Jim Reed, Mike Phelps and Simon Brewer. The show followed Jim and Mike around as a pair in Jim's Ford Explorer and then Simon going solo in his Chevy Cobalt. Looks like they were out for 3 - 4 days last season possibly during the May ridge since there were no tornadoes actually filmed during the show. The show suffered from the usual add of stock footage and out of sequence shots.

I enjoyed seeing Jim's infamous foot race to the landspout video in western KS from 2008. They had some harrowing close calls with lightning strikes that was also pretty dramatic.

I was a little disappointed that the Explorer and the Cobalt were featured as being these customized vehicles for storm chasing. There's nothing there except for Jim's button starter under that dash that almost every chaser out there doesn't already have.

There were some interesting camera angles on the show but they were easy to tell how they were done as no effort was made to take the rig off the cars on the other shots.

The show wraps up with Jim getting stuck in the mud and the tractor being used to pull him out also getting stuck - a scene that we can all sympathize with!

I mostly enjoyed Dangerous Drives as an SDS diversion but the bar has been raised and the audience expects real tornado action and intercepts now.

Fully Instrumented Wicked Witch!

This afternoon after a couple of bad launches yesterday I was able to get my newly modified Wicked Witch into the air and recording video, GPS and Weather data. This brings together all the elements into one small package that I want to launch into tornadoes for the 2010 season.

Here you can see the temperature, relative humidity, pressure and altitude graph. The temperature drops as it gets exposed to being outside after being in the car. The pressure drops as the altitude increases, then it reverses during landing approach. The RH rises during the flight and then spikes as the plane hits the snow on landing ( the large jump on the right).

Here is the GPS track. The flight was approximately 8 mins long and 8.2 kM traveled. A second GPS will allow me to find the craft after it is tossed by the tornado and ends up in a farm field out in Tornado Alley!

WX data logger: 5 sec updates. 2 hr 45 min record time.
Video: 720 x 480. 30fps. 1 hr record time.
GPS: 1 sec updates.


Check out this video by John Hallen!

Rhino Lined 2009 Outback Chase Vehicle

After being sidelined by the baseball hail of the June 5th, 2009 La Grange, WY tornado and seeing the video from the Discovery Channel's Smash Lab tests of Rhino Linings against dynamite blasts I decided to Rhino Line my brand new 2009 Subaru Outback. Scott Pfeffer of Rhino Linings of Golden did an awesome job! I could not be happier with the results and next storm season I will be testing against the biggest hail I can find! Glass will be bulletproofed with double layers of laminate. Check out this video below:

TVNs RC Superhauler

TVN and Radiance Technologies RC Superhauler featured in last Sunday's Discovery Storm Chasers Episode 6 is a 30k system consisting of the following components:

First you have a 12 foot wingspan custom built airframe, RC radio and transmitter (2.4 GHz) with power booster and a 2-stroke (maybe 4) gas engine.

Second there's at least two cameras on the plane itself. One is a belly mounted swivel camera with radio downlink to the support truck and the second is a Contour HD helmet cam mounted to the tail. The plane has GPS waypoint navagation that can fly a preprogrammed path and then return to it's launch point and circle until the pilot picks it up and lands it. Eight of the probes record temp, pressure and dewpoint for later download (radioing these real-time to the truck at 900Mhz would be a better solution with no loss of data if the probe is lost). Two of the probes carry Contour HD cams as well. The problem with probe cams is they can not be pointed and swivel with the parachute. A better solution is to have control of the camera pan/tilt and zoom at all times. All ten probes radio back their GPS location to the support truck (900Mhz) for tracking and later pickup hopefully in accessible farm fields.

Third, you have the support truck with oversized camper shell. Radio downlink equipment for the belly cam video and probe tracking. There is a flat screen monitor in the cab for displaying the downlinked video. This video display allows for First Person View or FPV flying - this is where you pilot the plane by watching the monitor alone and works well when the plane is very small when viewed from the ground.

I have essentially the same gear as above with some key differences that match my slightly different goals for past years and going into 2010 but that is it in a nutshell. We are just on the cusp of what can be done with RC aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary wing craft and with electronics becoming smaller and cheaper every day - once the FAA clears the way, expect to see a lot more in this area.

Subie chase vehicle hardening

Working on filling all the dents before mondays complete Rhino lining of the entire exterioir.

