2010-04-29 Report

Chased the Washington and Belleville, KS tornado warned storms. No tornadoes verified from my view but deep convection, low hanging scud, crazy inflow winds and wild lightning after dark. Today the threat moves into the AR to IL area.

AMAZING TORNADO VIDEO FROM MICHAEL CARLSON PHOTOGRAPHY

FULL REPORT - PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO

Tornado Photos and Video from the Tornadoes south of Las Animas, Colo.

Michael Carlson Photography

2010-04-21 Report

Just a quick report for yesterday as I have to pour over models and pick a target for today. I shot down through the 'Northwest Passage' (Limon, Lamar, Amarillo) late yesterday afternoon and toyed with the idea of hanging back on the cells in northeast NM but with the tornado watch and Amarillo in my sites I kept punching south. Ended up chasing the cell that was almost stationary in Oldham county northwest of Vega, TX. It had good structure and a ragged wall cloud with fingers under it. No actual tornado reports as seen from my location or other chasers. Did my first live phoner with the Weather Channel. Thanks to Kendra Reed for setting that up! Today it's either the caprock or western Kansas. Tomorrow looks great along the warm front/triple point in se NE!

Potential Big Days 4/21 and 4/22

Weds April 21, 2010: Looking at the GFS we have a nice 500h trough coming in on Weds afternoon and just starting to overspread the warm sector in eastern CO. Based on where the surface features line up I plan on positioning myself somewhere from Limon, CO to Lamar, CO with an overnight trip down to Amarillo to be in position for the real show on Thursday!
Edit: looking at the NAM which is now in range I might want to be down in the western OK panhandle to Dalhart, TX area.

Thurs April 22, 2010: I am liking the Liberal, KS to western OK area for the best juxtoposition of 500h divergent winds and dryline Cape.
Edit: If later runs of the NAM show the dryline more to the west I may favor a starting point of Silverton, TX and then chase north from there as cells fire up along the dryline.

2010-04-13 Report

This day the SPC had a slight risk from Canada down to the OK panhandle crossing the far eastern plains of Colorado. The dynamics for severe weather were certainly in place and had the dewpoints been higher in the upper 50 range vs the upper 40s that we actually had - this day might have been a big tornado day.

I headed up I-76 late afternoon and caught the tail-end of the line forming near Chappell, NE were I caught a couple of brief but intense gustnadoes on the leading edge of the line. I also drove through a pretty good barrage of penny-sized hail.

A couple of cells formed ahead of the line and were tornado warned near Ogallala, NE but these were absorbed by the line before they could really produce a long lived meso.

I shot south to Grant and then to Holyoke and then south on 385 to Wray were I pierced the line back to the east and got ahead of it again at Goodland, KS. As I was blasting west again to another tornado warned segment of the line a tornado was reported. I could not confirm it and looking around on the internet this morning I don't see any real evidence that these tornadoes weren't more than the gustnadoes or perhaps brief landspout I'd seen all day.

Exciting new changes to iMapTracker!

You'll notice some exciting changes on the iMapTracker above and at all iMap sites.
1) Level II data free and live in a browser!
2) Supercell composite type areas.
3) All trackers visible now with a listing board.

Enjoy the new features and look forward to 4/5 when Kansas really lights up! More on that later.

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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Your blog, Carlson Chasers Blog, is in position #84 on the Leaderboard, making you eligible for a reward

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