Today was somewhat of a bust... We got on an average storm north and west of Amarillo, TX around 6pm... As it approached and crossed the boundary this thing exploded into a nice supercell in about 10-15 minutes... We were starting to get pumped when it left the boundary and began its quick death... At least we saw a supercell, but it didn't last as long as I would like... It was just too warm aloft as the CAP won this battle... I'm really worried that the CAP is going to win again tomorrow... I need to make a decision on whether I should head back to Starkville or not... I probably should have left from Dallas yesterday, but I at least wanted to give it a try... I'm not the type of person who quits easily... I'll make up my mind by tomorrow.... It may be time to start getting ready for hurricane season!
Speaking of hurricanes... Invest 90L is out near the Bahamas... This is only the very beginning as I can't emphasize how bad this hurricane season may be! I need to start saving money now for the amount of hurricane chases I may go on... The name I use for the national forecast contest is LDCT11... The 11 stands for the number of hurricanes I have been in and I fully expect my name to be LDCT14, 15, and maybe even 16 by next year... That's how worried I am about this year... Here again is some of my thoughts/ideas on the 2010 hurricane season....
Before I leave I wanted to post a video shot by Sophie C. of the second tornado near Cromwell, OK... I knew we were close, easily 100-200 feet, but I think that was VERY conservative... Her video CLEARLY shows how close we got... She was in the car behind us (about 100 yards) and you can see us in front of them pulled over to the side of the road... Go to about 4:25 in to see how close the tornado was to us... Before I get email/comments saying how could you get that close, please remember that the first tornado passed 100 yards in front of us, and I had NO IDEA that a second tornado was developing rapidly to our west until it was very close to us... We had no phone service/internet and we were driving through a lot of trees in bad terrain... A couple of the vortices were almost side swiping our car... What we first thought was hail was really debris pelting our car! We were so close our video doesn't do it the same justice Sophie's does... It's actually some AMAZING video as the tornado passes right in front on us... What a crazy day!
I you think about it, it has been a crazy month! Actually less than a month, but I have now chased 5 high risk, 1 moderate, and 4 slight risk days from 4/23/10 to 5/21/10 without a complete bust... I've seen 5 tornadoes! A huge wedge, a huge multiple-vortex wedge that almost hit us, a smaller multiple-vortex tornado, a small cone tornado, and a large tornado at night... Also, I missed the Yazoo City, MS monster EF-4 1.75 wide tornado by about a 1 min... Sorry, but I can't count that one... We saw the black mass, but I didn't see the actual tornado... This doesn't even include the many beautiful supercells (LP, Classic, and a lot of HP) I have seen over the last month! I only mention this because if I do leave to head back tomorrow it has been an incredible run/season... I may come back out if there was something big to chase, but I honestly doubt it... It's time to get ready for hurricanes! Which is my true passion anyways!
Double click video to see in full screen on youtube...
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