Featured Tornado of the Week - March 28, 2007 Beaver, OK

March 28, 2007 - Beaver and Lipscomb county Tornadoes

Tornado #1: Rated ef - 2 (max winds 110 - 137 mph)

Path length: 22 miles max

Width: 150 yards

Tornado began: 7:28 pm ... ended at 7:53 pm

2 fatalities / 0 injuries

The tornado originated in northern Lipscomb county between Booker and Darrouzett ... about 6 miles south of the Beaver / Lipscomb county line at 7:28 pm. the tornado moved northward and entered beaver county at 7:39 pm. damage occurred on a farmstead about 1 mile into beaver county severely damaging several outbuildings and a grain bin. Little or no damage occurred to the home. The tornado continued north, briefly became a large multi vortex tornado ... and then consolidated into one large funnel ... snapping power poles and large trees. The tornado struck and destroyed a single family home about9 miles north of the lipscomb / beaver county line at 7:50 pm ... where two fatalities occurred. It appeared that the couple killed in the tornado did seek refuge in their small bathroom, which was destroyed. In addition to the small home ... a storage barn was destroyed and two vehicles were moved as much as 20 yards. A horse trailer was destroyed as it bounced and rolled for approximately 50 yards. The tornado continued moving north for approximately another 6 or 7 miles ... damaging only power poles ... fences ... and trees before it lifted.

>> Original Report Here <<

Featured Tornado of the Week - April 29, 2009 Garden City, KS

April 29, 2009 - Garden City, KS - A monster Supercell thunderstorm spawned five tornadoes and numerous gustnadoes associated with downburst winds Wednesday evening on the 29th of April in the Garden City area. The storm initially was moving east towards Garden City but then took on s...upercell characteristics and turned almost due south. In addition to the tornadoes and high wind, very large hail was also reported with some the size of softballs falling on the back side of the storm.

A dairy farm took a direct hit and even though the tornado did EF1 damage with 100 to 110 mph winds, there was a heavy toll on the cattle as numerous pieces of tin and sheet metal churned through the pins. Much of this debris was carried almost 4 miles. At least 100 head were mortally injured or had to be put down. There was one injury at the dairy when a door flew open injuring a female although not seriously.

There was also EF1 damage done to a several modular homes northwest of Plymell in the Ponderosa addition. One woman was struck in the face by a piece of lumber as it smashed through a window.

All told there were 15 pivot irrigation sprinklers damaged or destroyed.

>> Original report here <<

Carlson Chasers ranked among the top 100 BlogBurst blogs

Received this today, thanks everyone for reading!

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Potential severe weather outbreak Oct 1st!

Things are shaping up for a potentially big fall severe outbreak on thursday Oct 1! The GFS is showing a negative tilt trough punching into the plains into 2000 J capes. Right now the plan is to head out weds night to Russell and be in place for this event. We've been waiting for a month now for a fall severe episode and this time it looks like it will come together!

Storm Chasers set to air on Oct 18th

Promo video for Episode 1, Season 3 of Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel, airing October 18, 2009 at 10 pm Eastern. Tim Samaras and Twistex(our old team), Sean Casey and the TIV crew, and Reed Timmer, Chris Chittick, and Joel Taylor of TornadoVideos.net(our new team!) hunt down tornadoes in western Oklahoma during April 2009. Eric's tornado video will likely be part of this episode as we were right there on it! More info at Discovery.com/StormChasers

Featured Tornado of the Week - Sept 16, 2006 Canistota, SD

September 16, 2006 - Canistota, SD It was exactly 3 years ago today that Michael and I were chasing a two day setup in Kansas and then South Dakota. The first day in Kansas we saw some good supercells with rotation but no tornadoes. We overnighted near Blair, NE for the main show on 9/16. It was the remnants of typhoon Ioke that has wondered around in the pacific and then up by Alaska and on this day was coming into the plains as a trough.

We met up with Chris Collura in Sioux City, IA and hung out for a bit looking at data at a hotel along the interstate when we decided to shoot a bit north towards Sioux Falls, SD. On the way up a lone supercell to our west along I-90 formed and before it was barely a blip on the wxworx system the county went severe warned!

We shot west out of Sioux Falls on I-90 and rapidly approached the developing cell and pulled off at the Canistota exit just in time to see a cone begin to drop from the spinning wall cloud. For what seemed like a good 10 minutes we watched the tornado pass over groves of cottonwood trees and then as it passed there was an empty field there. The tornado was completely pulverizing them into match sticks!

We shot back east on I-90 and watched as the tornado came up to the overpass and then seemed to come down the highway towards us as the stout cylinder above! This was the first and only time I have heard the 'tornado roar'. It sounded like a waterfall with just a hint of a whining sound.

It passed into the field in front of us and roped out into a long snakey tornado and then it was gone..

