It is cold!

Cut to the Chase Violated

Springfield was violated last night

Manned Aircraft in Atmospheric and Tornado Research

MAATR VIDEO

Aerial Footage by Wayne Meinhard at http://www.convectionconnection.net

Thanks goes out to Dann Cianca for the Narriation, Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor and Sean Casey for their interviews, and Tornadovideos.net for the Tornado Footage.

Storm Chasers Finale

Discovery’s ‘Storm Chasers’ Finale Catches 3.2 Million Viewers

Season Finale Blows Out 1.7 Rating

-- Multichannel News, 12/9/2008 3:05:00 PM

The season finale of Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers clocked a 1.7 rating Sunday night, garnering more than 3.2 million viewers, officials said Tuesday.

The episode ranked as the night's No. 1 show in ad-supported cable primetime for men 18 to 34.
The strong numbers propelled Storm Chasers to the highest Sunday-night telecast on Discovery, in terms of adults 25 to 54 and men 25 to 54 delivery, since July 2007.

The season finale also averaged the highest delivery of men 18 to 34 of any Sunday night telecast on Discovery Channel since Planet Earth.

Storm Chasers has been seen by more than 19.3 million viewers during primetime in the fourth quarter and by more than 11 million adults 25 to 54.

This second season of Storm Chasers has experienced season-on-season delivery gains in all key demos including adults 25 to 54 (up 28%), men 25 to 54 (up 26%), men 18 to 34 (up 44%) and persons two-plus (up 26%).

The series follows teams of storm chasers as they crisscross the Heartland attempting to film and study tornados.

CTTC in the Snow!

Severe Weather Research from Aircraft

SAMPLE PROMOTIONAL VIDEO(ROUGH DRAFT)
This Video is for NJM Aerial Imaging Approval/Comments, Promotional Video for MAATR (NOT PUBLIC) http://www.convectionconnection.net <--- THIS IS THE CORRECT ADDRESS FOR THEIR WEBSITE, address in video is incorrect.

Nov 10th Cold Core Tornado Event

Mike Umscheid captured a tornado on Nov 10th in Southwest KS, this was a cold core event. To view his pictures and read about the anomaly then go to his blog! Mike: "I chased and photographed my first November tornado earlier this afternoon at around 3:30pm CST. This tornado was on the ground for ~ 7 to 10 minutes northwest of Johnson, KS about 3 to 4 miles or so. I photographed the tornado from Hwy 27 just a couple miles north of town. Below are two photos. The first is the supercell storm earlier on about 10 miles SSE of Manter, KS as it was entering Stanton County. The 2nd photo shows the tornado in its mature, large stage. It briefly took on a wedge shape appearance, as is shown. The immediate inflow air into this storm was ~ 53 degrees temperature over ~ 47 degree dewpoint. Incredible!! "

Video: Nov 5th 2008

Part 1


Part 2

Nov 5th 2008 KS/OK Central Border

Skinner and I are hanging out at the hotels on tower road playing on the internet getting ready to meet dann cianca to head out to the plains! We also were testing out a cannon rebel I'm borrowing from a friend and took some pictures of rain bands coming through the front range, took me a while to get the shutter speeds down! I'm new at this photography stuff, im a videographer guy. Skinner still called me an idiot, then I punched him in the thigh. So on that note we have a long road to Kansas of drinking dew and listening to skinner crunch away at his marshmallow mateys.

Wed Nov 5th 2008

Getting ready and standing by for a possible chase on Wed. The way it looks right now we have strong shear environment and good moisture, but Instability and cloud cover is to be determined tomorrow. The target area as of now is North Central Oklahoma. Chasers will be myself, possibly John Skinner, and Dann Cianca, Dann will also bring a guest with him. If we go Tony Laubach and Mike Carlson volunteered as now casters, maybe even if they dont know it yet! Thanks guys! Verne, hopefully will see you out there!
Pretty exciting I must say if we can get a good chase in for November!

Tornado Pumpkin of May 23rd

Carving by John Skinner and Ryan Shepard

Disc Storm Chasers Premier Sunday

Watch Discovery Channel Storm Chasers, Premiering Sunday at 10ET (8pm MDT)
The show could use more ratings this year!

