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Post by Crowfan on May 1, 2009 14:28:21 GMT -5
And we thank you for not showing anyone worshiping the porcelain altar. Not that I've ever done that...
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 1, 2009 16:27:40 GMT -5
But think what a good view you'd have.
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Post by Crowfan on May 1, 2009 16:59:32 GMT -5
That's true, it is a really nice view. Next time I'm in Helsinki, I'll go there.
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Post by CBG on May 2, 2009 0:10:42 GMT -5
Who's the left-handed skirt?
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 27, 2009 10:53:17 GMT -5
Well, I had a whirlwind tour of the country Nebraska all last week. Ostensibly a storm-chasing trip, we had reserved an SUV ahead of time for the middle of what turned out to be a really odd weather pattern that was not very favorable for good storm development. We [spoilers]were successful[/spoilers], though, but we also ended up doing some other fun stuff on the way, while crowding five people into a small SUV and gypping six different hotels by cramming everyone into one room. We headed out to Nebraska on the first day (Monday), and ended up staying in the state for much of the trip. On Tuesday, we randomly ran into the VORTEX 2 tornado research team in Ogallala, Nebraska, when we stopped for fuel - this project may be familiar to those who watch the Weather Channel, which has been doing a ton of coverage on the project. VORTEX is the largest field project designed to study how tornadoes form, and involves a handful of radar trucks, the armored Tornado Intercept Vehicle, and a fleet of other vehicles equipped for weather observations. We knew a few of the people involved in this project, so we got to grab some lunch with them and talk about their work - they'd been just as stuck with the unfavorable weather pattern as we were. After continuing into western Nebraska, we decided to go into the first chase mode, as it looked pretty decent for some thunderstorms. Nothing particularly exciting popped up, but we managed to intercept some storms out in the middle of nowhere, just across the Colorado border. We also ran into the same VORTEX people on the most random country road. In any case, nothing spectacular, but good practice. We stayed in Scottsbluff, NE, that night, where we finally found some beautiful terrain, and we got some pictures of a double rainbow on the way. On Wednesday, we drove northeast into the Sand Hills of Nebraska. That afternoon, we had a very successful chase, which made the trip worthwhile. We intercepted a developing strong thunderstorm and positioned ourselves right in its path, where penny-sized hail (and quarter-sized slush bombs) came down on us. After the storm passed, we chased it east and saw another double rainbow. Next, though, we intercepted the best storm - this was a very well organized supercell thunderstorm with a persistent wall cloud - a rotating lowering from cloud base that is the typical precursor to better tornadoes. There wasn't a huge amount of rotation with this one, so we felt relatively confident that it wouldn't be too destructive. We paralleled this cloud for quite some time that afternoon, and it was the most awesome sight ever, in person. As we got closer and let it pass just behind us, the whole thing took up half of the entire sky. Very impressive, and a lot of fun - about the best thing we could hope to see for a relatively short chase in a poor weather pattern. That was just about it in terms of weather. Over the next couple days, we drove south, stopping at the center of the contiguous United States, in rural Kansas, and at the World's Largest Ball of Twine in, uh, Cawker City. From there, we drove south to stay in Norman, OK, which as I mentioned somewhere else is the center of severe weather research in the States. Our plan had been to go to Wichita Falls, TX for the next severe weather, but it started looking significantly less promising by then. Since we would have had to pay to extend our trip several days to gamble on this weather, we decided to just pack it in and head home on Sunday - it looks like the right choice. All in all, one day of a couple incredible storms was enough to make the trip worthwhile, and I'm really glad I went. Here's a few pictures from the trip. The best storm we saw (pictures don't do it justice): And some of the videos I took (four in total are at my youtube account): The hail storm: VORTEX team and the countryside around Scottsbluff: The Chicken at the Center of the United States, and the World's Largest Twine Ball: I have public albums here, just in case anyone wants to browse through more pictures.
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Post by Crowfan on May 27, 2009 12:16:38 GMT -5
Those pics are totally AWESOME!!!!! But I really thought that Phantom was the center of the US.
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Post by CBG on May 28, 2009 0:32:08 GMT -5
Shhhh, we don't wanna hurt him. I'm awed, Capt.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 28, 2009 9:23:52 GMT -5
Phantom is the center if you include Alaska/Hawaii.
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Post by Crowfan on May 28, 2009 15:32:56 GMT -5
I was looking at doing one of those storm chaser tours for my birthday. For a fee, you get to ride around for a week with storm chasers. The tour I discovered online was this group who had been featured on National Geographic Channel, and it wasn't cheap. But it did look cool.
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Post by Mod City on May 29, 2009 13:29:07 GMT -5
You were spending some time just south of my neck of the woods, CH! And those are some interesting photos. I have to admit, I have a strong aversion to summer storms for two reasons:
• I live in a trailer park. • I work for a newspaper - i.e., when big weather strikes, it's work. And nine times out of ten, reporting on weather means bad news has happened to someone.
I admire people who study the weather and put a little risk in front of them to do it, but frankly, I get a little cheesed at people (non-professional chasers) who get really pumped at the prospect of a big storm. Especially around here - in the last 11 years, we've had two towns within an hour's drive completely destroyed by tornadoes. That's what I think about when I see storm warnings on television and radio. Some people simply see a cool light show and enjoy watching live radar.
For those of you who don't live in tornado alley, these storms are freaking nightmares. Hopefully work by CH, his crew and crews like his will help give people in towns like Spencer and Manchester, South Dakota big enough heads up to take cover in time to save more lives.
Anyway, very cool report, CH. Get out there and figure some stuff out for all of us. And be safe!
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 19, 2010 10:08:07 GMT -5
Dumb jokes aside, Captain Hygiene will be leaving Sunday for his second annual week-long storm chase. Given that we were successful last year, during a bad week in the worst spring within memory for severe weather (from a storm-chasing perspective, of course), I'm hopeful that we'll see something cool again. If not, well, nothing beats driving around the Plains without any particular goals. And by that, I mean, we will probably be bored out of our skulls. Either way, I expect to resurrect this corpse of a blog to provide some trip reports on the way! Stay tuned.
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Post by Birdgirl90 on May 20, 2010 9:46:04 GMT -5
Wow, that is so neat! I've been to the largest ball of twine once, very cool! I've only seen one tornado, and that was outside Colby, KS. on the way back to Colorado.
Hopefully this weather season will be eventful for you!
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Post by afriendlychicken on May 20, 2010 18:10:42 GMT -5
Wow, great images CH. I've watched Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel and find it intensely interesting. I hope you are successful in your search again and be safe.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 21, 2010 17:15:31 GMT -5
STEPPED OUTSIDE TODAY TO WATCH THUNDERSTORMS MOVE BY, WITH UNEXPECTED PUBLIC TORNADO REPORT SEVERAL COUNTIES AWAY STOP
WAS DISAPPOINTED STOP
HEE HAW AND MERRY CHRISTMAS! CAPTAIN HYGIENE
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Post by Captain Hygiene on May 26, 2010 10:22:49 GMT -5
Massively successful chase so far, tornado yesterday (one that the Weather Channel/VORTEX2 project were on) and incredible storms and clouds so far. Haven't even had time to get pics off my camera, but I think the next couple days will be a bit slower such that I can post some pictures and descriptions.
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