>> Original Report HERE <<

Featured Tornado of the Week - April 26, 2009 Roll, OK

April 26, 2009 Roll, OK - tornado #2 of the day from the single supercell that formed in Roger Mills county Oklahoma. This tornado crossed the road in front of Eric and I with an intense RFD blast on the south side of it. It tracked down into a valley where it destroyed an unoccupied mobile home. Literally turned it into white dust before our eyes. The tornado continued to climb the far side of the valley (photo above) and dissipate. No other tornadoes formed from the storm that day.

Discovery Storm Chasers New Season Oct 11th!

It's gonna be awesome!!

Julesburg CO supercell!

This has been the summer of the slight risk and 2% tornado for eastern CO and today was no exception. After farting around for awhile around DIA with a line of cells and nickel size hail I saw that a Tornado watch had been issued for the NE panhandle. Keeping my eyes up there, an interesting cell formed south of Kimbal, NE and began to show a flying eagle shape on radar.

I made my way north thru Prospect Valley and up to Roggin on I-76 when the storm began to show a couplet and things were getting interesting. Time to fly! I raced up I-76 and caught the beast with 75,000 feet high towers just west of Julesburg in time to report a large rotating wallcloud that was only a few feet off the ground and so wrapped in rain that if a tornado were back in there it would only be visible by the damage path after!

Funnel of Darkness

Navigating the precarious boundaries where sanity ends and weather begins; FUNNEL OF DARKNESS follows one adventure filmmaker and his team, chasing the American Dream...down Tornado Alley.

The IFC.com Original five-episode web series FUNNEL OF DARKNESS premieres on Dailymotion.com Monday, July 27.

Funnel Of Darkness is a comedy series that follows adventure filmmaker Keith Severe (Keith Cecere) and his team of storm chasers (Team Severe) as they tear through America's heartland in a race to capture the best up-close and personal tornado footage the world has ever seen. A modern day storm chasing A-Team, the men that compromise Team Severe are a rag tag lot of storm chasing misfits and rock and roll dreamers.



>> Go to the page here <<

EPISODE 1 - "Team Severe, Come Out and Play!"

The competition is afoot, the girls abound and Team Severe is ready to win. Unfortunately, road holes and an unruly farmer stand between them and glory.

Funnel of Darkness: Episode 1
Uploaded by funnelofdarkness. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

EPISODE 2 - "Severe Weather"

An old nemesis shows her face as Team Severe gets some new storm chasing gear and samples the local flavor of Oklahoma. The perfect storm shot lays just over the horizon, but will the boys get there in time?

Funnel of Darkness: Episode 2
Uploaded by funnelofdarkness. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

EPISODE 3 - "Small Town Freaker Outers"

The weather has gone flat and Team Severe is in desperate need of a Tornado. The only solution is to throw a “storm summoning party” to appease the gods. Hopefully, the gods aren’t easily offended.

Funnel of Darkness: Episode 3
Uploaded by funnelofdarkness. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

EPISODE 4 - "Anarchy in the O.K."

Still desperate for tornadoes and even more desperate for cash Team Severe takes to the stage and rocks out at a local bar. Channeling his spiritual guide, the character Bodhi from the world re-known film “Point Break,” Keith calls upon his troops for one final push to try and win the “Funnel Baggin’ Rally.

Funnel of Darkness: Episode 4
Uploaded by funnelofdarkness. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

EPISODE 5 - "A Shot in the Dark"

With time running out, Team Severe cuts through the night, chasing down the biggest storm of their lives. Will it be enough to win the Funnel Baggin’ Rally? That’s for one crazy cowboy to decide.

Funnel of Darkness: Episode 5
Uploaded by funnelofdarkness. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Pictures from last night's possible Tornado in west Denver!

Hail damaged vinyl sided house in Wheat Ridge, CO N39 46.69 W105 7.37

Audi that had a tree limb fall on it's back window. N39 46.04 W105 7.24

Garage front taken off by large tree. N39 46.04 W105 7.24

Reflectivity screen grab at 10:25pm MDT.

Velocity screen grab at 10:31pm MDT.

Vertically Integrated Liquid at 10:26pm MDT.

Tree limbs up to 4" diameter down along Ward Road. N39 47.96 W105 8.31

N39 47.96 W105 8.31

These 4 photos were between Kipling and Ward Rd on CR 58. N39 46.71 W105 7.46

News crews filming CR58 road blockage.

Large 40 foot high tree uprooted and across CR58.

Last night's storm tore through the west Denver suburb's with extreme force! I was shooting lightning shots from my deck but the line of storms that moved from Boulder to Castle Rock where so low to the ground that there were absolutely no CGs to capture.

At 10:45pm or so the west most cell went tornado warned so I hopped in the car and headed down to live stream the damage! Above you can see the deep hail drifts and large trees downed.