Possible Chase Tomarrow Oct 11

There is a slight risk over the southern plains tomorrow, with the high level of moisture and strong layered shear, rotating super cells are possible, including isolated tornadoes and large hail. After our day 2 forecast we realized the models were showing high dew points in the 60s, and temps getting to the 70s, lets hope cloud cover doesn't screw up day time heating. Instability may be a factor but there could be at least 500 cape to support development. LI seems to be at -2, and the vorticity is neg which will be good for isolated cells. Strong SE Component! Right now we cant make a decision on a go or not until midnight models because we want to be sure we don't use that much gas to a bust. Don't want it turning into a line really fast either, strong frontal system coming!

FORECAST SOUNDINGS
ACTUALLY SUGGEST SUPERCELLS WILL EVOLVE ACROSS MUCH
OF THE SLIGHTRISK REGION DESPITE THE MARGINAL INSTABILITY.
VERY FAVORABLE DEEP VEERING PROFILES WITH SFC-6KM BULK
SHEAR ON THE ORDER OF 50KT WOULD CERTAINLY SUPPORT ROTATING
STORMS.  GIVEN THE LARGE SCALE SUPPORT THERE WILL LIKELY
BE AN EVOLUTION FROM SUPERCELLS INTO LINE SEGMENTS
OR PERHAPS AN ELONGATED SQUALL LINE BY LATE EVENING
FROM ERN NM INTO SWRN KS.  LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING
WINDS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES ALL SEEM POSSIBLE GIVEN
THE SCENARIO ABOVE.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER GROUPS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS
ACROSS ALL OF THE OKLAHOMA AND TEXAS PANHANDLES
SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS
AND BE READY FOR POSSIBLE ACTIVATION SATURDAY AND
SUNDAY.

Forecast Sat Oct 4th 2008

Repeat of Oct 4th 2004? Skinner already put this forecast up a week ago so I thought it was time to add it to my blog now.

On sat Oct 4th 2004 9 land spout tornadoes were reported along the front range. Skinner observed one of them from 9th floor of UNC's dorms. Similar aspects are in this weekends forecast.

Sat Oct 4 2004
Upper Level Disturbance
300mb closed low
Temps 21z, mid 60s to 70s
Dew Points lower 40s
Southeasterly component 15 Kts
Dynamic forcing over front range
LI at -2 to -4
Lee-cyclogenesis causing a boundary to form
Strong Vorticity

Sat Oct 4th 2008 FC
Mid Level Disturbance
Trough may come in and cause lee-cyclogenesis
Southeasterly component 15 Kts
Dewpoints near 40s
temps mid 60s to 70s
LI Predictability too low
Vorticity- not similar, Weak
Depending on the propagation of the trough

2008 Chase DVD Teaser!

Go to Skinner's Blog to see our Chase DVD Teaser!
It should be released beginning of next year.


http://skinnerchaser31.blogspot.com/

Possible Hurricane Chase

Update: Ike appears that it will strengthen in the gulf hitting somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston. We are leaving Colorado Thursday afternoon and driving straight through. The chase vehicle has been maintenanced and we got a lot of our food and equipment ready. Wish us luck and safety!








We may chase Hurricane Ike when it hits the Gulf coast depending on where its forecasted to hit land and what category it is.

September 1st 2008 Hurricane Gustav

Hurricane Gustav hits the Gulf Coast

August 31st 08

At 1100 AM EDT the center of Hurricane Gustav was located about 325 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Maximum sustained winds are near 120 MPH with higher gusts. Gustav is a Category Three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Some restrengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours and Gustav could regain Category Four strength later today or tonight. Fluctuations in strength are likely but Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane until landfall.

August 27th 08

Beautiful Sunset today!

August 26th 2008

Lightning in Greeley tonight!

August 25th 08

Not letting this day go by without missing what we did yesterday. Going to watch the boundary, so were hanging out in Bennett near Elbert and Arapahoe counties waiting for initiation. NWS is wording severe storms, large hail, possible landspouts today. Get SOM!

August 24th 2008

Did not make it to these Landspouts, we were chasing north on the line, we didnt have live radar so we couldn't see the boundary that created these monsters, a few changes to our equipment this next season will change all of that. Wx Worx will be reactivated, and a broadband card will be added to the chase vehicle, also an HD cam and a Ham Radio. We did however get into a hail core, observed some minor wind shear, and got some nice shots of rainbows and lightning. Next post will show the video and pictures.

August 23rd 2008

Image from the Denver Post

Wow dew points are high today, and there was a mountain super cell today that was near woodland park! It was freakin sweet, large hail and reported tornado. Apparently there was a waterspout on the reservoir in Park County Colorado today! That drives me crazy because Ive always dreamed of seeing a waterspout on a reservoir in Colorado!!! ahhh! We may chase tomorrow in Northeast Colorado, and Nebraska there is a slight risk. It looks like there may be a chance for super cell structure but mid level wind shear isn't looking good so stay tuned.

