Potiential for Wed April 30th and mainly Thursday May 1st

We are leaving tomorrow to play around in the high based storms that will be in Nebraska, maybe have a party out in the grasslands, maybe bring a grill the shotgun and some clays. then watch some lightning, hail, with hope a land spout. Then we are going to make our way to Southeastern KS for Thursday's Severe Weather Event. Dew points at 55-60, high cape values, and with the south east component northeast ks. It looks like it will be a late evening initiation, still moisture and cap is somewhat a concern, but there is still a good chance for tornadoes as well as an upgrade to MDT tomarrow if the cap isnt a concern. Looks like the area might have shifted a tad bit more north for pre dark storms. The new MSLP/winds for Thursday 6pm showed the Southeast component at the ks/mo border at last model release. Later in the night squall Line will persist in the area.

Thursday April 24th 2008 Northern Kansas

Today we slept in at our hotel, and left at noon to radio shack to meet up with Verne. There we got lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant, which Tony was in love with, but it was good stuff. After lunch we drove north just outside of Wakeeny and hung out on some dirt road next to cows mooing at us. We waited there forever it seemed, just looking at anything with the slightest bit of vertical development and saying over again how we liked the humidity and southeasterly winds. The discovery team drove by with their army of vehicles including the TIV and DOW. We ended up heading towards Hill City, when Verne Decided to head off west to just get in the middle of the cell that was to our west, and Tony later decided to do the same because He didn't want to take the chance of the storm coming at night. Skinner and I waited in Hill City for a super cell that developed to our west. We were able to intercept it on the front side and before it got dark we got to see the mesos and the wall cloud that was really defined. We were hauling to get there, we drove past Mike Umscheid and I decided to pull over to get some pictures of a meso, when there was one right on top of us. We noticed when we had no winds, it went dead silent. That was really creepy, and skinner started yelling "SHEP! Get in the car now! We have to go!" lol. We drove half a mile down the road and looked back to realize it was rotating above our heads back there. We pulled over next to Mike U and we got some pictures and video. We headed back to hill city because it was headed East-Southeast towards the city. The tornado Sirens were blaring throughout the town, and a ton of Skywarn, and other chasers and spotters were south of the city watching. I dropped my camera out of the car and realized it when i drove south down the road a ways. So we raced back just to the edge of the storm and saved my camera. We watched as it passed over hill city, we didn't see a tornado but it seemed very likely. Apparently there was a storm chaser and a deputy who saw the tornado but I don't understand how they could of at night in rain, and especially without being in danger to get to a point where you could see it.

Wed April 23 2008 E CO/ W KS

Waiting for Initiation in Kit Carson County, we believe its going down at 2:22pm because of all the wierd 222 signs weve seen the last 24 hours!

I hate my life

Against me! Stop! is what the song is called that is playing in my car randomly in Kit Carson in front of a school. The song goes like this... "Stop, take some time to think, decide whats important to you"

Eastern Colorado? or Texas?

two hands weighing just use your imagination........
sum it up I hate my life

Oh and by the way there will probably be tornadoes in Springfield MO

Potiential for Wed the 23rd

Looks like we will be going to the Oklahoma panhandle maybe TX for initiation Wed. SW Kansas looks to be a better environment for tornadoes. I was concerned when I noticed temps on the models suggested in the 60s, however the city forecasts say that temps should be in the upper 70s. Also SPC says that with it being zonal they may travel east. So with different threat areas, southern area being greater not sure if I would be chasing near eastern co/sw Kansas or OK Panhandle /NW Texas. Our plan for now is to head for the OK Panhandle. We will know more when the event gets closer.

Storm Chase Vehicle Ready

My Vehicle is ready to go for the season with hail guard, wx worx satellite weather system, weather alert system and communication.

For all of you wondering what else I do

Real Estate Investing
www.colighthouse.com



(This should become my chase vehicle someday)

A new way to find a Tornado!

Hey guys Tornadoes can be easy to find, the exact ones that we want. Also we can find them TODAY!

April 3rd South Central OK and Northern TX

(Video of the Large Hail we drove into this day will be posted in this Posting next week)

Thursday April 3^rd 08

We left Elk City and made our way south to Lawton OK to make a new forecast, most of the setup and forecast from wed night early Thursday morning (1am) was similar, except we noticed that the surface winds were lower in the south central OK area and there was a southwesterly wind component a little further to our west.

We decided to wait for the initiation in Duncan OK. We saw development to our northwest but on the radar we noticed a cell
to our northeast, we considered chasing it but it exploded and
then just hauled northeast at 59mph.

We checked wx worx and we noticed a cell that was to our southwest moving NE at 35mph. This one looked promising and the other cell was gone. We wanted to intercept the southwest cell that was intensifying. We decided to try and get past it to get to the southeast side of the cell, so we had to get there quickly to avoid punching the core. We were making good time getting past it so we decided we might be able to even take a little bit of a shortcut. Well we were a little close so we ended up getting into the hail core. We ended up getting quarter to tennis ball size hail and my windshield is now destroyed, but we did get to see some decent structure and and a tad bit of rotation, we might have seen a wall cloud but there was a lot of evaportransportation so it was hard to see if there was anything. There wasn’t enough low level wind for that. We noticed a cell that was more isolated to the southwest and decided to hit that up since the northeast one was appearing to be clustered. We chased it and it had pretty much 0 surface wind besides the downdraft. It was in its dying cycle when we caught up to it.

