first chase

First, please let me say how nice it's been to be getting emails from you. My post on faith-based vs. scientific beliefs generated a fair amount of email from readers, and it was a real pleasure to get your mails--- even from the folks who think I'm full of it. :-)

For the last 10 years, I've been privileged to get thousands of emails from an intelligent, involved, and interesting group of readers, and I'm beyond glad to see that many of you have found and are reading this blog. I'll respond to your emails ASAP.

To the matter at hand: The weather did change today, as predicted, and our tour leader did what he was supposed to do: got us well positioned. It was a "severe" rated storm, albeit not tornadic, but we were positioned almost perfectly to view a tornado had it developed. (The trick is to find a vantage in the southeast quadrant of the storm, beneath the rain-free base, in the inflow path.)

As it was, we saw heavy rain and hail, and lots of lightning. The National Weather Service radar did see an "ETVS" or elevated tornadic vortex signature, but it never approached the ground. In fact, the storm never quite made it to supercell strength: It was just a kick-ass, Great Plains severe thunderstorm, and fun to chase. We followed it for several hours between Colorado and Nebraska, until it fell apart at dusk. I'm in the town of Ogalalla Nebraska tonight.

The Blogger software is not so wonderful in handling photos, so please let me point you at my Photobucket pages to see the pix. First, you'll see some exploring I did in an oil field while we were waiting for the storms to fire up. I wandered around a nonfunctioning oil well, and saw what was to see in the surrounding grassy field.

Next, you'll see in-car photos as we chased and approached the storm. The rest of the photos are pretty self-explanatory.

slideshow:
http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd54/flanga_bucket/stormchase2/?action=view¤t=5ced4186.pbw

album:
http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd54/flanga_bucket/stormchase2/

It's late, and tomorrow should be an even longer day as the storms develop. The National Weather Service instituted a "severe storm watch" for the area a full 24 hours in advance; an unusual event, and a sign of how sure they are that major storms will develop.

As corroborating evidence, the TIV
("tornado intercept vehicle" http://science.howstuffworks.com/tiv.htm ), a unique Mad Max-looking contraption designed to drive directly into a tornado and survive; and the DOW ("Doppler (radar) on wheels" http://aaron.ou.edu/dow/ ) are both in the area tonight.

Stay tuned!