August 15th 2008

August 14th 2008

This was a fun day, we almost went southeast clear down to liberal ks, but instead we decided to stick around for the storms in Weld County. We saw some good structure for a brief period on an isolated cell near Kersey, CO but then things became more clustered. We saw what may have been a gustanado or landspout forming southwest of Greeley. We got some pea sized hail and some neat looking storm photos is about it this day. Later on there was some pretty sweet lightning. Along on this chase was Johnathan Skinner, Corey Green, Kyle Darnell, and Ariana Shelley.

August 10th 2008

Today we chased a clustered line of storms with ample moisture and high energy. High 60s dew points, and cape values in the 4000 area. The wind shear was low today limiting most severe weather, but we still got some heavy rain and pea sized hail today in northeastern weld county creating problems for farmers.

August 9th 2008

Something caught my eye this evening. I was driving in west Greeley when I saw a column of air with smoke being pulled into the updraft of a developing thunderstorm west of Greeley. I had to know what was going on, so I drove west on 34. Around 8pm off Hwy 34 and 94th Ave in Greeley there was a fire with 120 bails of hay on fire. Windsor and Union Colony Fire rescue responded to this fire. The fire department said the cause was unknown, they had trouble finding water to put it out but a blessing came as it started raining. Their concern for the fire went down because of the precipitation. I thought it made cool pictures as the smoke was being pulled into the updraft.

August 6th 2008 Flash Flood Greeley

Very heavy rain today caused flash flood problems for drivers and for basements in houses. Many roads were later closed to flooding due to cars getting stuck in the water. Earlier in the day around 7pm a tornado warning was issued, the wx alert system went crazy in my living room and i saw a tornado warning so i was already out the door by the time it got done beeping. I called skinner to get me the situation report and turned on the wx radio for information on the warning. Skinner saw two boundaries colliding and therefore created weak rotation leading to the warning, no tornadoes reported. People in Lodo heard tornado sirens going off, a friend of mine called to let me know.

August 5th 2008 NE Colorado

Skinner was my now caster in the hospital once again. After work I saw the explosion to the south of Greeley and it caught my interest. Skinner sent me after the cells moving through Northeastern Weld, I started east of Greeley and went through some very strong Outflow boundaries and chased a strong cell moving through the Pawnee Grasslands. I got into nickel to golfball hail, 65 mph winds, and a few areas of rotation from the outflows basically gustanadoes.

VIDEO WILL BE POSTED SOON!

Friday July 18th 2008 Eastern CO

My chase vehicle is good for other activities

Sunday July 6th 2008

Dang it, I was white water rafting today and there were tornado warnings in eastern colorado and an observed tornado in northwest Kansas today! Why!?! whyy

Wed July 2nd East of Fort Collins, CO

Caught this funnel east of fort collins, the rest of the storm chase was a bust because the cold front just gave me a lot of crap (rain). I did a lot of work to get off work early too, I expected more to come out of the northern area in WY because of the shear profiles. However the cold front didnt allow for that, and the dew points were pretty high in northeast colorado, so my decision to go north.. why? lol and the cell that we saw a funnel on right after i left the mountains later became tornado warned on the east side of fort morgan.

June 20th 2008 Eastern Colorado

This chase was perfect, I didnt even expect to go on this chase. I was hanging out just keeping an eye on the weather. Around 4pm I decided to head out to these high based cells that were forming off the Cheyenne ridge and headed southeast to the east of Greeley. I went out and just sat under high based storms knowing they would move into higher dew points. These cells converged and created a beautiful super cell. Skinner was my now caster/navigator from the hospital, he had to navigate to a pin point for me because the RFD and Tornado was on my bumper!! I stayed in front of it from wiggins where I got tennisball size hail and then I got caught in the RFD where 70-80mph winds almost tipped my car. I then headed south southeast to work my way to Agate, CO where 9 news took these pictures and Cory Green ran into me where he rode the rest of the storm chase out with me. We paralleled the storm from limon southeast to a rest stop where the tornado warning expired so we waited for the hail core to pass over us. I got my helmet and goggles on and walked around in the hail. It was pretty funny cause Roger Hill's tour group was parked next to us, I bet they said hes crazy! It was great because I was always in the right spot at the right time, thanks to skinner as well. He saved my life a couple times! Skinner is editing the video right now so it should be up on here soon, keep checking!