This GVTS made some great photos and some entertainment as I was out dancing in the hail with my helmet on and then experiencing the RFD in my SUV. We got some good sunset updraft pictures of the cell shearing out and then we left hoping to get some lightning on the way to Elk City. On Friday April 4^th 2008 we stopped in Greensburg KS to show skinner and mark the tornado path and the rebuilding of the town. I met some nice people who were helping get donated toilets out to locals. They apparently have heard of the storms of 2000xx and the money that they got from the proceeds, they apparently like chasers and especially the ones who have been involved in the donations and volunteer efforts to rebuild/renew Greensburg KS.

(What use to be Pizza Hut)

Good Chase Potiential April 2nd 2008

Chase: S Central Oklahoma, North TX

Chasers: Ryan Shepard, Jon Skinner, Mark Farnik

Wed April 2^nd 08

We departed to Elk City OK to stay with Skinner’s friend for a decent looking weather setup for Thursday in South OK and Northern TX. Forecasted was a short wave trough, good instability and high cape values. Mid level shear was going to be favorable, higher levels were almost over done with wind shear, and temp/dew point spread was to be about 65/75. The main concerns were the early morning convection and low level winds coming from the southwest. SPC early Thursday morning moderate risk was still out, but the tornado risk was further east due to the jet that shifted more in the OK,TX,AR,LA borders area. We decided our best bet for Thursday would be the Wichita Falls area for the Southern Cells that would develop along the dry line and in front of the Cold front. There was more than enough warm moisture coming from the south. And the cells that would move east, the right splits and right movers off that area could pick up some of the better shear environment that came from the winds shifting from southwest to more southerly winds.

April 1st 2008 Goodland Kansas

Tuesday April 1^st 2008

I woke up in my car in Salina at another hotel parking lot and then started driving home to Greeley, CO. When I got to east of Goodland KS I noticed some small dust devils forming on a burnt grass field. I decided to pull over and get some footage just for fun. I ended up catching a beautiful dust devil that looked similar to a mini land spout tornado. Was a nice vortex that went up about 60 ft high.

March 31st 2008 OK & TX

Monday March 31^st 2008

Left Weatherford for far south central OK to a Moderate Risk for the entire southeastern part of Oklahoma, part of northern TX and parts of AR and MO. There was a 15% hatched area for tornadoes in the North TX, South Central, and Eastern OK. My chase target was Ardmore OK. I messed around in some cells developing along the front and then made my way down to Northern TX near Gainesville TX, then came up behind the Supercell from the south up Hw 377 and then paralleled the supercell to the east on Hw70, which had a lot of other chasers, local news stations, Roger Hill with silver lining tours and tornadovideos.net. The cell had good shear and reported a tornado at one point but I was late for that. It eventually went HP and died out, with the Squall line that was with the dominant Cold Front. On my way back west I had a close call when it got dark with some rotation in a cell that was apart of the squall line. I parked next to a couple fire fighters that were spotting. I showed them the areas of rotation to our west while emergency management got on the horn and told us to take cover. A few minutes later the rotation passed to our southwest so we were ok. I have to say though I did end up putting on my goggles and helmet because it was dark and the tornado risk had elevated. That same part of the county was tornado warned about 10 min later. It was time to go home, so I drove north watched some lightning and drove to Salina KS for the night.

March 30th 2008 Oklahoma

Sunday March 30^th 2008

Departed for Central OK at 2:30am to chase a Slight Risk in West Central Oklahoma with a small 5% tornado risk. The Carlson’s and Tony Laubach also took this trip. After taking a 3 hour nap early Sunday morning in Hays, I kept driving south towards Weatherford OK. Initiation started around 5:30pm near Cordell. A southern cell of interest near Cordell had good wind shear and started to develop a hook. This was a short chase because it was close to sunset but I did get some beautiful footage of the updraft with the sunset. Also a huge turtle was crossing the road and told me to take my lectures to a convention of people who like lectures. So I stopped and filmed him walking, he decided to turn and confront me and get into an offensive snapping position. After watching these storms, enjoying the first thunderstorm environment since October, I got out of the way of the downdraft and got in behind the cell. As it got dark another cell that developed to my southwest had some decent sized hail, it was traveling in my direction and I didn’t want to punch the core of the cell I was on to my east so I waited out the hail in a carwash. Tony Laubach didn’t make it to cover so his windshield got spidered. I then found a hotel in weather ford and slept for the night in my trailblazer in the parking lot.

New Hail Guard Invention

I have been trying to create hail guards to protect my windows in large hail. I started making ones for the side windows using PVC, Plexi Glass and attaching them to the vehicle via metal straps nose clamped to the roof rack and strapped to the frame through the wheel well. Well after spending hours on creating these guards, the driving tests failed as the plexi-glass shattered anyway. When I get a chance I will upgrade to Lexan (Polycarbonate) Aims has been kind enough to en corporate my roof mounted hail guard for the windshield to their welding class. Still working on attaching the Mesh to the aluminum frame and painting it, aims should have the main steel attachments finished tomorrow! I will post a picture once its on the car!


























(Windshield Guard)